Cranston High School East Library: Hero's Journey Informational Essay

Writing your informational essay on your hero

1. First, you will need to choose a subject (your hero). Remember, just amassing wealth does not make a person a hero. The person must undertake a journey that results in a benefit to their community.
2. Research. You will need to supply your reader with facts about your hero. In addition to the events in their life that made them a hero, you will want biographical information and context. The context might be information about the era they lived in or background about their community. You must use credible sources, accessed via the library’s databases. This is especially important in an informational essay, since your whole goal is to present hard facts to the reader. All quotes must be properly cited.
3. After you have completed your research, create an outline for your essay. MLA requires that you use Roman numerals for an outline. You will include your thesis statement (Roman numeral I)  and a strong topic sentence for each of your 3 body paragraphs Roman numerals II, III, and IV). Your last Roman numeral should restate your thesis (Roman numeral V).
4. Once you have approval from me on your Outline, you should write your essay; Include facts that suppose each of your topic sentences, plus quotes from your sources. Stick to the information. Your tone should be objective, informative, and without literary devices.
5. Now go back and revise your work. Look for spelling and grammar errors. Be sure that you are sticking to objective facts. Read your work aloud to see if it sounds fluid.
6. Add a Works Cited page. List your sources alphabetically, using a hanging indent
7. Proofread. Check again for grammar problems. Check to make sure your ideas flow logically. Make sure you are using MLA format. Check that your quotes are properly formatted.
8. Submit via Classroom

Link to General MLA formatting at OWL at Perdue:

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_general_format.html

Link to Sample Paper in MLA format

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_sample_paper.html

Body paragraph structure

1. Strong topic sentence
2. Expand/elaborate on your topic sentence
3. Give context for your quote (where is it from, author and title of piece)
4. Quote with a speech tag
5. Explain why the quote matters
6. Concluding sentence (generally ties back to your topic sentence)