Template Letter to a Legislator
Senator (Insert name of senator) Senate Bldg Room # City, State, Zip code
Dear Senator (NAME),
My name is (insert name). I am an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) in (state/jurisdiction). I am writing to request your support for (bill #). This legislation will assist our jurisdiction in meeting the new national standards for APRNs outlined in the Consensus Model for APRN Regulation (which can be accessed by visiting www.ncsbn.org/aprn.htm). These standards were written by representatives of 48 different APRN groups and are supported by the APRNs in our jurisdiction. The purpose of these standards is to ensure that APRNs in every U.S. jurisdiction meet the same qualifications and are able to perform the same functions. This will ensure that the citizens of (state/jurisdiction) receive the safe competent care that APRNs can provide. In addition, these standards will increase mobility of APRNs and may provide increased access to health care overall.
APRNs include certified nurse practitioners (CNPs), certified nurse midwives (CNMs), certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs) and clinical nurse specialists (CNSs). APRNs are a highly valued and integral part of the health care system. They have the necessary knowledge and skills to care for patients in the absence of any other providers and can tremendously improve access to health care in rural areas of the jurisdiction. (If possible, add some jurisdiction specific information for your legislator here.)
Passage of (bill name) provides for the adoption of language which will: Plug in bullet points as they apply to your bill; revise and edit as needed for your specific situation.
� Ensure public safety by requiring advanced practice registered nurses to be licensed as APRNs. Currently, our jurisdiction does not require this. This would be in addition to the registered nurse (RN) license and is a recommendation in the Consensus Model for APRN Regulation. Both licenses would be regulated by the jurisdiction’s board of nursing.
� Establish graduate level nursing education as the minimum level of academic requirement for APRN licensure. Graduate level education requires advanced courses in many areas, including pharmacology, as well as extensive clinical practice hours, in order to earn the graduate degree.
� Ensure that all APRNs have met the requirements for advanced education from an accredited graduate program. The bill requires all APRN education programs to undergo a board of nursing approval process and be accredited by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Accreditation.
� Require professional certification for APRN licensure. Graduates of nursing programs are required to take and pass a certification examination in their area of APRN specialty. This exam helps establish entry-level competency. APRNs are held to professional standards established by the certifying body, in addition to the jurisdiction’s nurse practice act.
� Improve the public’s understanding of who is providing their care. Currently, different jurisdictions refer to APRNs by different titles. In (state/jurisdiction) we currently use the title (insert title used in jurisdiction-such as APN). This can cause confusion if patients have moved from another jurisdiction where APRNs have a different title. The goal is for the title “advanced practice registered nurse (APRN)” to be adopted by every jurisdiction to provide an easily recognized professional designation in all jurisdictions. APRNs will be required to legally represent themselves as APRNs, followed by their specialty role (CNP, CNM, CRNA or CNS). For example, the legal title/signature for a nurse practitioner would read: Barbara Smith, APRN, CNP.
� Allow APRNs to practice independently. Current jurisdiction law requires APRNs (insert requirement, such as signing collaborative practice agreements with a physician or have physician supervision) in order to practice. Numerous studies published over the past 30 years have shown that APRNs provide safe, high quality care without physician oversight.
I ask you to support (bill name) to improve the provision of health care to the citizens of (state/jurisdiction). Please contact me with any additional questions you may have.
Respectfully Yours,
Your name Your legal title Your contact information
Writing About Literature
The Basics
Parts of the Essay (a quick review)
All essays are made of three basic parts: an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. There is always just ONE intro and ONE conclusion, but the number of body paragraphs could range from three to a hundred!
The Introduction is made of a few important parts. It should begin with a hook, which is a sentence that grabs the reader’s attention. A hook could be an intriguing quote, a thought-provoking question, a relevant statistic, etc. Do NOT begin your paper with something vague and dull like “Since the beginning of time, humans have told stories” or “There are many plays in the world.” After the hook, you want to use several sentences to begin giving background about the play, story, book, or poem your essay will cover. This could include relevant information about the writer, the time period in which the piece was written, the style of the piece, and so on. You don’t want to give away any specifics here; you’re just preparing the reader for the REAL, in-depth discussion to come. Save the specifics for your thesis, which is the last sentence of your introduction and the most important sentence of the whole paper. The thesis will state your interpretation of the text as well as the supporting information you’ll use to prove that interpretation. In other words, you’re using this thesis statement to persuade me to agree with your take on the piece.
Finally, your introduction paragraph should, at some point, mention the full title of the work you’re covering as well as the author’s name. This can happen in the hook, background section, or thesis, but it has to be there somewhere. A good introduction should be at least five sentences long.
See the next slide for a sample introduction.
How much could really happen in just an hour? Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Story of an Hour” proves that a person’s whole world can be overturned in very little time. This story was written during a period in which women were struggling for equal rights in their private and professional lives. Women of the period, like Mrs. Mallard and Chopin herself, were expected to be satisfied with being wives and mothers. Chopin, in fact, did not begin writing until she lost her own husband, at which point she felt free to practice her craft. “The Story of an Hour” is symbolic of women’s struggle for freedom during the early twentieth century, as evidenced by Chopin’s careful naming of the main character, the physical and chronological setting, and Mrs. Mallard’s response to her husband’s supposed death.
A Color Key:
This is the hook. Its only job is to get your attention – save the serious stuff for later!
This is the background information. I’ve used some historical info about the time period and about the writer that are relevant to my central point. There are three sentences of background (which is the minimum), but you can certainly write more.
This is the thesis statement. It tells you my interpretation (that the text represents women’s struggle for freedom/equality) AND the supporting points I’ll use to prove that interpretation (characters’ names, setting, and Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s death).
The main “meat and potatoes” of your paper will happen in body paragraphs. For a short paper, you’ll only have three (one paragraph for each supporting point in your thesis). For a long paper, you’ll have multiple paragraphs for each thesis point, but your paper should still be divided into three sections (one multi-paragrah section per thesis point).
A good body paragraph begins with a topic sentence, which gives an overview of what the main point/idea of the paragraph is. It then gives supporting evidence from the text to prove your point, through a mixture of your ideas, quotes from the text, and in the case of research papers, quotes from outside sources. A body paragraph ends with a transition sentence that leads into the next paragraph (unless it’s the last body paragraph of the paper, in which case you can leave the transition off).
You’ll see a sample body paragraph on the next slide.
Reminder: this was our thesis statement: “The Story of an Hour” is symbolic of women’s struggle for freedom during the early twentieth century, as evidenced by Chopin’s careful naming of the main character, the physical and chronological setting, and Mrs. Mallard’s response to her husband’s supposed death.” That means my first body paragraph will be about naming the main character, since that was the first supporting point listed in my thesis. Here is what that first body paragraph might look like.
Chopin’s choice of names for her characters is one symbol that suggests the story’s theme of women’s desire to be free. Mrs. Mallard’s name, of course, is that of a migratory duck, or more simply, a bird. Of any animal that might represent freedom, perhaps birds are the most prominent, and Chopin describes Mrs. Mallard with an animalistic desire to break free of a cage. After learning of her husband’s death, Mrs. Mallard thinks of “a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome” (66). The image of Mrs. Mallard opening her arms, of course, aligns closely with the spreading of a bird’s wings as it is about to take flight. Similarly, Mrs. Mallard is, she believes, about to take wing into a new stage of her life in which she is unburdened by the duties of marriage. As with the character’s name, the setting Chopin has chosen also symbolizes Mrs. Mallard’s desire for freedom and independence.
Color Key:
Topic Sentence: lets you know this paragraph is about character names (notice how it links right back to the thesis statement)
Support Sentences: I’ve used elements from the story to back up my idea, including a brief quote from the text with the page number after in parentheses.
Transition Sentence: Links the paragraph I just wrote with the one to follow (about the setting)
The conclusion paragraph is the last paragraph of your paper, and should be a minimum of five sentences, but can be longer. (Just so you know, I have a particular pet peeve – I HATE short, wimpy conclusions. It’s a real paragraph, so save some writing steam for it!)
The conclusion has a couple of important jobs. First, it needs to revisit the ideas of the thesis. Notice that I did not say “restate,” because when students hear “restate,” they copy and paste their theses word for word into their conclusions. No way, Jose! You simply want to revisit, or sum up the ideas one at a time. Go back over each supporting point you made and talk about it just one more time so it stays fresh in the reader’s mind. The thesis should not introduce any new ideas about the text! It is meant solely for review and summary of the paper.
Hint: For those of you who attend church, think about how a sermon is laid out. The minister begins by telling you which verse or lesson he’ll be discussing that morning and what he wants you to get out of it (the intro & thesis!). Then, he spends the bulk of the sermon giving you supporting ideas in the form of his own experiences, observations, and Bible verses (body paragraphs!). He finishes the sermon by reviewing the main ideas he’s covered and telling you how to apply them (the conclusion!).
For those of you who like to watch courtroom dramas like Law and Order, think about how a trial is laid out. First, the lawyers give their opening statements in which they argue in a general way about why their client is guilty or innocent (the introduction). Then each side takes its turn presenting specific evidence to prove they’re right (body paragraphs). Finally, the lawyers give closing statements to sum up the important things covered in the trial for the jury(the conclusion). Are you seeing a pattern?
Assertion & Support
Assertion and Support are the building blocks of every paper you’ll write this semester.
An Assertion is an argument/stance/interpretation of a text. It is your opinion of what the particular text means or represents on a deeper level. We make our assertions in our thesis statement. That is the moment in the paper where you lay out simply what you believe the text means/represents and how you will prove it.
Support is what it sounds like - the supporting evidence you’ll use to back up your assertion. There are three main types of support:
Quotes from the text. This is your main go-to method of support, and the only one you’ll use for now.
Quotes from other writers about the text. (If you’re writing about “The Story of an Hour,” you can look up other scholars’ essays about it and use quotes from those essays in your own paper to back up your stance. We’ll talk about how to cite/give credit before you do this.)
Quotes from experts in related fields. I wish students would use this more! An example here might be to read a history expert’s account of women’s rights at the time “The Story of an Hour” was written to further support your assertion.
Summary VS. Analysis
Summary means to recount the plot of a play, story, or other work of literature. When you were young, you probably wrote book reports that were, in essence, summaries. Summaries are a NO-NO in this class. Here is an example of a summary of “The Story of an Hour” which is, again, what you should not be doing.
“The Story of an Hour” is about Mrs. Mallard. She thinks her husband died in a train accident. When she hears this, she feels a little sad at first, but then she gets excited. She is happy because she doesn’t have to be married anymore. She sits in front a window and says, “Free” over and over. Later, her husband walks in the door and she sees him and has a heart attack. Everybody thinks it’s because she was happy to see him, but it was really because she was mad and shocked he was still alive.
Analysis is when you analyze, interpret, dissect, and give your opinion about a given text. It goes beyond what happens on the page and into the larger implications or meanings of what happens. Here is an example of a very short analysis of “The Story of an Hour.” This is more what you should be going for.
“The Story of an Hour” uses a real life or death scenario to depict the quiet struggle that women of the time period experienced in marriage and society. By using symbols like Mrs. Mallard’s name and her sitting in front of an open window, Chopin depicts the character’s desire for freedom from the confines of marital expectations. Although Chopin makes clear that Mrs. Mallard’s husband loved her and was not unkind, she also shows us that even kind marriages in this day hampered women’s independence. Mrs. Mallard’s ultimate death is all the proof we need: her disappointment at seeing her husband alive after celebrating her new-found freedom is literally lethal.
Works Cited
Berliner, Jonathan. "Jack London's Socialistic Social Darwinism." American Literary Realism 41.1 (Fall 2008): 52-78. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 133. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resource Center. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
Hillier, Russell M. "Crystal Beards And Dantean Influence In Jack London's “To Build A Fire (II)”." Anq 23.3 (2010): 172-178. Academic Search Complete. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
London, Jack. “To Build a Fire.” Literature for Composition. Ed. Sylvan Barnet, et al. Boston: Pearson, 2014. 596-605. Print.
Mitchell, Lee Clark. "Keeping His Head: Repetition and Responsibility in London's 'To Build a Fire'." Journal of Modern Literature 13.1 (Mar. 1986): 76-96. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Justin Karr. Vol. 49. Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.
NOTES:
· Notice that the entries are not numbered or bulleted in any way.
· No extra spaces between entries. The whole page should be double spaced.
· The page should have a page number in the upper right corner. It will be the last page of your paper.
· The entries are alphabetized by the last name of the author. If no author is given, alphabetize by first letter of title.
· To make the “hanging indent,” highlight all of your entries at once, then open the paragraph tab. Under “Indentation” and “Special,” you’ll select “Hanging.”
MLA STYLE
MLA Style within the Paper
You will use quotations from your primary source (the novel you chose) and secondary sources (your research materials) to prove your point.
Those quotations must follow these guidelines:
They must be introduced with a short phrase. I like to mention some combination of the author’s name, her/his profession, the name of the article/book the quote comes from
Quotes not begun with an intro phrase are called DROPPED QUOTES and will be marked off.
They must be placed in quotation marks. (Some teachers allow paraphrasing; I do not. I want direct quotes only, all in quotation marks.)
They must be followed by the page number from which the quotation comes. If there is no page number available (rare), the citation should read “n.p.”
See the next slide for examples.
The quotation I’m using is by James Snyder. It comes from his article “Analyzing Dante” and is found on page 84.
Correct: In his article, “Analyzing Dante,” James Snyder notes that, “Dante’s poetry is masterful in both form and content” (84).
I introduce my quotation w/ author’s name and title of his article. This way, the reader knows where the quote comes from before reading it. I set off the quote with a comma.
I choose a brief quotation and put it in quotation marks.
I close my quotation marks, then put the page number of the quotation in parentheses. I put my period OUTSIDE the parentheses.
Some other ideas for introductory phrases include:
According to John Smith, “Quote goes here” (22).
John Smith, a leading scholar of Dante, believes, “Quote goes here” (22).
Some critics, including John Smith, argue that, “Quote goes here” (22).
What If?
What if I can’t find a page number?
According to John Smith, “Diet Coke is better than regular Coke” (n.p.).
What if my source doesn’t list an author?
Introduce the quote w/ just the name of the article/book.
What if the quote I want to use is really long?
Do NOT include the whole thing. Narrow down to the section that seems most important. If that means you have to remove part of a quote, use ellipses to signify something has been removed.
Ex: According to John Smith, “Every variety of Coke… is tested with a quality assurance team” (25).
If you are going to use this option, make sure the removal of words/phrases does not alter the meaning of the sentence(s).
Where Does the Quote Go?
Every body paragraph in a research paper should, ideally, include one brief quote from the primary source (your novel) and one brief quote from an outside source. Both should be analyzed afterward.
We still never begin or end a paragraph with a quotation. Paragraphs should begin with a topic sentence (giving an overview of the paragraph’s main idea), all quotations both from primary and secondary sources should be analyzed afterward, and all body paragraphs should end with a transition into the next big idea.
In this module, there is a sample research paper body paragraph so that you can see how these elements fit together.
MLA Style in the Works Cited
Every book, article, or other source you quote in your paper must have a corresponding entry on your Works Cited page.
Do not include any source on your Works Cited page that was not directly quoted in your paper.
Use the Citation Tools in the library’s online databases to make your citations for you (so you don’t have to write them from scratch!). Instructions for this can be found in the Library Research Video in this module.
Double check these. Sometimes the formatting/italics/page numbers become jumbled in the process of copying and pasting and will need to be corrected.
Your Works Cited page should be double-spaced with a hanging indent on each entry. Find instructions for this in the Library Research video.
The entries on your Works Cited page should be alphabetized by the author’s last name. If no author is listed, use the first letter of the title of the work.
Your Works Cited page should be numbered sequentially with the rest of your paper. (If your paper is five pages long, your Works Cited page is page 6. Do not write a separate heading for this page.)
Your entries should not be numbered or bullet pointed. There should not be extra spaces between entries.
A sample Works Cited page is included for you in this module.
EXAMPLE RESEARCH PAPER BODY PARAGRAPH
Imagine, if you will, that this paragraph comes from an essay that talks about how Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” goes against the traditional features of a sonnet in the Renaissance.
One way in which Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130” undermines the traditional sonnet structure is that it refuses to idealize its subject. Petrarchan sonnets, which Shakespeare would have been not only familiar with but would likely have modeled his own poems after, typically depict their subject (a love interest) as being perfect. To illustrate this perfection, Petrarchan sonnets will compare the love interest to any number of objects or occurrences in nature. Shakespeare, however, does just the opposite when he says, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;/ Coral is far more red than her lips’ red” (1-2). Instead of using similes to compare the love interest to nature, Shakespeare uses reverse similes to show that natural beauty is NOT present in the face of his love. In her article, “Shakespeare and the Breaking of Rules,” Felicia Jean confirms that Shakespeare, “does gently mock the thoughtless mechanical application of the standard Petrarchan metaphors, although lightheartedly” (24). Shakespeare’s description of the lady as unbeautiful, while it may initially be read as cruel, is actually a lighthearted jab at Petrarchan norms. By subverting the comparisons to nature, Shakespeare shows us how empty those comparisons can actually be as a way of praising a lover.
Notice the following structural features of the paragraph:
1) It begins with a clear topic sentence that gives an overview of the paragraph’s main idea.
2) It gives relevant background information about the work in question so that the quotation makes sense.
3) It includes a brief quotation from the primary text.
4) It analyzes that quotation before moving on.
5) It then introduces and includes a brief, corresponding quotation from an outside source to further illustrate my point.
6) It then analyzes the secondary quotation before concluding.
English 102 Research Paper Assignment
Overview: Students will compose a research paper of at least five full pages and no more than eight pages in which they analyze a popular novel from the list below. Very short synopses of these can be found in Module 1 in the “Course Overview” page:
· Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
· No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
· The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
· The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
· The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
· Atonement by Ian McEwan
Each of these novels has many themes. A theme is an underlying message communicated through a piece of writing. Remember, a theme is rarely stated out loud but is rather implied by a text. The theme of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” is to never tell lies. The theme of Titanic is to live in the moment, or not to judge people by social class. The theme of Frozen is the danger of hiding who we really are.
Your job is to read one of these novels, decide what you think the theme is (keeping in mind that a book can have more than one), and then to argue that your interpretation of the theme is the correct one. In your papers up to this point, you have only used quotations directly from the text for your supporting evidence. For this paper, you will still use quotes from the text but you will also add to that outside sources. The idea is to do research and find others writing about the same book (or the same theme in other works) as you are who have similar interpretations. You can then use their interpretations to support your own.
A Note on Longer Papers: Up to this point, you have written short papers. You’ve had three points in your thesis, which translated to just writing three body paragraphs, one paragraph for each point. So how do you expand a paper? You will still have just three thesis points. Each of those points, however, will now translate into multiple paragraphs. Imagine I have the following thesis: “Female empowerment is an important theme in Trifles as evidenced by the women’s defense of Mrs. Wright, the author’s depiction of the male characters as incompetent, and the ultimate justice being served.”
In a short paper, I would just write one paragraph about each point. I would only have to write one paragraph about the women’s defense of Mrs. Wright, for example. In a longer paper, however, I would have multiple paragraphs about the women’s defense of Mrs. Wright. I would try to expand that idea so that one paragraph covers their defense of her household and one paragraph covers their defense of her crime. Therefore, my paper is still divided into three sections, but each section will contain multiple paragraphs relating to the same point instead of just one.
General Guidelines:
· You cannot write about a novel if it is not on my list.
· You cannot even come close to passing the research paper by watching a film version. I intentionally chose books that are very different from their movie versions. There is truly, truly, truly no way around reading a book. Read a book! Read. A. Book.
· You may not do any of your research by Googling or random internet searching. All sources must come from BPCC’s library or library databases. In other words, there should be no websites on your Works Cited Page.
· You must generate your own thesis. I will help you organize your paper, work through your ideas, edit your mechanics, and sharpen your argument, but I will NOT tell you what to write or what the theme of a work is. That is part of your job as a 102 student.
Specific Guidelines:
1) Every outside source you use must have a corresponding entry on your Works Cited page. (Instructions for making a Works Cited page will be covered in the Week 10 module in the MLA Style Powerpoint.)
2) Every quotation from the novel or from an outside source must be placed in quotation marks and given an appropriate citation. (Covered in MLA Style Powerpoint.)
3) All sources must come from BPCC’s library or library databases. (I will provide you with a detailed video on how to do library research from home.)
4) No more than one brief quotation from the text and one brief quotation from an outside source should be included in a single paragraph. Long quotations (longer than three lines) are generally not permitted.
6) Any information in the paper from outside sources that is not placed in quotation marks and cited appropriately will be considered intentional plagiarism. Even one plagiarized sentence means that your whole paper is plagiarized, and will receive an automatic zero.
102 PET PEEVES
· Short story and poem titles go in quotation marks.
· “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe
· “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gillman
· Book and Play titles go in italics.
· Moby Dick by Herman Melville
· Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
· The Title of Your Paper
· Should not just be the title of the work you’re writing about!
· A bad title: “The Raven”
· A good title: Analyzing Rhyme in Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven”
· Should not be in quotation marks or underlined
· See above. The only thing in quotation marks should be titles of other people’s works.
· Quotations
· All quotations MUST BE INTRODUCED! Do not ever start a sentence with a quotation.
· A bad example:
· “Feminism is an important component of Glaspell’s writing” (Jones 27).
· A good example:
· In James Jones’ essay “Susan Glaspell Uncovered,” he notes that, “Feminism is an important component of Glaspell’s writing” (27).
· Never begin or end a paragraph with a quotation.
· Paragraphs should begin with a topic sentence.
· All quotes should be explained afterward.
· Tense
· Any time you write about literature, you should be writing in the present tense. For example, we would say, “Hamlet struggles with the death of his father” rather than “Hamlet struggled with the death of his father.”
· Action that happens before the beginning of the story or play may be put in past tense.
· NEVER
· Refer to the author by his or her first name. You are not friends. Last names only. (The first time you mention an author, you may use first and last name. After that, last names are all you need.)
· Use first or second person (no “I” or “You”)
· Use contractions or abbreviations
· Make announcements in your paper: (“In this paper I will discuss…” “This paper is about…” “My reasons are…”)
· ALWAYS
· Introduce the full name of the text(s) and author(s) at some point in your introductory paragraph. Your title is not enough.
· Head, format, double-space, and type your paper in Times New Roman size 12
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