LONG ESSAY TEMPLATE #2 NAME:__________________
Support, modify or refute the following statement: The Allies—France, England, and America—deserve the majority of the blame for the advent of World War II.
The bottom line: if you get a prompt that asks you to “support, modify or refute,” always modify the prompt, and use as your thesis the extent to which the prompt is true. Your thesis should judge the extent to which the statement is true. Your three themes should be the three big reasons that the prompt is/isn’t true. In this case, your themes are three big things the Allies did/didn’t do wrong and/or things other people who may deserve blame did/didn’t do wrong. When you modify a prompt, you must present an alternate theory somewhere in your body paragraphs! For example, an alternate theory here to present is that the fascist powers of Europe deserve at least some of the blame, more than just a small minority of the blame that the statement in the prompt allows for.
Spend the most time on your interpretation. Make your essay analytical and not descriptive. Try to go for as much highlighter color number 3 (from August, remember way back then!?) as possible. Although the rest of your outline can be in outline form (complete thoughts but not complete sentences), please write complete sentences for your interpretations so that you can practice. In doing so, try to use the various recommended sentence frames in the instructions and template.
Don’t forget to use sentence frames like,
“Although ___(SD)____ is true, one can also see...
