A Brief Introduction

The Schaffer program is essentially “painting by numbers.”

Students who have had experience with this writing style score higher on Standardized tests and typically receive higher marks than your average bear.

Schaffer will AUGMENT your writing to lift it to another level.

The writing by numbers approach

• The topic sentence is exactly what it sounds like.

• It sets the tone of the paragraph and lets the reader know what is to come.

• The Goonie called “Chunk” is one of the most likeable characters in all movie history, whose mere presence cheers the hearts of many friends.

• This is “stuff” from the story.• The “what,” facts examples,

evidence, support, plot references, paraphrases, citations, quotations, plot summary, etc…

• For example, he often performs the “truffle shuffle” before entering the Goonies hang out.

• This is stuff from your head or things that exist “under the surface”

• The “Why,” analysis, interpretations, a character’s feelings, opinion, insight, etc…

• It appears that he must always entertain someone when first meeting them.

• He loves to hear the cheers and laughter coming from friends.

Remember that a Commentary (CM) is meant to be an analysis of the story. Pretend you are a psychologist that is trying to figure out the reasons why something happened. Or a color commentator for a football game. A CM is not a plot summary.

These will help you in creating commentary sentences:

1. This shows that… 2. This also shows that… 3. This is because…  4. This is important because… 5. The significance of this is… 6. It seems that… 7 One reason this happened could be… 8. ____________ must feel…

• This sums up the paragraph’s theme.

• It tells the reader what they just read.

• Chunk is a true friend who can make people laugh even in the most dire circumstances.

A 2 “chunk” paragraph will look like this:TSCDCMCMCDCMCMCS

This makes a total of 8 sentences. Most essays we write this semester will require 2 chunk paragraphs.

• (TS) The Goonie called “Chunk” is one of the most likeable characters in all movie history, whose mere prescience cheers the hearts of many friends. (CD) For example, he often performs the “truffle shuffle” before entering the Goonies hang out. (CM) It appears that he must always entertain someone when first meeting them. (CM) He loves to hear the cheers and laughter coming from friends. (CS) Chunk is a true friend who can make people laugh even in the most dire circumstances.

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