FATt Sentences
What’s a FATt? (Also known as a text reference sentence)
The FATt sentence combines the essential reference information for a specific work you want to
discuss and includes a brief summary of the focus or main point the author strives to convey.
What does FATt stand for?
F: FOCUS
This is comprised of a brief plot summary and the author’s main point/moral/thesis.
A: AUTHOR’S NAME
Always use the author’s full name the first time you mention him/her. CHECK SPELLING
CAREFULLY! Every subsequent mention of the author should be last name only since you
aren’t on a chummy first name basis.
T: TITLE OF THE WORK
Check the mechanics of your title.
Books are underlined or italicized NEVER BOTH, and articles, poems, and essays are put in
quotation marks.
t: TEXT TYPE
Clarify for the reader what kind of text it is. For example, you could be referring to an article,
editorial, memoir or autobiography, novel, or essay. Be as SPECIFIC as you can. Don’t write
“Book” when you mean “novel”.
Note!
The above elements of a FATt sentence can appear in a variety of orders. We’ll
practice working with the order of information so that you don’t get stuck in a writing rut,
relying on a stock sentence pattern. After all, sentence variety is one of the spices of life.
ELEMENTS FOR OUR SAMPLE FATt
FOCUS:
The defects of a flawed society can be traced to their source- the human heart.
PASSIVE VOICE . . . AVOID WHEN YOU CAN. SEE REVISION BELOW:
AUTHOR:
William Golding
TITLE
The Lord of the Flies
text type: novel (Can you add more specific info here? What era is it from?)
SAMPLE FATt SENTENCE
“In William Golding’s novel , Lord of the Flies, the reader watches a group of seemingly
civilized, innocent British schoolboys degenerate into savages, making the point that the defects
of a flawed society to their source- the human heart.”