BUILDING SKELETONS
AN EXERCISE IN ORGANIZING CRITICAL ANALYSIS ESSAYS
BUILDING SKELETONS

“Bright Star” – John Keats

“What lips my lips have kissed” – Edna St. Vincent Millay

“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” – Robert Herrick

“Anthem to Doomed Youth” – Wilfred Owen

“The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Those Winter Sundays” – Robert Hayden

“A Noiseless, Patient Spider” – Walt Whitman

“My Papa’s Waltz” – Theodore Roethke
Thesis:
Topic Sentence 1:

Quote 1*:

Quote 2*:

Optional: Quote 3*:
Topic Sentence 2:

Quote 1*:

Quote 2*:

Optional: Quote 3*:
Optional Topic Sentence 3 with quotes
Instead of writing a full
essay today, you’re going
to write a skeleton of an
essay. Think carefully
about your thesis as a
fundamental organizing
element of your essay, and
create topic sentences that
echo and expand parts of
your thesis. Be thoughtful
and precise in your
language. Your final
product should look
something like this.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost
BUILDING SKELETONS
Generic Prompt
Write a well-developed essay in which you analyze how the
various poetic techniques reveal the poem’s meaning.
Thesis: The peaceful images of snow and solitude and the contrast between the speaker and
his horse reflect the fundamental conflict between our desires and our obligations.
Topic Sentence: The winter evening setting, with its images of falling snow, woods
and darkness, creates a scene of aesthetic beauty worthy of the speaker’s
contemplation.
• Textual Evidence: “Stopping by Woods” & “Woods”
• Textual Evidence: “The only other sound’s the sweep / Of easy wind and downy
flake.”
• Textual Evidence: “lovely, dark, deep” & “darkest evening of the year”
Topic Sentence: The horse, with its pragmatic sensibility, provides a stark contrast
to the speaker’s contemplative sensibilities, amplifying the universal dilemma
between the practical and the impractical.
• Textual Evidence: “queer / To stop without a farmhouse near”
• Textual Evidence: “harness bells a shake”
• Textual Evidence: “promises”
• Textual Evidence: “And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles to go before I
sleep”
BUILDING SKELETONS
10 minute small group discussion. Focus on two things:
• large idea / theme / meaning
• how do you see your essay being divided? By what?
BUILDING SKELETONS

“Bright Star” – John Keats

“What lips my lips have kissed” – Edna St. Vincent Millay

“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” – Robert Herrick

“Anthem to Doomed Youth” – Wilfred Owen

“The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Those Winter Sundays” – Robert Hayden

“A Noiseless, Patient Spider” – Walt Whitman

“My Papa’s Waltz” – Theodore Roethke
Thesis:
Topic Sentence 1:

Quote 1*:

Quote 2*:

Optional: Quote 3*:
Topic Sentence 2:

Quote 1*:

Quote 2*:

Optional: Quote 3*:
Optional Topic Sentence 3 with quotes
Instead of writing a full
essay today, you’re going
to write a skeleton of an
essay. Think carefully
about your thesis as a
fundamental organizing
element of your essay, and
create topic sentences that
echo and expand parts of
your thesis. Be thoughtful
and precise in your
language. Your final
product should look
something like this.
