2. Organizing Paragraphs
• The MEAL plan is a simple, dependable way
to organize paragraphs in essays
• Although there are many other ways one
might proceed, this is a simple way and
especially useful if you are not a practiced
essay writer
• Based on assumption that good essay
paragraphs contain a Main point, Evidence,
Analysis, and Link back to the thesis
3. Main point
• Each MEAL paragraph should begin
with a short topic sentence
• This tells us what the paragraph is
about
• Anything in the paragraph that does
not relate to the topic sentence is not
relevant
4. Evidence
• In an essay, evidence is usually
material cited/quoted from another
source
• May also be evidence summarized
from various sources
• Evidence is offered in support of one’s
main point or argument
5. Analysis
• The majority of any essay paragraph should
consist of analysis
• Analysis occurs when evidence is interpreted
in a logical and meaningful fashion
• Single greatest flaw of student essays is that
summary or restatement is offered instead of
analysis
• Second greatest flaw of student essays is
that analysis does not proceed in sufficient
depth or detail
6. Link (back to thesis or forward to next point)
• A MEAL paragraph concludes with a
link back to one’s overall thesis
• In other words, a concluding statement
explaining why the preceding evidence
and analysis is relevant to the greater
argument
• May also/instead transition into next
paragraph and set up next main point
7. Example MEAL paragraph
[M] Although Gilman offers no confirmation in
the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” begins with a
suggestion that the house might be haunted.
[E] The house is introduced as an “ancestral
hall” and “colonial mansion” – the former term,
especially giving a sense of its age and history.
The narrator even states flatly that it seems like
“a haunted house” although she backs away
from the suggestion immediately.
8. Example MEAL paragraph
[A] However, the narrator isn’t prepared to leave this idea entirely alone. She
“proudly declare[s] that there is something queer about [the house]” and her pride in
this declaration may speak to a certainty she feels but is unable to admit. “Else, why
should it be let so cheaply?” she asks herself, and “why [should it] have stood so
long untenanted”? These are legitimate questions to ask, and the house being “let
cheaply” and having been “untenanted” for so long certainly suggests that its
“queerness” or undesirability is not just a figment of her imagination, as we might
otherwise take her ensuing visions. As well, the age of the house and this sense of
an unknown history is consistent with the tropes of a haunted house story. As
Stephen King notes, in Danse Macabre, haunted house stories often suggest that
“the past is a ghost which haunts our present lives constantly” (253; orig. emph.).
For that reason, the haunted houses in fiction are typically old, and typically the
stories suggest or simply state that something horrible might have happened there,
that they are “Bad Places” (King 253) still replaying the horrible traumas of the past.
[L] This sense of repetition — that a woman was once trapped here in this room,
just as a woman has become trapped again — permeates “The Yellow Wallpaper”
even though Gilman offers no confirmation of any such events.
9. Ratio: Analysis to Other
Although Gilman offers no confirmation in the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” begins with a
suggestion that the house might be haunted. The house is introduced as an “ancestral hall” and
“colonial mansion” – the former term, especially giving a sense of its age and history. The narrator
even states flatly that it seems like “a haunted house” although she backs away from the
suggestion immediately. However, the narrator isn’t prepared to leave this idea entirely alone.
She “proudly declare[s] that there is something queer about [the house]” and her pride in this
declaration may speak to a certainty she feels but is unable to admit. “Else, why should it be let
so cheaply?” she asks herself, and “why [should it] have stood so long untenanted”? These are
legitimate questions to ask, and the house being “let cheaply” and having been “untenanted” for
so long certainly suggests that its “queerness” or undesirability is not just a figment of her
imagination, as we might otherwise take her ensuing visions. As well, the age of the house and
this sense of an unknown history is consistent with the tropes of a haunted house story. As
Stephen King notes, in Danse Macabre, haunted house stories often suggest that “the past is a
ghost which haunts our present lives constantly” (253; orig. emph.). For that reason, the haunted
houses in fiction are typically old, and typically the stories suggest or simply state that something
horrible might have happened there, that they are “Bad Places” (King 253) still replaying the
horrible traumas of the past. This sense of repetition — that a woman was once trapped here in
this room, just as a woman has become trapped again — permeates “The Yellow Wallpaper”
even though Gilman offers no confirmation of any such events.
10. Analysis vs. Description
• Students are often confused about what
constitutes analysis
• A common problem of English papers is
description offered instead of analysis –
usually plot summary
• A related problem is when quotes are offered
to provide further description rather than
evidence
• Analysis interprets evidence
11. Description or Analysis?
• Poe’s narrator languishes in depressing
surroundings. We’re told about the “silken
sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain”
(13).
• The quote is used to “prove” an obvious
point, a fact, so is description.
• The setting IS depressing in the poem: it’s a
fact. It doesn’t need to be proven.
• We only need the first sentence
12. How to Analyze?
• To develop this into analysis, we need to introduce
the quote in a way that shows what argument it
supports
• Poe’s narrator languishes in depressing
surroundings. (Statement of fact)
• Poe’s narrator languishes in a setting upon which he
projects his depression. (Arguable statement)
• The narrator notes “the silken sad uncertain rustling
of each purple curtain” (13). (Evidence offered to
support argument)
13. Analysis as Interpretation
• Analysis interprets evidence to show how it supports the
argument
• The narrator notes “the silken sad uncertain rustling of each
purple curtain” (13). (Evidence offered to support argument)
• By describing the curtain’s rustling as “sad” and “uncertain,” the
narrator projects his own inner state onto the external
surroundings (a curtain can neither be sad nor uncertain, but
the narrator surely feels this way).
• Even a word that might normally describe the curtain (“silken”)
has taken a strange role: the “rustling” is silken, as if describing
the sound through an adjective of touch, a sort of synesthesia
that further displays the jumbled emotions of the distraught
narrator.
14. Arguments vs. Facts in Literature
• You could disagree with the basic argument (that the narrator is
projecting his inner feelings onto his external setting)
• You could disagree with the claim that this quote “proves” the
same
• You could disagree with the particular development of the
argument (with this analysis)
• You cannot meaningfully disagree with the idea that the setting
is depressing on its surface
• —unless you constructed a complicated argument that we
cannot trust even the basic details due to the inherent
unreliability of first-person narration, AND this gives us an
interesting interpretation
15. Arguments vs. Facts in Literature
• So, even if you were to disagree with the general claim that
“the setting is depressing” you would have to refute the
complex basis of that claim—in a normal reading, it is a
statement of fact
• Therefore, it’s not worth defending, only attacking
• Therefore, it should NEVER be the sole focus of a paragraph
and does NOT require proof—nor does ANY statement of
fact
• Statements of fact are right or wrong
16. General Points re: Analysis
• Analysis should take up most of your space in an
essay, and in a paragraph
• Analysis must follow evidence
• Quotes cannot, therefore, appear near or at the end
of paragraphs
• Quotes must be well-chosen to support arguments
• Quotes should never be used to “prove” simple
“facts”
• Statements of fact are not necessarily true
17. QUIZ: Which of the following statements
are arguable, and which are statements
of fact?
1.The narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” has been diagnosed
with “nervous depression” and is being treated with the rest
cure, so is forced to “rest” in the room with the yellow
wallpaper.
1.In Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven,” the statue of Pallas is
a metaphor for unrequited love.
