Essays

Examples of Your Quality Writing  in Essays Hook: In Hollis Woods, by Patricia Reilly Giff, Hollis’ life and identity could be clearly described as complicated.

Thesis: Hollis’s identity is being sour and insecure but it shifts to being warm and more secure by the end of the book.

Intro Paragraph: In Sharon Creech’s //Love that Dog//, Jack is a boy who didn’t want to write poetry. Even if he did write some, he didn’t want his teacher, Miss Stretchberry, to put his name on it. In the beginning, he thinks that only girls could write poetry, but eventually, he warms up to the idea of having his name on his poem. Jack didn’t like poetry at first, and was unconfident about his work, but he learned to love it and became really good at it.

Body Paragraphs: By the middle of the book, Hollis’s identity is actually shifting from wanting to having a family that loves her, the Regans. Hollis has fun playing checkers with Steven, and has lots of fun fishing with him too. But more importantly, she feels more comfortable around them, she is starting to see what a family is about. She starts to bond with them. But, when Steven crashes the truck on the Old Man’s mountain, because of Hollis, Hollis runs away because she thinks that this accident will break the Regans apart.

Hollis and Josie had a lot in common, so it was easy for Hollis to temporarily ignore her problems. If problems are ignored, they usually only get worse. When the mustard lady found out that Hollis was skipping school, she threatened to take Hollis to a new home. Hollis decided to clean up her act, until the mustard lady set her up with a new family. She loved Josie and chose to leave and take Josie to branches so she didn’t have to go to another family. Since Josie had short term memory loss, she was becoming very confused and upset. This is another example of how Hollis just made matters worse.

Topic Sentences: Hollis always keeps her feelings to herself and she doesn’t trust anyone.

Hollis has never really cared about others or loved someone as a family.

Concluding sentences of paragraphs: He feels a bit embarrassed, but it helps him realize that his poetry is actually very good.

Overall, in the beginning, he didn’t understand poetry well enough.

Conclusion: Even though Luke wasn’t involved at first he became more adventurous throughout the book. The attic, in the beginning was his safe spot for him to hide, live and spend his time. Once he meet Jen, he started the shift to become more involved and as time progressed he became more trusting with other people. Even though Luke was not involved at first, he became a very adventurous and trusting person.