Name: ________________________________

English 8

Date: __________________
The Secret Life of Bees

Quarter 3 Formative Writing Assignment - Chapter Epigraphs

Sue Monk Kidd includes a short epigraph at the beginning of each chapter. She has pulled
these quotes from various books about bees and beekeeping. An epigraph is a quote at the
beginning of a chapter of a novel that indirectly shows a theme. There is an epigraph per
chapter of the book that uses the main symbol, bees, to relate to Lilys life.
Your Task:
Choose one epigraph from the novel and write a one paragraph response explaining how it
connects to the contents of the correlating chapter. Identify one possible theme that is
portrayed in both the epigraph and within the chapter.
Your paragraph must include the following:
A strong topic sentence that clearly states the intention of your response. Here is where
you will state the theme of the epigraph/chapter that you will focus on.
Explain the meaning of the epigraph, and then explain how it connects to the chapter.
Supporting details that develop your topic sentence. You need to include two quotes.
A concluding sentence that ties together the main points developed within your
paragraph. Remember, your concluding sentence should sound definitive and not
include any new information that was not presented in your paragraph.
Be sure to:
Proofread your work for spelling and grammatical errors.
Cite correctly!
o I.e.: (Monk Kidd 54).
o Please note: If you state the authors name when introducing the quote, you only
need to include the page number in your citation.
Tips for blending/ incorporating quotations within your writing:
1. Introduce the quotation with a complete sentence and a colon before your quote.
Introduce the quotation as a complete sentence and add a colon before your
quote: quote goes here (Monk Kidd 54).
2. Use an introductory or explanatory phrase, but not a complete sentence, separated from
the quotation with a comma.
Introductory or explanatory phrase goes here with a comma before the
quote, quote from the text here (Monk Kidd 54).
3. Make the quotation a part of your own sentence without any punctuation between your
own words and the words you are quoting. In other words, use very short quotations-only a few words--as part of your own sentence.
Start your own original sentence and include the quote here without any
punctuation between your own words and the quoted words (Monk Kidd 54).
4. Begin your sentence by paraphrasing/summarizing the quote, and then finish the
sentence with the quote.
Paraphrase or summarize the quote you would like to use then insert the
original word for word quote here (Monk Kidd 54).

Other rules for incorporating quotes:

You can change a word in a quote to make it grammatically consistent with your
introduction if you place [ ] around the new word.
A quote must be less than four lines long. You may include an ellipsis () if necessary to
omit portions of a long quote if you cannot break the quote up into two different
sentences or thoughts.
The quote must support your thesis or topic sentence. Otherwise it is irrelevant or
unrelated.
When you quote a quote, you must first introduce your quote with a normal quotation
mark. When you introduce the quote or dialogue, you open and close it with just one
quotation mark. Be sure to close both sets of quotation marks before you cite it, like this:
o Introductory or explanatory phrase goes here, open with a double quotation
mark and insert quote from text open and close dialogue with single quotes
(Monk Kidd 54).
o Introductory or explanatory phrase goes here open with a double quotation
mark and insert quote from text open and close dialogue with single quotes
and if you continue to quote, the rest goes here before you close the double
quotation mark (Monk Kidd 54).
Planning space:
The epigraph I will be expanding upon is from chapter __________.
The theme/main idea I will be developing within my paragraph is:
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Find two quotes that you will use to develop the theme in your paragraph and write them in the
boxes below. Be sure to place quotation marks around the text and cite both quotes correctly!
1st Supporting Quote (include page number)

2nd Supporting Quote (include page number)