Dr. Bordelon's Graphic Novel Course

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How to Plan and Draft a Body Paragraph 

Suggested steps for planning and drafting a paragraph | Parts of a paragraph | Quick Tips | Sample Paragraph

Suggestions

Typically, quotes are at the core of literary writing. Writing about graphic texts is a bit different: here descriptions and quotes will combine to provide the evidence needed to support your point.

Also, the discourse of graphic texts, in addition to the usual literary terms such as metaphor, character, symbolism, and theme, add another set of terms associated with the craft. You'll finds some of them below:

Graphic Discourse: words used when describing graphic narratives

Framing (within the panel and the page)
Panel (bottom row, right panel, second row)
Strip (row of panels – or one long image)
Gutter (spaces between panels, spaces in the spine)
Bleeds (to describe an image or text which intrudes onto another panel or the gutter)
Foreground
Background
Negative space

Image
Close up 
Iconic
Representational
Visual cue
Visual style
Sequence
Line                        

Plan
  1. Look carefully at the topic sentence and think out possible ways to approach it.
  2. Generate a list of phrases or images you want to use in your paragraph.
  3. Draft paragraph with an eye to the "Parts of a Body Paragraph" below.
  4. Revise with an eye for taking out sentences/ideas that don't connect to the topic sentence
  5. Revise with an eye for adding more detailed examples and then explanations of how these connect to the topic sentence.
  6. Revise with an eye for fun, changing the wording to make it connect with broader image patterns you're creating (i.e. repetition of words connected with violence in a paragraph that focuses on violence, etc.) and adding analogies to help readers see what you mean.
  7. Proofread with an eye towards flow, using repetition between sentences to keep readers connected.
  8. Proofread with an eye towards clarity, cutting out words and making sure the sentences, as worded, make sense.
Parts of a Body Paragraph
  • Topic sentence (which connects back to thesis and division)
  • Definitions/Explanation of topic sentence
  • Quotes (intro, quote and explanation -- see below)
  • Conclusion

Quick Tips for Body Paragraphs

  • Make a list of quotes to use for evidence
  • Define any ideas in topic sentence
  • Provide context to set up quotes
  • Explain how quote is connected to the topic sentence -- focus on the language used (connotation of specific words, symbolism of imagery, tone [sarcasm, irony, humor, etc.], etc.) 
  • Try using a verb from the following list to shift into argument (see Verb List page for sample sentences using these words)

    agree argue
    believe charge
    claim
    comment conclude consider

    criticize declare
    describe define
    discover
    emphasize explain
    feels

    illustrate imply indicate
    reinforce
    reveals
    shows
    suggests
    supports

    Sample sentences might follow these patterns

This ____ suggests that _______
The thickness of the lines indicate the ____
This emphasis on mouth imagery suggests that _____
Supporting this idea of the threatening repeated images, several panels at the end of the narrative _______
The sweat beading on the forehead reinforces the idea that ______

  • Repeat focus/argument word from topic sentence within your paragraph to keep readers, uh, focused on your argument(this is an important point that writers often neglect)
  • Revise by deletion: take out whatever doesn't fit with argument
  • Revise by addition: explain how a particular word makes your point; use an analogy to make your argument clearer
  • Proofread! (commas, basics done - double space lines, cite properly, include question, etc.)

Follow these steps, bake at 350° for 3 hours (or however long it takes you work on the paragraph) and viola' a completed body paragraph, suitable for company.

Incorporating Quotes

Three parts to setting up a quote

  1. introduce quote and provide context so reader can understand why you're using it -- state the "who said it" and "where/when" of the quote (a word from the verb list above can really help);
  2. "insert quote and" (citation);
  3. explain how/why quote proves your point -- focus on individual words or actions: repetition helps.

Example

The System's depiction of noise illustrates its emphasis on the chaos of city life.  Instead of the birds and breezes of wide open spaces, cities are filled with car horns, shouts, and the mechanized sound of concrete and steel.  This urban soundtrack reflects the violence and stress of a city.  The novel starts with a bang: the richly detailed cover includes a clear picture of a revolver with the bullet exiting along with flash and sound lines.  This initial sound image points to the inherent danger of city life, the way a street can change from bustling pedestrians to frightened crowds lunging for cover at the crack of a gunshot.  Kuper doesn’t limit violence and sound to gunshots: when the first stripper is stabbed with a screwdriver, the image of her open mouth represents her scream as she is attacked (13).  This scream transforms, in the next panel, into a subway car in a tunnel – with its rush and screech another common part of the urban soundscape.  While caves are often associated with silence (think of the drip, drip of cavern scenes in movies), the constructed caves of cities are echo chambers, with tile and concrete walls providing perfect acoustics to channel the barrage of noise.  The panel in fig. 1 represents the sound of a braking subway car as a lightening pulse pointed directly at the girl’s ear, and her fluttering hair and coat creates a visual representation of the pneumatic whoosh of the air.  The sound seems to stab at her, mimicking the murder on the previous page.

Fig 1.  (22).

Even the length of the panel, stretching across the page, adds to the intensity of the sound, suggesting the elongated duration of the deafening noise.  These images, replicated on pages 53 and 85, create a tension in the underground, which is finally released in the spasm of the crash on pages 86 and 87.  In that image the starbursts of sound fill the sonic void of the printed page, creating an audio equivalent of the violence of the impact. And, as in the earlier image of the subway car, the shape of – or here, absence of – the panel amplifies the sound.  The double page spread and unbounded image aptly convey the explosive quality of the sound of the wreck, a cacophony that cannot be contained in a panel.  Together these images create a sense of doom and tension well suited to the confusion and tension of life in the city – or as Kuper would have it, life in the machine of the System.

Kuper, Peter.  The System. New York: DC Comics, 1997. Print.

How a paragraph grew

Breakdown of sentences:

•  A main point stated in one sentence: make it an argument/statement that needs to be backed up -- the topic sentence

The System's depiction of noise illustrates its emphasis on the chaos of city life.

•  An definition/explanation of any general words in your main point. In this case, what do you mean by a "chaos"? What kind of noise?

Instead of the birds and breezes of wide open spaces, cities are filled with car horns, shouts, and the mechanized sound of concrete and steel.  This urban soundtrack reflects the violence and stress of a city.

• Examples or details that support your point (use descriptions of characters or setting, quotes from the literary work, commentary by literary critics, etc.). Remember that instead of just sticking in a quote, you need to provide a context so the reader can understand -- even before they read the quote -- its purpose in the paragraph.

The novel starts with a bang: the richly detailed cover includes a clear picture of a revolver with the bullet exiting along with flash and sound lines.

Kuper doesn’t limit violence and sound to gunshots: when the first stripper is stabbed with a screwdriver, the image of her open mouth represents her scream as she is attacked (13).

•  The reader cannot read your mind: after each quote, you have to tell him or her exactly what you want it to prove/show. Ask the following question in your head "how does this example prove my point?" and "why is this quote important in this paragraph?" and then it answer in your essay. This is where you prove your argument. As a sentence starter, try "This" or a restatement of your example

This initial sound image points to the inherent danger of city life, the way a street can change from bustling pedestrians to frightened crowds lunging for cover at the crack of a gunshot.

This scream transforms, in the next panel, into a subway car in a tunnel – with its rush and screech another common part of the urban soundscape.  While caves are often associated with silence (think of the drip, drip of cavern scenes in movies), the constructed caves of cities are echo chambers, with tile and concrete walls providing perfect acoustics to channel the barrage of noise.

•  A sentence or two to sum up.

Together these images create a sense of doom and tension well suited to the confusion and tension of life in the city – or as Kuper would have it, life in the machine of the System.

Example 2

The Systems trains and station illustrates its emphasis on the system of the city. A system is normally a connection of things or parts that make a complex whole. In this case the parts or things are people and their actions. An example of a systems comes from the trains themselves. Trains run on a very specific system of time. If this system wasn’t in place then the trains would either run into themselves or it would be too chaotic to run. In this graphic novel we are introduced to many characters that have large and small roles in the cities system. Yet all their actions have an impact of sorts on others.  The System opens up to a man with a pony tail walking into a strip club and changes focus to the blonde stripper who is finishes her dance and dresses to leave. She smiles and bids goodbye to a brunette and leaves. We follow her to a newspaper stand and down the subway where she is brutally stabbed with a screwdriver until dead. This introduces us to the detective who accidentally killed a young boy (this bit of information comes into play later). The comic continues bringing more parts (people) into the story, all whom pass by one another at some point. A gay man who is on his way to visit his partner crosses path with a preacher and what could be his son. Another plot reveal is when an eye patched man flies in and walks into a Maxxson hotel, it becomes clear he is hired to bomb the Syco building.  While pony tail guy and skateboard girl, even a crooked cop are plotting ways to get money, another murder takes place (pg66). The victim is another stripper from the same club as the previous victim. Chapter three begins to heat up as the detective finds a clue but with no idea what it means he heads to the bar where we see the train conductor getting drunk. Previously in the comic he is seen drinking while operating the train. While he stumbles back down to the subway, the mysterious eye patch man makes his way also to the subway. With a bomb. This is where the system crashes. As mentioned earlier trains have a very specific system, especially with time. The train the bomber is on leaves on time but the drunken train conductor has his train leave at the same time, not on the time it is lent to leave. The two trains meet and crash, killing the bomber and many others. The bomb crashes through the train’s window and bounces away where the homeless man takes it. While this is going down, the detective makes a great discovery. The evidence is a torn piece from the preacher’s book but he’s not the killer. The brunette stripper leaves her work place and runs onto the killer, whom is revealed to be the preacher’s son. He hits her and she falls but before he lands the killing strike the detective comes and holds him at gun point. Unfortunately the detectives past trauma comes to haunt him, the little boy he killed. Distracted the killer raises his weapon to stoke the stripper but she surprises him with pepper spray to the face. Blinded and in pain he runs off and is hit by the taxi driver seen throughout the comic. The killer is dead and everyone else is safe if not shaken. This system is broken because of this death. The detective retired and the stripper leaves with her son someplace else. The system now broken has freed them to live on their own system.  

Work Cited

Kuper, Peter. The System New York: DC Comics, 1997. Print

Example 3

Graphic novels in general have been depicted as childish for years, even today some older readers sneer at graphic novels with the impression that they are for children because they tend focus more on the illustration and details rather than the wording. Nuckel and Kuper, however, flush these stereotypes down the drain. With their graphic novels, Destiny and The System respectively, they illustrate a dark, almost violent approach on their themes. Although these two novels are fairly far apart in publishing dates, Destiny being published in the mid-1920’s, while The System was published in the late 1990’s, the amount of death and violence happening in these novels is almost overwhelming and is a key component that links these two novels together. The two authors do a great job in displaying quite controversial themes for their novels, and even though the events portrayed in the novels were not unlikely scenarios, they were still seen as unsettling. For example, as pictured in Figure 1 below, the protagonist in Destiny loses her virginity before marriage when meeting the Salesman for the first time (Nuckel 25), this would be highly frowned upon in 1920’s-30’s Germany.

 

The System’s themes explored corruption and racism, which was demonstrated with the police officer choke-holding and taking a black man’s money, as seen in Figure 2. (Kuper 14).

Figure 2
These themes were very controversial in the 1990’s and even seen as such to this day. Even though publishing these graphic novels was a stretch for both of these authors, they have become widely successful in their own unique way for showing such unsettling and sometimes even gruesome topics and images in a medium that was thought to be for children.

Works Cited 
Nuckel, Otto. Destiny: A Novel In Pictures. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1930. Print.
Kuper, Peter.  The System. New York: DC Comics, 1997. Print.  

Submission Requirements

Check the Assignment page on Canvas for submission instructions.

Length? About ½ to ¾ of a page. Additionally, since you will be citing from the individual works, you must include a works cited entry.

 

© David Bordelon 2016