Banned Book Essay: First Draft Due Monday

Essay Assignment: “Banned in the U.S.A.”

Over the past few weeks, we have been following the journey of Guy Montag, a fireman in a world where books are illegal. Although Fahrenheit 451 is a work of fiction, book burning and book banning are very real. We have read a bit in class about actual cases of banned or challenged books, and last week you were asked to find two news articles on the topic. You will be using the information from those articles to help write an essay on book banning.

Your essay should include an introduction, body, and conclusion.

Your introduction: In a short paragraph, introduce the topic of book banning. You can open your essay by mentioning the idea of book banning in Fahrenheit 451, and then transition into mentioning the real world history of book banning. Your thesis statement will basically be a claim that book banning or the censorship of books is a reality in our world.

The Body: The body of your essay should include  2-4 paragraphs discussing two specific examples of books that have been banned. For each example, explain the basic “5 W’s” and details of the situation.  This information should come from your articles. Include quotes from your articles in your body.

Conclusion: In your closing paragraph, restate your thesis statement and wrap up your claim/argument.

A first draft of this essay will be due on Monday. We will work on revising it during the week (next week) in class.  A rubric will be provided before the final draft is due.

Sample Body paragraph (These details are made-up. Don’t copy them.)

     On example of real-life book banning took place in Cleveland, Ohio in 2010. Upset over some of the violence and reckless teenage behavior in S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, a parent group from Bentley Middle School protested against the book’s use and sought to have it removed from the school library. According to the Cleveland Times article “Parents Protest Over Violence in Books”, a group nearly 50 parents marched into the school and demanded that The Outsiders and other violent books be removed from the school’s required reading list. Although the protest was initially successful, a lawsuit filed by another parent group eventually resulted in the books being returned to the shelves. “This is America,” said parent Gilbert Reyes. “Banning books is the most un-American thing I can think of.”