BUILDING BLOCKS
A quick (re-)introduction
Building blocks (aka “the 4Cs,” aka “a process for proving an idea”) are
chunks of expository writing. A building block could stand alone as a paragraph,
or a few building blocks could be put together to make a single paragraph.
All building blocks have at least one:
Claim: The main idea of a paragraph.
o Supports a thesis (which is the main idea of the entire essay).
Only one per o Usually one complete sentence.
paragraph. o Usually the first sentence of a paragraph.
o Only one claim per paragraph.
Context: Information that introduces evidence.
o Usually less than a sentence
o Provides important who/what/when/where/why before evidence
o One for each piece of concrete evidence included
Concrete evidence: Information used to support the claim.
o Comes in three forms:
Quotation: words directly from a text.
Summary: the main ideas from a text (shortened)
Can be Paraphrase: reworded ideas from a text (same length)
repeated o Should be as short as possible
within each o As many pieces included as needed to prove the claim (usually
paragraph . If no less than 2 per paragraph in un-timed writing)
one is
repeated,
all three are
repeated.
o Commentary: Explanation of how concrete evidence proves
the claim
o Must be specific to concrete evidence
o Must be specific to claim
o Must not repeat the claim
o Usually points to specific words and phrases from the evidence
o Usually as many pieces included as there are pieces of concrete
evidence
See this labeled example from a great AP essay: Now, try labeling this one:
Bold = Claim Oedipus overreacts childishly
Italics = Context and violently in the play. After leaving
Regular text = Concrete Evidence
Underlined = Commentary Corinth—to escape the Oracle’s
prediction—Oedipus came upon King
The adjectives and imagery
Laios traveling with five attendants.
which convey the poem’s mood also
Oedipus becomes angry and, in his
contribute to “Evening Hawk’s”
“rage,” struck out at the king, whom he
extended metaphor for the passage of
knocked out of the chariot and onto the
time – the central message of the poem.
ground (2.275-87). Up to this point,
A hawk is an animal; it experiences no
Oedipus has acted as any spoiled,
emotions and, in the poem, does not
egocentric, and spirited person might
know that its flight is causing the
act. He may have behaved more
“crashless fall of the stalks of time.”
humbly, but at least he gave back only
Like time itself, the hawk simply passes
slightly more than he received.
of its own accord. The bat is also stated
However, after saying that Laios
as having “ancient…and immense”
“rolled on the ground,” Oediups says:
wisdom while the speaker alludes to the
“I killed him / I killed them all”
sagacious Plato while describing a star.
(2.288). Assuming that Laios had not
The speaker describes the earth on its
been killed by the blow that knocked
axis and metaphorically equates history
him from the chariot, what Oedipus
to the steady leaking of water. All of the
does is terrible. First he attacks an old
poem’s metaphors (the major literary
man lying defenseless on the ground.
device) implore readers to ponder the
Then, he attacks all the other servants,
indiscriminate and slow and steady
except for one who escapes. Because
passage of time. Robert Penn Warren’s
of Oedipus’ pride—his sense of
“Evening Hawk” provides readers with a
personal injury—he inflicted
clarification of the passage of time in
punishment on these people far in
life; it is as precise as the scythe, as
excess of what they deserve. He is
regular as the passing of each day, as
brash and uncaring in his spur-of-the
unconcerned with human interest as the
moment decisions, and he is guilty of
hawk, and as steady as a leaking faucet.
murder.