Food For Thought:  The MEAL Plan

Learning to write analytical, text-based essays can be tricky. Because text-based writing is new and different, employing a structuring strategy can help.  The MEAL Plan is just that:  a strategy for paragraphing.  Using it, as we will in our class, can effect positive changes in our writing as we strive to move from summarizing (the “what” or the “says”) to analysis (the “how” and “why” or the “does”).  I outline the parts of The MEAL Plan for you below.

Main Point:  this is the first sentence of your paragraph, also called the topic sentence.  In text-based writing, this first sentence argues and begins to “serve up” your essay’s claim (thesis).  Each argumentative topic sentence in each paragraph you craft connects back to the claim in some way.  Since the topic sentence of any paragraph dictates the subject of the paragraph, making sure that this first sentence is argumentative gives you, the writer, permission to argue instead of summarize.

Evidence:  this documented sentence or series of sentences offers up specific evidence that backs up the main, argumentative point.  You may quote from the text at hand or you may find yourself referring to a genre-specific tool (camera angles for film, metaphor for poetry, narrative structure for fiction, etc.) or specific example in this part of the paragraph.  Remember that plot is not evidence.  Rather, evidence is a piece of the text or a specific idea about the text, a “select bite,” that offers up a clear example to support your ideas. 

Analysis:  this is the largest portion of the paragraph, the part in which you explain “how” and “why” the evidence supports the main point.  This is the “meat” of The MEAL, and it requires that you carefully consider your audience’s “appetite” and the stated goals of your essay.  You may find yourself focusing in on words in the quoted evidence to perform a close reading, or you may offer discussion about context as you analyze, broadening out before focusing back in to make a salient point. 

Link:  this last sentence concludes the paragraph and looks ahead to the next. It links what you have said to what you will say. 

Here are sample paragraphs utilizing The MEAL Plan:

In W;t, Vivian Bearing’s reliance on language as her “only defense” is rooted in her childhood interactions with her dad.  While in the hospital, Dr. Bearing thinks back to her childhood to the exact moment when language became powerful, to a moment when she understood the connection between picture books and words, saying, “the illustration had bore out the meaning of the word, just as he had explained it” (Edson 43).  Here, we see not only the magic involved in learning to read—moving from picture to sound to word—but also observe the positive attention that Vivian gets from her dad when he explains the word “soporific.”  Learning to read and learning new words give her power over words, and her desire to gain power over words magically makes her dad take notice.  Because little girl Vivian learns to gain attention through language, she becomes an adult who does the same.   While this connection is important, it is also worth observing that Vivian’s reliance on the “magic” of language causes her to hide behind wit and lose out on life.   The magic she once felt is no longer magic but a curse.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the play that Neil Perry stars in, presents film viewers with an opportunity for analysis; Neil’s character, Puck, is just like Mr. Keating since, just like Puck, Mr. Keating encourages the boys to participate in mischief and upset the order at Welton Academy.  Puck is a character known for his mischievous ways, a trickster, who thrives on causing trouble.  From the moment he enters the classroom, Mr. Keating does the same.  He stands on desks; he takes the boys outside to roam in nature; he encourages them to break rules.  He, a puckish teacher, even encourages Neil to become Puck in the play.   Through disrupting the normal traditions, Mr. Keating opens the boys’ eyes to a real “dream” in which they can control their lives. The play is played out in the film.

Tidbits to Remember as you Write:

--this is not the way to paragraph successfully; it is a way to paragraph successfully

--modification of this structuring strategy is inevitable; for example, you may cite several pieces of evidence before you analyze, so that your MEAL plan becomes MEEEAL.