what is a keyhole essay

Writing Studio: Essays

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Essay Structure and Writing Handouts

Basic Essay Structure and Reverse Outline Use this mini lesson to review the basics of organizing a formal essay. This is helpful for students who are 'stuck' early in the writing process.
Basic Paragraph Structure A handout that helps students understand where research fits in with the rest of their essay as well as reviewing basic essay structure.
Conclusions This handout includes advice about writing an effective essay conclusion.
Keyhole Structure for Developing an Essay A detailed explanation of essay structure and how to parts of an essay relate to one another.
Outlining an Essay This handout explains why an outline is beneficial, gives an example outline, and includes a template.
Parallelism and Parallel Structure Use this handout to explain the dos and don'ts of parallel structure
Thesis Statement Guide Use this guide to help students understand both how to write a standard thesis statement and how a thesis statement connects to their essay as a whole.
Tips for Writing Formally This handout reviews 14 tips to help students make their writing more formal.
Writing in Third Person This detailed guide explains first and second person, and gives tips to help students convert their writing into third person.
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The Curriculum Choice

Making homeschool decisions easy

in High School · Junior High Language Arts · Language Arts · Literature · Middle School · Writing

Teaching the Essay from Analytical Grammar

After listening to the representative explain the Teaching the Essay unit, I knew that it was exactly what I was looking for to teach my daughter how to write a literary analysis essay. More than anything, the very best way to describe Teaching the Essay is CLEAR. Even if you have absolutely no background in expository writing, Teaching the Essay will teach you, the parent-teacher, how to teach your child to write a 5 paragraph expository essay focusing on literary analysis. Teaching the Essay is designed for the secondary student – junior high age and above.

As Robin Finley, the author of Teaching the Essay, asserts, writing a literary analysis essay involves fluency, mechanics, and structure . Fluency has to do with the “gift of gab” and the ability to put words on paper. Some children are natural writers and will find fluency easier than those who struggle to put words on paper but ALL children become more fluent writers with practice. Mechanics has to do with grammar and is taught separately from this unit by whatever grammar curriculum you choose. Lastly, writing a literary analysis essay involves STRUCTURE and Teaching the Essay focuses on the structure of a 5 paragraph essay. After finishing this teaching unit, your child should have no doubt about what a literary analysis actually is and how one should look.

Teaching the Essay comes with all of the notes and reproducible hand-outs you will need to teach a 4 – 8 week course on writing literary essays. My daughter is a fluent writer and was able to catch on to the concepts fairly easily so we completed the unit in 5 weeks. Depending on your child, you may need more or less time to finish the unit. In addition, a CD is included for the teacher. Listening to the whole CD gives you a big picture overview of the whole teaching unit so that you feel prepared about how to go about teaching the unit. As well, the CD is divided into tracks by teaching days so that you can listen to the specific teaching day that you are on to prepare for that day’s teaching.

How does this teaching unit work?

In this teaching unit, all students start with reading The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe. Then, a thesis statement is given to the child to build a literary analysis essay around. For this first essay, the parent-teacher and student work together every step of the way to complete this first essay.
For the second essay, the child reads “Wheldon the Weed” first. Then the student is given a choice of three thesis statements to choose from that correspond to the included short story. This essay is completed more independently with the parent-teacher giving help as needed.
For the third essay, the child reads “Bargain” first. Then the student is given a choice of three thesis statements to choose from that correspond to the included short story. This essay is completed more independently with the parent-teacher giving help as needed.
Lastly, the student chooses his or her own short story and thesis statement. This last essay is written independently.

After writing four essays in this unit, the student should feel comfortable writing other literary essays. In my own experience, after writing the essays, my daughter was able to easily apply the knowledge and the structure to her writing assignments in her literary analysis course. If the student needs more or less practice, the teaching unit can be easily adjusted to the needs of the student.

In addition to all of the detailed instructions given on the CD, Teaching the Essay also includes the following tools to help teach the unit:

A very clearly written hand-out titled “What is a Literary Essay?”
A graphic organizer hand-out to further explain the structure of a literary essay titled “The Keyhole Structure of the Literary Essay”
A completed literary essay of the Tell-Tale Heart for the teacher
An outline hand-out of the whole writing process for a literary essay – “How to Write a Perfect Essay: It’s All in the Process!”
Teaching the Essay teaching notes – A Step by Step Guide for the Teacher
All the needed texts for the literary essays written in the unit (The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, Bargain by A. B. Guthrie,Jr., and Wheldon the Weed by Peter Jones)
Reproducible worksheets to help the student write each part of the essay
Very detailed grading rubric.

To learn more about Teaching the Essay, you can visit their website and watch an informational video about the teaching unit by Robin Finley. As well, I have found the representatives from Analytical Grammar very easy to talk to and quick to respond to e-mails. I am sure that they would be glad to answer any additional questions you may have about Teaching the Essay. Teaching the Essay is available online for $15.00.

Samantha has been homeschooling for 8 years and currently is homeschooling her 8th grade daughter, 6th grade son, and 4th grade son. Samantha is an eclectic homeschooler using a wide variety of curriculum to best meet the ever-changing needs of her children. Samantha writes about homeschooling and family life at To Be Busy at Home .

Brenda is a homeschooling mother of 5, who has a wonderful husband encouraging her to be the best woman that God has created her to be. Together they are very intentional about spending time together as a family. She considers her daily life with her children as her ministry and has found many avenues to encourage others to live a lifestyle of learning. She is the founder of a curriculum review site authored by a group of well-known homeschool bloggers, The Curriculum Choice.

Reader Interactions

December 1, 2010 at 12:17 pm

This looks good, but I myself hate Poe, and I’ve always allowed my children to skip him. After reading their first Poe selection, they are more than happy to do so. So my question is, would it be possible to substitute some other author?

December 1, 2010 at 1:58 pm

Annie Kate,

Thank you for your comment and question! The curriculum actually includes several different selections:

Wheldon the Weed by Peter Jones Bargain by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

Thesis statements are given for all three selections. So, if you prefer not to read Poe, you could do the same exercises with the other two selections. The most guidance is given for the teacher and the student related directly to the Poe selection but you could simply listen to that material yourself to learn the process and apply it to another selection. The Poe selection works very well because the proofs for the thesis statement are very clear and easy to find, though.

After working through the Poe selection, I chose to substitute “The Lady or the Tiger” by Frank Stockton for the next essay. Really, any good short story would work well.

I did really enjoy this curriculum and found it quite helpful to teach my daughter the STRUCTURE of a literary analysis essay. Please feel free to ask any other questions and I’ll try to answer them. As well, I’ve found the authors at Analytical Grammar to be very helpful.

Samantha .-= Samantha´s last blog .. Evaluating Our 2010-2011 School Year Progress- Part 1 – Math =-.

May 14, 2011 at 3:05 am

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Word history and origins.

Origin of keyhole 1

Example Sentences

A stainless core runs through clear acetate temples, while rounded lenses and a keyhole bridge lend a classic look.

Imagine that the cells are a locked door, but the keyhole is rusty, so it’s difficult for glucose to get inside.

It’s also important to note that many locking cabinet models have only one keyhole that locks multiple drawers at one time, which is a completely effective and normal design feature but doesn’t let you partition your more sensitive items.

So beware of keyhole cutouts or string bottoms—those are a preschool fashion no-no.

He unscrewed the lock, turned it back to front, pasted over the outside keyhole and locked himself in.

This week, Stephen King published his 51st novel, The Wind Through the Keyhole, the latest in his Dark Tower series.

A peek through the keyhole on its website reveals a moving line of classic and contemporary nude images.

Mumbling helps audiences "feel like they're peeking in the keyhole," Batson says.

He looked at it through a keyhole, as it were—the extent was large yet detailed, the picture distant yet very clearly focussed.

Kneeling down, he peered into the keyhole, holding the electric torch close beside his face and chewing industriously.

And all the while the real "me" is snugly lying here in the green box, peeping through the keyhole, on the watch for the postman.

Jehosophat wished he were as small as Hop-o'-my-Thumb, so that he could creep through the keyhole and never be seen at all.

He stooped down and peeped through the keyhole, and immediately grew pale with anger.

Related Words

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Essay Writing

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

This resource begins with a general description of essay writing and moves to a discussion of common essay genres students may encounter across the curriculum. The four genres of essays (description, narration, exposition, and argumentation) are common paper assignments you may encounter in your writing classes. Although these genres, also known as the modes of discourse, have been criticized by some composition scholars, the Purdue OWL recognizes the wide spread use of these genres and students’ need to understand and produce these types of essays. We hope these resources will help.

The essay is a commonly assigned form of writing that every student will encounter while in academia. Therefore, it is wise for the student to become capable and comfortable with this type of writing early on in her training.

Essays can be a rewarding and challenging type of writing and are often assigned either to be done in class, which requires previous planning and practice (and a bit of creativity) on the part of the student, or as homework, which likewise demands a certain amount of preparation. Many poorly crafted essays have been produced on account of a lack of preparation and confidence. However, students can avoid the discomfort often associated with essay writing by understanding some common genres.

Before delving into its various genres, let’s begin with a basic definition of the essay.

What is an essay?

Though the word essay has come to be understood as a type of writing in Modern English, its origins provide us with some useful insights. The word comes into the English language through the French influence on Middle English; tracing it back further, we find that the French form of the word comes from the Latin verb exigere , which means "to examine, test, or (literally) to drive out." Through the excavation of this ancient word, we are able to unearth the essence of the academic essay: to encourage students to test or examine their ideas concerning a particular topic.

Essays are shorter pieces of writing that often require the student to hone a number of skills such as close reading, analysis, comparison and contrast, persuasion, conciseness, clarity, and exposition. As is evidenced by this list of attributes, there is much to be gained by the student who strives to succeed at essay writing.

The purpose of an essay is to encourage students to develop ideas and concepts in their writing with the direction of little more than their own thoughts (it may be helpful to view the essay as the converse of a research paper). Therefore, essays are (by nature) concise and require clarity in purpose and direction. This means that there is no room for the student’s thoughts to wander or stray from his or her purpose; the writing must be deliberate and interesting.

This handout should help students become familiar and comfortable with the process of essay composition through the introduction of some common essay genres.

This handout includes a brief introduction to the following genres of essay writing:

Expository essays
Descriptive essays
Narrative essays
Argumentative (Persuasive) essays

Gypsy Scholar

Brainstorming about history, politics, literature, religion, and other topics from a 'gypsy' scholar on a wagon hitched to a star.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Sheridan baker's "keyhole" structure for the entire essay, plus innovations.

Labels: Essay , Students

4 Comments:

If you are interested in writing tips, you should view this argumentative essay topic s topics.

I usually delete such ads as spam, but this one isn't egregious. Jeffery Hodges * * *

Here is a copy of the keyhole from 1977 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U20s927QIIR1OzymgKXyE85JbyGhWZHbt0dzfLa8Pso/edit?usp=sharing

1977! Brings back memories. Thanks for the address. Jeffery Hodges * * *

The Ultimate Guide to the 5-Paragraph Essay

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M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
B.A., History, Armstrong State University

A five-paragraph essay is a prose composition that follows a prescribed format of an introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph, and is typically taught during primary English education and applied on standardized testing throughout schooling.

Learning to write a high-quality five-paragraph essay is an essential skill for students in early English classes as it allows them to express certain ideas, claims, or concepts in an organized manner, complete with evidence that supports each of these notions. Later, though, students may decide to stray from the standard five-paragraph format and venture into writing an exploratory essay instead.

Still, teaching students to organize essays into the five-paragraph format is an easy way to introduce them to writing literary criticism, which will be tested time and again throughout their primary, secondary, and further education.

Writing a Good Introduction

The introduction is the first paragraph in your essay, and it should accomplish a few specific goals: capture the reader's interest, introduce the topic, and make a claim or express an opinion in a thesis statement.

It's a good idea to start your essay with a hook (fascinating statement) to pique the reader's interest, though this can also be accomplished by using descriptive words, an anecdote, an intriguing question, or an interesting fact. Students can practice with creative writing prompts to get some ideas for interesting ways to start an essay.

The next few sentences should explain your first statement, and prepare the reader for your thesis statement, which is typically the last sentence in the introduction. Your thesis sentence should provide your specific assertion and convey a clear point of view, which is typically divided into three distinct arguments that support this assertation, which will each serve as central themes for the body paragraphs.

Writing Body Paragraphs

The body of the essay will include three body paragraphs in a five-paragraph essay format, each limited to one main idea that supports your thesis.

To correctly write each of these three body paragraphs, you should state your supporting idea, your topic sentence, then back it up with two or three sentences of evidence. Use examples that validate the claim before concluding the paragraph and using transition words to lead to the paragraph that follows — meaning that all of your body paragraphs should follow the pattern of "statement, supporting ideas, transition statement."

Words to use as you transition from one paragraph to another include: moreover, in fact, on the whole, furthermore, as a result, simply put, for this reason, similarly, likewise, it follows that, naturally, by comparison, surely, and yet.

Writing a Conclusion

The final paragraph will summarize your main points and re-assert your main claim (from your thesis sentence). It should point out your main points, but should not repeat specific examples, and should, as always, leave a lasting impression on the reader.

The first sentence of the conclusion, therefore, should be used to restate the supporting claims argued in the body paragraphs as they relate to the thesis statement, then the next few sentences should be used to explain how the essay's main points can lead outward, perhaps to further thought on the topic. Ending the conclusion with a question, anecdote, or final pondering is a great way to leave a lasting impact.

Once you complete the first draft of your essay, it's a good idea to re-visit the thesis statement in your first paragraph. Read your essay to see if it flows well, and you might find that the supporting paragraphs are strong, but they don't address the exact focus of your thesis. Simply re-write your thesis sentence to fit your body and summary more exactly, and adjust the conclusion to wrap it all up nicely.

Practice Writing a Five-Paragraph Essay

Students can use the following steps to write a standard essay on any given topic. First, choose a topic, or ask your students to choose their topic, then allow them to form a basic five-paragraph by following these steps:

Decide on your basic thesis , your idea of a topic to discuss.
Decide on three pieces of supporting evidence you will use to prove your thesis.
Write an introductory paragraph, including your thesis and evidence (in order of strength).
Write your first body paragraph, starting with restating your thesis and focusing on your first piece of supporting evidence.
End your first paragraph with a transitional sentence that leads to the next body paragraph.
Write paragraph two of the body focussing on your second piece of evidence. Once again make the connection between your thesis and this piece of evidence.
End your second paragraph with a transitional sentence that leads to paragraph number three.
Repeat step 6 using your third piece of evidence.
Begin your concluding paragraph by restating your thesis. Include the three points you've used to prove your thesis.
End with a punch, a question, an anecdote, or an entertaining thought that will stay with the reader.

Once a student can master these 10 simple steps, writing a basic five-paragraph essay will be a piece of cake, so long as the student does so correctly and includes enough supporting information in each paragraph that all relate to the same centralized main idea, the thesis of the essay.

Limitations of the Five-Paragraph Essay

The five-paragraph essay is merely a starting point for students hoping to express their ideas in academic writing; there are some other forms and styles of writing that students should use to express their vocabulary in the written form.

According to Tory Young's "Studying English Literature: A Practical Guide":

"Although school students in the U.S. are examined on their ability to write a five-paragraph essay , its raison d'être is purportedly to give practice in basic writing skills that will lead to future success in more varied forms. Detractors feel, however, that writing to rule in this way is more likely to discourage imaginative writing and thinking than enable it. . . . The five-paragraph essay is less aware of its audience and sets out only to present information, an account or a kind of story rather than explicitly to persuade the reader."

Students should instead be asked to write other forms, such as journal entries, blog posts, reviews of goods or services, multi-paragraph research papers, and freeform expository writing around a central theme. Although five-paragraph essays are the golden rule when writing for standardized tests, experimentation with expression should be encouraged throughout primary schooling to bolster students' abilities to utilize the English language fully.

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The Introductory Paragraph: Start Your Paper Off Right

A Classical Teacher's Journal

Essay writing #4: the classical argument.

The second essay format I teach my students is the classical argument. It is more advanced than the simple argument for a number of reasons.

To begin with, the thesis in a classical argument is debatable in a consequential way, meaning there is something at stake. That something might be political, social, religious, or any number of things that affect the broader world. Given this substantive nature, the argument often requires outside research as opposed to simply one’s own personal analysis. Finally, in order to lend authority to one’s position, the essay format spells out and refutes the opposing position .

In a middle school classroom like mine, I might use a simple argument for analysis of King Arthur but a classical argument for analysis of the justice of the Crusades. Given their complicated history and enduring legacy, a meaningful position on the Crusades requires research and attention to a vast array of conflicting viewpoints.

As I explain to my students, a classical argument is more than “I think this about such and such.” It’s also, “You should think this, too.” It’s clearly a persuasive argument because it tries to draw people to the writer’s viewpoint and dispel any doubt that other views could be correct.

The essay structure itself consists of five parts, which support a single thesis statement through deductive writing , meaning they begin with the thesis statement and then move on to support it.

PART ONE – THE INTRODUCTION AND THESIS STATEMENT

Happily, the introduction of a classical argument models the same format as that of a simple argument. It introduces the topic to be discussed and presents the thesis statement . I instruct students to limit themselves to approximately 3-5 sentences. The brevity of the opening paragraph is one of its strengths and should not be compromised by extraneous information.

This paragraph consists of three parts. The first is the opening sentence itself. This should typically consist of a simple statement of fact, especially for students who are just learning to write an essay for the first time. More “provocative” openings like questions or startling facts are a lot harder to pull off, and I recommend new writers avoid them.

The second part of the opening paragraph offers transitional background information and justification for why the topic is relevant.

Well-done transitional sentences pave the way for the final part of the opening, which is the one-sentence thesis itself, or the position the essay takes. I always remind students that the thesis should be something debatable much like an opinion. In other words, it is not simply a fact.

PART TWO – THE NARRATION

This part of the essay establishes context for the argument . First, it tells the story, so to speak, behind the essay. That story might be the history of a war or the facts of a case or some other relevant background.

Next, it addresses the reality that there are opposing views about the subject matter. It should state what those views are without actually getting into the arguments for either position. That will come later.

Finally, the narration makes a type of appeal to the reader, letting him know what is at stake in the essay and asking him to weigh each side carefully.

There is no set number of sentences, but a good paragraph of 8-10 sentences usually does it for middle school students. More advanced writers might write several paragraphs in this part.

PART THREE – THE CONFIRMATION

Much like the body of a simple argument, the confirmation presents the evidence to support the thesis. It should have a topic sentence, at least three pieces of thoroughly explained evidence, and a concluding sentence that clearly ties the confirmation back to the thesis.

Again, a good paragraph of 8-10 sentences is ideal for middle school students, but more advanced writers might have several paragraphs in this section as well. .

PART FOUR – THE REFUTATION AND CONCESSION

With careful planning, this part of the essay is often the strongest because it allows the writer to dismiss all, or nearly all, of the opposition’s claims .

It should have a topic sentence followed by as many objections as the writer can come up with. If there are areas where the opposition may have a good point, the writer should concede that but without giving full weight to their overall position. Finally, this part of the essay should have a concluding sentence that relates back to the thesis.

The refutation and concession should mirror the confirmation in structure and length.

PART FIVE – THE CONCLUSION

Its purpose is to drive home the thesis statement by casting its relevance more broadly than what was initially presented in the introduction and narration.

Beginning writers often erroneously think of a conclusion as a restatement of what has already been said. Though this might work on a basic level, it represents only a superficial understanding of the key purpose of the conclusion and tends to be boring.

I find it helpful to refer to the conclusion as the “so what” part of the essay . We often think of it in terms of the broad lessons we learned from exploring an argument in a specific context. In other words, it is the student’s opportunity to reiterate what is at stake in the argument.

The conclusion should be divided into three parts, inversely mirroring the introduction . It, too, should be relatively short but powerful.

The first part of the conclusion recalls the thesis but presents it in a new way. I refer to this as a “thesis with a twist.” The second part provides transitional information on the connection between the thesis and the stakes at play in the argument. The final part is broader still, typically consisting of only one or two sentences, and should press the moral imperative of making the “right” choice for “the world.”

A REMINDER ABOUT PROCESS

If the writing process is important for the simple argument, it is all the more important for the classical argument, which is far more complicated.

From using Socratic discussions and disputations, to developing a thesis, to outlining the argument, to writing it out, every phase needs thorough, well-planned attention. Any breakdown in the writing process can greatly undermine the strength of the argument, and it shows all the more in this essay format.

Conversely, careful adherence to the process results in a persuasive argument even if the writing is wanting in style and beauty.

The classical argument, when followed properly, is as full-proof of a persuasive format as it gets. Naturally, there will be many readers who are not convinced in the end, but they will at least have to concede that the argument is convincing.

First image courtesy of the New York Public Library, New York

Second image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

The Keyhole Essay - Verona School District

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The Sitting Bee

Short Story Reviews

On Keyhole Morals by A.G. Gardiner

In On Keyhole Morals by A.G. Gardiner we have the theme of respect, appearance, privacy, acceptance and curiosity. Taken from his Windfalls collection the reader realises from the beginning of the essay that Gardiner may be exploring the theme of respect. The gentleman who talks to Gardiner about those in his neighbouring cabin does not seem to afford the couple any privacy. It is as though he may be allowing for his inquisitiveness or curiosity to take hold and listen to what is being said by the couple. What is also interesting is that people may formulate an opinion of another person based on what happens behind closed doors. Where a person’s true self can be found. Which leaves the reader to suspect that for Gardiner everybody has two appearances or personas. The public and the private. With the public persona being rehearsed and appropriately displayed to show the best of a person. Whereas a person will learn a lot more if not the truth about a person when they view them through the keyhole. When an individual’s guard is dropped one is able to see exactly what an individual is like. Even if some critics might suggest that this in itself is an invasion of privacy.

Gardiner continues to explore the theme of privacy when it comes to opening someone else’s letters. Though a person would have no right to. Curiosity may get the better of them. What they find may interest them but it could also be something which they did not need to know in the first place. If anything Gardiner may be suggesting that a person’s curiosity can often get them into trouble. Knowing information that they are not entitled to know. Though in the case of the essay Gardiner chooses a parent to open a son’s letters. Something that might lessen the blow to the son. Nonetheless there are morals involved and a person should not open personal correspondence that is addressed to another person be they a relative or not. Everybody is entitled to a degree of privacy and they should be afforded the respect that comes with privacy. Something that Gardiner himself may believe when he considers refusing the devil should the devil show him other people’s secrets. In reality everybody has secrets that they may wish to keep private and not include in their public persona.

Appearance if anything is what drives a person. Being accepted by others is easier if one casts a pleasant and amiable shadow rather than being honest with everyone about every aspect of their lives. Some people’s secrets may bring them shame and as such they do not wish to be judged by others. For example a man who is conducting an affair may not wish to have this known by others yet in the privacy of his home he may have to deal with his wife’s outrage. As mentioned there are two types of persona, the public and the private. With many people going to great lengths to hide their private persona. Gardiner also suggests that morally it may not be right for others to pry into the private affairs of others. For if the shoe was on the other foot an individual would surely feel displeasure that others might be intruding into their private lives. It is better to accept a person on their public appearance and not to be too inclined to ask questions about their private lives. No matter how difficult this might be for some people to do.

In reality nobody can know for sure what might trigger a person to live their private and public lives differently. If they do than their motives must be respected or at least they must not be quizzed. Everybody has secrets that they might not like the world to know and when judging one person an individual should really look at themselves to see if they have the right to judge that person. If anything Gardiner may be asking the reader to look at themselves before they judge another person and to respect other people’s privacy. What happens behind closed doors between a couple (or family) should remain behind closed door. Gardiner giving little time for those who listen to the conversations of others through the keyhole. It is also interesting that Gardiner himself knows the value of privacy as at the end of the story he knows that what has been done behind the door of his own cabin could very easily be held against him and would go against the public persona that he likes to portray. Which may leave the reader to suspect that everybody needs their privacy from the outside world regardless of what affairs they may conduct in the privacy of their home. Without privacy the individual will only be judged negatively by their peers.

On the Rule of the Road by A.G. Gardiner
On Shaking Hands by A.G. Gardiner
Those People Next Door by A.G. Gardiner
In Defence of Ignorance by A.G. Gardiner
A.G. Gardiner

THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE by Stephen King

I have mentioned before my love for the work of Stephen King, so it’s difficult to describe how excited I was to find his latest novel – a Dark Tower novel, no less – on my desk a month before the official publication date (many thanks to the wonderful folks at Hodder for the opportunity). As I read, I convinced myself that a straightforward review of the book might not be enough this time around. As a result, I’ve written a three-and-a-half thousand word essay that includes a review of the book in the context of the larger series, and also the work of King over which the Tower casts its influence. It’s something of an experiment for Reader Dad, and I appreciate it’s not what everyone wants to see. For that reason, I’ve made life slightly easier, and you can skip directly to the actual review by scrolling down to the section headed The Wind through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel . If you feel inclined to read the essay, I’d love to know what you think (Do you agree or disagree with what I’m saying? Does the experiment work, or should I stick to the type of review I’ve been producing for the past year or so?), so do please comment below. Thanks, as always, for visiting.

The Dark Tower

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

I probably hadn’t quite reached my early teens when I read this line – the opening line to Stephen King’s seven volume Dark Tower series – for the first time. What followed was a strange tale that was part fantasy, part science fiction, part western, and somehow much more than the sum of its parts. I quickly devoured the first two books in the series – The Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three – and promptly got stuck halfway through the third. It took me two more attempts (and two more re-reads of the first two books) before I finally made it through to the end of book three – The Waste Lands – wondering what had held me up for so long. Since then I, like the many others who have read and enjoyed The Dark Tower novels since early in the author’s career, have had two long waits – first for book four ( Wizard and Glass) , and then for the final three instalments of the series ( Wolves of the Calla , Song of Susannah , The Dark Tower ), which appeared in rapid succession (a wait that was made marginally more bearable by the publication partway through of the short story “The Little Sisters of Eluria”). Finally having a copy of that seventh volume in my hands brought a strange sense of relief that King had managed to finish what he started, something that was cast into doubt on that fateful day in June 1999 (it’s a worry that nags persistently at every fan of George R. R. Martin, and so many others, that the author isn’t getting any younger, and these massive works remain uncompleted).

The Dark Tower is probably one of Stephen King’s most divisive works, and there are many Constant Readers who have yet to read it for one reason or another. At the beginning, it was seen as a massive deviation from King’s standard horror fare (if anything he has produced over the course of 35 years could be called “standard”), but as the series progressed, and King’s back catalogue grew, it became very clear that this was not a separate work, but the backbone to almost everything King has ever written, and the influence of the Tower shows up in the unlikeliest of places, as if leaked through a thinny from that next-door world into this one.

Based loosely on Robert Browning’s epic poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, The Dark Tower tells the story of Roland Deschain, a gunslinger from the land of Gilead, and his quest across Mid-World to reach the Dark Tower. Along the way, Roland draws three people from our world – or close approximations thereof – at different points in time: drug-mule and heroin addict Eddie Dean; wheelchair-bound Civil Rights campaigner Odetta Holmes, who is sometimes the foul-mouthed and vicious Detta Walker and who ultimately becomes Susannah Dean; and the boy Jake Chambers, whom the gunslinger has already met, and lost, at an early point in the story. Rounded out by the billy-bumbler Oy, the ka -tet follow the Path of the Beam through a world that has, as Roland puts it, moved on. As the story progresses, we learn snippets of Roland’s backstory (the bulk of Wizard and Glass tells the story of a much younger Roland and his friends, a love lost and a treachery avenged), and discover some of the driving force behind his quest.

The Dark Tower forms the nexus of all possible worlds. As the series progresses we learn that these worlds exist on different levels of the Tower and for the most part are completely separate, but there are doorways (such as the ones used by Roland to draw his ka -tet) and thin places (thinnies) where the worlds merge together. Mid-World is part fantasy land, and part future post-apocalyptic version of our own world (clues like slightly off-key renditions of “Hey, Jude” point to deeper links than are immediately obvious). Technology exists, but it, like everything else in this world, is tired, and few know how to use or maintain it. It plays a large part in the group’s quest, often in an adversarial or outwardly threatening role (most memorably, Shardik, the great bear that guards the end of the Beam along which Roland will travel to the Tower; or Blaine the Mono, the insane monorail aboard whom the group flee the city of Lud). Behind the technology, the ever-more sinister North Central Positronics, which plays a pivotal role in the series’ climax.

It took Stephen King 30 years, give or take, to write The Dark Tower opus. Towards the end he makes an appearance in a complicated self-referential storyline that makes perfect sense when looked at within the overall context of the Dark Tower series, and King’s wider canon. There was always a danger that after all that time, and all those words, that the ending may not live up to expectation (it’s not a view I share, but it has been said on many occasions that King tells a great story, but lacks considerably in writing endings), but in hindsight, there was only one way that such a story could possibly end and King pulls it off with a skill and mastery that is, quite frankly, second to none.

There a number of themes, both literal and figurative, running through the series. Roland is driven by a strange sense of honour and duty that often places him in a difficult position; more often than not, duty to the Tower wins out over duty to anyone or anything else and as a result Roland comes across as a cold and calculating character, something that Eddie points out in colourful ways on more than one occasion. He may seem a strange choice for the hero of the piece, but it’s difficult, as the story progresses, not to like him, despite his faults. The concept of ka underlines all, a concept similar to destiny (or probably, more closely, predestination) that drives Roland on his quest, and binds this group of disparate souls together as a sort of family. “ Ka ,” King tells us on many occasions, “is like a wheel” and this is probably the underpinning ethos of the whole Dark Tower opus. With the final three books, King introduces the number nineteen (see the name of the ka -tet, for example), which takes on significance as the story proceeds towards its climax. It is a number that crops up in King’s fiction quite frequently.

In the Shadow of The Dark Tower

As the story of the Dark Tower progressed, and as King grew as a writer, Constant Reader started to find references to this larger work throughout King’s novels and, more importantly, references to King’s other novels within The Dark Tower series. It was probably with the publication of King’s 1994 novel, Insomnia , that he cemented the idea that the Tower forms the nexus of his own work, that all of his novels take place in worlds on various levels of the Tower. It is also in Insomnia that King introduces the villain of the overall piece, in the form of the Crimson King.

There are references to the Tower throughout King’s later work, often oblique and easily missed, but sometimes more obvious. Some of his novels are more closely linked: the fairy-tale-like The Eyes of the Dragon is set in some remote corner of Mid-World, and contains at its centre the same dark man that wanders through much of his other fiction; and the opening story of his collection Hearts in Atlantis deals heavily with the Tower, seen through the eyes of the people forced into a kind of slavery, their goal the downfall of the Tower. Some clever retro-fitting brings many of his earlier novels into the fold: the ka- tet arrive in a version of Topeka ravaged by Captain Trips, proving that The Stand takes place on a nearby level of the Tower (although this novel has much closer ties, as we’ll discuss momentarily); Father Callahan, who we met first in 1975’s ‘Salem’s Lot , turns up late in the series, and the group encounter him as they enter Calla Bryn Sturgis. The Tower also, surprisingly, has a heavy influence on King’s second collaboration with Peter Straub, Black House . Surprising because it is a collaborative effort, but the two series – The Dark Tower on the one hand, The Talisman/Black House duology on the other – do have similar themes and concepts driving them, which makes the crossover much more logical.

There is a single figure that moves through King’s work like a restless ghost, pure evil distilled in the form of man, although it’s immediately obvious, to the reader at least, that this is no mere man. We first meet him in The Stand in the form of Randall Flagg, and he turns up again and again throughout King’s works, often – but not always – bearing the initials R.F. We find him in many places throughout The Dark Tower: he is the fabled man in black who fled across the desert (who has been known as Walter, and as Marten Broadcloak), and appears in the city of Lud in the guise of one Richard Fannin. Flagg (the name by which he is most commonly known) is one of the most instantly-recognisable figures in King’s fiction, regardless of which disguise he wears, and without doubt, one of the most sinister characters in fiction.

The Dark Tower is, perhaps, King’s most personal work, so it was interesting to see him relinquish some creative control to his research assistant Robin Furth (author of the encyclopaedic The Dark Tower: A Concordance) for a series of comics from Marvel chronicling the earlier years of Roland, picking up where the story Roland tells for the majority of Wizard and Glass left off, and detailing the fall of Gilead and the beginning of the gunslinger’s quest. It is also interesting to note that Ron Howard is planning a series of film and television adaptations of the novels which will reportedly cast Javier Bardem in the role that was custom-built for a much younger Clint Eastwood.

About 35 years after the first publication of the first part of The Gunslinger in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (and over 40 years since he first put pen to paper on the project), the Dark Tower still casts a shadow over much of King’s work. As recently as the massive 11/22/63 , King is making reference, in some shape or form, to Mid-World, and the other worlds that branch from the Tower. Likewise, many Constant Readers (and I’m happy to be counted among their number) have lived in this same shadow, waiting for long periods for the next instalment, breathing a sigh of relief when that final volume was finished, and watching hopefully for any small reference in each and every one of King’s novels and short story collections.

Imagine, then, my surprise, not to mention outright glee (and that of many other people, presumably), at the announcement of a new novel set in Roland’s world. Seven years after King brought his gunslinger to the end of his quest, he returns to Mid-World.

The Wind through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel

There are a number of gaps in time during the course of The Dark Tower , presumably because a lot of walking and not a lot else went on. One such gap is between the fourth ( Wizard and Glass ) and fifth ( Wolves of the Calla ) volumes, as the ka -tet leave the Green Palace that wasn’t Oz and head for Calla Bryn Sturgis, and End-World beyond. The Wind through the Keyhole goes some way towards plugging this gap, picking up immediately after the events of Wizard and Glass and joining Roland and his companions as they follow the Path of the Beam towards the river Whye. Oy, the billy-bumbler, is acting strangely, stopping suddenly and raising his snout towards the north, and it takes the ferryman who carries them across the river to jog the gunslinger’s memory, and alert him to the approaching starkblast – a storm of such ferocity and freezing temperature that it can cause trees to implode, and birds to fall, frozen solid, from the sky.

Hurrying to shelter, and beating the storm by a heartbeat, the group settles down with enough firewood to see them through a couple of days and, finding themselves unable to sleep, they turn to Roland for another story. The gunslinger starts to tell them of a time shortly after his return to Gilead from Mejis when he and one of his original ka- tet, Jamie deCurry, were sent to the town of Debaria to capture a skin-man that was terrorising the town, and which had already claimed upwards of twenty lives. When they arrive, they find fresh slaughter, but this time there’s a survivor – a young boy no older than Jake – and Roland, already showing some of the coldness for which he will be well-known in later years, decides to use the boy to flush out the culprit. As they wait for the arrival of a group of suspects, with a wild wind blowing through the town, Roland tells the boy a fairytale, the story of young Tim Stoutheart and his encounter with a trickster in a dark cloak.

The Wind through the Keyhole is a tale within a tale within a tale. The titular story is a fairy-tale told to Roland as a child by his mother. Set in a remote corner of Mid-World, it is a coming-of-age story centred around Tim, a young boy willing to do anything to save his mother’s sight. Set on a quest by a man Constant Reader will know all-too-well — up to his old tricks, manipulating people for his own amusement — Tim finds himself out of his depth and in the path of an oncoming starkblast. This tale is sandwiched between the two parts of the story about Roland and his hunt for the skin-man (or were-creature) and the whole is book-ended by the story we know and love so well, the journey of Roland, Eddie, Susannah, Jake and Oy along the Path of the Beam, moving ever closer to the Dark Tower.

King slips into Mid-World very comfortably, despite the fact that it has been almost seven years since his last visit. The feel of the world is unchanged, and the language has a handful of idiosyncrasies that weren’t there before, but in all, nothing has changed here and the return is as comfortable and natural for the reader as it apparently was for the author. This book, described on the cover as A Dark Tower Novel , was more accurately described by King in the original announcement as “Dark Tower 4.5”. What’s obvious is that this book will have no impact on the outcome of the series as a whole, and will contain very little in the way of character development (except in revealing more about the still-mysterious past of the gunslinger). As a result, it’s unsurprising that King spends very little of the book with the ka -tet (less than 50 pages all told) and launches as quickly as possible into Roland’s tale, which he then uses as a springboard for the main event.

As a result, the book deals very little with the key characters of the series (with one obvious exception), and is perhaps closer to The Eyes of the Dragon in that respect than even Wizard and Glass , which would be its closest counterpart from the original seven volumes. In his Foreword, King assures us that this book can be picked up and read even without the in-depth understanding of the surroundings and characters that comes with reading the original series and, to a certain extent that is true, but those readers will have a much different experience (most likely with much more head-scratching and -shaking) than people who followed Roland for the duration of his quest. The exception I mentioned above is, of course, the man in black, best known as Randall Flagg who sets Tim on his course because it amuses him to do so.

Ka is like a wheel. As we read, and as the elder Roland recounts the tale, this fact comes crashing home, and the parallels between Roland’s story and Tim’s are unmistakable. It also speaks to Roland’s stubbornness that, despite this realisation, he is as determined as ever to complete his quest and reach the Tower — he has a score to settle, regardless of who set him on the path, or what that person’s motives were.

Through all three stories, there is a constant wind — starkblasts ravage outer and inner, while a simoom blows alkali dust through the town of Debaria in the middle tale. The wheel is a metaphor that Roland used frequently when speaking of ka , but he also spoke of the mysterious force as a wind, before which nothing can stand. Blowing across the years, the wind carries revelations that shed greater light on Roland, and add a richer experience for the long-time reader.

As with all the Dark Tower novels, The Wind through the Keyhole contains a number of illustrations. Noted artists such as Michael Whelan, Bernie Wrightson and Dave McKean have illustrated past volumes, each stamping their own style on Roland, his world, the Tower. This time famed comics artist Jae Lee (who also provides the art for the Marvel Comics Dark Tower comic book series) takes his turn. As well as chapter and section headers, Lee has provided five beautiful full-page black-and-white pieces that help to set the tone. What’s missing, unfortunately, are the colour plates that he also produced for the novel, and which seem to be exclusively included in the limited edition of this volume from US publisher Donald M. Grant. It’s a shame, since past volumes from Hodder have included all of the artwork.

The Wind through the Keyhole is a welcome return to a well-loved world, and a set of well-loved characters. It doesn’t advance the plot and adds minimal character development to the overall arc, but it’s a welcome addition to the set nonetheless. King is a master storyteller, and this is as good a showcase as any for his talents, as he interweaves three seemingly unrelated narratives into a single, consistent whole that stands with some of his best writing. It’s a beautifully-written novel that is clearly close to the author’s heart and is sure to be well-received by long-standing Dark Tower fans. Will it win any new recruits? It’s certainly not a bad jumping-on place, in that it provides a taste of the world without the commitment to the complete seven-book series, but I suspect it will deter as many people from seeking out those books as it will drive towards them. It is the nature of a beast like this that in order for the standalone novel to work, it must still meet the needs of the multitude of existing fans, and elements of the Dark Tower series — the language, the history — are just too alien to hold the attention of the average reader.

For the aficionado, though, The Wind through the Keyhole has everything that we’ve come to expect from the series. Here are our friends in the middle of their journey and while the starkblast poses no threat (we know they all live through it), King still manages to notch up the suspense in the telling. Here is the broken-down world that these people inhabit, the world that is almost, but not quite, like some future version of our own. And here, most importantly, is our old adversary, the man in black, the Walkin’ Dude, Randall Flagg, doing what he loves and what, if we’re totally honest with ourselves, what we love to see him do. The subhead of this book fills me with a sense of expectant glee: not Dark Tower 4.5 , as was originally mooted, but A Dark Tower Novel . This is one Constant Reader that lives in the hope that Roland and his ka -tet still have more to say, especially if what they have to say is as worthwhile as what’s within the covers of The Wind through the Keyhole . There is no better master of his craft than Stephen King, and I’m finding it difficult to believe that I’ll see a better book than this before year’s end.

If you’ve read the series, I urge you to pick this up (though suspect I’m preaching to the choir on that one). If you haven’t, this one is definitely worth a go (and at just over 300 pages doesn’t require much commitment), but I would urge you to find a copy of The Gunslinger and see where you end up.

Published by Matt Craig

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What is keyhole gardening? Why it may be time to take your raised beds to the next level and create a sustainable keyhole garden at home

G arden trends come and go, but as more and more people try to make sustainable changes to their lives, there’s no doubt that eco-friendly garden trends are starting to stick. That’s why you should be asking yourself: What is keyhole gardening?

Akin to permaculture , keyhole gardening focuses on making the most of a bad situation - especially when you have poor soil quality or want to improve nutrient levels to successfully grow your own fruit and vegetables . But while keyhole gardens are very similar to raised garden beds , it’s fair to say that there are a few key differences.

To get the scoop on keyhole gardening, we’ve reached out to experts to see what they had to say on the matter. We also have the lowdown on how you can create a keyhole garden yourself.

What is keyhole gardening?

Keyhole gardening may be a new trend to many people, but the concept couldn’t be simpler. John Clifford, a garden expert from Gardenstone , explains, ‘Keyhole planting is when you utilise a raised garden bed that's in a keyhole shape. For example, a circular garden bed with a wedge cut out from it running through its diameter, like a keyhole.’

This central section allows you to reach every inch of the raised bed and forms a pathway towards the middle of the keyhole garden, where a compost heap is located.

Ultimately, this compost heap is the life force of the keyhole garden and is filled with all kinds of organic matter often used as an alternative to soil when filling a raised garden bed . This includes food scraps, cardboard, coffee grounds, grass cuttings, and more.

It’s through this central compost heap that you water your keyhole garden, too. John says, ‘You also water the plants through the compost section, which then provides a steady flow of water to the plants via their roots. This also helps to flush the nutrients from the compost directly to the roots, keeping the plants healthy.’

This will provide the whole bed with a constant water supply and high levels of nutrients, making for a very low-maintenance garden. It’s also convenient for those with dexterity issues or those who can’t bend down to manually add compost to their raised beds or hold a heavy watering can for too long.

In fact, keyhole gardening makes even more sense when you realise that it was developed by farmers struggling with poor soil and lack of water in Africa during the 1990s.

But while English summers aren’t as dry or drought-stricken as sub-Saharan Africa, there’s no doubt that providing plants and crops with an endless supply of water and nutrients is something that we all still aim for.

And if you can do so while using sustainable organic matter from your home and garden, why wouldn’t you want to give it a go yourself?

How to create a keyhole garden

Keyhole gardening is definitely something anyone can try for themselves, but if you’re going to do it… you need to do it properly . It’s important to prepare your garden for this set-up and understand how to make the most of it.

1. Choose the right location

If you struggle with poor soil, a keyhole garden can work wonders. Instead of relying on the soil's nutrients, you can use the nutrients from your food scraps and garden cuttings to feed your plants and crops.

But if you’re not sure whether you have poor soil or not, we’d suggest testing your soil’s pH with something like this Sonkir Soil pH Meter from Amazon . Then, you can choose the location for your keyhole garden based on this.

Aim to plant your keyhole garden where you have poor-quality soil, and focus on choosing a location that’s as flat as possible. You should also ensure that you have at least 6 feet of free space to build your keyhole garden and that the plot receives at least 5-6 hours of sunlight daily.

2. Mark out the base

Before you start building the full structure, it’s a good idea to mark out the base of your keyhole garden to make sure that you’re happy with the size and placement.

To do this, create a base layer using the material of your choice. This could be some leftover bricks from your garage, stone from your rock garden, or wood you bought from the garden centre.

Aim to mark out a round shape, but ultimately you can choose any other shape that suits you and your garden as long as there’s space for the compost heap in the middle.

Alternatively, you could simply buy a ready-made keyhole garden - like this Keyhole Raised Garden Bed from Woodblocx .

3. Build the walls

With the base marked out, you can move on to building the walls. Again, you can use any material you like, but you should make sure that the material you choose is sturdy and will ultimately support the weight of the raised beds.

Morris Hankinson, director of Hopes Grove Nurseries explains, ‘Create an outer wall for your keyhole garden using bricks or logs (or any material that will hold in the soil). The diameter of the raised bed will be around 6ft so keep this in mind when choosing where to do your keyhole planting and when building your outer wall.’

We’d suggest building the walls of the keyhole garden as you would create a raised garden bed with decking boards or railway sleepers that are then secured with nails or screws. However, you could also use bricks or stones as long as the walls are at least 3 feet high.

Don’t forget the key component of a keyhole garden when building the walls, though. Morris says, ‘Decide where you want your access path to be (this can be wherever you will find it easiest/most convenient) and leave enough space that you can comfortably walk down it.’

4. Make the compost cage

What makes keyhole gardening so effective is the compost heap in the middle of the garden bed, and the best way to keep this compost together is to use a cage.

To do this, you have two options. You could either make your own compost cage using chicken wire (like this Chicken Wire Mesh Fencing from B&Q ) and then secure it with strong ties, but it may actually work out cheaper to buy a ready-made compost cage.

Then, you can pop it in the middle of the keyhole garden and fill the bottom with stones and rocks to help with aeration. Finish by filling it with food scraps and garden waste until it’s full to the brim.

5. Fill the beds

With your walls built and your compost cage in place, the only thing left to do is fill the remainder of the raised beds.

John explains, ‘The bottom layer should be something that allows for good draining, such as pebbles or twigs. Then, there should be a layer of compost materials such as grass or newspaper, which will promote moisture retention in the soil. The next layer above this should be topsoil, and then the layer above this could be mulch, which helps keep the moisture in the soil.’

He also urges, ‘Always remember the slope from the compost section to the plants. Without this, there will be less of a flow of nutrients.’

When the keyhole garden is filled, you can add the plants or crops you want to grow. To give your produce an even better chance of success, it might be a good idea to check out companion planting .

Then, all you need to do is keep your compost cage filled up and water it regularly.

What you'll need

Do keyhole gardens smell.

Although keyhole gardens centre around a compost heap, they shouldn’t smell or add an unpleasant aroma to your garden. In fact, the stones at the bottom of the compost cage should ensure that they aid with aeration and airflow.

If you don’t add stones at the bottom of the compost cage, however, you may find that your keyhole garden starts to smell as the compost will start to decompose rapidly after watering. So, always make sure you add stones to prevent this.

What materials are used in keyhole gardening?

To make the raised beds for keyhole gardening, you should use sturdy, secure materials such as bricks or wood. You should then add a central compost cage, which you can make yourself with chicken wire or buy ready-made.

Then, the only thing left to do is fill the keyhole garden with organic matter and compost. You can use garden waste and food scraps to fill the compost cage and then fill the raised beds with store-bought compost.

So, will you be giving keyhole gardening a whirl?

What is keyhole gardening? Why it may be time to take your raised beds to the next level and create a sustainable keyhole garden at home

IMAGES

Organize Essays with the Keyhole Essay Organizer • Doing What Matters
The Keyhole Essay Expanded:
Keyhole essay structure
Essay
The Keyhole Essay A Guide to Expository Writing
Keyhole Paradigm Essay Outline Organizer by Kristen Holan by Design

VIDEO

part 27 Let’s open a keyhole today hardware tools
Though The Keyhole Series 1 Episode 10 V2
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part 119 Square hole machine specializes in square hole keyhole

COMMENTS

Essays
This handout includes advice about writing an effective essay conclusion. Keyhole Structure for Developing an Essay. A detailed explanation of essay structure and how to parts of an essay relate to one another. Outlining an Essay. This handout explains why an outline is beneficial, gives an example outline, and includes a template.
Eight Steps to Writing an Essay so You Don't Waste Your Time
The essay grows from the headings as you add info to them. Step Two — Develop the Thesis Statement The thesis statement is the most important part of the essay, so figure it out before the ...
Transitioning to College Writing
Moving Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay. Many students enter college extremely skilled in writing one type of essay—the five-paragraph or "keyhole" essay that consists of an introduction, three paragraphs with points that support the main idea, and a conclusion that restates the introduction. While this is a good initial structure, moving ...
Teaching the Essay from Analytical Grammar
Teaching the Essay is designed for the secondary student - junior high age and above. As Robin Finley, the author of Teaching the Essay, asserts, writing a literary analysis essay involves fluency, mechanics, and structure . Fluency has to do with the "gift of gab" and the ability to put words on paper. Some children are natural writers ...
KEYHOLE Definition & Meaning
Keyhole definition: a hole for inserting a key in a lock, especially one in the shape of a circle with a rectangle having a width smaller than the diameter of the circle projecting from the bottom.. See examples of KEYHOLE used in a sentence.
PDF Strategies for Essay Writing
When you write an essay for a course you are taking, you are being asked not only to create a product (the essay) but, more importantly, to go through a process of thinking more deeply about a question or problem related to the course. By writing about a source or collection of sources, you will have the chance to wrestle with some of the
DOC The Keyhole Model
The Keyhole Essay. One way to write an effective essay is to begin with a picture in your mind: an old-fashioned keyhole — a large, round center with a funnel shape on top and an inverted funnel shape on the bottom. This keyhole illustrates the relationship of the three major divisions of the expository essay: the introduction (funnel shape ...
Keyhole Essay Structure(1)
It is called the "Keyhole" approach to essay writing because a methodical essay structure looks a bit like a keyhole: Every essay consists of three parts: first, there needs to be an Introduction where you set out what you want to write about. An Introduction begins with a rather general sentence that introduces the reader to the broad ...
The Keyhole Essay: A Guide To Expository Writing
The_Keyhole_Essay-_English_9 - Free download as Powerpoint Presentation (.ppt / .pptx), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or view presentation slides online. The document provides a guide to using the Keyhole Essay method for organizing expository writing. It explains that the Keyhole Essay forces writers to be focused, organized, and clear. It then outlines the characteristics of an effective ...
Essay Writing
Essays are shorter pieces of writing that often require the student to hone a number of skills such as close reading, analysis, comparison and contrast, persuasion, conciseness, clarity, and exposition. As is evidenced by this list of attributes, there is much to be gained by the student who strives to succeed at essay writing.
Keyhole Essay Structure
It is called the "Keyhole" approach to essay writing because a methodical essay structure looks a bit like a keyhole: Every essay consists of three parts: first, there needs to be an Introduction where you set out what you want to write about. An Introduction begins with a rather general sentence that introduces the reader to the broad ...
Sheridan Baker's "Keyhole" Structure for the Entire Essay ...
On page 70 of Sheridan Baker, The Complete Stylist and Handbook (New York: Harper and Row, 1980), appears a diagram representing the structure of a standard essay. Baker called this diagam "The Keyhole" and offered it as a checklist for ensuring that beginning students didn't forget what their essays needed to include.
The Keyhole Essay A Guide to Expository Writing
Keyhole Essay Concept Remember this image? Two Keyholes…o ne upside down and the other normal. When you put them together and overlap the circle, you get an image to help you remember essay writing. Starts general Becomes (hook) more specific Body Paragraphs. Very specific Becomes more general Intro Paragraph Thesis Statement Conclusion Paragraph
The Ultimate Guide to the 5-Paragraph Essay
Students can use the following steps to write a standard essay on any given topic. First, choose a topic, or ask your students to choose their topic, then allow them to form a basic five-paragraph by following these steps: Decide on your basic thesis, your idea of a topic to discuss. Decide on three pieces of supporting evidence you will use to ...
Essay Writing #4: The Classical Argument
The second essay format I teach my students is the classical argument. It is more advanced than the simple argument for a number of reasons.. To begin with, the thesis in a classical argument is debatable in a consequential way, meaning there is something at stake.That something might be political, social, religious, or any number of things that affect the broader world.
The Keyhole Essay
the body of the text. › It is the answer to the essay question. › Must be arguable. › Can be written two ways: 1) Hammurabi's laws proved to be too harsh, showed social. class inequities, and restricted religious freedom. 2) Hammurabi's philosophy on laws that should govern a. society proved to be unjust in many ways. .
PPTX VERONA PUBLIC SCHOOLS / News
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The Keyhole Essay.rtf
The Keyhole Essay While English instructors use various means to teach students how to write a short expository essay of 500 to 1000 words, one popular technique is called the "Keyhole Method." By imagining what an old-fashioned keyhole looks like--a large, round center with a funnel shape on top and an inverted funnel shape on the bottom--the student-writer can "picture" the relationship of ...
DOC Loudoun County Public Schools / Overview
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On Keyhole Morals by A.G. Gardiner
On Keyhole Morals by A.G. Gardiner. In On Keyhole Morals by A.G. Gardiner we have the theme of respect, appearance, privacy, acceptance and curiosity. Taken from his Windfalls collection the reader realises from the beginning of the essay that Gardiner may be exploring the theme of respect. The gentleman who talks to Gardiner about those in his ...
THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE by Stephen King
The feel of the world is unchanged, and the language has a handful of idiosyncrasies that weren't there before, but in all, nothing has changed here and the return is as comfortable and natural for the reader as it apparently was for the author. This book, described on the cover as A Dark Tower Novel, was more accurately described by King in ...
Seven ways to restore land, halt desertification and combat drought
Irrigation techniques, such as drip irrigation or mulching, could be used to help maintain soil moisture levels and prevent drought stress. Individuals could make compost from leftover scraps of fruit and vegetables for use in their gardens and balcony plant pots. 3. Protect the pollinators. AFP/Yuri Kadobnov.
Keyhole Essay
The Keyhole Essay Expanded: Introduction, Body and Conclusion Writing Guide The basic five paragraph or keyhole essay is fundamental to writing. Familiarity with this format will provide you with the foundation for becoming an accomplished and articulate writer on any topic. This is what it looks like:
How to create a keyhole garden
What makes keyhole gardening so effective is the compost heap in the middle of the garden bed, and the best way to keep this compost together is to use a cage. To do this, you have two options.