I need to write a 12 sentence paragraph on The Great Gatsby. Can someone please help me?

I often teach my students to write by encouraging them to
use a simple, four-step process which I abbreviate as "SIEL." Here are the four
steps:

S: State your
argument

I: Illustrate your
argument with a quotation.

E:
Explain in some detail how your quotation does indeed illustrate your
argument.

L: Link to the next
argument.

In a single paragraph making a single argument,
you would not need the link, or
L.

Here is an example of this
pattern as used in an essay about a poem by William
Blake:

[STATE:] Clearly this
work exemplifies many of Blake’s most prominent themes.
[ILLUSTRATE:] For instance, his standard emphasis on the
beauty of nature appears when he describes how the chimney sweepers, when they are freed
mentally (from their woes), "down a green plain, leaping, laughing . . . run / and wash
in a river and shine in the sun" (15‑16). [EXPLAIN:] These
lines illustrate Blake'sfrequent emphasis on the beauties of nature by depicting
innocent children in an appealing natural landscape. Natural beauty is emphasized
through the positive references to the plain, the river, and the sun. These references
imply earth, water, and fire, three of the four traditional elements of nature (air
being the fourth). The children themselves also seem naturally beautiful since they
"shine." Human beauty here becomes part of natural beauty. 
[LINK:] However,[STATE:] a
second major theme of Blake’s verse is a stress on personal and social
freedom.

I can easily imagine you using this pattern to
write a 12-sentence paragraph about The Great Gatsby.  For example,
you could make an argument such as the
following:

S: Often single
sentences in The Great Gatsby illustrate many of the novel's major
themes and techniques.

I: One
such sentence, for example, is the following: QUOTE A REPRESENTATIVE
SENTENCE HERE, SUCH AS THE FIRST OR LAST SENTENCE OF THE BOOK OR THE FIRST OR LAST
SENTENCE OF A PARTICULAR
CHAPTER.

E: EXPLAIN, IN
DETAIL, HOW THAT SENTENCE IS A TYPICAL OR REPRESENTATIVE SENTENCE FROM THIS NOVEL. FOR
EXAMPLE, HOW IS IT TYPICAL IN THE IMAGERY IT USES? HOW IS IT TYPICAL IN ITS TONE? HOW IS
IT TYPICAL IN THE WAY IN CONTRIBUTES TO CHARACTERIZATION OR ATMOSPHERE OR THEMATIC
DEVELOPMENT?

Here, for instance, is the very
last sentence of the novel: "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back
ceaselessly into the past."

You might ask yourself how this
sentence is typical of the book in its themes (such as the past), in its sounds (such as
in its almost musical use of alliteration), and in its imagery (such as in its
references to boats).

I think you'll find, if you use the
SIEL method, what many of my own students have found: that it makes the writing of
papers much easier and much less puzzling or mysterious than the process might otherwise
seem. Using the SIEL method can help you order your thoughts logically and can help give
you a very good idea of what you should do next.

Good
luck!