Hi everyone,

I hope you found today’s library session with Prof. Anne Leonard helpful.  Below is the handout she distributed in class to assist you with finding sources:

For Wednesday’s class, you should keep working on your paper, using this handout, and refine your thesis and conduct some research.

Please bring hard copies of the sources you’ve found for the paper to class on Wednesday, as well as your annotated poem. If you have a draft of the paper, you may bring that also.

Here’s what we’ll work on in class on Wednesday:

• refining your thesis and developing the paper
• brief recap of finding sources
• review of MLA format 8th edition for Works Cited page
• work on draft of Works Cited page–entry for your poem and for the news sources you plan on using in your paper

One last reminder that Blog Post #2 needs to be posted by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, November 28th for you to receive credit. 

After you identify your topic for Paper #2, the next step is to figure out how to move from a topic to a strong thesis statement.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say your topic is how Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” connects to New York City’s yellow cab drivers and the increase in driver suicides.

This is still just a topic.  You need to identify a specific point of view or angle on this topic so that you don’t wind up writing a paper that is very broad.  A strong thesis statement leads to a  strong paper.

Here are three examples of thesis statements stemming from this topic.  Which one is the strongest?

In Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing” the speaker writes about jobs. This connects to contemporary taxi drivers.

In Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing,” the speaker writes about jobs that help men earn a good living. This is an economic issue that connects to New York City’s yellow cab drivers.

In Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing,” he writes about jobs that were common in the nineteenth century but they aren’t common now.  This connects to the recent news stories about yellow cab drivers in New York City taking their own lives because they can’t earn a decent living, due to competition from apps like Uber and Lyft.

Which of these will lead to the strongest paper and why?

Aim to be very specific as you develop your thesis.  I will give you feedback as quickly as possible as to whether your topic (poem + specific news even or  poem + specific person in the news) is approved, and then I’ll give you additional feedback on how to improve your thesis as we move forward.

After you identify your topic for Paper #2, the next step is to figure out how to move from a topic to a strong thesis statement.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say your topic is how Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” is connected to recent rash of suicides of New York City yellow cab drivers.

This is still just a topic.  You need to identify a specific point of view or angle on this topic so that you don’t wind up writing a paper that is very broad.  A strong thesis statement leads to a  strong paper.

Here are three examples of thesis statements stemming from this topic.  Which one is the strongest?

In Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing,” the speaker writes about jobs.  This is an economic issue that affects New York City cab drivers today.

In Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing,” the speaker writes about jobs that enable men to earn a good living.  Yellow cab drivers today can’t do that. 

In Walt Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing,” the speaker writes about jobs that were common in the nineteenth century but they aren’t common now.  This reminds me of the recent rash of suicides by New York City cab drivers, since news articles have focused on the drop in value of taxi medallions and increased competition by apps like Uber and Lyft.  Yellow cab drivers aren’t singing, but mourning the loss of their livelihood.

Which of these will lead to the strongest paper and why?  We will spend time in class talking about thesis statements.