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Week 6 Assignments
- This week, we will be working on argumentation and thesis-based writing
- Week 6 Assignments
- Group Assignments DUE by MIDNIGHT, Thursday, October 16
- RWA and LJ DUE by 10 am, Tuesday, October 20
- LEARNING JOURNAL 6
- Please spend 5 to 7 minutes free writing about a story that you know. To help you get started, you might want to think about the following questions: If you were at a party with fifteen people gathered around, all listening to you, what’s the one story you would tell? What is the best story you know?
Group Assignment 6: Thesis Statements Discussion
- Please read over Professor Rodgers’ Handouts related to writing THESIS statements and her structural overview of a thesis-driven essay in your What Is Writing? A Brief Introduction to Writing As an Act of Communication reading packet. After reading these, please do the following: In response to Professor Rodgers’ GA6 Post, 1/ post three questions that you have about thesis statements, 2/ write one paragraph for your classmates explaining how to write a thesis statement and/or the elements of a good thesis statement.
- RWA6: Intro to Argumentation
- To some extent all of the writing that we do presents some type of argument. However, thesis-driven essays, which are what the majority of college essays are, have very specific guidelines for presenting arguments. All of the writing that we will be doing for the rest of the semester will be thesis-driven and will involve the presentation of some type of argument. Our midterm exam will also consist of a timed argumentative essay in response to a reading. There are two purposes for the midterm exam: 1/ to give you practice writing an argumentative essay and 2/to prepare you for the final exam. To start preparing for this exam, which you will take Tuesday, Oct. 28, I’d like you to first review the materials on the topic of argumentation located on the following three Web pages:
- http://www.powa.org/index.php/convince/occasions-for-argumentative-
- essays
- http://www.powa.org/index.php/convince/arguing-in-context
- http://www.powa.org/index.php/convince/stating-your-thesis
- I’m not requiring that you do the suggested assignments, but if you would like to, please do. I’d be interested in knowing if you find them helpful.
- Once you have reviewed these texts, please draft a thesis statement for the following writing assignment:
- Write a letter to Carr in response to his argument and the claims he uses to support his argument, explaining why, based on your own experiences of using Google and other Web technologies in your writing and research processes, you agree or disagree with Carr’s argument and the claims he uses to support his argument. In your essay, make sure to cite and comment on specific claims and textual evidence from Carr’s essay.
A.1.Is it possible to have more than one thesis statement in a essay?
2.How long should a thesis statement be?
3. Is a thesis statement always suppose to give a complete overview of what the reader is suppose to be expecting in the reading? Wouldn’t you like your reader to be surprised?
B. One to two sentences that express what your paper is about and explain what you will be discussing, analyzing, or arguing, in your paper. It offers your readers an overview of the paper, and often gives a sense of what and how the argument that you are presenting will discussed. It is important to have a draft,working thesis statement early on in the writing process, as well as to revise it during every stage of the writing process in order to better reflect the structure and content of your paper.
1. No, at least not in a traditional college essay. Obviously an argument has many dimensions, but a good thesis statement for an argumentative essay takes a position and explains the reasons why the writer is taking that position.
2. One to two sentences.
3. Great question. The answer, really, in college essays is, “no.” Your readers will be impressed with the structure and depth of the claims used to support your argument. Surprise is not at all something that you are going for in a college essay.
Some suggested REVISIONS IN ALL CAPS:
A GOOD THESIS STATEMENT FOR A COLLEGE ESSAY CONSISTS OF One to two sentences that express what your paper is about and explain what you will be discussing, analyzing, or arguing, in your paper. It offers your readers an overview of the paper, and often gives a sense of what and how the argument that you are presenting will discussed (IS THIS A QUOTE????). It is important to have a draft,working thesis statement early on in the writing process, as well as to revise it during every stage of the writing process in order to better reflect the structure and content of your paper (IS THIS A QUOTE????).
1. Is it possible for a thesis to be too long?
2. How can we effectively address the main points of an essay in a thesis?
3. Is it possible to write a good college essay without including a thesis?
B. To create an effective thesis statement, one should start by considering their audience and purpose. After doing this, writing a thesis should become an easier task. Next, the writer should consider creating an outline for their essay/paper. By doing this, determining the main points of the essay should become easier, which in turn allows the writer to narrow down points for the thesis. A proper and strong thesis statement is specific and either answers a question or challenges/agrees with something. Therefore, by doing something as simple as creating an outline, a writer can create a good thesis statement.
1. Yes.
2. By revising the thesis statement several times.
3. It depends on the genre of the essay. However, in general, I would say no because every essay has one or more central points and these are reflected in the thesis statement.
I really like your advice regarding how to write thesis statements.
1. What is better, a thesis statement near the end like other countries, or the beginning?
2. How can thesis statements be more accurate and interesting?
3. When a thesis statement changes, does most of your essay do as well?
Thesis statements are good depending on how well they capture the subject spoken about. The subjects should not be incredibly vast since in example, an essay about religion may be harder to pin down in a thesis statement than writing about religion and culture. Just like e=mc^2, your thesis statement simplifies incredibly what your talking about to let the reader know, don’t make it too complicated. Thesis statements should also be quite interesting, they’re not about facts, but in a way a start to an interesting topic which can have many sides to it.
1. Unless you are writing the essay in a different country, you should probably adhere to the rules for U.S. college writing: the thesis statement is at the beginning of the essay.
2. Great question. The simple answer is: through revision. You want to revise your thesis statement three or four times before finalizing it.
3. Another great question. Your thesis and the structure of your essay are related, so they always have to be in sync. However, revising your thesis statement does not necessarily mean you have to re-write the whole essay. You simply need to make some changes to your topic sentences and possibly to the order of your paragraphs. You may also have to write a new paragraph and delete one.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ARE IN ALL CAPS:
Thesis statements are good depending on how well they capture the subject spoken about (OF THE ESSAY?). The subjects should not be incredibly vast since in (FOR) example, an essay about religion may be harder to pin down in a thesis statement than writing about religion and culture. Just like e=mc^2, your thesis statement simplifies incredibly (WW) what your (YOU ARE) talking about to let the reader know, don’t make it too complicated (THIS CLAUSE IS NOT WORKING HERE; PERHAPS IT SHOULD BE A SEPARATE SENTENCE?). Thesis statements should also be quite interesting, (WHY COMMA?) they’re not about facts, but in a way a start to an interesting topic which can have many sides to it. (PLEASE RE-WRITE THE SECOND HALF OF THIS SENTENCE TO CLARIFY THE POINT YOU ARE MAKING)
1. Is it always good to have a long thesis statement?
2. Is the thesis statement a must if your intro covers all of the topics?
3. Where is the best place to put the thesis statement?
Thesis statements are a very helpful tool in writing, both for the writer and the reader. Thesis statements are good because they explain and organize the order of topics on which the essay will focus. Without a thesis statement it would be harder for the reader to understand what the rest of the essay will cover, and for the writer it is a great tool to provide an organization of topics to follow. Because of the fact that thesis statements are a necessary thing needed in an essay, writing a good thesis statement is definitely something to focus on when starting a paper. Simple, effective, interesting, and helpful.
Daytona,
What a great paragraph!!! It is really informative, well developed, and well organized. My only suggestion for it relates to the last sentence. What are these words referring to?
In response to your questions:
1/ The length of your thesis statement will vary depending on the specific writing project and how much time you have to revise and re-work your thesis statement. Thesis statements tend to become shorter and more condensed as you spend more time working on them and thinking about them. If the main point of your essay cannot fit into one to two sentences, your thesis is probably too long.
2/This is a fascinating question. And, the answer is, once again, it depends on the genre in which you are writing. For exam essays, the answer is, “no!” For personal essays, the answer is, “of course!” I’d suggest that you continue thinking about this question as you read more and more essays and make a note of when a writer uses the introduction as an extended thesis statement and whether, in those cases, the writer also has a more concise statement of his/her thesis.
3/In college essays? You undoubtedly know the answer to that question. Therefore, could you expand your question a bit to help me understand why you are asking this question?