Day Four: Thesis Statements

We will dedicate today's class to a discussion of thesis statements. Writing a clear, specific, direct thesis statement is something that takes lots of time to perfect, so we will be spending an entire class on identifying what makes a good thesis statement and practicing writing, re-writing, improving and editing thesis statements. An outline for today's class can be found below: 

Day Four: Thesis Statements

Objectives: Students will be able to...

1. Identify and explain the characteristics of an effective thesis statement
2. Understand and explain the importance of thesis statements in organizing and focusing the claim/arguments of an essay or other piece of writing
3. Improve existing thesis statements
4. Analyze examples of effective thesis statements and explain their utility and importance as "road maps" 
5. Create their own effective thesis statements

I. Warm-Up

We will begin today's class with a few warm-up questions...

• How was your weekend? 
• How are classes? 
• Does anyone have any plans for the upcoming holiday? 
• Any questions from last week?

II. Review

We will start the content portion of today's class with a review "quiz" on the material from last time. You may use your notes and/or work with a partner, but you will only have 10 minutes. 

III. Five Paragraph Essay Structure

We will quickly review the basic five paragraph essay structure. The presentation can be found here.

NOTE! This presentation represents certain foundational skills associated with EAP writing. Much of the writing you do in your fields will be a variation on these themes and not exactly represent/replicate this information. However, we cannot begin to discuss more complex forms of rhetorical structure/purposes without this common "field of experience". 

IV. Thesis Statements

The rest of our class will be dedicated to an analysis of thesis statements. This will be based off a lecture and series of activities found here.

Homework

We will not have class next Tuesday (Nov. 4th, 2014) due to a national holiday. These assignments will be due by next Monday (Nov. 3rd, 2014). I will assigned additional homework on 4/11/2014 as well. 

• Reflective essay on EAP essay structure (I will send the prompt via email)
• Reading this chapter on dissertation thesis statements by Eric Hofstee (and preparing for a short review quiz on Nov. 11th)
• Possible revisions on "Drinking & Driving" essay