Responding to Sources They Say, I Say Chapters 4 and 5

Thesis Statement Review A thesis is the claim about your topic/issue that you are making in the introduction of your essay and supporting in the body of your essay. Every paragraph in your essay should work together with all of the other paragraphs to support/explain your thesis. This means that your thesis is one of the most important sentences in your essay.

Finding a Thesis for Essay 1 What do you think about what have you learned about the issue you set out to explore? You might consider questions like… What have you discovered about yourself and how culture or subculture you chose for your topic affects your identity? Why do you have the relationship with your culture/sub culture that you do? What are the consequences of having the relationship with your culture/subculture that you do? If you are entering into a conversation that is already going on about your culture/subculture and identity, are there voices you agree with? Voices you disagree with? Sometimes, authors find their thesis by articulating responses to common debates going on in their communities.

A strong thesis will… Make a claim that invites further discussion. – A thesis should not be a statement of indisputable fact. – If your thesis puts forwards reasons for or consequences of an indisputable fact, that is acceptable. You claim is not that the fact itself is true. Instead, your claim is about some aspect of the “hows and whys” surrounding that fact. Be clear and explicit. – Do not make your reader guess what you are trying to prove. State what you will prove clearly and specifically in your thesis. Be found near the end of your introduction paragraph. – In US academic writing, you are expected to place your thesis near the end of your introduction. Some of the writers we read may place their thesis statements differently, but remember that they are writing for different audiences in different situations. Your situation requires you to place your thesis in the introduction.

Thesis FAQ Do I have to know what my thesis is before I start writing a draft? – Answer: Do you have to? No. Should you? That’s up to you as a writer. – Knowing your thesis mean you understand exactly what you’re trying to prove, and this will give you direction as you write your rough draft. – Some students start writing to discover a thesis in the process of drafting. This is perfectly ok, but be prepared to get rid of sections/paragraphs that don’t fit the thesis you decide on.

Thesis FAQ Can my thesis be a question? – Answer: Absolutely not. A thesis is a thesis statement. It is a claim that reflects your informed point of view about the issue. That means that a thesis might be the answer to a question you ask in your introduction, but it is not a question itself. My thesis seems very long. Is that ok? – Because thesis statements are trying to shrink down the argument of an essay into one sentence, they tend to get long. If you think your thesis is too long, ask me or your peers for a second opinion. – Thesis statements often contain the skeleton of an outline for your essay. This type of thesis briefly lists the major points that will be discussed more fully in the essay.

Rewritten Thesis Example: If I were to re-write “I Am Not a Mascot” as a academic essay, the thesis might look something like this: The use of Native American names and imagery in sports is problematic and deserving of scrutiny for two reasons: first, the use of “Indian” mascots encourages harmful racial stereotypes and promotes a oversimplified version of history; second, the way in which Native Americans are being portrayed to vast segments of the population are made by sports teams, not Native people themselves. There will probably be at least two or three paragraphs supporting and explaining the blue section, and at least two or three paragraphs supporting and explaining the green section.

Do I have to write my thesis today? No. If you are still researching and deciding what claim you want to make about the connection between your identity and your culture/subculture, you aren’t ready to write your thesis. After you do the in-class activity, keep researching/reading/brainstorming/drafting so that you can get ready.

They Say / I Say: Responding to Sources As you write essay #1, you should ask yourself if you are agreeing, disagreeing, or doing a little of both as you read what you have found. As you interact with the ideas of others in your texts, there are two things you need to remember: – Place yourself clearly in respect to other arguments by either agreeing, disagreeing, or doing a mixture of both. – It is not enough just to say that you agree/disagree. What else do you need to do? The answer is to explain why and make your agreement or disagreement unique to you.

Distinguishing What You Say from What They Say The authors of They Say, I Say call the phrases that help distinguish the ideas of your sources from your own ideas “voice markers.” Using these markers will help your reader to know when you are referring to ideas that you do not necessarily agree with.

Example Disagreement In the article “Why the Odds are Still Stacked against women in Hollywood,” the author interviews several women who believe that women are partially to blame for the gender imbalance in Hollywood, citing women’s tendency not to self-promote and to seek approval in a way that hurts their careers (Masters). However, by focusing on what women are doing wrong, the article overlooks the deeper problem of a business that seems to deny equal opportunity to women no matter what they do. If a woman acts boldly, “like a man,” in order to be successful, she risks getting a reputation as bossy and hard to work with, thereby missing out on opportunities. But to hear the women Masters interviews tell it, if a woman acts feminine and accommodating, she loses big opportunities to those who are willing to be more pushy. No woman should be forced to make this choice with no right answer, especially in an industry that profits so much from female consumers. Introduces article, summarizes point to be discussed, gives credit to author using in-text citation. Template from page 60 of TSIS. Voice marker, identifying that these aren’t my ideas. Further explanation of why I disagree.

Practice With Disagreeing Option 1 – If one of the sources you will cite in your Essay #1 about diversity says something that you disagree with, and you have that source available to you tonight, use one of the templates from p. 60 of They Say, I Say to make a quote sandwich and explain your disagreement. (A bit of advice: start your quote sandwich with a bit of lead-up/context for the argument.) Option 2 – If you do not have any of your sources from your essay with you, find a quote or an idea that you disagree with from any of the essays we have read so far in the class and make your quote sandwich about the idea you choose. You should still use a template from They Say, I Say p. 60

Example Agreement Deryl Hannah argues that representations of gay and lesbian people of color are important because to portray the LBGT community and its allies as entirely white would “inaccurately promote a world in which it would appear that LGBT people of color do not exist, or that acceptance of LGBT people is exclusive to white populations” (Hannah). I agree with Hannah that inaccurate portrayals of the diversity within the gay and lesbian community are troubling, a point that needs emphasizing because many people still believe that minority communities are backward and intolerant when it comes to their own LBGT members. To portray white communities as “enlightened” and accepting and minority communities as oblivious at best and bigoted at worst perpetuates old, ugly racial stereotypes. Introduces article, quotes point to be discussed, gives credit to author using in-text citation. Template from page 64 of TSIS. Further explanation of why I agree, adding something to the conversation.

Practice With Agreeing Option 1 – If one of the sources you will cite in your Essay #1 about diversity says something that you agree with, and you have that source available to you tonight, use one of the templates from p. 62 or 64 of They Say, I Say to make a quote sandwich and explain your disagreement. (A bit of advice: start your quote sandwich with a bit of lead-up/context for the argument.) Option 2 – If you do not have any of your sources from your essay with you tonight, find a quote or an idea that you agree with from any of the essays we have read so far in the class and make your quote sandwich about the idea you choose. You should still use a template from They Say, I Say p. 62 or 64.

Example Agree and Disagree at Once In the article “Pop Culture: An Overview,” the author explains the difference between “high culture” and pop culture, saying, “Items of high culture often require extensive experience, training, or reflection to be appreciated” (Delaney). Delaney is right that high culture is often associated with the elite, but he seems on much more dubious ground when he claims that it is lack of “extensive” experience and training that keep the lower classes from appreciating high culture. I have seen many students encounter poems that would be considered “high culture” for the first time, and their appreciation of those works is often as deep and keenly felt as students who have the benefit of more extensive training and prior knowledge. So, it would seem that it is a lack of access and exposure that is the problem. Introduces article, quotes point to be discussed, gives credit to author using in-text citation. Template from page 65 of TSIS. Further explanation of point on which I disagree.

Practice Agreeing and Disagreeing Option 1 – If one of the sources you will cite in your Essay #1 about diversity says something that you agree with parts of, but disagree with other parts, and you have that source available to you tonight, use one of the templates from p of They Say, I Say to make a quote sandwich and explain your disagreement. (A bit of advice: start your quote sandwich with a bit of lead- up/context for the argument.) Option 2 – If you do not have any of your sources from your essay with you tonight, find a quote or an idea that you are of two minds about from any of the essays we have read so far in the class and make your quote sandwich about the idea you choose. You should still use a template from They Say, I Say p