February 5 – Thesis and Writing Skeleton Agenda: Writing a Thesis Writing Skeleton Topic Sentences Homework: Complete your writing skeleton Take out: Homework Notebook Pen/Pencil

Thesis Creation Consider the prompt. Identify which elements MUST be addressed in your thesis: PROMPT: Analyze the satirical elements Twain uses to criticize one specific aspect of society. Create a thesis. You may use one of the formats below as a starting point: Mark Twain criticized _________ using the satirical techniques _________, __________, and ___________. In _________, __________, and __________, Mark Twain used satire to criticize __________. Mark Twain used satirical techniques to repeatedly criticize __________.

Writing Skeleton

Writing Skeleton A writing skeleton is a VERY basic outline built from your working thesis It should help you plan your essay, and make you think about how the parts are going to work together It is broken into three levels Level 1 – Topics Level 2 – Details Level 3 – Information You will be starting your writing skeleton today in class

Writing Skeleton – Level 1 The first level of the writing skeleton is made up of TOPICS For our purpose those topics are simple: The various works of Mark Twain Topics are NOT complete ideas, which is why only a part of your essay will be dedicated to each topic In order to turn each topic into a complete idea, you will need to write a TOPIC SENTENCE for each one, because ideas only become whole when they are composed in sentence form.

Level 1 – Turning a Topic into an Idea In order to write a topic sentence, you need to turn each topic into an IDEA Each IDEA needs to relate back to the THESIS To do this simply, use the formula: THESIS + REASON = TOPIC SENTENCE To complete this formula: Take the MAIN IDEA out of your thesis (ex: religion) Then take each TOPIC (work by Mark Twain), and use it to create a REASON that the MAIN IDEA is true (ex: In The Mysterious Stranger, Mark Twain criticizes religion by creating a lampoon, and using ironic statements.) Write your own topic sentences using this formula.

Writing Skeleton – Level 1 As you can see, there are three spots for level one topics Write your three topic sentences into those spaces: I – Work #1 II – Work #2 III – Work #3

Writing Skeleton – Level 2 The second level of the writing skeleton is made up of DETAILS For you, these should be the specific details that relate to each topic, and that you will use to prove your topic sentences, and therefore your thesis Select two DETAILS for each TOPIC, and write them in the spaces provided

Writing Skeleton – Level 3 The third level of the writing skeleton is made up of INFORMATION about each DETAIL As you can see, there are two level 3 spots for information under each level 2 detail In the first spot (a) you should put the CONTEXT of the detail This is the stuff that you need to know to understand the detail That’s the Who, What, When, Where and Why In the second spot (b) you should put the SATIRICAL TECHNIQUE Explain how Twain uses a satirical technique to make his point

Homework Complete the Basic Essay-Planning Skeleton… but don’t turn into one! This PPT and the organizer will BOTH be posted on the blog – so if you need a reminder, or you want to simply fill in the organizer on your computer, you will be able to download it