Tackling the Thesis Statement Teaching Jack Rawlins’ The Writer’s Way to English Composition Students

What Is the Thesis? Our good friend Jack Rawlins states, “Your thesis is the statement at the heart of the essay—the topic, the core, the point, the lesson, the moral, the content in a flash, the one thing you have to say” (73) A few examples: “Getting sickeningly drunk to celebrate your twenty-first birthday makes no sense, but we keep doing it.” “Traditional ways of teaching school are boring and don’t work, but there are powerful, exciting alternatives.”

Two Kinds of Thesis Statements An “Open” Thesis Statement You provide a grand statement and nothing else. “Traditional ways of teaching school are boring and don’t work, but there are powerful, exciting alternatives.” The most we know about this statement is that the author will discuss powerful, exciting alternatives; we have the slightest idea what those alternatives will be which is why we would have to read the entire work of the author.

Two Kinds… Continued A “Closed” Thesis Statement You provide a grand statement along with a list of aspects that you plan to cover—aspects that support your overall grand statement “Traditional ways of teaching school are boring and don’t work, but collaborative learning activities, interactions with online social networks, and routine instant messenger teacher- student conferences are powerful, exciting alternatives.” With the closed thesis, we understand that the author will spend a little time talking about each aspect that is considered powerful and exciting. The author let’s us know that we will experience a more energetic, innovative way of teaching school.

Transforming the Topic to a Thesis According to Jack Rawlins, “The only slight value in topic making comes from narrowing the topic by adding detail” (72). For example, start with a topic, “Family.” Add a little detail to the topic, “Family is comprised of a unit.” Continue to build on the topic until it becomes a statement. Before you know it, you will have something similar to the following: “Although the typical family unit is comprised of mother, father, and child, most successful family units consist of single parent and child.”

As Simple as Adding a Verb Although the complexity of the thesis statement has much to do with the amount of information you’re willing to discuss, sometimes in order to reach the simple structure of the thesis you have to add a “verb” to the topic. “Family”  “Family is…”. Rawlins’ example is “Affirmative Action” (Noun/Topic)  “Affirmative Action is a cancer on American Society” (Thesis Statement)

Several Rules of Thumb: Conventional Understanding of the Thesis. Jack Rawlins takes the time to outline for us a few known, general notions about constructing or even recognizing a thesis statement: “A thesis is one complete sentence and only one . . .” “A thesis is a declarative sentence . . .” “A thesis must fit well into the following template: ‘In this essay I say, ‘_________.’ Thus the sentence ‘This essay explains how to change the oil in your car’ isn’t a thesis.” “A thesis should contain the word ‘because’—to force you to have one reason.”

Several Rules… Continued “A thesis should contain the word ‘should’—to force you to think about what you’re trying to do, not just say, with the essay. “A thesis must summarize the entire essay . . .” . . . 8. “Every essay has a thesis . . .” (73-74)

Works Cited Rawlins, Jack. The Writer’s Way. 6th ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.