Writing

“Some are born writers. Some achieve writing. Some have writing thrust upon them.” Shakespeare  The conscious to the unconscious mind.  Plato’s chariot.  intervals  Ascend to the abstract.

know your audience!  Readers like to be taught and entertained.  know their location.  indication of beginning, middle, and end.

The most important sentence in writing is the thesis statement.

Before I tell you what a thesis is, let me tell you what it is not  It is not a topic or title.  It is not a statement or purpose.  It is not about the content or opinion.  It is not a simple statement of fact.  It is not a question.

The following are not thesis statements  Repairing a broken friendship  How to repair a broken friendship  This essay will show how a broken friendship can be repaired.  This essay is about repairing a broken friendship.  It seems to me that no true friendship can be broken beyond repair.  Centuries ago friendship was taken much more seriously than it is today.  Is it possible to repair a broken friendship.  You get the point!

A thesis statement is an ASSERTION!  Repairing a broken friendship is not as easy as it may seem.  Repairing a broken friendship requires humility, courage, and resourcefulness.  Repairing a broken friendship is a moral obligation

“The art of writing has for a backbone some fierce attachment to an idea.” Virginia Woolf

The thesis = three things

It is declarative!  An assertion, not the expression of an opinion or a speculation.

It is Controversial!  A statement that must be proved.  A statement worth the time of the reader.

It is Verifiable!  It must be proved and it must be able to be proved.

Evaluation: SCOPE & SEQUENCE

Too Broad?  shelf full of books  = too broad.  A good topic addresses a specific question or problem.  summed up in a word or two, like smoking, school cheating, education, overweight teens, corporeal punishment, Korean War, or hip hop  = too broad.

 Tell me what you are going to tell me  Attention Getter  Thesis at end of intro paragraph  Transition  Actually tell me!!  Transition  Thesis restated at beginning of concluding paragraph  Retell me what you just told me!!!!

Cont. Thesis?

 apply the old who, what, where, when, why, and how?  Paddling.  Paddling in grade school. (where)  Emotional effects of paddling in grade school. (what and where)  Emotional effects of paddling on female children (what, who)

 Hip hop.  Hip hop as therapy. (what)  Hip hop as therapy in Japan. (what and where)  Hip hop as therapy for delinquent youth in Japan. (what, where, who)

re-visit and re-write your thesis, often  flexible,  not unusual to revise  Often research fits just outside the boundary of your thesis  See if your thesis fulfills the following roles: –Clear and specific DECLARATION –Inherently CONTROVERSIAL –provides structure. –supported by the body paragraphs. –Objectively VERIFIABLE

 You are a member of a jury, listening to a lawyer’s opening argument.  guilty or not guilty?  Why and how = the plan  Readers are like jury members:  After reading your thesis statement, the reader should think,  "This essay is going to try to convince me of something. I'm not convinced yet, but I'm interested to see how I might be."  It’s a bet, a contract between writer and reader.

Thesis? YES OR NO?  "Reasons for the fall of communism".  "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe"  "The fall of communism is the best thing that ever happened in Europe".

GENERALIZATIONS  never be vague, combative or confrontational.  "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because communism is evil." evil from whose perspective?  what does evil mean?

definable & arguable  "While cultural forces contributed to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of economies played the key role in driving its decline"

clear and specific  For example, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because of the ruling elite's inability to address the economic concerns of the people" versus  "Communism collapsed due to societal discontent."

A new height  Anticipate the counter-arguments.. (Every argument has a counter-argument. If yours doesn't, then it's not an argument—  it may be a fact, or an opinion, but it is not an argument.)

 Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election because he failed to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention.  on its way.  too easy for strong counter- arguments.  For example, one might believe that Dukakis lost because he suffered from a "soft-on-crime" image.  anticipate the counter-argument,

 While Dukakis' "soft-on-crime" image hurt his chances in the 1988 election, his failure to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention bore a greater responsibility for his defeat.