1. Week 6: Thesis Statements

2. Free Writing Exercise
Spend the next five minutes and respond to the best of your ability: What exactly is a thesis statement? And, perhaps more importantly, what is it supposed to do?

3. A thesis statement is… very simply the main point of your essay/paper.
A good thesis is the essay's "center of gravity.” –Peter Elbow

4. What is a Thesis Statement?
Thesis is a Greek word meaning “setting down”
and, as used today, the job of the thesis statement
is to focus and announce (to “set down”) the argument.
Consider the thesis statement a roadmap for the reader as well as the writer.
The basic thesis statement gives order and direction.
Consider these two examples and decide which one is stronger:
Texas Tech University is a great college.
Texas Tech University is a great college because of its student support system, myriad course offerings, and collegial atmosphere.

5. Various Ways to Look at the Thesis

6. Breakdown of Example in FYC Textbook
Clearly establish the essay title and author.
In, “Winning Hearts and Minds in War on Plagiarism,” Scott Jaschik effectively argues that professors should be more open-minded towards plagiarism through illustrations, formal diction, and an appeal to expert testimony.
effectively argues
Very brief summary of the content of the essay.
Now, and we follow the Power of Three Rule, three rhetorical choices that Jaschik employs to effectively argue his point.

7. Breakdown of Example in FYC Textbook
Sven Birkerts’s uses juxtaposition and formal language in his essay, “Into the Electronic Millenium,” to effectively persuade other literary scholars to resist technology’s negative effects in order to preserve the future of literature.

8. Breakdown of Example in FYC Textbook
Scott Jaschik uses shared values, illustrations, and gives multiple perspectives in his article, “Winning Hearts and Minds in War on Plagiarism,” to show his audience new and specific approaches professors have taken to inform students on the issue of plagiarism, so the readers will use these approaches in their own teaching environments.

9. Breakdown of Example in FYC Textbook
Stephen Budiansky’s, “Lost in Translation,” effectively uses anecdotes and humorous diction in order to argue that humans and technology working together is more efficient than solely using machine translations.

10. Breakdown of Example in FYC Textbook
Stephen Budiansky uses humorous diction, illustrations, and formal language in his article, “Lost in Translation,” to inform his audience of the limitations online translators face, and continue to face.

11. Breakdown of Example in FYC Textbook
In, “Everyone Speaks Text Message,” Tina Rosenberg effectively raises awareness to her audience about how technology is helping indigenous languages from going extinct through her use of statistics and illustrations.

12. Breakdown of Example in FYC Textbook
In “Everyone Speaks Text Message,” Tina Rosenberg uses illustrations, repetition, and gains credibility through sourcing in order to inform her readers of the dependency and opportunities technology has given indigenous cultures, in order to keep languages alive.

13. Steps are required:
last, make sure to reread for content, clarity, and control.
then, make sure you properly respond to the prompt,
then, make sure your thesis is not overly broad or narrow,
First, make sure you don’t simply write a statement,

14. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

15. Three Possible Examples, Three Possible Arrangements
In “The Gettysburg Address,” Abraham Lincoln effectively empowers his audience through allusion and powerful diction.
Abraham Lincoln, in his historic “Gettysburg Address” effectively unites a nation through his allusion and powerful diction.
Through allusion and powerful diction, Abraham Lincoln elegantly and effectively unites and empowers his audience in his famous “Gettysburg Address.”

16. Working Thesis Statements
Form small groups of 3-4 people.
Team up with classmates writing on the same essay: Steele, Dewey, or Emerson.
Write at least one working thesis statement each based on today’s short power point.
Be prepared to come to the board and share with the class.

17. Homework: BA4
Objective: To develop new strategies for writing a thesis statement.
Purpose: One key to writing a successful essay is to develop a focused thesis statement. This assignment will enable you to do so.
Description: For your draft 1.1, you will write a rhetorical analysis. See the description of Draft 1.1 for a discussion of what a rhetorical analysis is and what you will be expected to do.
In this assignment, you will continue your preparation for writing your rhetorical analysis by writing thesis statements suitable for it. Using three texts specified by your classroom instructor, or the three texts listed below, you will 1) identify the audience and purpose of each text and explain what those are in about words, and 2) create a thesis statement for a rhetorical analysis of each text.
Remember that to successfully create your thesis statements, you will need to read these texts carefully (and, usually, several times) so that you thoroughly understand the audience, purpose, and content of the texts.
Texts for your thesis statements (use only if none are specified by your instructor):
“The New Sovereignty,” Shelby Steele 450
“My Pedagogic Creed,” John Dewey 460
“The American Scholar,” Ralph Waldo Emerson 468