1. Microtheme

2. What is a microtheme?  The MICROTHEME, a brief essay limited to one side of a 5" x 8" index card, is an ideal instrument for painlessly increasing the written content of a course. Brief, and thus easily graded, it is educationally sound, for a great deal of thinking must precede the writing.

3. 1 st Sentence  Restate the question or prompt, include a thesis statement (your opinion, feeling), and include the 3 details you will be discussing.  A thesis statement never uses a pronoun. (ex. I, we,you)  This might be a long sentence – so watch your sentence structure to make sure you don’t use run-on sentences! (Think about using a semi-colon. )

4. 2 nd Sentence  Address the first point (detail) you introduced in your thesis statement.

5. 3 rd Sentence  Provide evidence from the text (cite and example) that supports your statement from the 2 nd sentence.

6. 4 th Sentence  Analysis of your example provided in the 3rd sentence.  Explain how or why your example answers the prompt.

7. 5 th Sentence  Address the second point (detail) you introduced in your thesis statement.

8. 6 th Sentence  Provide evidence from the text (cite and example) that supports your statement from the 5th sentence.

9. 7 th Sentence  Analysis of your example provided in the 6th sentence.  Explain how or why your example answers the prompt

10. 8 th Sentence  Address the third point (detail) you introduced in your thesis statement.

11. 9 th Sentence  Provide evidence from the text (cite and example) that supports your statement from the 8th sentence.

12. 10 th Sentence  Analysis of your example provided in the 9th sentence.  Explain how or why your example answers the prompt.

13. 11 th Sentence  This is your conclusion sentence that restates the thesis and wraps up the piece with a nice bow!  Your entire microtheme will be 11 - 12 sentences total! Hooray! Hooray!