Friday, March 20 2009

Today’s Agenda

As I was going over you papers, I saw that many of you were writing with claims, evidence and warrants, but that virtually no one had a thesis statement in their paper. So let’s fix that!

A thesis statement is the main idea of your paper. In terms of this argument, it is the main point that you are trying to make about Hertsgaard’s article. You could argue about the effectiveness of his evidence, how he uses pathos, or ethos, or logos.  You could make an argument now about the kinds of warrants he uses to combine his claims and evidence. There are a range of possibilities here, and no one is leaving today until you all have a thesis statement.

So take out a blank piece of paper and write a thesis statement on it. Don’t be afraid of being wrong! That is not the point. The point is to take a stand, which is something you appear to be reluctant to do.

Okay, let’s share our thesis statements with one another.

Now that we have taken our stand, we need to back ourselves up. I want you to open up the text and find three good pieces of evidence that support whatever it is your thesis statement is.

The next step is to know how an essay is organized.

In your first paragraph, you are going to be introducing me to Hertsgaard and his thesis.

In the next paragraph, you are going to be introducing me to YOUR thesis and talking a little bit about the evidence that you think backs up your thesis.

Over the next several paragraphs, you will introduce and examine quotes from Hertsgaard’s argument that you think are good evidence to back up your thesis.

As you work past page three, you will begin to introduce quotes and evidence from the other authors you are working with, D’ Souza and X, that also support your argument and thesis.

And the end of every paragraph, you  should have been EXPLICIT about how what you just told the reader supports your thesis.

We now have the basis for our argument. We need to find a way to build our papers around this.

Your homework this weekend is to re-write your argument so that it is a complete argument. 3-5 pages, e-mailed to me and also bring 3 printed copies to class.

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