EWRT 1A

CLASS 12

AGENDAReviewEssay focus

Discussion:The ThesisWriting an Outline

Writing StrategiesExtended AnecdoteExamplesIllustrations

How will you focus your

essay?

Take a look at what you have so far: do you have a concept?

A focus for your concept? Categories?

Types?

Quick Review

Concept: GamesLimiter: Playground Games

Category 1:Games with a ball

Types Kids’ games with a ball

Teenagers’ games with a ball

Adults’ games with a ball.

Category 2:Games without a ball

Types Kids’ games without a ball

Teenagers’ games without a ball

Adults’ games without a ball.

Formulating a Working Thesis Statement

Refer to our model essays to see how others handle a thesis for this kind of essay

In his essay on cannibalism, Ngo offers his thesis statement in paragraph six:

Cannibalism can be broken down into two main categories: exocannibalism, the eating of outsiders or foreigners, and endocannibalism, the eating of members of one’s own social group (Shipman 70). Within these categories are several functional types of cannibalism, three of the most common being survival cannibalism, dietary cannibalism, and religious and ritual cannibalism.

Ngo’s concept is cannibalism; his focus is on functional cannibalism.

He has two categories: Endo and Exocannibalism He has three types: Survival, dietary, and

religious/ritual cannibalism In his thesis, he carefully forecasts both how he will

divide the information to create topics and the order in which he will explain each of the topics

O.K., let’s cut out all this nonsense about romantic love. Let’s bring some scientific precision to the party. Let’s put love under a microscope. When rigorous people with Ph.D.'s after their names do that, what they see is not some silly, senseless thing. No, their probe reveals that love rests firmly on the foundations of evolution, biology and chemistry.

Toufexis’s concept is love, and her focus is the scientific explanation of love—specifically the evolution, biology, and chemistry of love. In announcing her focus, she forecasts the order in which she will present information from the three most relevant academic disciplines—anthropology (human evolution), biology, and chemistry. These discipline names become her topics.

Anastasia Toufexis begins her essay with her thesis statement:

Draft your working thesis

As you draft your own tentative thesis statement, take care to make the language clear. Although you may want to revise your thesis statement as you draft your essay, trying to state it now will give your planning and drafting more focus and direction. Keep in mind that the thesis in an explanatory essay, such as a concept essay, merely announces the subject; it never asserts a position that requires an argument to defend it.

Write one or more sentences, stating your focused concept, that could serve as a thesis statement  Forecast the topics you will use to explain the concept.

NGOCannibalism can be broken down

into two main categories: exocannibalism, the eating of outsiders or foreigners, and endocannibalism, the eating of members of one’s own social group (Shipman 70). Within these categories are several functional types of cannibalism, three of the most common being survival cannibalism, dietary cannibalism, and religious and ritual cannibalism

ToufexisO.K., let’s cut out all this

nonsense about romantic love. Let’s bring some scientific precision to the party. Let’s put love under a microscope. When rigorous people with Ph.D.'s after their names do that, what they see is not some silly, senseless thing. No, their probe reveals that love rests firmly on the foundations of evolution, biology and chemistry.

Your Thesis is a Map to Your EssayOnce you have your working thesis written, you can make a tentative outline.

IntroductionExtended Anecdote

Thesis Category 1Type 1Type 2Type 3

Category 2Type 1Type 2Type 3

Repeat if NecessaryConclusion

Writing Strategies

Classification

Extended Anecdote

Definitions

Examples

Illustrations

The Introduction:Extended Anecdote: Ngo

Fifty-five Vietnamese refugees fled to Malaysia on a small fishing boat to escape communist rule in their country following the Vietnam War. During their escape attempt, the captain was shot by the coast guard. The boat and its passengers managed to outrun the coast guard to the open sea, but they had lost the only person who knew the way to Malaysia, the captain. The men onboard tried to navigate the boat, but after a week fuel ran out, and they drifted farther out to sea. Their supply of food and water was gone; people were starving, and some of the elderly were near death.

Examples: NgoAnother case of survival cannibalism occurred in 1945, when General Douglas MacArthur’s forces cut supply lines to Japanese troops stationed in the Pacific Islands. In one incident, Japanese troops were reported to have sacrificed the Arapesh people of northeastern New Guinea for food in order to avoid death by starvation (Tuzin 63). The most famous example of survival cannibalism in American history comes from the diaries, letters, and interviews of survivors of the California-bound Donner Party, who in the winter of 1846 were snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for five months. Thirty-five of eighty-seven adults and children died, and some of them were eaten (Hart 116–117; Johnson).

The most famous example of survival cannibalism in American history comes from the diaries, letters, and interviews of survivors of the California-bound Donner Party, who in the winter of 1846 were snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for five months. Thirty-five of eighty-seven adults and children died, and some of them were eaten (Hart 116–117; Johnson).

http://www.howstuffworks.com/donner-party.htm

Illustration: ToufexisDoes this chart help readers understand what Toufexis is saying about her concept?

Illustration: Holmes

Do graphs help Holmes make his point? Will graphs help you make your point?

Do pictures support his effort to explain his concept?

Should you use pictures in your essay?

Writing Opportunity: What will you use? Write out the following:Extended Anecdote”Will you begin your essay this way?

Examples? Which?How many?

Illustrations?Your own?Someone else’s?

Homework

Post #14: Make an outline for your concept essay. Include a preliminary idea for what kind of anecdote you

might include in your introduction.Include your thesisName at least two categoriesInclude at least two or three types you may be able to

discuss under each categoryUse the format on slide ten if you need

help