Tuesday, October 4: Thesis Statements

Hi all,

Here's this week's presentation: Lesson 6.

Remember, as we discussed in class, thesis statements need...

• An arguable statement
• "Because" statements--reasons for your claim
• Possibly qualifiers (like "may," "might," etc.). Something that amends those assumptions that your working thesis may/may not have been built upon.

For the purposes of a rhetorical analysis, your thesis should include:

• Author's name
• Article title (in quotes)
• Who the intended audience is
• What the author's purpose is
• BRIEF listing of rhetorical choices you are going to discuss

It seems overwhelming, but you can toy with ways to include these elements as you work on BA4.

Homework:

• Reading:
• St. Martin's: Ch. 3f-g (pgs. 54-63)
• FYW: Chs. 18 and 22
• BA4

Brief Assignment #4:

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 75- 100 words

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:

• Sam Dillon, "What Corporate America Can’t Build:  A Sentence"
• Karen Cangialosi, "Healing Through the Written Word"
• Mary Pipher, "Writing to Connect"

That's all for now! Have a good week.