Week 9 highlights

Thesis
Statements
Include: 1) A topic – What you’re writing about.
2) An angle – Your main idea about the topic.

Characteristics of
Thesis Statements
Every thesis:
•Acts as a unifying idea for
every piece of evidence in an
essay.
•Results from research in
addition to the writer’s own
viewpoints.
•Answers a specific question.

Characteristics of
Thesis Statements
All successful theses:
•Express one main idea that
controls what is said, what is
left out, and how the
evidence is organized.
•Encourage discussion.
•Are supported by relevant
evidence. Every paragraph
should contribute to proving
the thesis to be valid.

Your thesis should present a specific
viewpoint, not merely state a fact.
Example of a fact-based thesis:
There are many types of dogs.
This thesis presents a fact; the writer will
simply report data concerning various dogs.
There is no viewpoint that needs to be backed
up by supportive evidence.

Characteristics
of Thesis
Statements
For YOUR first
thesis:
•Be concise.
•Be specific.
•Be authoritative.

SHAKESPEARE
IS ONE OF THE
GREATEST
POETS OF ALL
TIME.

Shakespeare’s outstanding command of the English
language can be seen from a variety of epithets, metaphors,
and similes used in Sonnet 5.

Your thesis
statement should
be logical and
reasonable. You
need to show that
you have thought
out your argument
from all angles.

YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO PROVE
THE VALIDITY OF YOUR THESIS
STATEMENT WITH LOGICAL
EVIDENCE.

“The Future is in Good Hands”: A Pentadic
Analysis of President Barack Obama’s Farewell
Address
R. Chase Dunn
“A president’s time in office is bookended by an inaugural
speech and a farewell address, symbolically indicating the
entry and exit of a particular person, serving as examples
of these rhetorically-significant moments. The farewell
address serves several rhetorical functions and can provide
a sense of legacy to those who are leaving their post as
president. The words spoken in this final speech to the
public can have a ripple effect for the political climate that
follows.”

Being Irrelevant in a Relevant Way: Anthropology
and Public Wisdom
Thomas Hylland Eriksen
“A public anthropology which makes a difference to the human
condition does not have to be activist in character, or to advocate
certain policies, or to embed itself in some social movement, (although
these options are certainly interesting), but also present their own
dilemmas…We need to reflect seriously on what we are saying, to
whom and how we are saying it. Alas, academic anthropologists far too
rarely take this opportunity…As a result, neoliberal, xenophobic and
reductionist views and perspectives on humanity have gained currency
in the public sphere as ‘real science’…Anthropologists, who ought to be
the foremost scientific interpreters of the human condition in all its
diversity and unity, have been busy doing other things.”

Write out as many
questions as you can
that you have about
your essay topic.

Who, What, Where,
When, Why, How?

Choose two or three of your questions and
consider whether you have any answers already
in mind.

in mind.
Free write about one or more of these possible
answers. What leads you to these conclusions?

in mind.
Free write about one or more of these possible
answers. What leads you to these conclusions?
What other information would you need in
order to prove your hypothesis?

“Border Trilogy Part 3: What Remains”

“And it wasn’t until about
two weeks into this
experiment, where [they]
were out hiking one day
with a group of about nine
people” down in Southern
Arizona, that De León
decided, “Yeah, we should
document this.”

And so they covered
her with a blanket,
because Jason
noticed the birds
“circling overhead.”
Four turkey vultures.

At that point
they sat down
and waited “for
the police to
come, the
sheriff.”

“After this thing had
happened and it really just
shook [him] in a lot of
different ways,” De León
says he just couldn’t shake
the question, “Who was
this woman? How did she
end up face down in the
desert?”

Reineke runs a non-
profit “out of Tucson,
called the Colibrí Center
for Human Rights, and
they do a lot of work
with the missing and
bodies that have been
recovered.”

Versatile Parts of
Speech
The following examples show that the same word
may have more than one kind of grammatical
office (or function). It is the meaning which we
give to a word in the sentence that determines its
classification as a part of speech.
The chief classes of words thus variously used are:
1) Nouns and adjectives
2) Nouns and verbs
3) Adjectives and adverbs
4) Adjectives and pronouns
5) Adverbs and prepositions

Adjectives and
Pronouns
The same word can be used as an
adjective as well as a pronoun. Here are
three examples.
Adjective: This man looks unhappy.
Pronoun: This is the sergeant.
Adjective: That book is a dictionary.
Pronoun: That is a kangaroo.
Adjective: Each day brings its
opportunity.
Pronoun: I received a dollar from each.

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