Week 2.2

1. Week 2.2 Thesis Statements, MLA format, and Brief Assignment Two

2. Lesson Objectives Together, we will: • Discuss thesis and topic sentences. • Explore MLA works cited and in-text citations. • Workshop BA 2.

3. Thesis Statement: Topic and Comment “While past research has speculated that word grouping affects children’s reading, current research indicates that line spacing, word size, and typeface (font) are more effective in improving children’s reading” (Yarbrough 609). Topic: “Current research [on children’s reading] indicates…” • What will be discussed? Comment: “… line spacing, word size, and typeface (font) are more effective in improving children’s reading [than word grouping].” • How will the topic be discussed?

4. Effectiveness of a Thesis Statement “A successful working thesis has three characteristics: • It is potentially interesting to the intended audience. • It is as specific as possible. • It limits the topic enough to make it manageable” (St. Martin’s Handbook, 3c). A fourth consideration: • It correlates, and gives structure, to the paper’s topic sentences.

5. MLA Works Cited • Why? Provides bibliographic information for readers and fellow researchers. Also, it is a system for fact checking. • Basic information: Author’s name, title of “text,” publication site, publisher, date, and medium. Crane, Stephen. Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, and Other New York Writings. New York: Modern Library, 2001. Print. • HOWEVER, basic information varies, depending on multiple factors.

6. MLA In-Text Citation • Why? It works in conjunction with the works cited. • What’s needed? (Author(s) last name Page Number) One scholar notes that “like others aligned with environmental justice organizing, Castillo maps analysis of the effects of environmental racism onto gendered human bodies” because environmental racism historically affects women of color more than men (Platt 69). Platt, Kamala. “Ecocritical Chicana Literature: Ana Castillo’s ‘Virtual Realism.’” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment 3.1 (Summer, 1996): 67-96. MLA-IB. Web. 4 March 2014.

7. MLA In-Text Citation “Here I have to hold my line. […] Screen and book may exhibit the same string of words, but the assumptions that underlie their significance are entirely different depending on whether we are staring at a book or a circuit-generated text.” -page 231 Birkerts, Sven. “Into the Electronic Millennium.” The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1994. Rpt. in First-Year Writing: Writing in the Disciplines. 7thed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print. How would you incorporate this quote into a paper? What is the in-text citation?

8. Brief Assignment Two Workshop Work in groups of two to four. • Evaluate each others working thesis. Based on the four considerations, how effective is the thesis statement? What could the author do to improve his/her thesis? • Compare your venn diagrams against the group. Discuss the areas of overlap (synthesis), and determine what is the common theme in each article. Also look for the differences that add nuance/qualify the synthesis.

9. Homework for Section .001 Friday, 6/13 Monday, 6/16 St. Martin’s: Ch. 10-2 Review Ch. 16 in St. Martin’s First-Year: Ch. 5, 98-113 MLA works cited for six articles • Brief Assignment Two: Synthesizing Sources

10. Homework for Section .008 Friday, 6/13 Friday, 6/13 Review Chapter 16 in St. Martin’s handbook Bring six sources for works cited workshop • Brief Assignment Two: Synthesizing Sources • Blog Comments