February 5 – Thesis and Writing Skeleton

1. February 5 – Thesis and Writing Skeleton Agenda: • Writing a Thesis • Writing Skeleton • Topic Sentences Homework: • Complete your writing skeleton Take out: • Homework • Notebook • Pen/Pencil

2. Thesis Creation • Consider the prompt. Identify which elements MUST be addressed in your thesis: • PROMPT: Analyze the satirical elements Twain uses to criticize one specific aspect of society. Create a thesis. You may use one of the formats below as a starting point: • Mark Twain criticized _________ using the satirical techniques _________, __________, and ___________. • In _________, __________, and __________, Mark Twain used satire to criticize __________. • Mark Twain used satirical techniques to repeatedly criticize __________.

3. Writing Skeleton

4. Writing Skeleton • A writing skeleton is a VERY basic outline built from your working thesis • It should help you plan your essay, and make you think about how the parts are going to work together • It is broken into three levels • Level 1 – Topics • Level 2 – Details • Level 3 – Information • You will be starting your writing skeleton today in class

5. Writing Skeleton – Level 1 • The first level of the writing skeleton is made up of TOPICS • For our purpose those topics are simple: • The various works of Mark Twain • Topics are NOT complete ideas, which is why only a part of your essay will be dedicated to each topic • In order to turn each topic into a complete idea, you will need to write a TOPIC SENTENCE for each one, because ideas only become whole when they are composed in sentence form.

6. Level 1 – Turning a Topic into an Idea • In order to write a topic sentence, you need to turn each topic into an IDEA • Each IDEA needs to relate back to the THESIS • To do this simply, use the formula: THESIS + REASON = TOPIC SENTENCE To complete this formula: • Take the MAIN IDEA out of your thesis (ex: religion) • Then take each TOPIC (work by Mark Twain), and use it to create a REASON that the MAIN IDEA is true (ex: In The Mysterious Stranger, Mark Twain criticizes religion by creating a lampoon, and using ironic statements.) • Write your own topic sentences using this formula.

7. Writing Skeleton – Level 1 • As you can see, there are three spots for level one topics • Write your three topic sentences into those spaces: • I – Work #1 • II – Work #2 • III – Work #3

8. Writing Skeleton – Level 2 • The second level of the writing skeleton is made up of DETAILS • For you, these should be the specific details that relate to each topic, and that you will use to prove your topic sentences, and therefore your thesis • Select two DETAILS for each TOPIC, and write them in the spaces provided

9. Writing Skeleton – Level 3 • The third level of the writing skeleton is made up of INFORMATION about each DETAIL • As you can see, there are two level 3 spots for information under each level 2 detail • In the first spot (a) you should put the CONTEXT of the detail • This is the stuff that you need to know to understand the detail • That’s the Who, What, When, Where and Why • In the second spot (b) you should put the SATIRICAL TECHNIQUE • Explain how Twain uses a satirical technique to make his point

10. Homework • Complete the Basic Essay-Planning Skeleton… but don’t turn into one! • This PPT and the organizer will BOTH be posted on the blog – so if you need a reminder, or you want to simply fill in the organizer on your computer, you will be able to download it