The Structure of an Essay Thesis & Topic Statements

1. The Structure of an EssayThesis & Topic Statements Honors English 10

2. What is the point of writing about literature? • Figure out what the author is trying to tell us. • A message • A moral • A “truth” about the world • Always a full sentence. • The message is never about the book. • The world • People in general • A message about a topic. • When we write an essay, we try to prove what the author’s message is by using the details of the story.

3. How We Make Meaning in Literary Study • Read • Collect Details • Post-its connected to topics (the ones I give you) on each page • Determine Topic – Must be significant to the text • What is the book “about?” • I do this part for you in advance. It often requires re-reading and is one of the more difficult steps to determine the first time through the book.

4. Finding the Pattern • Return to the details to find pattern. • Details are combined and form a pattern, so we have to find some common cause, consequence, or concept that occurs repeatedly throughout the text. • It should be related to the big idea. • At this point, it’s a good idea to make a list of scenes related to the topic and try to find that common piece.

5. What does he learn in each scene?(We’re searching for the pattern)

6. Chart of Plot Points Connected to Education • So what’s the pattern? The patternshould tell us something about the topic. • Example: Arthur’s experiences help him learn that effective leaders put the needs of their people in front of their own.

7. THEME!!!!!!!!

8. From Pattern to Theme • Author’s Theme (message about a big idea) • We think about the pattern on an abstract level. What does that pattern suggest for us about leadershipor education? • The theme should be a universal idea. Something applicable to all/most human beings. • Put the topic of your theme as the subject of your sentence. It forces you to talk about that idea directly. • Education helps develop personal judgment and decision-making because it allows a person to make correct choices based on informed experience rather than impulse. • Leadership…

9. From Theme to Thesis • Again, when we write an essay, we try to prove what the author’s message is by using the details of the story. • So, the thesis statement answers this question: • How is the author using a book to show us a message, and what is that message?

10. Our “Language” for Thesis Statements • So, we need three things in a thesis: • The author’s name • The part of the book we’re discussing [X] • The theme (message) the author is telling us [Y]

11. Thesis Statements • Author uses… • X: • this is the pattern in the book we’ll be addressing • Y: • the theme/message we’ll be addressing. It’s a message about a big idea. • Generalized Structure: • [Insert author here] uses [X] to suggest/reveal/address [Y]

12. BreakdownAuthor uses [X] to suggest [Y]. • T.H. White uses • X= [the specific pattern in the story we want to address] to suggest • Y= [theme / some message about one of his big ideas]. • T.H. White uses Wart’s experiences with animal adventures in Book I to suggest education helps develop personal judgment and decision-making because it allows a person to make correct choices based on informed experience rather than impulse.

13. We can get more specific too… • T.H. White uses the slapstick fighting of Pellinore and Grummore during the Joust scene to suggest that leaders who unnecessarily engage in violence ignore the well-being of their followers because war tends to serve the whims of the leader rather than desires of the people. • …becauseleaders are often barely hurt during combat while followers’ lives are often disrupted or, worse, ended entirely. • T.H. White uses the contrast between the Geese and the Ants in Book I to suggest … [theme].

14. Thesis & Topic Sentences • Thesis statement: • States the argument of the whole essay. • Topic Sentences: • Shows how the theme is evident in a particular scene/section of the novel you’re discussing in this paragraph. • In other words, the topic sentences is based on the theme, but it uses the book to discuss the idea. • Every paragraph needs one. • First sentence of your paragraph.

15. Example Thesis • T.H. White uses Wart’s animal adventures in Book I to suggest education helps develop personal judgment and decision-making because it allows a person to make correct choices based on informed experience rather than impulse. • In each topic sentence, I have to show this: • What is the educational experience? • Pull an example from the list/pattern • How is it helping develop judgment and decision-making? • What are those judgments and decisions it can help inform?

16. Topic Sentence 1 • T.H. White uses Wart’s animal adventures in Book I to suggest education helps develop personal judgment and decision-making because it allows a person to make correct choices based on informed experience rather than impulse. • When he visits Mr. P, Wart learns how a dictatorial Mr. P causes fear and discontent among his fish in the moat, allowing Wart to avoid this type of dictatorial leadership style in the future.

17. Topic Sentence 2 • T.H. White uses Wart’s animal adventures in Book I to suggest education helps develop personal judgment and decision-making because it allows a person to make correct choices based on informed experience rather than impulse. • Through his experience with the ants, Wart learns from seeing the ants control their subjects through withholding information is counterproductive because the ants cannot grow and develop as a society when they cannot think or act for themselves.

18. Topic Sentence 3 • T.H. White uses Wart’s animal adventures in Book I to suggest education helps develop personal judgment and decision-making because it allows a person to make correct choices based on informed experience rather than impulse. • Though he does not learn the lesson immediately, Arthur’s educational experience with the geese should help him understand the absurdity of violence between people and avoid unnecessary wars or violence king.

19. Thesis and Three TS’s • T.H. White uses Wart’s animal adventures in Book I to suggest education helps develop personal judgment and decision-making because it allows a person to make correct choices based on informed experience rather than impulse. • When he visits Mr. P, Wart learns how a power hungry in Mr. P causes fear and discontent among the fish in the moat, allowing Wart to avoid this type of dictatorial leadership style in the future. • Through his experience with the ants, Wart learns from seeing the ants control their subjects through withholding information is counterproductive because the ants cannot grow and develop as a society when they cannot think or act for themselves. • Though he does not learn the lesson immediately, Arthur’s educational experience with the geese should help him understand the absurdity of violence between people and make choices to avoid violence as a king.

20. Get this into your head! • Thesis Statement • Topic Sentence • Evidence & connection • Evidence & connection • Topic Sentence • Evidence & connection • Evidence & connection

21. No Thesis Statement • … • Unfocused Topic Sentence • Unfocused Evidence & connection • Unfocused Evidence & connection • Unfocused Topic Sentence • Unfocused Evidence & connection • Unfocused Evidence & connection

22. Poor Thesis Statement • Bad thesis statement • Bad Topic Sentence • Bad Evidence & connection • Bad Evidence & connection • Bad Topic Sentence • Bad Evidence & connection • Bad Evidence & connection

23. Poor Topic Sentences • Good Thesis Statement • Bad Topic Sentence • Bad Evidence & connection • Bad Evidence & connection • Bad Topic Sentence • Bad Evidence & connection • Bad Evidence & connection

24. Happy Baby! • Good Thesis Statement • Good Topic Sentence • Solid Evidence & connection • Solid Evidence & connection • Good Topic Sentence • Solid Evidence & connection • Solid Evidence & connection