Thesis Creation

Paper details:

There will be 3 close reading response in this class. These are not essays, but they are text-based, claim driven engagements with a text or texts. Each of these is worth 25 points with the point total for this category of your grade being 75 points. You can look at these activities and consider them a starting point for the essays in this class. The length of each of these will be ½ a page to a full page. Strive not to go beyond this. Process: Step 1 is consider the text(1-2 texts total) that you feel is the easiest for you to work with. When I say easy, I mean that you can come up with observations on the text. Also, you can always build upon the observations that are provided in the class. Step 2 is to consider the question that you want to work with for the close reading response. As we work our way through the class, I will provide you with a variety of questions, and it is also possible that through our discussions you will help to generate additional questions that we could add to the list of possible options. Step 3: With that question in mind, you want to create a list of observations that you feel best address the question and identify a citation from the reading that you would like to concentrate on. Again, you are welcomed to work with any of the citations that we discussed together as a class by building upon those discussions. This list of observations will help you to create your thesis and your topic sentences. Step 4 Thesis Creation: Let’s say that the question you are working with is how does experience shape identity? And some of the observations you came up with for the text you selected are determination, hopelessness, fatigue, frustration, and defiance. You would want to pick your top two points, meaning the points that you feel are the strongest, and this can be your thesis. This is a model for how to set this up: Life experiences can cause individuals to become hopeless and fatigued. Step 5 Topic Sentence Creation: For the topic sentence, you will want to drop down one of your points from above and make a claim about it using one of the other observations that you came up with. The topic sentence would look something like this: Hopelessness can create defiance. Notice, how I dropped down a point from the thesis, and then I made a claim about it. That is all you need to do to make your thesis. This topic sentence claim should help you to examine a specific citation from the text that you have selected. Step 6 Context Creation: After your topic sentence, you need to establish where the evidence is coming from the text. Meaning, in what part of the story is the citation coming from and what is going on during this part of the text. Here is an example of what this would look like: Towards the middle of the story Robert has a discussion with David about their future plans. This short, simple sentence provides everything we need: location, who is involved, and what is going on. Step 7: Integrate the evidence. There are two ways to integrate a citation. One way is to use a full sentence and end it in a : For the writing we do in this class, that full sentence can be viewed as your context. The other option is to provide who is speaking a verb followed by a , Robert argues, “ We need to make a choice now! “ (Smith 87). I will provide a handout on signal phrases for your reference. Notice at the end of the quote in ( ) we have the last name of the author and the page that the citation came from. Many of the things we read in this class will not have a page number printed on it, so would just provided the last name of the author in the ( ). Make sure that you provide a citation that is 3-4 lines of text, and that it offers you enough within it that you could directly comment on it. A citation of substance is what you want to work with because a citation of substance has enough key details within it to help you to dig deeper into it. Step 8: Responding to the evidence. Pick 2-3 of the key details that you have cited in the citation in this paragraph. For each of these details, provide 2-3 observations. You can use this sort of format for this. When Robert says “ “ it suggests ______________. It also reveals ______________. Therefore, it provides ______________________. Also, when he says “ “ that indicates _______________. It could also emphasize ____________________. Therefore, ______________________ What you provide in the “ “ should only be the key detail from the citation that you want co concentrate on. What you follow this up with are your observations on those key details. Think about what you associate with it, what does it suggest, what does it imply? Step 9: Transition to another citation. This citation can either be from the same text you were working with earlier in the paragraph, or you can incorporate a second text here, so you would just want to indicate the title of the text, author, and in a sentence what part of the text you are looking at. Step 10: Provide the citation using the same process as before. Step 11: Respond to the evidence using the same process as before, but this also your opportunity to dig in and identify how this second text, second citation can help you to reconsider the moment you were looking at earlier in the paragraph. This is the same process that you will use for the body paragraphs for the 2 essays that we will be writing in this class. Review of the format of the close reading responses: Thesis: A claim that directly considers a question provided in class and offers 2 key details. Topic sentence: A claim about one of the points in your thesis. Context: Where in the text, who is involved, and what is going on. Evidence: integrate properly a citation from the text. Response: Carefully consider the key details you cited in the evidence above. Transition and establish a new context: Provide the context for the next citation. Evidence: Integrate and properly provide a citation from the text. Response: Carefully consider the key details you cited in the evidence above. Final Thought: You will complete rough drafts in this class. There is no cap on how many rough drafts you can send me. I am happy to mark up as many drafts as you want to send me, and we can also conferenagnce to go over your writing as well.