Vocab. Journal Unit

Use those words! Create 4 sentences about your graphic novel/research.

What have you learned? What are your conclusions?

Vocab. Picture Time!!

Solid Picture! Shows word’s meaning! Uses all space well! Possibly dialogue box!

How to Write a Thesis Statement

Why Should Your Essay Contain a Thesis Statement?

to better organize and develop your argument

to provide your reader with a “guide” to your argument

Try this: Think of the thesis as the answer to the question your paper explores.

Technique

Making the Question

Your first step, then, is to distill the assignment into a specific question.

For example, you want to write about Steve Martin

You want to write about social stigmas and family dynamics

You choose the play “WASP” Now, you turn it into TWO questions:

▪ HOW▪ WHY

Creating a thesis

Q: How does Martin explore social stigmas and family dynamics?

A: By satirizing typical family values

Q: Why does Martin explore these things?

A: In order to expose the hypocrisy of America in the 1950’s

The answer to the questions is the thesis statement for the essay.

THESIS!

Steve Martin satirizes typical family values in order to expose the hypocrisy of America in the 1950’s.

Creating Your Thesis

Now, your job is to figure out what you believe: which format was more “effective”

Your next job is to figure out what ASPECT of “effective” you are going to highlight.

A good thesis statement will usually include the following FOUR truths:

It takes on a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree

It expresses one main idea It asserts the author’s (your)

conclusions about a subject It is BOLD, and never wishy-washy

A strong thesis statement takes some sort of stand.

WEAK THESIS: Steve Martin writes about families in a negative way in his play WASP.

This is a weak thesis statement. First, it fails to take a stand. Second, the phrase negative is too vague. Third, it does not answer the WHY question.

A strong thesis statement takes some sort of stand.

Steve Martin satirizes typical family values in order to expose the hypocrisy of America in the 1950’s.

This is a strong thesis because it takes a stand, and because it is specific. It answers both

HOW: Martin satirizes typical family values WHY: to expose the hypocrisy of America in the 1950’s.

Writing the ThesisYou basically have two choices:

Begin with How: “Steve Martin satirizes….

Begin with Why:“In order to explore the

hypocrisy….”

Another Example

Novel: A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)

Topic/Idea: Human Flaws = Greed and redemption

How does Dickens show that humans are flawed?

How = Through the use of the supernatural

Why does Dickens show that humans are flawed?

Why = To show that mankind is corrupt, but can repent and improve

Make a thesis!

Given the info on the prior slide (I’ll go back) create a functional thesis statement!

One Last Tip

Remember that when proving your thesis, you will probably spend almost all your time on the WHY question.

Ex.: You don’t really need textual examples to tell you that Dickens uses ghosts and the supernatural in his tale. You DO need examples to confirm they are used to prove the fallibility of man.

NOW

Consider your “choice” of what was better (graphic or prose)

Figure out WHY it was better. Not simply the techniques, but overall. Why was it as powerful/effective? These will be your WHY

Ex.: Through the use of eloquent voice, personal details and realistic dialogue, the various prose accounts of the Bataan Death March are much more effective than the graphic novel “The March” by Jimmy Vanns.

Controls

Through the use of eloquent voice, personal details and realistic dialogue, the various prose accounts of the Bataan Death March are much more effective than the graphic novel “The March” by Jimmy Vanns.

THREE controls above. You need AT LEAST TWO

Persepolis

Why did it work? Rudimentary drawing to highlight childish

views? Personal details of family relationships? Fearless depiction of graphic horrors? Childlike sense of awe? Empowerment? Fear? Use of darkness in backgrounds? Basic, easy to comprehend facial expressions? Framing? A combo of all these things? How can we

combine, or choose??

Basic Structure of Paper

Intro (about Historical event/period). Don’t be boring!!

Thesis in intro para. Body, body body! This is your PROOF

of the thesis. You will incorporate your findings here. Direct citations from research and novel Paraphrases from research and novel

Conclude with SYNTHESIZING PARAGRAPH (more on this later)

How to cite images

EX: Additionally, even the violence between Gen and his family is made to be humorous, such as the panels in which Daikichi Nakaoka hits his children for eating their mother’s sweet potato (Figure B).

Figure B, Vol 1, page 17

In Appendix!

After Works Cited

More to come

We will work on this paper the week we return, but you should have A THESIS Your Controls chosen All of your sources Examples from sources to PROVE THESIS

In essence, everything you need for the paper without necessarily having written it.