The Structure of an Essay

Thesis & Topic Statements

Honors English 10

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.

How We Make Meaning in Literary Study

1. Read

2. Collect Details Post-its connected to topics (the ones I give you) on each

page

3. 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.

Finding the Pattern

4. 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.

What does he learn in each scene?

(We’re searching for the pattern)Plot Point Cause/Consequence/Connection to Topic

Ants Scene

Mr. P Scene

Geese Scene

Robin Wood

Badger/Hedgepig

Flight/Swimming lessons

Joust Scene

Hawks in the Mews

Chart of Plot Points Connected to Education

So what’s the pattern? The pattern should tell us something about the topic.o Example: Arthur’s experiences help him learn that effective leaders put the needs of their people in front of

their own.

Plot Point Cause/Consequence/Connection to Topic

Ants Scene Wart experiences the idea that totalitarian communism restricts people right to think and help themselves/society

Mr. P Scene Wart experiences that dictators that rule through fear paralyze their people and prevent progress or growth for individuals and (again) their societies.

Geese Scene Wart experiences that societies can function without war. Disagreements are inevitable, but war is a largely human construction.

Robin Wood Robin Wood takes care of his people, and he trusts them with important tasks. As a result of that, his people trust and follow him and do ask he asks because they believe in his cause.

Badger/Hedgepig Wart experiences that threatening his people is not a productive way to gain their allegiance. They may do as he says, but they may not be doing it for the right reasons, so when he is gone, they won’t continue living by his vision for them.

Flight/Swimming lessons

Wart learns by doing in both of these scenes. It’s only through practice and attempting to do the task himself that he learns right from wrong. Experience is paramount.

Joust Scene The fighting between these two men looks absurd and silly, so Arthur experiences that nobody really wins when a fight occurs. Fighting, then, is not a productive way to solve problems or prove value.

Hawks in the Mews

Wart experiences a militaristic society and sees that the unnecessary violence and bravado creates both the unstable Cully and the irrelevant tests of courage that needlessly threaten Wart’s life.

THEME!!!!!!!!

From Pattern to Theme

5. 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 leadership or 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…

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?

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]

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]

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.

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.

…because leaders 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].

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Get this into your head!

Thesis Statement

Topic Sentence Evidence & connection

Evidence & connection

Topic Sentence Evidence & connection

Evidence & connection

No Thesis Statement

…

Unfocused Topic Sentence Unfocused Evidence & connection

Unfocused Evidence & connection

Unfocused Topic Sentence Unfocused Evidence & connection

Unfocused Evidence & connection

Poor Thesis Statement

Bad thesis statement

Bad Topic Sentence Bad Evidence & connection

Bad Evidence & connection

Bad Topic Sentence Bad Evidence & connection

Bad Evidence & connection

Poor Topic Sentences

Good Thesis Statement

Bad Topic Sentence Bad Evidence & connection

Bad Evidence & connection

Bad Topic Sentence Bad Evidence & connection

Bad Evidence & connection

Happy Baby!

Good Thesis Statement

Good Topic Sentence

Solid Evidence & connectionSolid Evidence & connection

Good Topic Sentence

Solid Evidence & connectionSolid Evidence & connection