Daily Warm-Up (Pt. 1):

1. Take out your action plans, and with your podmates share: what you plan to do, who you plan to target, and why you chose this strategy.�
2. When you finish chatting, review Monday’s slides about building a “working” thesis statement. With action plan in hand, now build your thesis for P3 (you can use my thesis as a template or break the mold!).�
3. Once your fairly satisfied with your “working” thesis, share it on this doc.

Building Your Thesis:

Remember, P3 differs in that it’s an argumentative essay. I call it a “soft argument”... you implicitly make an argument in identifying a problem/space for improvement, and then you will make a more explicit argument about how one might address this issue.

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So when you form your thesis statement, it must set out to make a claim that could be pushed back against. This means, your thesis cannot simply be obvious, or irrefutable.

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Your thesis statement must always be clear, well-written and specific. Contrary to popular belief, you want your thesis statement to lay out the specific of what you will argue, instead of remaining vague.

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This means three things:

1. I should know exactly what you plan to argue.
2. Strong thesis statements are often more than one sentence… 2-4 sentences.
3. You will likely have to adjust your thesis statement as your write your paper and find new ideas to incorporate.

Building Your Thesis:

• Think of your thesis as an argumentative equation including all your essay’s major topics. (This means, as your paper grows/changes, your thesis should too!)

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• Topic of Body 1 + Topic of Body 2 + Topic of Body 3 + etc. – redundancy = THESIS

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• So whatever you have for your “working thesis” is a great North Star in guiding you, but will 99.9% likely not be in its final form.

Developing a “Working Thesis”:

For P2 I decided to look at the community of prisoners in the US… I built the ecosystem portrait, and now I have identified problems and want to propose a solution: developing a course to educate people. These are the subtopics I have identified:

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• What is prison abolition? A history in the US…
• Factors that led to an explosion of prison populations in the US:
• War on drugs
• Private prisons – economic factors
• “Tough on crime” politicians
• Fear of criminals – media portrayals
• Do prisons actually rehabilitate “criminals?”
• Racism and classism in the justice system and prisons
• Mental health issues in the justice system and prisons
• Alternatives to the current model of prisons in the US

Developing “Working Thesis”:

A course on prison abolition is important because it will teach students to explore an institution which often goes unchallenged. This course is crucial to helping people question the systems around them and develop a critical eye for things which are often taken for granted.

Expanded “Working Thesis”:

Using this list of units, I want to grow a clear, multi-sentence, straight- forward response to the prompt… my expanded working thesis:

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A course on prison abolition is important because it will teach students to explore an institution which often goes unquestioned. By looking at the development of prisons in the US, we will also examine historical trends, politics, economics, racism, and mental health issues in America. This course will ask whether or not prisons are the best ways to address problems in our society—ones that usually begin long before anyone commits a crime. It will examine the effectiveness of prisons, and seek to discover who they really benefit. It will also examine alternatives to the current prison system. This course is crucial to helping students question the systems around them and develop a critical eye for things which are often taken for granted.

Developing “Working Thesis”:

A course on patriarchy's invisibility is essential because it will analyze a continually denied and ignored concept deep in our society's roots. This course will be crucial in urging students to question if the feminist movement plays a critical role in reducing gender gaps, and how we can better acknowledge and address issues of patriarchy.

Expanded “Working Thesis”:

A course on patriarchy's invisibility is essential because it will analyze a continually denied and ignored concept deep in our society's roots. We will examine how patriarchy has been normalized by mass media and rendered as resolved over the years. We’ll also investigate how this hegemonic force is tied to capitalism, racism, homophobia, and the pressures of motherhood. This course will be crucial in urging students to consider the role the feminist movement plays in reducing gender gaps, and how we can better acknowledge and directly address issues of patriarchy.

Developing my “Working Thesis”:

A few things to take note of:

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1. My working thesis is six sentences long! The days of the magical one sentence super-thesis are gone. Good riddance!
2. My working thesis is straightforward and direct; it clearly identifies issues.
3. AND it includes a few sentences of BECAUSE (they are in blue).
4. Make sure your working thesis has a “because...” We need to not know why you believe this is the correct action to take… Why would this action work better than others?
5. It’s CLEAR! There isn’t too much fancy language... It’s saying what I mean to say, in a way that’s easy for the audience to understand.
6. It responds directly to the prompt.
7. IT’S FLEXIBLE! It’s a “working thesis” because IT WILL CHANGE as my paper develops/ changes. This is just an idea to start with. There’s a problem if it doesn’t change.

Parts of a Body Paragraph:

Topic Sentence(s) – I actually prefer to call these “assertions.” Here you lay out what the paragraph will argue.

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Context – Here you provide background to the topic or text the audience needs to know before getting hit with the evidence. Think of this like “setting the scene.”

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Evidence – Quotes and/or paraphrases, properly cited.

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Analysis – This is where writers really earn their keep. You should not say “This shows…” or just rephrase the quote, but rather, use the evidence to birth new ideas that you explain.

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More Evidence, More Analysis – Rinse and repeat. Sophisticated body paragraphs use multiple quotes, not just one. Put texts in conversation with one another.

Some Writing Strategies:

After developing a few paragraphs:

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1. Once paragraphs start emerging around quotes, make a list of each paragraph’s specific goal/topic. If you can’t do this in a short sentence your paragraph might be taking on too much.�
2. Decide what order of information will make the most sense to your reader—remember, you want to start with more straight-forward, informative paragraphs so the audience understands your topic, and move towards more complicated/layered topics as your paper goes.�
3. You have to TEACH your UNINFORMED AUDIENCE how to read your paper/topic, so pretend you are writing these arguments out to a sibling, friend, or cousin. In what ways does it most make sense to arrange the breadcrumbs so your audience can easily and clearly follow along?

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Some Writing Strategies:

When you do get to ordering…�

Name the topic of each body�paragraph that develops. Order�the paragraphs from the most�straight-forward (context/info-�building) to the most complex�(issue, idea, and argument�juggling). You teach your audience�as your paper goes, so it needs�to lay out a logical trail of�breadcrumbs.

Some Writing Strategies:

�Intro - introduction to what climate change �is and where we’re at today + THESIS

B1 - conditions of climate change

B2 - conditions of climate change pt. 2

B3 - climate change and classism & racism

B4 - corporate responsibility

B5 - gov’t responsibility/lack of intervention

B6 - blame on personal habits

B7 - groups that are fighting climate change

Conclusion - the action in the community - �what we can actually do

Some Student Samples:

Questions about how to develop your argumentative paper? Check out these former A-level student samples (on blog also):�

• On “Affirmative Action and Asian Community”�
• On “Self-Defense”�
• On “Revitalizing Home Economics”

Layli Long Soldier:

• Native American (Lakota Oglala Lake) writer and scholar

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• Her first book, Whereas (2017), is in response to a ‘quietly passed’ 2009 Congressional Apology to Native American People

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• Continues to advocate for Native American recognition, reparations, and liberation

Colonization Vs. Settler Colonialism:

• The physical occupying or taking-over-of an already occupied land by an outside force. Generally, the colonizer seeks to extract resources and people (human labor) in colonialism (think Western Europe carving up Africa), and seeks to take the land in settler-colonialism (think European colonizers taking over the Americas).�
• We are now said to be in a “neo (new) colonial era,” where the occupation is not always physical (through military force), but is carried out by economic force (sanctions, global debt, etc.), military ‘presence’ (policing or sporadic bombings), or cultural hegemony (ideology/belief).

Daily Warm-Up:

1. What are your feelings/gut reactions to the piece?�
2. What is the “genre” of Long Soldier’s piece… beyond just fiction or nonfiction, what kind of text is this? WHY do you think Long Soldier chose this genre to write about these incidents? Who is her intended audience?�
3. What is one effective �compositional choice/craft �move that Long Soldier composes�(form, spacing, fig. lang., �symbolism, imagery, sensory �detail, etc.)? WHY did you find �this effective–what struck you?

Final Presentation Schedule:

Final Presentation Requirements:

Each person will do a 2-3 minute presentation with a 3-4 slide powerpoint/google slides covering:

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1. Quick topic overview
2. Main issue they identified and why (with one piece of research)
3. Their proposed solution to this issue
4. Their product proposal (finalized of in draft form)
5. Questions for further consideration/exploration

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*** more details to come soon! ***

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Homework:

1. Final annotated bibliography due Monday (no class next week)�
1. All 4 sources – proper MLA Annotated Bib found on Purdue Owl
• Proper MLA Citation
• Brief paragraph on the source itself
• Brief paragraph on the content of the

source (summary)

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• P3 - Draft 1 due 12/2 in class
• 4-5 double-spaced pages
• Working thesis, 3 body paragraphs, and use �of at least 2 sources

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• Sign up for an optional 10-minute zoom �conference on Monday, HERE

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