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Prior to listening, please read all materials on the website about the final and listen to the first lecture explaining the assignment.

This is lecture #2.

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Review: What are we doing?

You are reflecting on everything we have learned this semester and picking one key idea that you think is important and would benefit readers beyond our classroom.

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Final Projects

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The plan is to group your final blog posts by category & create a table of contents for our collection

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In the end, we will have a co-authored class collection

Some of you may remember this from Intro to Multicultural Literature and Digital Divides

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This presentation covers

Thesis
Motive
Evidence
Analysis
Titles
Key Terms
Introductions
Conclusions
Incorporating Images

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From Harvey’s “Elements of the Academic Essay”

1. Thesis: your main insight or idea about a text or topic, and the main proposition that your essay demonstrates. It should be true but arguable (not obviously or patently true, but one alternative among several), be limited enough in scope to be argued in a short composition and with available evidence, and get to the heart of the text or topic being analyzed (not be peripheral). It should be stated early in some form and at some point recast sharply (not just be implied), and it should govern the whole essay (not disappear in places).

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Your thesis should be….

Arguable - make a claim (not just state a topic)
Specific - not vague generalizations
Important - teach the reader something

*The prompts are intended to help you craft a thesis that meets these criteria*

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Thesis *does not* have to be one sentence

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Example: which thesis statement is more arguable, specific, and important?

*obviously, this one!*

Audre Lorde is an important writer.

2. Lorde’s The Cancer Journals can help us understand the sexism of the medical-industrial complex.

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Example: which thesis statement is more arguable, specific, and important?

Lorde’s work conveys the importance of creating an intimate classroom.

...why is it important? Important to whom? What will creating this intimate classroom allow me to teach?

2. Lorde’s teaching materials [or teaching philosophy] conveys how creating an intimate classroom can help students learn about…[fill in the blank. Racism? Sexism? Inequality? Math?]

*aim for this specificity*

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Sample arguments/theses for Lorde project

Lorde’s The Cancer Journals can help us understand the sexism of the medical-industrial complex.
Lorde’s teaching material demonstrate how creating an intimate learning environment can help students learn about racism.
In a moment when gays and lesbians experienced widespread discrimination, Lorde’s “Love Poem” depicts love between women as natural, beautiful, and sacred.

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A good thesis can actually serve as an outline for your essay

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Introduction

Hook
Identify purpose/motive - you are going to learn something interesting and important by reading this post!
Thesis

Possible background paragraph on Lorde - who, what, when, where, why (this could also go in intro)
Historical context - describe discrimination against gays and lesbians in the moment the poem was written
1-2 paragraphs looking at natural imagery in “Love Poem”
1-2 paragraphs looking at images of beauty in “Love Poem”
1-2 paragraphs looking at religious/sacred imagery in “Love Poem”
Conclusion - why is it important for readers to understand Lorde’s “Love Poem” as an act of resistance against discrimination?

In a moment when gays and lesbians experienced widespread discrimination, Lorde’s “Love Poem” depicts love between women as natural, beautiful, and sacred.

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Motive or Purpose

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Motive or Purpose

Why are you writing this? What do you hope others will learn by reading your post?
Your motive should be directed to your audience.

If you have a specific audience in mind, you’re welcome to highlight that upfront. Maybe you are writing specifically for other pre-service teachers.
“In this post, I show how Audre Lorde’s philosophy of intimate teaching can be useful to pre-service teachers. More specifically, I demonstrate how [thesis].”

One excellent way to establish motive is by identifying a commonly-held idea, and then announcing how your blog post will challenge this (aka push us to think differently and in more complex ways) about this idea.

“Most often we think of memoirs as a form of life writing that celebrates an individual’s triumph over various obstacles. However, Audre Lorde’s Zami complicates our understanding of memoir by emphasizing her indebtedness to a network of women.”

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Evidence & Analysis

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Review: Evidence

3. Evidence: the data—facts, examples, or details—that you refer to, quote, or summarize to support your thesis. There needs to be enough evidence to be persuasive; it needs to be the right kind of evidence to support the thesis (with no obvious pieces of evidence overlooked); it needs to be sufficiently concrete for the reader to trust it (e.g. in textual analysis, it often helps to find one or two key or representative passages to quote and focus on); and if summarized, it needs to be summarized accurately and fairly.

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Analysis

4. Analysis: the work of breaking down, interpreting, and commenting upon the data, of saying what can be inferred from the data such that it supports a thesis... Analysis is what you do with data when you go beyond observing or summarizing it: you show how its parts contribute to a whole or how causes contribute to an effect; you draw out the significance or implication not apparent to a superficial view...

Hold the reader’s hand. Help them see what you see in the evidence. How does it support the main point of your paragraph and of your blog post as a whole?

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Key Principles

All claims must be supported by evidence.
How are you going to convince a skeptical reader -- someone who doesn’t already believe you? How are you going to provide them with sufficient evidence so that they change their minds?

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Evidence and Analysis - Example

Your reader might be someone who doesn’t realize the extent of racial inequality in contemporary society. They might think racism is in the past -- didn’t we solve that already?
Which version is more persuasive?

Racial inequality is a major problem in our society.

Racial inequality is a major problem in our society. According to a recent survey by the Census Bureau, “Black families earn just $57.30 for every $100 in income earned by white families…[and] for every $100 in white family wealth, black families hold just $5.04.” Moreover, African Americans are five times more likely to be incarcerated and five times more likely to be shot by a police officer than white people.

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What makes a good title?

“The Uses of the Erotic”

Oooh, the erotic! Like, sex? In what sense could this be useful? I want to know!

“The Urgency of Intersectionality”

I’ve heard about this thing called intersectionality, but I want to know more, especially if it’s urgent!

“Love as Political Resistance”

Love is how we feel towards another person. How could this be a form of political resistance? Resistance to what? I must know more!

Look at your bookshelf or think about articles that you’ve been prompted to click on via social media. What grabs your attention?

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Titles

“It should both interest and inform. To inform—i.e. inform a general reader who might be browsing in an essay collection or bibliography—your title should give the subject and focus of the essay. To interest, your title might include a linguistic twist, paradox, sound pattern, or striking phrase taken from one of your sources... You can combine the interesting and informing functions in a single title or split them into title and subtitle. The interesting element shouldn’t be too cute; the informing element shouldn’t go so far as to state a thesis.”

— Gordon Harvey, “The Elements of the Academic Essay”

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Title Template One

Choose 2-3 words from your essay and put them together creatively
Use a colon and then explicitly state the topic of your essay

Love, Murder, and Magic: The Irrational Passions in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Imagining the Other: Shakespeare’s The Tempest as Colonial Propaganda

For Love or Money?: Interrogating the American Dream in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun

Dreams Still Deferred: Visions of Racial Justice in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun

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Title Template Two

Choose a short, eye-catching quote from the text and use this to introduce your topic.

[Short Quote] : [Topic of Your Paper]

“Real tragedy is never resolved”: Postcolonial Conditions in Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease

“In this house, there is still God”: Intergenerational Conflict in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun

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Recent examples from ENG430

The Power of Touch

This title fulfills the “interest” requirement but does not fully “inform”

The Power of Touch in Audre Lorde’s Teaching Materials

This version both interests and informs. If I’m scrolling through our website trying to learn more about Lorde’s approach to teaching, I now know to read Kara’s post.

Audre Lorde’s Pivotal Philosophy in the Classroom

Meets the “inform” requirement, but lacks specificity
Pivotal = important. Important how? To whom?

Audre Lorde’s Intimate Approach to Teaching or �Audre Lorde’s Intimate Classrooms or Intimacy and Vulnerability in Audre Lorde’s Classrooms

These are much more specific. I’ve never thought about intimacy in the classroom before! Immediately I want to read and learn more.

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Always define your key terms!

If you’re explaining the centrality of intimacy and vulnerability to Lorde’s teaching philosophy, you should define these early on.

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Paragraph Organization

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Paragraph Organization

General Rule: Keep one idea to one paragraph.

Topic sentence: a mini-thesis for your paragraph
One-two examples that support your mini-thesis
Analyze and interpret those examples: show how they relate to your argument

Always ask yourself: what’s the point of this paragraph?

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Topic Sentences

A topic sentence is a sentence that indicates in a general way what idea or thesis the paragraph is going to deal with. An easy way to make sure your reader understands the topic of the paragraph is to put your topic sentence near the beginning of the paragraph. Regardless of whether you include an explicit topic sentence or not, you should be able to easily summarize what the paragraph is about.

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Topic Sentences

Make a claim about the new topic/idea: a mini-thesis for your paragraph (keep your paragraph on track)

As you’re writing, refer back to the topic sentence of your paragraph.
If your topic sentence makes the argument that Lorde’s “Love Poem” compares the curves a woman’s body to the beauty of mountain, but you find yourself analyzing an assignment she gave her students, then something is wrong
When revising, compare the first and last sentence of each paragraph. Are they about the same topic?

Relate explicitly to your thesis (keep your essay on track)

Is this paragraph helping me prove some part of my thesis?
If not, either the thesis or the paragraph need to be adjusted

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Anatomy of a paragraph

Topic sentence
Piece of evidence one
Analysis of evidence one
Piece of evidence two
Analysis of evidence two
Optional concluding sentence

Review: Anatomy of a Close Reading Paragraph

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Paragraph Organization: Advice

Create a reverse outline of your essay - write main topic/point in the margins next to each paragraph
Group similar ideas together

Not: Intimacy, vulnerability, vulnerability, intimacy, vulnerability
Instead: Intimacy, intimacy, vulnerability, vulnerability, vulnerability

You may have multiple paragraphs on similar topics (see above)
Aim for short paragraphs over long ones

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Use headings to break up information

Reading on a screen is difficult on our eyes! Too much text and we’ll give up.
Consider using sub-headings throughout your blog post to break up information

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Introductions

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Introductions

Similar to a title, the introduction should interest and inform
Introduce the topic (quick overview, 1-2 sentences) and motive - what am I going to learn from this?
Your introduction should include your argument/thesis

Strategies

Set up problem, question, or tension that you will address in your paper
Identify a commonly held idea or assumption that your paper will challenge
Begin with a key example that demonstrates your argument
Begin with a surprising fact or statistic related to your argument

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Conclusions

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Conclusion

Say something to the reader that you couldn’t have said to them at the beginning of the paper
Remind them what you have taught/showed them
Return to an idea, anecdote, or example from your introduction and present it in a new/different way using your argument
Trace the implications of your argument
Make a recommendation (if appropriate)

Ex. a paper on the cognitive benefits of watching television might suggest allowing children to watch a certain amount of television rather than banning it or leaving it unregulated.

Introduce new questions that have emerged from your analysis
Ask yourself: what do you want to leave your reader thinking about?

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