ENGL 120 Cuyamaca College Educational Barriers Discussion
Question Description
To get us started on writing essay 1, I would like to get us to:
- Write a working thesis
- Narrow down which sources you want to include in our essay
- Practice writing an academic summary
This thesis proposal should include all three parts to receive full credit.
Step 1: Review How to Write a Working Thesis
First, for Essay 1, you are going to be answering either of the following prompts:
- Describe how you have worked to face and overcome an educational barrier in your life and why it is important to stick with your educational goals. (This is piggybacking on the paragraph you just wrote last week.)
- Describe one educational barrier that effects student success and how one might overcome that barrier (either from a student or instructor perspective).
A clear, well-written thesis will answer the prompt, so let’s get started on how to write a strong thesis.
A thesis is 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).
A claim that is not debatable does not qualify as a thesisfor example:
- Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a play about a young man who seeks revenge.
- That doesn’t say anything-it’s basically just a summary and is hardly debatable.
Here is an example of a stronger, more debatable thesis:
- Hamlet experiences internal conflict because he is in love with his mother.
- This is arguable, controversial even. The rest of a paper with this argument as its thesis will be an attempt to show, using specific examples from the text and evidence from scholars, (1) how Hamlet is in love with his mother, (2) why he’s in love with her, and (3) what implications there are for reading the play in this manner.
Note that a thesis, just like the Point in your paragraph is an opinion/claim. The difference is that the thesis is the claim of the whole essay while a Point is the claim of that specific paragraph. Often the Points are reasons/sub-claims for the big thesis.
I like to think about the thesis in terms of a limited subject (what you are talking about) and an attitude (what you have to say or argue about the topic.) For our purposes for Essay 1, the limited subject is the education barrier and the attitude is how to overcome it.
Please be sure to view all three tabs before clicking Next.
Once you have completed all three steps, submit a document or text submission which clearly outlines all three steps.
- Working Thesis:
- Sources for Essay 1:
- Academic Summary of One Source:
