3. How will you
focus your essay?
Take a look at what you have so far:
Do you have a focus for your concept?
Categories?
Types?
Quick Review
If not, do you have another
workable plan?
4. 1. Potions that help
Mood Disorders
a) Depression
b) **
1. Potions that help
Anxiety Disorders
a) Panic Attack
b) **
Potions focused on healing
Emotional/Mental Health Issues
1. Potions that help
Eating Disorders
a) Anorexia
b) **
This concept is focused enough to write a 4-6 page, interesting, essay. I
imagine you could narrow it even again if you really wanted to do so.
5. Formulating a Working
Thesis Statement
Let’s refer to our model essays in
The St Martin’s Guide to see how
others handle a thesis for this kind of
essay.
6. In his essay on cannibalism, Ngo offers his
thesis statement in paragraph six:
Cannibalism can be broken down into two main categories:
exocannibalism, the eating of outsiders or foreigners, and
endocannibalism, the eating of members of one’s own social group
(Shipman 70). Within these categories are several functional types of
cannibalism, three of the most common being survival cannibalism,
dietary cannibalism, and religious and ritual cannibalism.
Ngo’s concept is cannibalism; his focus is on functional cannibalism.
He has two categories: Endo and Exocannibalism
He has three types: Survival, dietary, and religious/ritual cannibalism
In his thesis, he carefully forecasts both how he will divide the
information to create topics and the order in which he will explain each of
the topics
7. O.K., let’s cut out all this nonsense about romantic love.
Let’s bring some scientific precision to the party. Let’s put
love under a microscope. When rigorous people with
Ph.D.'s after their names do that, what they see is not
some silly, senseless thing. No, their probe reveals that
love rests firmly on the foundations of evolution, biology
and chemistry.
Toufexis’s concept is love, and her focus is the scientific explanation of
love—specifically the evolution, biology, and chemistry of love. In
announcing her focus, she forecasts the order in which she will present
information from the three most relevant academic disciplines—
anthropology (human evolution), biology, and chemistry. These
discipline names become her topics.
Anastasia Toufexis begins her essay with her
thesis statement:
8. Draft your thesis statement
As you draft your own tentative thesis statement, take care to make
the language clear. Although you may want to revise your thesis
statement as you draft your essay, trying to state it now will give your
planning and drafting more focus and direction. Keep in mind that the
thesis in an explanatory essay, such as a concept essay, merely
announces the subject; it never asserts a position that requires an
argument to defend it.
Write one or more sentences, stating your focused concept, that
could serve as a thesis statement Forecast the topics you will use to
explain the concept. Look at the next slide to see examples to use
as models as you write.
9. Write your thesis now!!
NGO
Cannibalism can be broken down
into two main categories:
exocannibalism, the eating of
outsiders or foreigners, and
endocannibalism, the eating of
members of one’s own social
group (Shipman 70). Within these
categories are several functional
types of cannibalism, three of the
most common being survival
cannibalism, dietary cannibalism,
and religious and ritual
cannibalism
Toufexis
O.K., let’s cut out all this
nonsense about romantic love.
Let’s bring some scientific
precision to the party. Let’s
put love under a microscope.
When rigorous people with
Ph.D.'s after their names do
that, what they see is not some
silly, senseless thing. No, their
probe reveals that love rests
firmly on the foundations of
evolution, biology and
chemistry.
10. Your Thesis is a Map to Your Essay
Once you have your working thesis written,
you can make a tentative outline.
Introduction
Extended Anecdote? Or?
Thesis
Category 1
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Category 2
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Repeat if Necessary
Conclusion
11. Take a moment to briefly fill in/write out the
parts of your outline that you already know.
Just make notes for now.
Introduction
Extended Anecdote? Or?
Thesis
Category 1
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Category 2
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Repeat if Necessary
Conclusion
12. Make sure to use these writing tools
to explain your concept. There are
examples of each in the next slides.
Extended
Anecdote
Definitions
Examples
Illustrations
See the St. Martin’s Guide, “Basic Features” in the Concept Essay chapter
for more information about how to use each strategy.
13. The Introduction:
Extended Anecdote: Ngo
Fifty-five Vietnamese refugees fled to Malaysia on a small
fishing boat to escape communist rule in their country
following the Vietnam War. During their escape attempt, the
captain was shot by the coast guard. The boat and its
passengers managed to outrun the coast guard to the open
sea, but they had lost the only person who knew the way to
Malaysia, the captain. The men onboard tried to navigate the
boat, but after a week fuel ran out, and they drifted farther out
to sea. Their supply of food and water was gone; people were
starving, and some of the elderly were near death.
14. Definition
Cannibalism, the act of human beings eating
human flesh (Sagan 2), has a long history and
continues to hold interest and create controversy.
Survival cannibalism occurs when people trapped
without food have to decide “whether to start or
eat fellow humans” (Shipman 70).
15. Examples: Ngo Another case of survival cannibalism occurred in 1945,
when General Douglas MacArthur’s forces cut supply
lines to Japanese troops stationed in the Pacific Islands.
In one incident, Japanese troops were reported to have
sacrificed the Arapesh people of northeastern New
Guinea for food in order to avoid death by starvation
(Tuzin 63). The most famous example of survival
cannibalism in American history comes from the diaries,
letters, and interviews of survivors of the California-bound
Donner Party, who in the winter of 1846 were snowbound
in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for five months. Thirty-
five of eighty-seven adults and children died, and some of
them were eaten (Hart 116–117; Johnson).
18. Writing Opportunity:
What will you use? Write out the
following:
Extended Anecdote”
Will you begin your essay this way?
Examples?
Which?
How many?
Illustrations?
Your own?
Someone else’s?
19. Homework
Read HP POA Chapter 16
Discussion #22: Make an outline for your
concept essay.
Include a preliminary idea for what kind of
anecdote you might include in your
introduction.
Include your thesis
Name at least two categories
Include at least two or three types you will
discuss under each category
Use the format from the slideshow if you
need help
