This document contains notes from an English writing class. It discusses focusing an essay topic, developing a thesis statement, and using various writing strategies like examples and illustrations. The instructor provides examples of effective thesis statements and outlines from sample essays. Students are instructed to draft a working thesis on their chosen concept and make a preliminary outline including categories, types, an introductory anecdote, and potential examples or illustrations. They are assigned to post this outline as homework.

1. EWRT 1A
CLASS 12

2. AGENDA
Review
Essay focus
Discussion:
The Thesis
Writing an Outline
Writing Strategies
Extended Anecdote
Examples
Illustrations

3. How will you
focus your
essay?
Take a look at what you have
so far: do you have a concept?
A focus for your concept?
Categories?
Types?
Quick Review

4. Concept: Games
Limiter: Playground Games
Types
 Kids’ games with a ball
 Teenagers’ games with a
ball
 Adults’ games with a ball.
Types
 Kids’ games without a ball
 Teenagers’ games without
a ball
 Adults’ games without a
ball.

5. Formulating a Working
Thesis Statement
Refer to our model essays 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 working thesis
 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.

9. 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
Thesis
 Category 1
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Category 2
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Repeat if Necessary
Conclusion

11. Writing Strategies
Classification
Extended
Anecdote
Definitions
Examples
 Illustrations

12. 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.

13. 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).

14.  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).
http://www.howstuffworks.com/don
ner-party.htm

15. Illustration: Toufexis
Does this chart help
readers understand
what Toufexis is saying
about her concept?

16. Illustration: Holmes
Do graphs
help Holmes
make his
point? Will
graphs help
you make
your point?

17. Do pictures
support his
effort to
explain his
concept?
Should you use
pictures in your
essay?

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
Post #14: 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 may be able to
discuss under each category
 Use the format on slide ten if you need
help