This document contains the agenda and notes for an EWRT 1A class. It discusses focusing an essay concept, developing a thesis statement, and using different writing strategies like extended anecdotes, examples, and illustrations. Examples of effective thesis statements are provided from sample student essays. Students are guided to draft their own working thesis on their chosen concept that forecasts the topics and categories that will be explored. Outlining and planning strategies are reviewed to help students organize their essay. Homework involves posting a preliminary concept essay outline.

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
If not, do you have
another workable plan?

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

11. Make sure to use these writing tools to explain
your concept. There are examples of each in the
next slides.
Classification
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.

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/donner-
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