Want a surefire way to get your students to peg down a thesis?
Well, I got you covered with this exercise.
Let's first start with the reasons why students struggle to lasso in a dynamic and pinpointed thesis.
- They misread the text (or have incomplete or inadequate reads in their attempts to ascertain the author's overarching meaning and how it is conveyed)
- They second guess how to navigate the space allotted to them in the introductory paragraph
Well, in this exercise, not only do students get ample opportunity to hone their reads, but they have a playground to experiment with a pretty nifty writing tool known as the declarative thesis heuristic.
In this particular writing workshop video, not only do I go over how we executed the assignment, but I thoroughly dissect three stellar student examples (which should nicely demystify how to wield the heuristic/formula for your students).
All of the featured slides are available for download (FREE!). Just scroll down a bit in the video's description.
While not theoretically a bell-ringer, this quick exercise should help your students build a solid foundation for the rest of the essay.
Hammering home the thesis is crucial.
So this is a logical place to begin.
Happy teaching and happy writing!
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