What’s the Point?
The thesis is the most important aspect of an essay, an argument that serves as its theme. Declaring the purpose of an essay is no easy task. This text provides the helpful method of thinking of the thesis as a question that asks the following three questions simultaneously: “What do you see?”, “What do you make of it?”, and “Why does it matter?”. Once you’ve went through these three questions and came up with your “macro-question,” you can start drafting an easy-to-identify thesis statement that contains a “so what.”
Responding – Really Responding – to Other Students’ Writing
In this text, Richard Straub provides a detailed guide to the art of peer review. When commenting on a fellow student’s piece, your goal is to help the writer go back and reflect on his piece, seeing what he can work on and revise. Your comments are essentially a conversation you’re having with the student’s writing as you understand and react to it. Ideally, these comments should be a mix of criticism and praise, and take the context of both the paper and the writer into consideration. By putting in the time and effort to write a constructive response, you’re greatly helping the writer improve their writing in this paper and in papers to come.
Response
These texts were jam-packed with valuable information. One provided steps to crafting a good thesis and the other gave guidelines and tips for commenting on a fellow student’s work – both preparing me for my upcoming assignments. The detailed steps to coming up with a sustained and well-articulated thesis were especially helpful as one of my biggest concerns for my rhetorical analysis is the claim I’m trying to make.