What’s the Point?
In this reading, David Hengel tries to reframe readers’ understanding of a thesis. He acknowledges that coming up with one or two statements that declare what your entire essay is about can be intimidating. Instead, a thesis can appear as more of a question. Even from there, thinking of a singular question to write an essay on can be a challenge, so it would be helpful to break it up into smaller questions. The three main questions a writer should focus on are as follows: What do you see? What do you make of it? Why does it matter? What you see should always be something meaningful, it should elicit some sort of response from you. What you make of it can be extremely helpful to form your thesis and often does result in operating as the claim of your essay. Why it matters is the key. It is the writer’s interpretation and is what gives insight to readers. It should be an original idea and reflect the writer’s own way of thinking. Hengel then goes on to mention the thesis question should not be too simple, broad, or speculative. It should not be a yes-or-no question or too reliant on opinion while also being specific. A thesis can appear anywhere in an essay. It needs to be concise and articulate. A writer’s thesis also usually may change throughout their writing since essays evolve as we write them.
I found Hengel’s approach to theses interesting. Throughout middle school and high school you’re always taught the thesis needs to be usually just one statement towards the end of the introduction that sums up what the whole essay will be about. It can be challenging to come up with the perfect claim to write about. I think posing the main point as a question seems like a much more helpful approach, both to the writer and reader, as it can give a more in-depth depiction of the writer’s thinking process. Also, I support the idea that the thesis doesn’t need to be in the first paragraph of a paper. Sometimes further context needs to be given, or maybe several other points need to be made before a writer can establish their main point.
Responding- Really Responding- to Other Students’ Writing
Most writing students have given a peer review, but not all manage to give thorough one. Peer reviews should be more than a simple grammar check. They should give insight to the writer and be a very useful tool when composing a new draft. As a reviewer, your main goal isn’t to criticize every little thing about like a cold editor. You should be speaking as more of a friend and giving insight to the writer. Report what you got from the text. When reviewing you can feel free to write notes on the margins of the paper or all as a separate note at the end. You should always address the most important issues of the paper. Smaller errors can be discussed some other time. Comments are essential to the peer review and should not be held back. They are meant to be thoughtful and detailed to fully articulate your thought to the writer. It’s also ideal to offer similar amounts of praise and criticism. Just like how a writer needs to be told what they’re doing wrong, it can also steer them in the right direction to tell them what they’re doing right.
This text seems useful and worth a read for any writing student. Although peer reviews are common, it’s usually not explained how to do them efficiently. The author really goes in-depth and gives some insight as to what a peer review should contain and mean to the writer. I like how the author frames that the review should basically be a report, almost an analysis of what the paper conveys to readers and how it manages to do so.