Day 3: Thesis Statments, Introductions, and Conclusions

Objectives: You will be able to:

-Identify the criteria of a strong thesis statement
-Practice revising weak thesis statements
-Identify types of introduction hooks
-Understand the parts of an introduction
-Understand the parts of a conclusion
-Practice identifying parts of a conclusion

We will start class by getting into groups.

Introductions

Introduce Yourself
In your groups take a few minutes and introduce yourself to your group members.

I will then ask some groups to share the information that was discussed in these introductions.

You might see that there are some parallels between personal introductions and introductions to academic essays.

Hooks
You want to capture the attention of the person you are introducing yourself to just like you want to capture the attention of your readers at the beginning of your introduction.

In writing, common ways to begin introductions are:

-Quotes
-Facts/Statistics
-Definitions
-Personal story/anecdote
-Striking example
-Intriguing statement

As a class, we will work through the INTRODUCTION HOOK EXERCISE.

The Rest of the Introduction

Now that you have the reader's attention there are three more parts of an introduction that will follow:

1. Hook--Grab the attention of your audience
2. Justification--Explain why this topic is important/relevant/interesting/problematic
3. Background--Provide general information on the topic to familiarize your reader with your topic. Along with the general information you can explain definitions and current events.
4. Thesis statement--
More activities with introductions can be found HERE

Thesis Statements

In your groups you will come up with a definition of a thesis statement and then create a thesis statement based on your definition. Each group will share their definition and example.

Afterward, we will consider four basic guidelines to create good thesis statements. Taking into account these guidelines, each group will be asked to revise its example thesis statement.

As a class, you will work through THIS WORKSHEET on thesis statements.

Lastly consider these four phrases:

-In my opinion…
-As far as I am concerned, I think…
-It is my personal belief that…
-I agree / disagree…
-My thesis statement is…

These four phrases are bad ways to introduce your thesis statement. Revise your group's thesis statement once more in light of all the information we discussed.

Conclusions

Conclusions contain three main parts:

1. Thesis Statement--Restate your thesis statement in a new way. If you just copy and paste from the introduction, you reader will think you are lazy.
2. Summary--Briefly present the main arguments/main points of your essay again.
3. Closer--A closer can be one of three things. For a unified essay, try to relate your closing statements to the Hook presented in the introduction.
3A. Call to Action: Explain what the reader should do after reading your essay
3B. Question: Ask what happens if nothing changes
3C. Prediction: Suggest what might happen if a situation does not change
3D. Suggestions for Future Research: Explain what future research could be conducted and how it might help solve the main issue you discuss

As a class, let's test our conclusion knowledge with THIS EXERCISE