Thesis Statement

A thesis statement is a sentence (or sentences) that expresses the main ideas of your paper and answers the question or questions posed by your paper. It offers your readers a quick and easy to follow summary of what the paper will be discussing and what you as a writer are setting out to tell them. The thesis is your promise to the reader: it maps out what you are going to prove, and gives you a point of reference to keep your whole essay on track.


Here is a simple way to think about your thesis statement:


Thesis = Topic + Assertion


Your thesis should include the topic you are analyzing, plus a claim or assertion you are trying to make about that topic.

Once you have a topic, ask yourself these questions in order to come up with an assertion:

- What is the relationship of my topic to the text’s theme(s)?
- How is my topic conveyed in the text?
- How does my topic relate to some larger idea outside of the text (such as gender, race, feminism)
- What is the significance of my topic to the meaning of the text?


Now that you have created a thesis, double-check that your thesis is solid by asking yourself:
- Does my thesis have a topic?
- Does my thesis make an assertion about the topic?
- Is my thesis specific enough for the scope of my paper?
- Is my thesis supportable with evidence from the text?

Essay #1 assignment

Due: September 19th

For this essay, you will be reflecting on your childhood and family life, and contrasting it to the family experience portrayed on television, movies and books you were exposed to as a child. If your childhood did not include a significant amount of popular cultural influence, you may make the comparison about a childhood friend who was raised differently than you.

You are expected to write three to five pages, double-spaced with 12-point font (New Times Roman or something similar). The essay must contain a clear thesis statement and supporting paragraphs that include claims. The paper should be polished and proofread.

To begin, think about the following quote from Stephanie Coontz’s article “What We Really Miss About The 1950s”
Everyone knew that shows such as Donna Read, Ozzie and Harriet, Leave It to Beaver, and Father Knows Best were not the way families really were. People didn’t watch those shows to see their own lives reflected back at them. They watched them to see how families were supposed to live. (38)

Your next step should be to write at least one (maybe many) freewrites.
You may want to freewrite on the Coontz’s statement, and on some (or all) of the following questions.
- What were the positives and negatives of growing up in your particular family situation?
- What expectations were set by the examples on television?
- How did your family compare to the families on television regarding social class, wealth, openness with one another, severity of issues you faced, and basic day-to-day living?
- How did you feel as a child when you realized that your family wasn’t “perfect”?

After freewriting, read over your work to develop your claims. You will make claims about how reality (your life) compares to the false expectations created by popular culture (TV shows, movies, etc.) For this essay, your evidence to support your claims will come from your life experiences and what you saw on television or the movies. (Future essay will require evidence from articles and books.) Make an outline of your claims and evidence to organize your paper.


We will be conducting an in-class draft workshop on September 12th. Your draft must meet the page minimum (3 pages) and include complete sentences, an introduction, conclusion and thesis statement.

Your final draft is due on September 19th.
I expect your final draft:
- To meet the page minimum
- Be proofread closely
- To have a clear thesis statement
- To include claims, which reflect your analysis of how your life compares to the fictional life portrayed in popular culture.

Short Assignment #1

Summarize Danielle Crittenden’s article “About Marriage”

due 8/29

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