Week 3 Summary and Analysis - Essay 1 Thesis Development and Readings Reflection

Follow Discussion Guidelines and Requirements. See Discussion Guidelines and Requirements in this week's module and/or at the top of Modules. Complete this week's readings before posting. Refer to these readings to write Readings and Reflection in the First Posting.

Week 3 Summary and Analysis The Norton Field Guide readings Thesis (387-389) Drafting (340-342) Chapter 8 “Stance” (66-68) The Little Seagull Handbook readings Developing Paragraphs, W-4 (17-29) Developing a Tentative Thesis, W-3b (10) See Readings and Resources in the weekly module for additional readings.

Essay 1 Thesis Development (The Essay 1 Assignment has been posted in each week's module since Week 1; find the assignment in this week's module.) A thesis should be an assertion. A thesis should say how or why a statement is true.

A thesis should be one sentence with a central point. (Sometimes a thesis may be two sentences, but for writing in this class, students should write a one-sentence thesis.) A thesis is not a question. A thesis is not just a fact.

A thesis is not an announcement (In this essay, I will discuss...) First Posting (This posting must be the first posting to gain access to a discussion and to earn credit. Make your first posting by Thursday.) Tentative Thesis Post your own working thesis for Essay 1. This thesis should be one sentence. (Do not post entire paragraphs for this discussion.)

Readings and Reflection Discuss advice from two readings on thesis development from this week's readings. How did you use this advice to write your own tentative thesis for Essay 1? Write 150 words.

Essay 1 Prompt:

1.1 In his essay "You Are Not an Algorithm," Justin E.H. Smith argues that people's "acquiescence" to algorithms "does not however change our nature, but only perverts it." What does Smith mean by this statement and what are the implications of this view?

1.2 In her essay "Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History," Laurel Thatcher Ulrich discusses the ambiguity of her slogan, "Well-behaved women seldom make history." Some people read this slogan as referring to the lack of women in histories or the lack of histories about women.

Others read it as meaning that only by "misbehaving" do women make history. How does Ulrich relate this ambiguity to the broader issue of how history is written?

Source Essays

1.1 “You Are Not an Algorithm” 

Readings and Reflection

1.2 “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History," by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich on pages 715-724 of The Norton Field Guide to Writing.

These outcomes have been defi ned by the National Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA). Here’s a brief summary of these outcomes and how The Norton Field Guide can help you meet them. 

One way to become a better reader is to understand your reading process; if you know what you do when you read, you’re in a position to decide what you need to change or improve. Consider the answers to the following questions:

 • What do you read for pleasure? for work? for school? Consider all the sorts of reading you do: books, magazines, and newspapers, websites, Facebook, texts, blogs, product instructions.
 • When you’re facing a reading assignment, what do you do? Do you do certain things to get comfortable? Do you play music or seek quiet? Do you plan your reading time or set reading goals for yourself? Do you flip through or skim the text before settling down to read it, or do you start at the beginning and work through it?
 • When you begin to read something for an assignment, do you make sure you understand the purpose of the assignment — why you  2 / Reading in Academic Contexts 11 must read this text? Do you ever ask your instructor (or whoever else assigned the reading) what its purpose is?
 • How do you motivate yourself to read material you don’t have any interest in? How do you deal with boredom while reading?
 • Does your mind wander? If you realize that you haven’t been paying attention and don’t know what you just read, what do you do?
 • Do you ever highlight, underline, or annotate text as you read? Do you take notes? If so, what do you mark or write down? Why?
 • When you read text you don’t understand, what do you do?
 • As you anticipate and read an assigned text, what attitudes or feelings do you typically have? If they differ from reading to reading, why do they?
 • What do you do when you’ve finished reading an assigned text? Write out notes? Think about what you’ve just read? Move on to the next task? Something else?
 • How well do your reading processes work for you, both in school and otherwise? What would you like to change? What can you do to change?

Essay 1 Prompt

Identify the function of each paragraph. Starting with the first paragraph, ask, What does this paragraph do? Does it introduce a topic? provide background for a topic to come? describe something? define something? entice me to read further? something else? What does the second paragraph do? the third? As you go through the text, you may identify groups of paragraphs that have a single purpose. Here is a functional outline of Granof’s essay (again, the numbers on the left refer to the paragraphs):
1 Introduces the topic by defining a problem
2 Introduces a flawed solution
3 Explains the flawed solution and the problem with it
4 Introduces a better solution
5–7 Describes the current situation and the dynamics of the problem
8 Outlines the author’s proposed solution
9–10 Explains the proposed solution
11–12 Describes the benefits and effects of the proposed solution
13 Concludes

 • What claim is the text making? What is the writer’s main point? Is it stated as a thesis , or only implied? Is it limited or qualified somehow? If not, should it have been?
 • How is the claim supported? What reasons does the writer provide for the claim, and what evidence is given for the reasons? What
kind of evidence is it? Facts? Statistics? Examples? Expert opinions? Images? How convincing do you find the reasons and evidence? Is there enough evidence?
 • What appeals besides logical ones are used? Does the writer appeal to readers’ emotions ? try to establish common ground ? demonstrate his or her credibility as trustworthy and knowledgeable? How successful are these appeals?
 • Are any counterarguments acknowledged? If so, are they presented accurately and respectfully? Does the writer concede any value to them or try to refute them? How successfully does he or she deal with them?
 • What outside sources of information does the writer cite? What kinds of sources are they, and how credible do they seem? Are they current and authoritative? How well do they support the argument?
 • Do you detect any fallacies ? Fallacies are arguments that involve faulty reasoning. Because they often seem plausible, they can be persuasive. It is important, therefore, that you question the legitimacy of such reasoning when you run across it.

If you’re responding to what a text says, you might agree or disagree with the author’s argument, supporting your position with good reasons and evidence for your response. You might agree with parts of the argument and disagree with others. You might find that the author has ignored or downplayed some important aspect of the topic that needs to be discussed or at least acknowledged. Here are some questions to consider that can help you think about what a text says:

Identify the function of each paragraph

 • What does the writer claim?
 • What reasons and evidence does he or she provide to support that claim?

 • What parts of the text do you agree with? Is there anything you disagree with — and if so, why?
 • Does the writer represent any views other than his or her own? If not, what other perspectives should be considered?
 • Are there any aspects of the topic that the writer overlooks or ignores?
 • If you’re responding to a visual text, how do the design and any images contribute to your understanding of what the text “says”?

If you’re reflecting on your own reaction to a text, you might focus on how your personal experiences or beliefs influenced the way you understood the text, or on how it reinforced or prompted you to reassess some of those beliefs. You could also focus on how it led you to see the topic in new ways — or note questions that it’s led you to wonder about. Some questions that may help you reflect on your own reaction to a text include:

 • How did the text affect you personally?
 • Is there anything in the text that really got your attention? If so, what?
 • Do any parts of the text provoke an emotional reaction — make you laugh or cry, make you uneasy? What prompted that response?
 • Does the text bring to mind any memories or past experiences? Can you see anything related to you and your life in the text?
 • Does the text remind you of any other texts?
 • Does the text support (or challenge) any of your beliefs? How?
 • Has reading this text given you any new ideas or insight?

Take stock of what you’ve written by writing out answers to these questions:

 • What did you do well in this piece?
 • What could still be improved?
 • How did you go about researching your topic?
 • How did others’ responses influence your writing?
 • How did you go about drafting this piece?
 • Did you use visual elements (tables, graphs, diagrams, photographs), audio elements, or links effectively? If not, would they have helped?
 • What would you do differently next time?
 • What have you learned about your writing ability from writing this piece? What do you need to work on in the future?

Editing paragraphs

  • Does each paragraph focus on one point? Does it have a topic sentence that announces that point, and if so, where is it located? If it’s not the first sentence, should it be? If there’s no clear topic sentence, should there be one?

 • Does every sentence relate to the main point of the paragraph? If any sentences do not, should they be deleted, moved, or revised?
 • Is there enough detail to develop the paragraph’s main point? How is the point developed — with narrative? definition? some other strategy?
 • Where have you placed the most important information — at the beginning? the end? in the middle? The most emphatic spot is at
the end, so in general that’s where to put information you want readers to remember. The second most emphatic spot is at the beginning.
 • Are any paragraphs especially long or short? Consider breaking long paragraphs if there’s a logical place to do so — maybe an extended example should be in its own paragraph, for instance. If you have paragraphs of only a sentence or two, see if you can add to them or combine them with another paragraph, unless you’re using a brief paragraph to provide emphasis.
 • Check the way your paragraphs fit together. Does each one follow smoothly from the one before? Do you need to add any transitions?
 • Does the beginning paragraph catch readers’ attention? In what other ways might you begin your text?
 • Does the final paragraph provide a satisfactory ending? How else might you conclude your text?

Reflecting on Your Literacy Portfolio

 • Why did you choose each item?
 • Is anything missing? Are there any other important materials that should be here?
 • Why is the portfolio organized as it is?
 • What does the portfolio show about your development as a reader and writer?
 • What patterns do you see? Are there any common themes you’ve read or written about? Any techniques you rely on? Any notable changes over time?
 • What are the most significant items, and why?

A survey gets responses from a representative sample of the whole group. The answers to these questions will help you defi ne that sample:

 1. Who should answer the questions? The people you contact should represent the whole population. For example, if you want to survey undergraduate students at your school, your sample should reflect your school’s enrollment in terms of gender, year, major, age, ethnicity, and so forth as closely as possible.
 2. How many people make up a representative sample? In general, the larger your sample, the more the answers will reflect those of the whole group. But if your population is small — 200 students in a history course, for example — your sample must include a large percentage of that group.

Ask yourself these questions about your sources:

 • What sources make the strongest arguments? What makes them so strong?
 • Do some arguments recur in several sources?
 • Which arguments do you agree with? disagree with? Of those you disagree with, which ones seem strong enough that you need to acknowledge them in your text?
 • Are there any disagreements among your sources?
 • Are there any themes you see in more than one source?
 • Are any data — facts, statistics, examples — or experts cited in more than one source?
 • Do several of your sources use the same terms? Do they use the terms similarly, or do they use them in different ways?

 • What have you learned about your topic? How have your sources affected your thinking on your topic? Do you need to adjust your thesis ? If so, how?
 • Have you discovered new questions you need to investigate?
 • Keep in mind your rhetorical situation — have you found the information you need that will achieve your purpose, appeal to your audience, and suit your genre and medium?

Evaluating a Design

Does the design suit your purpose? Does the overall look of the design help convey the text’s message, support its argument, or present information?

How well does the design meet the needs of your audience? Will the overall appearance of the text appeal to the intended readers? Is the font large enough for them to read? Are there headings to help them find their way through the text? Does the design help readers find the information they need?

How well does the text meet any genre requirements? Can you tell by looking at the text that it is an academic essay, a lab report, a résumé, a blog? Do its fonts, margins, headings, and page layout meet the requirements of mla, apa, or whatever style is being followed?

How well does the design reflect your stance? Do the page layout and fonts convey the appropriate tone — serious, playful, adventuresome, conservative, or whatever other tone you intended?

Engaging with the Text

 1. David Sedaris titles his essay “Us and Them.” Whom does this title refer to? Whom are we meant to sympathize with — “us” or “them”? How do you know?

 2. Successful memoirs tell a good story. Do you think “Us and Them” meets that requirement? Why or why not? Refer to specific details from the text in your response.

3. Sedaris describes two handwritten signs from Halloween night. The first is attached to a “coffee can full of gumdrops” telling trick or
treaters “don’t be greedy.” The second graces young Sedaris’s bag of candy: “my candy. keep out.” What significance do these two signs have in the story? What do they tell us about Sedaris?

 4. How would you characterize Sedaris’s stance? What specific passages indicate his attitude about the events he recalls?

 5. For Writing. Recall a time when a person or event taught you something about yourself, something that perhaps you could not fully understand until now. Write a memoir that describes the person or narrates the event. Include vivid detail and be sure to make clear what significance the person or event had in your life.

 6. How would you sum up what Andre Dubus III is saying in this memoir? Try to express in a sentence or two the significance to him of the events he relates.

 7. Dubus’s memoir is saturated in vivid details. Select three paragraphs from different parts of the essay, and discuss what the details in them add to the story.

 8. Dubus’s stance toward his father in this memoir is respectful but somewhat distant. Identify two passages that make his stance clear. Is the stance appropriate for the story he is telling? Why or why not? What does his stance reveal about his feelings toward his father at the time he wrote the memoir?

 9. Dubus titles his memoir My Father Was a Writer. What is the significance of this title? Think of another title Dubus could have used, and explain what would be lost or gained by doing so.

 10. For Writing. Write a memoir about an event or several related events from your childhood that focuses on the signifi cance of a particular person in your life. Use vivid details to put your reader into the narrative. 

11. Piper Kerman’s purpose in this memoir is to offer a sense, from a fi rstperson point of view, of what it is like to be stripped of one’s identity in a prison environment. How does she make this purpose clear? How is the purpose related to the significance to her of her time in prison?

 12. What does the title refer to? How is it appropriate for this memoir?

 13. Kerman includes a good deal of dialogue in her memoir. What part(s) of the dialogue do you fi nd most interesting? Why? What difference would it make if there were no dialogue?

 14. A successful memoir offers a good story. Is #11187– 424 a good story? Why or why not? In your response, be sure to explain what makes a good story.

15. For Writing. Write a brief memoir about a time when you were caught doing something you weren’t supposed to and received a punishment. Explain what you were doing, why you were doing it, how you got caught, and how you felt during the punishment (and perhaps before and after it as well).

 16. A strong memoir includes vivid details to bring the past back to life. How do the details Judith Ortiz Cofer includes support her thesis that Latinas are poorly understood and grossly stereotyped? Identify two of these details and explain how they help her make her case.

 17. How does Cofer end her essay? What is the signifi cance of the ending?

 18. What is the purpose of this memoir? What do you think Cofer hopes it to achieve? Where in the essay does she make that hope explicit?

 19. Cofer explains that the way Puerto Rican women dress in Puerto Rico is “read” very differently by other people than when they dress in the same way elsewhere in the United States. What is the difference between the two responses? What does she say to explain why in one place the young women are respected and revered and in the other are disrespected and treated rudely? What role do you think dress should play in how people read other people?

 20. For Writing. Think about the way you dress. What image are you trying to create through your clothing and accessories? How do others read your image? Do they read it in ways you mean it to be read or in other ways that go against your intentions? Write a memoir, one that refl ects on both the past and the present, that addresses these questions.

21. James Hamblin’s main point in this profi le is that “Professor Wilson went to the dumpster not just because he wished to live deliberately, and not just to teach his students about the environmental impacts of day-to-day life, and not just to gradually transform the dumpster into ‘the most thoughtfully-designed, tiniest home ever constructed.’ Wilson’s reasons are a tapestry of these things.” How well does the rest of the profi le support this thesis statement?

22. A good profi le typically covers an interesting subject. What caught your attention as you read this profi le? How interesting did you find the subject?

23. Although downsizing one’s home is becoming more common, especially among those concerned with sustainability, Wilson’s 36-squarefoot dumpster dwelling takes the trend to an extreme. How comfortable would you be in such a space? Explain how much space you believe you need to live a good life — either alone or as part of a multiperson household or both — and why.

24. visuals in a profi le should be appropriate for the rhetorical situation. What do the visuals contribute to this profi le, whose purpose
is mainly informative? How well would you comprehend it without them? For this subject, what other visuals (including other kinds) might be helpful — or just interesting and engaging?

25. For Writing. Select an unusual subject — person, place, or thing — to profile. You will need a firsthand account of the subject, so it needs to be one you can easily visit, probably nearby your home or campus. If you are not profi ling a person, try to speak with or research people involved with the subject to offer your readers a close-up view of it from a perspective besides your own. 

26. Dave Barry claims that he isn’t able to say what he means by the term “guys” because “one of the major characteristics of guyhood is that we guys don’t spend a lot of time pondering our deep innermost feelings.” Yet in this piece — indeed even this sentence — he identifies specific characteristics of “guys” that suggest he has indeed pondered this state of maleness thoroughly. How do you account for this contradiction?

 27. Despite his assertion that he can’t defi ne the term, Barry essentially provides an extended definition of the term “guy,” detailing several characteristics. What are they? Do you agree with his description of them? Why or why not? What other characteristics would you add, if any?

 28. Barry includes several examples of the behavior he identifi es as characteristic of guys. Identity several passages that include such examples and discuss what these contribute to his refl ection.

 29. What is Barry’s stance toward his topic? Point to specific passages that reveal that stance. Is this stance appropriate for Barry’s purpose? Why or why not?

 30. For Writing. Identify a specifi c group of people, animals, things, or places, and refl ect on what distinguishing characteristics are shared by its members. Write a reflection on the group that identifi es those major characteristics. Study Barry’s refl ection to see what techniques he uses to elicit a smile or chuckle. Try your hand at one or more of these. 

31. Geeta Kothari uses food as a way to explore the larger issue of cultural identity. How does she describe Indian and American food? What specific details does she include to help her readers understand the pulls of both American and Indian culture?

32. A good title indicates what the piece is about and makes readers want to read it. How well does this title do those things? How does Kothari answer the question her title asks?

33. How does Kothari begin her reflection? Is this an effective beginning? Why or why not? How does it signal to readers what Kothari will address in the rest of the piece?

34. For Kothari, cultural identity shapes, and is shaped by, the foods one eats and the ways one eats them. Her refl ection reveals a struggle over two cultures — Indian and American — and she worries that she cannot locate herself fully in either. At the end of her text, she notes: “I worry that this antipathy toward dal signals something deeper, that somehow I am not my parents’ daughter, not Indian, and because I cannot bear the touch and smell of raw meat . . . I am not American either.” What does it mean to live on the border between two cultures in the ways Kothari describes?

 35. For Writing. Think about the kinds of foods you grew up with and the ways they were similar or dissimilar to those of your peers. Write an essay reflecting on the role food has played in your own sense of your identity — whether it be your cultural heritage, your identification (or not) with your generation, your individual or family identity, or some other form.

36. Paula Marantz Cohen asserts that a cultural shift has taken place from qualitative, introspective, deep assessment to quantitative, objective, surface assessment. In other words, today the value of something is judged by the results of statistical analysis or the sheer number of people who quickly react favorably to it, rather than by the carefully considered responses of those well qualifi ed to judge. What do you see as the pros and cons of the two different assessment systems? Are there others besides the ones Cohen mentions? And has quantitative assessment really taken over our lives in recent years to the extent she claims? Has it perhaps long been dominant and is now simply more openly acknowledged? Are there areas where qualitative evaluation remains the norm or is even growing in importance?

37. Cohen takes a mixed negative and positive stance toward quantitative assessment, the subject of her refl ection. Which stance would you expect her audience, the business-minded readers of the Wall Street Journal, to identify with? How does the last sentence sum up her stance and illustrate the questioning, speculative tone characteristic of refl ections?

38. Cohen begins her refl ection with an anecdote about a seven-year-old girl who will judge her artwork by the number of “likes” it receives from her classmates. What anecdote could you have used to begin a reflection on this subject?

39. How does Cohen signal that the topic of quants intrigues her? Point to at least one passage where her interest in the topic is evident.

40. For Writing. Smartphones are becoming increasingly popular. Write a reflection on the use of smartphones today where selfi es are easy to take, where people having meals together focus on their phones rather than one another, where moviegoers have to be asked to turn off their phones, where information about what menu a restaurant offers and how to get there is at one’s fi ngertips. How have smartphones changed our lives both for bad and for good?

41. What seems to be Tim Kreider’s purpose in writing this reflection? Or does he have more than one?

42. Kreider uses many specific details in his refl ection. Identify two paragraphs full of details, and discuss what these contribute to his essay. Which detail in the entire essay do you fi nd most revealing (about either Kreider or the cat), most unexpected, or most amusing? Why?

43. Although Kreider maintains a loving, positive overall stance toward his subject, some parts of the essay do display a more detached or skeptical attitude — the questioning, speculative tone that is characteristic of refl ections. Identify two such parts. How would the overall impression the essay makes be different without this variation in stance and tone?

44. Kreider includes a brief narrative in his refl ection about how he acquired the cat and turned into “Cat Guy.” What does this story add to his refl ection? Why do you think he put it in the middle of the essay instead of starting out with it?

45. For Writing. Identify something in your life that has been extremely important to you — a pet, a toy, a friend, a car, a place, or something else. Write a reflection on the subject expressing your feelings about it. Make sure you include enough specific details to help your audience understand why you feel the way you do about your subject.