Programs and Areas
First Year Writing Program
Teaching Resources: Evolving Thesis
Thesis Evolution
An Interactive ExampleBy Heather Kirn
Note To Instructors: This lesson is designed to be used with an evolving thesis example Use the "Evolving Thesis" overheads to walk students through the process of the thesis as it evolves. The lesson can be used as an introduction or as a review activity for the evolving thesis.
Goals: Students will be able to identify, develop, and reflect upon a thesis as it evolves using evidence from primary texts.
Time Frame: Approximately one class period (Between one hour and 80 minutes, depending on how much of the lesson the instructor adopts.)
Materials: Content from one Latina-targeted magazine (Latina!) and one "Western"-targeted magazine (Glamour), Overheads of a thesis evolving four times, with prompts and "complicating evidence," overhead projector, chalk, chalkboard.
Lesson Sequence:
-
Introductory Activity: 5-10 mins.
Discuss the virtues of an evolving thesis. Ask: Why should writers make a thesis evolve? (Possible answers: Because it makes reading more interesting; because writing should reflect the way one thinks, and our thoughts are not static but evolving; because you cannot prove everything in paragraph one, else why write the paper?... etc.)
Discuss the challenges. Ask: What confuses/overwhelms you about writing a paper with an evolving thesis? Articulate goals of class. Students will learn from an interactive example.
-
"Just Getting Started" The Starting Thesis: 5 mins.
Set up the intention of the example student's paper. (See below, after this lesson plan, for word document pages of the power point example on the evolving thesis) This student wanted to investigate body image in Latina-targeted versus "Western"-targeted magazines. Students should examine her initial/starting thesis on overhead.
Initial Thesis: “In examining representations of women’s body images in Latino and Western culture, many differences are evident.”
Discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and possibilities of this thesis. [See WA Ch. 7, “Recognizing and Fixing Weak Thesis Statements” (197-216)]
-
Examining Primary Sources, Generating Evidence: 10 mins.
Show students versions of Latina! and Glamour. Bring in images from the Web site or from the magazines themselves (Again, see Web sites: http://www.latina.com/index.do and http://www.glamour.com/ ). Students should work in groups of three to "test out" the initial thesis by looking for supporting AND complicating evidence. After 10 minutes of gathering evidence, students should compose a new thesis that in one or more ways is stronger than the initial thesis. Groups should write their theses on the board.
-
Discussion of Primary Sources and Thesis Ideas: 10 mins.
Class will discuss the varying evidence they found in the primary sources. Instructor will record the observations on the board. Then groups will explain their theses and note the supporting evidence. Hopefully the theses will differ, but if not, then class might discuss other statements that could have been generated out of the evidence.
-
Evolving the Thesis: 15 mins.
Class will examine the example of the evolving thesis on overheads, asking always what evidence the author might use to support the newest version of the thesis and in what ways the author might complicate that thesis with new evidence. (Students might refer to the primary source texts provided). Instructor will note the various directions in which an author could go and reveal each new thesis that the student wrote as only one possible direction.
Class should reflect on the final thesis and also discuss how the student might present this information. Ask: Now how might this student organize the paper? (The final thesis might be written in the conclusion. However, the initial thesis need not be included in the introduction due to its weakness. Ask: Which thesis might you include in the intro? Why?)
Activities 6 through 8 are optional, should you have/want time to extend the discussion of evolving theses into a practical application.
-
Swapping Theses in Order to Evolve (Optional Extension Activity): 15 mins.
Groups will swap theses and then attempt to further develop/complicate/extend their new thesis they have by choosing more evidence. (The instructor could opt not to "swap" and instead allow groups to develop the same thesis they originally composed.) Underneath the appropriate theses, groups will write the newly developed statement on the board. Class will discuss the improvements made and the evidence needed in the draft.
-
From Ideas to Writing (Optional Writing Activity): 10 mins.
Individually, students should write a paragraph that links one of the earlier written theses on the board (they may pick any, not necessarily one they helped write) to the one developed after it. Using evidence and descriptive claims, they should write a paragraph that connects these ideas.
-
Reflecting on Writing: Conclusive Activity: 10 mins.
A few students should read their paragraphs out loud. Students should reflect on the process of connecting one initial claim with another that is more developed. What were the challenges? How did students make the connections? What did they learn that they can take into their own writing assignments? (These paragraphs are also good assessment tools for the instructor to determine students comfort-level with this concept.)
Have an idea for Tried and True? Send it to fywp@osu.edu!
Return to Top