English 101: Fall 2006
Essay #2 Assignment: Using Examples to Support a Thesis
Dr. Tina L. Hanlon
Ferrum
College,
thanlon@ferrum.edu
Home page for English 101, Angel Log-in
Drafts of this essay are due in conferences no later than Thursday, Oct. 5.
Write a thesis-and-support essay that uses good examples to support the thesis. In class we will discuss and add to the list of topics to choose from (see below). The topics will be based on reading Newsweek, including "My Turn" articles on the website.
First, make a collection of examples you might use in your essay. Depending on your topic, you will find your examples in your own memory, or by talking to people, or looking around the campus or your neighborhood or community. Take good notes while you are collecting your examples.
Most essays you read contain examples to support the writer’s main ideas. As you read Newsweek and other publications, notice how feature articles often start with specific examples and use them in a variety of ways in the article (e.g., an article on mental illness may feature the stories of several specific people who have suffered from mental illness, as well as summarizing research on treatments and testimony from professional experts). Think about what kinds of examples make an essay more interesting and convincing. Review chap. 3-4 in LBH (especially pp. 92-93) on organizing paragraphs in a thesis-and-support paper.
After you have collected examples, you will need to decide how to focus your essay and develop a thesis. It is likely that you will have to narrow your focus and not use all the examples you collected. For example, writing about many different kinds of new experiences for college students would not make a well-focused essay; you probably would need to develop a meaningful observation for the thesis about a particular kind of new experience and then describe specific examples of that type of experience.
Once you begin to outline the essay, think about which examples best support your thesis, and how to organize them. Be sure you have good reasons for the order in which you discuss them in the essay.
Possible topics (based on 10/2/06 Newsweek articles or online "My Turn" columns and class discussion):
09/29/2006