Chapter Twenty-One

Personal Reaction: Chapter twenty-one had a lot of interesting facts and tidbits. I actually really enjoyed reading the chapter as I felt that I actually learned a lot of things that I did not learn in past English classes. I struggle with finding new and better transition words, so the chart on page 433 is going to be extremely helpful when I go to write my next essay. I also struggle with writing opening paragraphs, so the different bullet points on page 426 are noteworthy. Overall, I feel that I learned a lot from this chapter!

Professional Reaction: Chapter twenty-one is all about strategies for drafting your first essay. There are many tips to effectively draft your paper. The first tip is to make the drafting process enjoyable, this can be done by doing things such as: recording yourself, timing yourself and taking short breaks. These are just a few of the many examples. The next this is to find a way to restart your thought process after you have taken an extended break. After you are done writing for the day leave yourself hints for how to continue then the next day in addition to doing things such as: repeating, rereading and changing activities. These will stimulate your brain and help you finish your draft with ease. Make sure that when you are writing your essay, you use appropriate paragraphing with effective topic sentences. The topic sentence should spell out the main idea of a paragraph in the body of an essay. There are four ways that you can utilize a topic sentence, the first way is by opening with one, the second way is by putting it near the beginning, the third way is by closing with one and the last way is by implying a topic sentence. Writing an opening can be one of the hardest parts of the essay, which is why there are several ways to creating an effective beginning paragraph. You can either begin with a story, comment on a topic or ask a question then you must incorporate your thesis statement. Writing a conclusion follows a similar process. You can either end with a quote, state or restate your thesis, end with a brief emphatic sentence or stop when the story is over. Adding cues and connections is extremely important when writing an essay. To effectively add cues and connections, you must add transition words and sentences, supply transition paragraphs when applicable, use selective repetition and strengthen pronouns.

Clayton Peppler

Photo from: http://www.psych2go.net/how-to-efficiently-take-breaks/

Essay Evaluation

Policy Claims:  What should be done?

My essay is trying to determine what should be done about participation awards, that is why I chose to rely heavily on policy claims. The substantiation and evaluation claims would not have been able to effectively support my position the way that policy claims do. When I do my revisions, I do not plan on adding substantiation or evaluation claims, instead I will stick to just my policy claims.  

Ethos, Pathos and Logos:

Throughout my essay, I used all three persuasion techniques. Instead of utilizing all three techniques equally, I relied heavily on logos and ethos. I wanted to create an argument that is logical and ethical, instead of an argument that is emotional. In my revision stage, I think that I may go back through and add some more logos, because I believe that would be most effective in creating my argument.

-Adding more statistics

-Adding more of my first hand observations

Clayton Peppler

Photo From: http://www.florianmueck.com/rhetoric/the-five-dimensions-of-persuasion

Personal Reaction: Growing up, I’ve alway struggled with creating the perfect thesis. I learned tactic after tactic but would still doubt my final projects accuracy due to the thesis. When I approached this chapter, I was guessing that I would see information that I was sure I already knew. I found that the charts provided and the different kind of thesis will help me in the future with the information provided.

Professional Reaction: In chapter twenty, the process of creating a thesis The discussion on the difference between the explicit and implicit thesis is discussed. I had never heard of these two different thesis’s. The most interesting fact I learned though was the working thesis. The working thesis is when the topic is stated in addition to a slant or altitude. Having a working thesis will result in a central idea and a statement that you can demonstrate your statement successfully. Once your essay is complete, one can use the information stated on page 406 to learn how to successfully revise your thesis. After your thesis has been revised, you are then going to classify your thesis into your sequence. Emphasizing ideas, cluster, rainbow connections, linking, solitaire, and slide show sequences are the main six categories one can classify their thesis into. Then one can classify their thesis by a spatial, logical, or chronological thesis. Once you have categorized your thesis and completed the outline, it’s time to start writing your essay.

Photo from www.slideshare.net
Emily LeMasters

Chapter Twenty

Personal Reaction: I found chapter twenty to be interesting, with ideas and concepts that I have been exposed to in the past. Even though I have been exposed to these ideas and concepts, it is not nearly as in depth as the book goes. I am someone that struggles with writing clear and concise theses, so I really enjoyed learning about different tools that could help improve this critical writing skill. I usually do not write outlines, but I may use their formal outline for when I write my research essay. I believe that having an outline for this extensive paper will be very beneficial.

Professional Reaction: Chapter twenty is all about planning and creating an effective thesis. There are two types of theses, explicit and implicit. An explicit thesis is exactly what it says, a thesis that is directly stated while an implicit thesis is one that is indirectly suggested. There is a formula to create a working thesis: Topic + Slant or Attitude or Point = Working Thesis. Once you have a working thesis, you must refine it by following these tips: make sure that the thesis is exact, that is has one central idea, that it is stated in positive manner and is a limited statement that you can effectively demonstrate. After you refine your thesis, it is time to improve it. The chart on page 406 gives you the step by step instructions on how to effectively revise and edit your working thesis. Once you have refined and improved your thesis, it is at its final form. With your thesis done, it is time to sort your ideas into groups. There are three groups that your ideas can fall into: spatial, chronological or logical. Once the groups are determined, it you must arrange them in sequences. There are six type of sequences: rainbow connections, emphasizing ideas, linking, solitaire, slide show and cluster. Once these two steps are completed, you must formally or informally outline your ideas. The outline that you will chose will depend on the type of essay that you are writing.  

Clayton Peppler

Photo From: http://blogs.msbcollege.edu/2013/03/15/8-tips-for-constructing-an-amazing-thesis-statement/