Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #694 - Academic persuasive essay writing roundup with thesis - How to Write a Persuasive Essay - part nine

https://www.kibin.com/essay-writing-blog/persuasive-thesis-statement-examples/

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #694 - Academic persuasive essay writing roundup with thesis  - How to Write a Persuasive Essay - part nine

Hi Mom,

Since I want to share my persuasive essay writing posts with my students, I felt it was time for a round up and a few additional remarks.

If you're a student of mine, Hi, look around the blog. Tell me what you liked.

If you're not a student of mine, but you found this page in your searching, Hi, also, leave me a comment, prove that you're not a robot.

Whoever you may be, dear reader, the list of links to all my posts in this series plus a link to the category can be found by scrolling down.

My goal with this entry is to give some round up to the series thus far and some thoughts on the thesis materials one can find as first results in a Google search.

Chris starts his "introduction" by breaking two rules

So, let me start my general remarks by breaking one of the most important rules of essay writing, which is narrating what I am doing. This whole "let me start my remarks" nonsense is just that -- malarkey. If I start remarks, then they are started, and since I am obviously writing them, I hardly need to tell you readers that I am doing so.

But I have an out clause here, which is that this is my blog, and I can break "rules" of essay writing because, strictly speaking, this is not an essay.

Another "rule" I am breaking is the one against the use of the second person in directly addressing the reader. Generally, unlike magazine features which use the technique all the time, in academic writing, one should avoid the use of the second person pronouns and refrain from directly addressing the reader. See this to prove to my students that I am not lying.

http://www.semo.edu/pdf/Writing_handout_Avoiding_Second_Person.pdf

This blog is special. As I designed the Hey Mom blog feature as a continuation of conversations with my mother, I routinely address, you, Mom, this way. But since I know other readers, other than my Mom, read this blog, I am clear to distinguish when I mean you, Mom, and you, the reader who is not my Mom.

Some general thoughts on thesis and the image up top

When I started today's post, I went searching for an image for the top, which is part of my format (and is a common blog format). I found the chart, which I will repeat here with its link.

FROM - https://www.kibin.com/essay-writing-blog/persuasive-thesis-statement-examples/

This chart hits many highlights about writing thesis statements -- a feature which is the core element of any academic, persuasive essay -- that I also emphasize in many of my eight previous posts on this subject (see below for list of links).

The chart makes five important points about thesis statements, many of which I re-iterate in my own blog series about thesis and persuasive essay writing.

Check out the link. I did some investigating and could not source the owners of kibin.com, but the testimonials page -- https://www.kibin.com/testimonials -- demonstrates that Kibin has helped many people who speak highly of it.

I was impressed with the link of thesis statement examples because it began with a point I have emphasized that students often share a startling fact believing it works as a thesis statement. The page then shares twenty examples of thesis statement using questions as prompts. As shown in the chart, a thesis statement is not a question as it's a statement by definition in the term itself (IE. it's not called the "thesis question"). And so the page shows question prompts and the thesis statements that follow from those questions, such as

13. Should a relaxed dress code be allowed in the workplace?
A relaxed dress code is not appropriate in many business offices because it creates a relaxed and casual atmosphere which may cause customers to lose confidence in the business.

I like this example very much because the prompt question uses the verb "should" and the answer contains the word "because" and so it conforms to the "because-should" formula that I teach in my series, most notably in parts four and five (see links below also).

I harp on my "because-should" formula a lot with my students as I consider it an easy, plug-and-play method for roughing out an effective persuasive thesis statement in problem-solution form with an essay map that will pass the five tests (see part five).

I am always careful to emphasize that my "because-should" formula is NOT the only way to construct an effective thesis, but that it is one way and it works well for 99% of subjects and situations.

I also like the following prompt and thesis example because it keys into the subject of parenting, which is a subject choice for some of my current students:

6. Should all high school students be required to complete parenting classes?
In order to both educate teens about life as a parent and to help prevent teenage pregnancy, high school students should be required to complete parenting classes.

Though the thesis does not use a "because" clause, the reasons are still outlined in the first part of the sentence, flagged by "in order," which serves the same purpose. The second part of the thesis argues for a solution, the "should" clause, exactly as I establish in my "because-should" formula.

Though some of the thesis statements (like these two shared here on this entry) are better than others, there's lots of good stuff on this kibin page. I have vetted it with a thumbs up.

@hellocdr

VETTING THESIS HELP PAGES ON THE INTERNET

As I just noted, some pages on the Internet are helpful, and I can give my whole approval for them, and others are not as good and they advise things that are not useful.

For instance, this is a good one

https://clas.uiowa.edu/history/teaching-and-writing-center/guides/argumentation

There are many great ideas on this page, including notes on making thesis statements more specific, multiple ways to brainstorm a thesis, and even my favorite analogy, which is the claim made to be proven in a court of law.

In a basic Google search of "academic persuasive essay writing thesis," most of the top results will be from .edu cites (with kibin being the one of two non- .edu site in the first seven results). I wish my blog series rated higher in this search result. Sadly, my blog appears nowhere in the first 100 or so (nine pages) results.

I am less crazy about this one below, more because of the tired, old advice about a restatement of the thesis and a summary conclusion than anything else. The page offers some good advice, but it's not laid out as well as the uiowa.edu page and had less detailed thesis advice.

https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/centers/writing/writing-resources/persuasive-essays


This one is particularly good, too. There are many good because-should constructions and alternatives. A few thesis statements need revision but overall, a keeper:

http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/writers/tips/thesis/

THOUGHTS ON BRAINSTORMING YOUR THESIS

Sometimes, writing the essay first helps.

I used to advise students to do a very rough draft of an essay first by spilling all ideas about a subject onto the page and let the flow of words help the development of ideas and the discovery of a thesis.

However, often students attempt to submit this work for credit rather than re-working it an re-organizing it.

I plan to write more on this subject and introductions in the next installment.

LINKS TO THE WHOLE SERIES - WITH DESCRIPTIONS

The persuasive essay series I have written originated with lecture notes for my classes. Some of the format of the text reads more like notes than like an essay-style description and explanation.

Here are the links to the previous seven installments of this feature.

How to Write a Persuasive Essay Part One - First post in the series. Features a general introduction and the basic step-by-step process for developing a persuasive essay. There are also an assortment of helpful links to resources. Also, my clarification on the words subject and topic appears here.

How to Write a Persuasive Essay Part Two - This one covers finding a subject for a persuasive essay and some brainstorming ideas - research first!

How to Write a Persuasive Essay Part Three - Part three discusses analyzing a subject to produce the problem-solution structure that works best for persuasive essays. The post considers how audience impacts this work and then an example of the process is shown.

How to Write a Persuasive Essay Part Four - Here, in part four, I begin a two part discussion of my because-should thesis formula. I describe basic ideas about thesis, how my because-should form works, and then deliver several thesis examples with the form and without the form.

How to Write a Persuasive Essay Part Five - Part five continues to describe my because-should thesis formula. I share the benefits of the formula and the five tests of a good thesis.

How to Write a Persuasive Essay Part Six - In parts six and seven, I bust myths related to essay writing and English composition in general. Part six tells the truth (negates stupidity) about use of first and second person pronouns in essays, and the stand against using Wikipedia. 

How to Write a Persuasive Essay Part Seven - In part seven, I tear off the cover on the concept of "maximum lengths" in essay writing and the use of tired, old summary conclusion.

How to Write a Persuasive Essay Part Eight - In part eight, I share more samples analyses for essay ideas with rough outlines of topic sentences and paragraphs.

CATEGORY LINK for all posts in PERSUASIVE ESSAY WRITING:

http://sensedoubt.blogspot.com/search/label/persuasive%20essays

FORTHCOMING - VIDEOS!!

I plan to make some You Tube videos. Right now, my instructional videos are on other subjects as well as some cute dog videos and my Spider-Man poem video which I share again here after the link to my You Tube Channel.

https://www.youtube.com/user/gmrstudios2








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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 696 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1705.31 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #693 - You're All Just Jealous of my Jet Pack - cartoons of Tom Gauld

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #693 - You're All Just Jealous of my Jet Pack-  - cartoons of Tom Gauld

Hi Mom,

Still in a re-post mode. Fortunately for me, I have many posts in drafts that are ready to go.

Warren Ellis sent a Twitter message, his second in a week's time, about this cartoonist, and so I was reminded that I had saved some of his work in post and had it ready to go.

His site, a Tumblr, has a great name: "You're All Just Jealous of My Jet Pack." I had to copy the words of his title as individual images for the repost. His stuff is really fun. I encourage you to check out his Tumblr and keep an eye out for his work.

Vacation is over today, though we have not been restful. There's so much to do.

I have bookmarked some posts that I hope to complete. More original content soon.

Thanks for tuning in.

http://myjetpack.tumblr.com/

CARTOONS BY TOM GAULD

24th May 2017 | Nº 769

A cartoon for New Scientist magazine.
More cartoons and shop at: https://www.tomgauld.com/

22nd May 2017 | Nº 921

For the Guardian Review.
#tomgauld #cartoon #surgery #writing #editing

15th May 2017 | Nº 525

For New Scientist
#tomgauld #cartoon #science #sustainability

9th May 2017 | Nº 7720

For the @guardian
#tomgauld #cartoon #theguardian #writing #character

8th May 2017 | Nº 1061

For New Scientist
#tomgauld #science #technology #cartoon

3rd May 2017 | Nº 163

Mooncop has been nominated for Eisner Awards in the Best Graphic Album, Best Artist/Writer and Best Lettering categories.
It is still available in good bookshops and online:
UK - http://amzn.to/2qr4hSn
US - http://a.co/e1wkB0r
more info: https://www.tomgauld.com/comic-books-v2/

1st May 2017 | Nº 571

I’ve put ten new drawings into my shop:
https://www.tomgauld.com/shop/?category=Originals

26th Apr 2017 | Nº 223

For @newscientistofficial
#tomgauld #cartoon #science #sciencepark

22nd Apr 2017 | Nº 688

For New Scientist.
#tomgauld #cartoon #science #dinosaurs #jurassicpark

18th Apr 2017 | Nº 685

For the @guardian.
#tomgauld #cartoon #fluffyduck #ageing

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 695 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1705.30 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #692 - Spirits of Place - Musical Monday for 1705.29

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #692 - Spirits of Place - Musical Monday for 1705.29

Hi Mom,

This is a very different Musical Monday as it features both music and some cool content.

We're still hip deep here in things to do with homes and our busy lives.

So much to tell you, Mom, but less time for original content right now than usual.

This is another share of something I want to read, and my second of two posts, shared back-to-back, of Warren Ellis related material.

I would wax on about this content, but I haven't even thought about it properly. I would attempt to think about it properly now, if I did not have so many things to do.

So for now, just this. I hope, more soon.

Best to you and yours.

I am thinking of you, today, Mom, on this Memorial Day. I will note one last thing. In a brief glance at Facebook, I saw a friend announce the death of his father. This man saved our lives once, me and my team mates. We had played a Sectionals tournament in Ann Arbor, savage (no subs), all day in 90 degree heat. Trevor Darnell invited us to his Dad's place. He had been preparing food for us all day, He had pork chops grilling. He had many sides of great things, and there was a glorious hot tub. We stayed the night here and played Ultimate, somehow, the next day. But without these amenities, we would not have "survived." I mean, I know it was not a lethal danger, but we were all starved and exhausted and Trevor's dad took care of everything and rejuvenated us.

I will never forget his kindness and generosity.
I am sad to hear that he passed away today.

But here's some things beautiful to lift our spirits, both in the writing and in the music.

Happy Musical Monday because one does not say "Happy Memorial for the Dead Day," not really.

FROM - http://folklorethursday.com/urban-folklore/talking-maria-j-perez-cuervo-warren-ellis-damien-williams-spirits-place/#sthash.hOT9lzzl.dpbs

Psychogeography & Landscape in ‘Spirits of Place’: An Interview with Contributors

Spirits of Place is an anthology examining the relationship between place and narrative – how stories, folkloric, historic, or otherwise, can become embedded in a location. In the book twelve writers – Alan Moore, Maria J. Pérez Cuervo, Warren Ellis, Gazelle Amber Valentine, Iain Sinclair, Bryndís Björgvinsdóttir, Vajra Chandrasekera, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Kristine Ong Muslim, Mark Pesce, Dr. Joanne Parker, and Damien Williams – each provide their own unique take on this premise. I, John Reppion, am the editor/curator of Spirits of Place and I wanted to take a bit of time to talk to three of the contributors about their individual essays, and more generally about the books core concept.

Maria J. Perez Cuervo is a Spanish born, Bristol based writer specialising in archaeology, history, mystery and myth.  Her piece is entitled ‘The Palace Built Over a Hellmouth‘ (and can be read in full online by following the link).

John: Had you been meaning to write about El Escorial prior to your piece for Spirits of Place, or was there a flash of inspiration that led to your choosing the location and subject matter?

Maria: I knew there was a story there and I had written a note about it in my book of ideas. When you contacted me I thought of Spanish locations I had visited. Writing about El Escorial made sense because I could do it from a personal angle. I’ve only been once, two decades ago, so there’s a distance to it now. It was a nightmare-like experience and it feels very unreal to me. It was like conjuring up the memories of a different person. It also allowed me to reflect upon that grey area between Catholicism and superstition, which I find much more uncomfortable – perhaps because it’s more stifling – than the English weird, where I feel at home.

John: What’s your take on the Spirits of Place core premise about stories being physically embedded in a place or landscape?

Maria: It’s something I always carry with me, and the main reason why I love travelling. One of my favourite things to do when I arrive to a new place is to allow my mind to wander freely, trying to tap into what the place is telling me. It’s a visceral thing, but I suppose your senses inform you as well, based on your subconscious knowledge of history or architecture or whatever.

I once visited a place called Santa María del Naranco in Asturias as a teenager. It is a church, but I walked around and imagined it as a room full of Medieval lords having a banquet. When the tour guide explained it had been a palace before the 12th century, I was really surprised to see it matched my vision.

It’s easier to connect to the Spirit of Place in ancient ruins or in Medieval buildings, but it can also happen in big cities: I remember being ridiculously creeped out by the skyline in Berlin, thinking about how it would have looked – and felt – in WWII.

There’s something almost supernatural in experiencing the Spirit of Place, almost like channeling –not that I’ve ever channeled, but still. I’m not particularly concerned about my impressions being true or not, though. Its value is that your own experience becomes a story that you carry within.

A Compendium of Tides © Warren Ellis

Warren Ellis is a graphic novelist, writer, public speaker, and life-long resident of the Thames Delta. His piece, ‘A Compendium of Tides’,  deals with the history and psychogeography of his native terrain.

John:  As a writer, you think that where you come from, where you live and work has a direct influence on your output? Perhaps in a way that your readers might not even comprehend.

Warren: Possibly? We’re weirdly separate from everything out here, even though we’re only an hour by train from London. When I was a kid, we’d see ads on the TV for new films and try to calculate how long it’d be before they would make it to our local cinemas. A month? Six weeks?  For my generation, certainly, forty miles seemed like a thousand. It’s always felt outside the culture, outside the conversation, out here. Isolated. I suppose that’s had an effect on what I do.

John: I remember when you were doing your podcast, SPEKTRMODULE six years or so ago, before it went “full ambient”, you used to do some spoken word stuff and talk a bit about Essex and the Thames Delta and some of the stuff you covered in ‘A Compendium of Tides’. Is writing about Essex something you’ve wanted to do, or else steered away from, for any reason previously?

Warren: Oh, I had to stop that. I can’t stand the sound of my own voice – I’m sure some people find that unbelievable – and so I just couldn’t listen to the podcasts after I compiled them. Horrible.

I don’t know that I’ve ever had a lot to say about Essex. I mean, I jumped at the chance to do it for Spirits of Place, because I hadn’t done it in any sustained way before, and I figured I’d have a lot to get out of my system. Still not sure if I did, in the end, but I feel like I scratched the itch. I never exactly steered away from it before, but my part of the world is so littoral that I found it unexpectedly hard to surround, in the end.

John: Is there anything you left out of Compendium that you felt didn’t quite fit, or that you overlooked at the time, which you feel is a kind of quintessential bit of local lore or history?

Warren: John Rut, the man who sent the first known letter in English from America to Britain. Essex sailor who sailed the first British boat down the east coast of America. John Ball, the “mad priest of Kent,” gave his most radical speeches in Essex, getting the Peasant’s Revolt moving. I learn new Essex stories all the time. Cassandra Latham-Jones, notable for being the first and possibly only self-employed person to have listed her occupation as “village witch” with the tax office, was born and raised in Essex. But they all drift in and out of the county, on the tides.

John: What’s your take on stories being physically embedded in a place or landscape?

Warren: Look at our earthworks and megaliths, so many of them designed to be revealed by processions or act in concert with the sun at certain times of year. Those are acts of dramatising our landscapes – making stories out of them. We’ve always embedded narrative in the world, and drawn it out of the world. The core premise is in fact one of the core hard-codes inside the human species.  This is what we do.

Damien Williams is an American writer and teacher who has been been, talking, thinking, and learning about philosophy, comparative religion, magic, artificial intelligence, human physical and mental augmentation, pop culture, and how they all relate for more than a decade. His piece ‘Stealing the Light to Write By’ talks about his personal journey through all of the above.

John: Did you know straight away what you were going to write about for the book?

Damien: I think part of it was always going to be very personal. I tried a few different angles of approach, including one where I broke the sections up by interspersing facts about the life cycle of ravens and wolves, but ultimately all that changed was the order of the telling.

One of the things I had wanted to include was about elements of synchronicity around Ireland and ravens that showed up throughout my life. I’ve never been to Ireland, ever, but there’s always been a resonance, there, where imagery or symbolism of Irish ravens will crop up at significant points in my life. In the end, I just couldn’t figure out a way to weave it into the narrative.

John: What’s your take on the books core premise of stories being physically embedded in a place or landscape?

Damien: I definitely find that a place carries its narrative in itself, and that that narrative gets reinforced the more people live in that place and tell that story. Eventually the place passes along a sense of itself, a story that “everybody knows.” It’s something I’ve experienced in cities like DC and in a couple of houses where I’ve lived. They have a sense of themselves that emanates and reverberates through everyone that passes through or resides in them. Some places are so much themselves that they can change how people act and how they think about what they are.

Spirits of Place means so many different things to different people; they are the echoes of events, of ideas which have become imprinted upon a location, for better or for worse. They are the genii loci of classical Roman religion, the disquieting atmosphere of a former battlefield, the comfort and familiarity of a childhood home.  The Spirits of Place surround us, influence not just in what we do but in who we are.

Spirits of Place is available in e-book, paperback, and limited edition signed hardback from Daily Grail Publishing at www.spiritsofplace.com

- See more at: http://folklorethursday.com/urban-folklore/talking-maria-j-perez-cuervo-warren-ellis-damien-williams-spirits-place/#sthash.PKj9MyUL.dpuf


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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 694 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1705.29 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

On Memorial Day 1965 - me 3yrs 4 months

Mom and Lori - Memorial Day 1976

Mom and Her Dad Foster Delbridge 5-23-98