Diana and I are preparing our first faculty workshop of the semester. Our topic is “Helping students construct a thesis statement”. We are thinking about ways of getting students to understand the concept, identify thesis statements in assigned readings, and generate theses themselves. We wonder if faculty (all social scientists) will be interested. What if they think that it is not their job to teach writing, hence don’t show up? We need to emphasize that what we mean by a thesis statement is actually the answer to questions in their assignments: It is the research question (and the answer) in ethnography; the stance taken in an argumentative essay; or the explanation of a phenomenon in expository writing. Teaching to construct a thesis statement is more about teaching how to think than it is about teaching how to write. Maybe we should call it something other than “thesis statement”, something that doesn’t sound in the realm of composition studies?
I would like to hear from other fellows who have done similar workshops as well as faculty who participated in them. How can we stress the relevance of such a workshop for the work of faculty members? How can we make it more interesting and helpful?
I would like to recommend the Dartmouth Writing Program’s website. They have a really useful section entitled, “What’s An Academic Paper?” It includes materials on developing a thesis statement. I’ve adapted some of their materials for the ‘Writing for the Social Sciences’ course I teach.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/ac_paper/develop.shtml
Reply to Deborah Gambs
Hello,
I have never attended a workshop on the subject but have been able to find a number of great resources to help me help my students a little better by offering advice that is more at their language level. One of my sixth-graders sent me a site he uses called (argh… I’ll just post the link..)
http://www.paperstarter.com
I checked it out and have suggested it to other students. Even though most of the books there are beyond their level, it gives them idea about constructing an argument based on themes. This can be applied to argumentative and other non-literature essays too.
Anyway, just my two cents. Enjoyed your blog!
Reply to Kelly M