Anker Susan. Real Essays with Readings with 2009 MLA Update
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WRITING ESSAYS
Chapter 4 • Finding and Exploring Your Topic 67
• Is it the right size for a short essay? Not really sure.
• Is it broad enough that I can make at least three or four points
about it? I think so.
• Is it narrow enough that I can “dig deeply” and give good details
in a short essay? I think all of these topics are.
• Which one is most important to you? They all are, in different ways.
Losing weight would make me look better and maybe feel better.
A better job would give me more money.
A college degree would get me a better job, and I’d feel like I’d
done something important.
To get a college degree, I have to learn to use my time better.
Maybe I’d be more patient with my kids if I had a better job and
more money.
Stop smoking. Right now I’m not ready.
If I had a degree, a better job, and more money, I could buy things
I want and not feel guilty.
Looking them all over again, though, I think the college degree
would get me other things that are important — like a better job,
more money, maybe more patience with my kids. I’m going to go
with that.
TOPIC NARROWED TOPIC
A personal goal Getting a college degree
Roberta then chose “Getting a college degree” as her narrowed topic.
PRACTICE 2 NARROWING A TOPIC
Use one of the three methods on pages 63–67 to narrow your topic. Then,
ask yourself the “Questions for Choosing a Narrowed Topic.” Write your
narrowed topic below.
NARROWED TOPIC:
Answers will vary.
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WRITING ESSAYS
68 Part One • How to Read and Write in College
Explore Your Topic
Explore a topic to get ideas you can use in your writing. Prewriting
techniques are ways to come up with ideas at any point during the writ-
ing process — to fi nd a topic, to get ideas for what you want to say about
the topic, and to support your ideas.
QUESTIONS FOR EXPLORING A TOPIC
• What interests me about this topic?
• Why do I care about it?
• What do I know?
• What do I want to say?
Use prewriting techniques to fi nd the answers.
Use Prewriting Techniques
You can explore your narrowed topic using one or more of several prewrit-
ing techniques, three of which (questioning, clustering, and listing) you’ve
seen used on pages 63–67. Writers don’t necessarily use all of these. In-
stead, they choose the ones that work best for them after considering their
assignment, their purpose for writing, and their audience.
• Freewrite
• List/brainstorm
• Question
• Discuss
• Cluster/map
• Use the Internet
While exploring ideas, just think; don’t judge. You can decide later
whether your ideas are good or not. At this point, your goal is just to come
up with as many ideas as possible. Get your brain working by writing
down all the possibilities.
The following sections detail techniques for exploring ideas and show
how Roberta Fair used each one of them to get ideas about her topic,
“Getting a college degree.”
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WRITING ESSAYS
Chapter 4 • Finding and Exploring Your Topic 69
Freewrite
Freewriting is like having a conversation with yourself on paper. To free-
write, just start writing everything you can think of about your topic. Write
nonstop for at least fi ve minutes. Don’t go back and cross anything out,
and don’t worry about using correct grammar or spelling; just write.
I don’t know, I don’t think about goals more than just handling every
day — I don’t have time. The kids, my job, laundry, food, school, it’s a
lot. So I just get by day by day but I know that won’t get me or my
kids anywhere. I really do wish I could get a better job that was more
interesting and I sure wish I could make more money and get my kids
better stuff and live in a better place and not be worried all the time
about money and our apartment and all that. I really do need to get
that degree cause I know we’d have a better chance then. I know I
need to fi nish college.
List / Brainstorm
List all the ideas about your topic that you can think of. Write as fast as
you can for fi ve minutes without stopping.
So hard to fi nd time to study
Good in the long run
Lots of advantages
Better job
Better place to live
More money
More opportunities
A big achievement — no one in my family’s ever gotten a degree
But they don’t give me support either
Ask a Reporter’s Questions
Ask yourself questions to start getting ideas. The following reporter’s
questions — Who? What? Where? When? and How? — give you different
angles on a narrowed topic, but you can also use other kinds of questions
that come to you as you explore your narrowed topic.
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WRITING ESSAYS
70 Part One • How to Read and Write in College
Who? Me, a single mother and student
What? Getting a college degree
Where? Stetson Community College
When? Taking classes off and on now, want a degree in next couple of
years
Why? Because I want more out of life for my kids and me
How? Working like a dog to fi nish school
Discuss
When you discuss ideas with someone else, you get more ideas and also
feedback on them from the other person.
Team up with another person. If you both have writing assignments,
fi rst discuss one person’s topic and then the other’s. Ask questions about
anything that seems unclear, and let the writer know what sounds interest-
ing. Give thoughtful answers, and keep an open mind. It is a good idea to
take notes when your partner comments on your ideas.
Roberta: I guess my personal goal is getting a college degree.
Maria: Why?
Roberta: Well, I think it would help me.
Maria: How?
Roberta: You know, I have a lousy job, no money, the kids, stuff like
that.
Maria: Yeah, so how will a college degree help?
Roberta: I know I could get a better job that paid more, so I wouldn’t
have to work so much. I could spend more time with the kids, and
we could live in a better place, you know.
Maria: You sound pretty convinced. So what’s the problem?
Roberta: Doing it. Time, money. But I know it’s worth it for a while,
just till I get the degree.
Cluster / Map
You saw an example of clustering, also called mapping, on page 65. Here
is Roberta’s cluster.
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WRITING ESSAYS
Chapter 4 • Finding and Exploring Your Topic 71
Getting a college degree
Why?
more time
better life
more money
better job
What else?
lasting benefi ts
good role model
I’d be proud
so would my kids
a real achievement
Use the Internet
Go to a search engine such as Google, and type in key words related to your
topic, being as specifi c as possible. The search will probably yield a lot of
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WRITING ESSAYS
72 Part One • How to Read and Write in College
■ TEACHING TIP
This is a good time
to start talking with
students about fi nd-
ing and bookmarking
promising Web sites,
evaluating Web
sources, and avoiding
plagiarism. For more
on evaluating Web
sources, see pages
356–59. For more on
avoiding plagiarism,
see pages 360–63 and
bedfordstmartins
.com/rewritingbasics.
■
TEACHING TIP
Give guidelines for
what the physical
journal should be: a
notebook, loose-leaf
paper, computer fi les,
something of students’
own choice, and so on.
results that can give you more ideas about your topic. For example, Roberta
entered benefi ts of a college degree into Google and found several useful links.
Roberta clicked on the link titled “The Value of a College Degree”
and found some other benefi ts of college.
Keep a Journal
Another good way to explore ideas and topics for writing is to keep a
journal. Set aside a few minutes a day, or decide on some other regular
schedule to write in your journal. Your journal will be a great source of
ideas when you need to fi nd something to write about.
You can use a journal in many ways:
• To record and explore your personal thoughts and feelings
• To comment on things that happen either in the neighborhood, at work,
at your college, in the news, and so on
• To examine situations you don’t understand (as you write, you may fi g-
ure them out)
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WRITING ESSAYS
Chapter 4 • Finding and Exploring Your Topic 73
■ TEACHING TIP
Some students will
need to complete more
than two prewriting
activities in order to
fully explore a topic.
By the time Roberta had used all of the prewriting techniques, she had
decided that her narrowed topic (getting a college degree) was a good one
and had also generated some ideas to discuss in her essay.
ROBERTA’S JOURNAL ENTRY
I’ve been taking courses at the college for a couple of years but
not really knowing whether I’d ever fi nish or not. It’s so hard, and I’m
so tired all the time that I sometimes think it would be easier (and
cheaper!) to stop or to go one semester and not another, but then
it’s so easy to get out of the habit. I need to decide whether getting
a degree is worth all of the effort it will take, and I’m starting to
think it is. I don’t want to live like this forever. I want a better life.
PRACTICE 3 PREWRITING
Choose two prewriting techniques, and use them to explore your narrowed
topic. Keep your readers in mind as you explore your topic. Find ideas that
will be effective for both your purpose and your readers’ understanding.
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74
5
Making a Point
Writing Your Thesis Statement
Understand What a Good
Thesis Statement Is
The thesis statement of an essay states the main point you want to get
across about your topic. It is your position on whatever you are writing
about.
Narrowed topic + Main point/position = Thesis statement
Eating disorders are caused by both cultural and psychological factors.
A strong thesis statement has several basic features.
BASICS OF A GOOD THESIS STATEMENT
• It focuses on a single main point or position about the topic.
• It is neither too broad nor too narrow.
• It is specifi c.
• It is something that you can show, explain, or prove.
• It is a forceful statement written in confi dent, fi rm language.
WEAK THESIS I think college is good, and there are lots of them.
STATEMENT
■ DISCUSSION
Ask students for the
titles of three movies
they have seen, and
write them on the
board. Then, ask stu-
dents to write down
the main point of each
one. Compare notes to
see if everyone agrees.
If not, briefl y discuss
their different interpre-
tations.
■ IDEA JOURNAL
Think about a song
you like. Does it
make a point of some
kind? What is it?
You Know This
You have lots
of experience
understanding
and stating main
points.
• You explain to
a friend why
you are a veg-
etarian (what
the point is).
• You understand
the point of a
movie.
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WRITING ESSAYS
Chapter 5 • Making a Point 75
This statement does not follow the basics of a good thesis statement:
It focuses on two points, not one; it is very broad; the word good is not
specifi c; and the words I think are not forceful or confi dent.
GOOD THESIS A college degree brings many concrete benefi ts such as
STATEMENT better jobs, more career choices, and higher salaries.
This statement has all the basics of a good thesis statement. Check the
list of basics yourself.
Language Note: In some cultures, people avoid making direct
points, either in speech or in writing: It is considered impolite. In
the United States, however, writers are expected to make clear,
direct points. Readers want to know early on what point the writer
will make in the essay, the paragraph, or any nonfi ction text.
A good thesis statement is essential to most good essays. Early in your
writing process, you may develop a draft thesis (or working thesis), a fi rst-try
version of the sentence that will state your main point. You can revise it
into a fi nal thesis statement later in the writing process.
Practice Developing a Good
Thesis Statement
The explanations and practices in this section, which are organized ac-
cording to the basics of a good thesis statement (p. 74), will help you write
strong thesis statements.
Write a Thesis That Focuses
on a Single Main Point
Your thesis should focus on only one main point. If you try to address
more than one main point in an essay, you will probably not be able to give
adequate support for all the points. Also, you risk splitting your focus.
THESIS STATEMENT WITH TWO MAIN POINTS
In the next decade, many schools will have a drastic shortage of teachers,
and teachers should have to take competency tests.
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WRITING ESSAYS
76 Part One • How to Read and Write in College
The two points are underlined. The writer would need to explain why
there will be a shortage of teachers and also why teachers should take
competency tests. These are both meaty points, and any writer would have
trouble supporting them equally in a single essay.
REVISED
In the next decade, many schools will have a drastic shortage of
teachers.
or
Teachers should have to take competency tests.
THESIS STATEMENTS WITH TWO MAIN POINTS
My sister showed great bravery during the war, but my family was very
worried about her.
Internships offer excellent learning opportunities, and the job market is
very tight now.
REVISED
My sister showed great bravery during the war.
or
While my sister was serving in the war, my family worried about her
every single day.
Internships offer excellent learning opportunities.
or
The job market for students is very tight, but there are things you can
do to help get a job.
Although a good thesis statement focuses on a single main point, it
may include more than one idea if these ideas directly relate to the main
point. For instance, the last thesis statement above includes two ideas — a
tight job market and the “several things” (job-fi nding tactics) that can be
done to get a job. The two points are closely related and essential to the
thesis statement.
A good thesis may or may not include other information that the essay
will include. If you know the points or examples that you will make to
support your thesis, you can include them. For example, see how the fol-
lowing revised thesis statements include some points (shown in italics) that
support the writer’s thesis:
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