Laughter and Harry Potter debates may not be the first things that come to mind when thinking of a Reading and Writing Center workshop on thesis statements.
Yet, Reading and Writing tutor Cameron Segura, a senior political science major from California who taught at the workshop on Wednesday, Dec. 10, said, “Students are going to learn by working with other students and by participating and doing things. Giving them the opportunity to have group tasks really helps them have to do it, not just write down notes from a lecture.” He emphasized “doing.”
Using familiar examples from movies and allowing them to use their creativity was how tutors Segura and his teaching partner Sean McClellan, a senior from Utah studying social work, accomplished this. Segura said the two spend hours brainstorming and typing up “want we want to go over, what examples we want to use, what games or techniques we want to use to kind of really help it sink into the minds of the students that are participating.”
One student in attendance, Nozomi Kawajo, a social work major from Japan, echoed Segura and said she most enjoys workshops when they're group oriented. “We can understand from one another,” Kawajo said.
At this week’s workshop, they had the topic of thesis statements. “Most people struggle, even I struggle, with knowing what a good, effective thesis statement is at times,” Segura said.
“A thesis statement,” he continued, “Is simply the claim that you’re making. It’s the general point of the paper.”
Segura gave three essential components of a clear thesis statement: A topic, a precise opinion and the reasoning behind the opinion. They demonstrated this by organizing the small group of students into groups of four.
On the first line of the paper they had the students complete the sentence “some people argue that…” with any topic and opinion they wanted to have on it.
McClellan told the students, “This is your chance to argue what’s deep inside your heart and share it with the world.”
The students then passed their papers within the group and each person wrote a different reason supporting that opinion. The students who had originally started with only statements of their opinion and topic all participated in coming up with supporting reasons for each other’s arguments.
After this exercise, each student then had their topic, opinion and three points that they could then base an essay on. The students then read their entire thesis statements out loud. The thesis statements ranged from bookstore prices and pollution to culturally humorous debates that had the class bursting with laughter.
McClellan suggested that students use this technique each time they write an essay. He said, “If you can do this before every essay, your paper will go a lot faster and you’ll be able to guide your paper a lot better.”