1. February 5 – Thesis and Writing Skeleton
Agenda:
Writing a Thesis
Writing Skeleton
Topic Sentences
Homework:
Complete your writing skeleton
Take out:
Homework
Notebook
Pen/Pencil

2. Thesis Creation
Consider the prompt. Identify which elements MUST be addressed in your thesis:
PROMPT: Analyze the satirical elements Twain uses to criticize one specific aspect of society.
Create a thesis. You may use one of the formats below as a starting point:
Mark Twain criticized _________ using the satirical techniques _________, __________, and ___________.
In _________, __________, and __________, Mark Twain used satire to criticize __________.
Mark Twain used satirical techniques to repeatedly criticize __________.

3. Writing Skeleton

4. Writing Skeleton
A writing skeleton is a VERY basic outline built from your working thesis
It should help you plan your essay, and make you think about how the parts are going to work together
It is broken into three levels
Level 1 – Topics
Level 2 – Details
Level 3 – Information
You will be starting your writing skeleton today in class

5. Writing Skeleton – Level 1
The first level of the writing skeleton is made up of TOPICS
For our purpose those topics are simple:
The various works of Mark Twain
Topics are NOT complete ideas, which is why only a part of your essay will be dedicated to each topic
In order to turn each topic into a complete idea, you will need to write a TOPIC SENTENCE for each one, because ideas only become whole when they are composed in sentence form.

6. Level 1 – Turning a Topic into an Idea
In order to write a topic sentence, you need to turn each topic into an IDEA
Each IDEA needs to relate back to the THESIS
To do this simply, use the formula: THESIS + REASON = TOPIC SENTENCE
To complete this formula:
Take the MAIN IDEA out of your thesis (ex: religion)
Then take each TOPIC (work by Mark Twain), and use it to create a REASON that the MAIN IDEA is true (ex: In The Mysterious Stranger, Mark Twain criticizes religion by creating a lampoon, and using ironic statements.)
Write your own topic sentences using this formula.

7. Writing Skeleton – Level 1
As you can see, there are three spots for level one topics
Write your three topic sentences into those spaces:
I – Work #1
II – Work #2
III – Work #3

8. Writing Skeleton – Level 2
The second level of the writing skeleton is made up of DETAILS
For you, these should be the specific details that relate to each topic, and that you will use to prove your topic sentences, and therefore your thesis
Select two DETAILS for each TOPIC, and write them in the spaces provided

9. Writing Skeleton – Level 3
The third level of the writing skeleton is made up of INFORMATION about each DETAIL
As you can see, there are two level 3 spots for information under each level 2 detail
In the first spot (a) you should put the CONTEXT of the detail
This is the stuff that you need to know to understand the detail
That’s the Who, What, When, Where and Why
In the second spot (b) you should put the SATIRICAL TECHNIQUE
Explain how Twain uses a satirical technique to make his point

10. Homework
Complete the Basic Essay-Planning Skeleton… but don’t turn into one!
This PPT and the organizer will BOTH be posted on the blog – so if you need a reminder, or you want to simply fill in the organizer on your computer, you will be able to download it