1. Thesis Statements & The Five Factors
Objectives: -To Understand the purpose and form of a thesis statement -To Discuss the Five Factors As They Apply to the Memoir Unit. -To Begin Drafting your own Thesis Statements
Thesis Statements & The Five Factors

2. Reading:
For today’s class, you should have read Chapter 2 in Writing Today, Chapters 2 & 3 in Whistling Vivaldi and the 5 factor handout.
For the first five minutes of class, I want you to look back on your reading and try to draw at least one parallel between the two texts whether it be applying one or some of the five factors to Whistling Vivaldi, or looking at how the chapter from Writing Today and the 5 factor handout may overlap. Be ready to discuss what you wrote.

3. Discussion: What are the five factors?
What are the different kinds of thesis statements as listed in the textbook?
What does Steele have to say about the effects of stereotypes?

4. The Rhetorical Situation:
Topic
Angle
Purpose
Audience/Readers
Context

5. The Five Factors: Genre Audience Purpose Style/Tone
Social Context (Four Domains of Writing)

6. Topic: Concept Maps
Choose the most interesting topic that you wrote down last class and write it in a bubble in the center of your paper.
After you have done this, think of 5 smaller bubbles that you can write around this topic.

7. Concept Map Cont’d

8. Angle and Context: What is new about your topic?
Why would someone NOW care about this topic?
Ask yourself, “What unique experiences, expertise, or knowledge [on stereotyping] do I possess that I can bring to the topic?”
What is significant about this time that would make this topic new and interesting? What is going on at this moment? What is the social context?

9. Purpose: Your purpose defines what genre you choose. Purposes:
To inform
To persuade
To defend
To illustrate
To demonstrate
To argue

10. Purpose
Memoirs
“I want to write about the meaning of something I experienced in my life.”
As stated in the assignment sheet, “A memoirist seeks to recreate moments of lived experience as both a character and observer who comments on and interprets these unfolding events, giving them shape and meaning for the present. Memoir is designed not just to share an experience, but to share your understanding of that experience in a way that would be meaningful and useful for your readers.”

11. Thesis Statements: Informative Argumentative
Question or Open-Ended Thesis
Implied Thesis
Which type of thesis would be ideal for a memoir, as per the textbook?

12. Memoirs and the Implied Thesis
Writing Today states, “For genres that use the narrative pattern, such as memoirs […], readers may not expect or need a thesis statement. In these situations, the author’s purpose is to move readers toward thoughtful reflections rather than inform or persuade them about a single specific point. Other times, the author may feel the overall message will be more powerful if readers figure out the main point for themselves” (22).

13. Drafting:
Take the rest of class to begin drafting your memoir. Use the concept map that you worked on at the beginning of class and try to start harnessing an implied thesis. Make sure that your message is coming out of of the text in every paragraph.