Blog Post
Last week and today's class revolved around our research paper and creating and revising the outline for it. Previously, we had learned to distinguish the difference between an effective and ineffective outline and the components that make up a successful one. A good outline should be clear and organized to allow readers to understand the writer's thought process and be easier to use in the final paper, which can be done through the use of various tools. Examples of tools that can be used to enhance the content in an outline, are highlighters and underlining and italicizing words. Highlighters are not only visually appealing, but can sort information together to create a better flow of ideas through color coding information. Italicizing, underlining, and making a letter bold, also make facts and analyses more visible and emphasize the difference between them and their importance to the essay.
While creating our outlines for the research paper it is important to remember other details that should be included in the thesis statement, body paragraphs, and organization. The class notes that we took on February 21 offered help and refreshed us on these and taught us that the thesis statement needs to be specific (but not overly), establish a claim that is being argued, and be able to fit any of the body paragraphs into it. Another thing that was discussed was the two types of thesis statements: multi-point and non-multi-point. Multi-point is a style which describes three points that would be elaborated later in the essay, but not recommended for a 6-7 body paragraph paper, and a non-multi-point thesis would focus more on the overall picture rather than naming points. In class we also talked about how a body paragraph needs to include topic sentences, film and text evidence, and analyses on the quotes chosen. A topic sentence should stem from your thesis statement and be able to unify each body paragraph, evidence, and analyses, and help prove your argument by only incorporating information that was touched upon in the the thesis.
Today, I continued to evaluate my outline and the many flaws found in my body paragraphs' film and text quotes and how I could change them to better match my thesis statement and the points mentioned in it. For example, I was really struggling with my 6th body paragraph's part of my outline because I realized the topic sentence was underdeveloped because the way I said it didn't follow what my thesis had summarized, had little text evidence that supported it, and a weak analysis. I was considering starting the body paragraph from scratch since most of the information wouldn't be beneficial to me and what I had written wasn't very good, but the evidence I had from the documentary was probably one of the best quotes in the outline and I needed to use it. Since I spent the majority of the period explaining my problem to Mr. Rivers and only had 10 minutes left, I decided to begin writing my blog post for the night because I know I would need all the time I could get to finish my outline at a semi-reasonable time tonight.
While creating our outlines for the research paper it is important to remember other details that should be included in the thesis statement, body paragraphs, and organization. The class notes that we took on February 21 offered help and refreshed us on these and taught us that the thesis statement needs to be specific (but not overly), establish a claim that is being argued, and be able to fit any of the body paragraphs into it. Another thing that was discussed was the two types of thesis statements: multi-point and non-multi-point. Multi-point is a style which describes three points that would be elaborated later in the essay, but not recommended for a 6-7 body paragraph paper, and a non-multi-point thesis would focus more on the overall picture rather than naming points. In class we also talked about how a body paragraph needs to include topic sentences, film and text evidence, and analyses on the quotes chosen. A topic sentence should stem from your thesis statement and be able to unify each body paragraph, evidence, and analyses, and help prove your argument by only incorporating information that was touched upon in the the thesis.
Today, I continued to evaluate my outline and the many flaws found in my body paragraphs' film and text quotes and how I could change them to better match my thesis statement and the points mentioned in it. For example, I was really struggling with my 6th body paragraph's part of my outline because I realized the topic sentence was underdeveloped because the way I said it didn't follow what my thesis had summarized, had little text evidence that supported it, and a weak analysis. I was considering starting the body paragraph from scratch since most of the information wouldn't be beneficial to me and what I had written wasn't very good, but the evidence I had from the documentary was probably one of the best quotes in the outline and I needed to use it. Since I spent the majority of the period explaining my problem to Mr. Rivers and only had 10 minutes left, I decided to begin writing my blog post for the night because I know I would need all the time I could get to finish my outline at a semi-reasonable time tonight.
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