In this week’s readings and learning activities, you focused on choosing a topic, narrowing it down, and crafting a three-point thesis statement. For this week’s discussion, follow the steps below and develop your response into at least two well-developed paragraphs.
Steps:
Tell the class about a community problem that you have some knowledge of and would like to try and improve. Who are the people in your community most affected by this issue (key stakeholders)? Who in the community is in the best position to bring about a change? What challenges have kept them from solving this problem already?
Share your preliminary, three-point thesis statement. Use the brainstorming chart below to help you develop your thesis.
In your thesis, be sure to identify your target audience, a concrete action the audience can take to solve the problem [solution], and three reasons for action [problem/benefit].
Example: The San Antonio School District [target audience] should provide every high school student with an electronic tablet [solution] because this will encourage more learning outside of the classroom, increase mastery of skills, and increase college acceptance rates [benefit].
Do not worry about getting your thesis perfect this week. At this stage, your thesis is more of a hypothesis that needs testing and refining as you dig further into the problem you will attempt to solve.
Finally, along with the research question below, wrap up your post with an open-ended question.
Identify the community problem you wish to address.
Write a research question that could help you understand the problem.
Who is your target audience?
What is the action that could solve the problem?
What are the reasons that this solution is needed?
Create a three-point thesis with a claim (what should be done) + because + the reasons this should be done.
For an extra challenge in your peer feedback this week, try to determine the major premise of your classmate’s thesis by using what you learned from the “Major Premise” section of the Thesis and Logical Argument Tutorial, and then tell the class if you agree with the major premise or if you have some concerns with it. Those concerns can help your peers fine-tune the thesis statement. Hint: To determine the major premise, you can replace the “action” in the solution part of the thesis with “something” and the word “because” with “if.” The major premise is the problem statement.
Example: The San Antonio School District should provide every high school student with an electronic tablet because this will encourage more learning outside of the classroom, increase mastery of skills, and increase college acceptance rates.
Major Premise: The San Antonio School District should do something if it encourages more learning outside of the classroom, increases mastery of skills, and increases college acceptance rates.
Minor Premise: Tablets encourage learning outside of the classroom, increase mastery of skills, and increase college acceptance rates.
REFERENCE THE READING:
Refer to and credit the unit reading concepts to help validate your ideas and give you practice with using and crediting source information. When you refer to concepts from the unit’s reading, be sure to use a signal phrase like “According to . . . [name of reading].” If you are directly quoting the reading or another source, be sure to use quotation marks and cite the source using proper APA in-text citations and full references. See the Purdue Global Writing Center’s Using Sources for resources on APA citation formatting. In addition, here is a reference from APA to help you cite the readings.
WRITING EXPECTATIONS:
All discussion posts and responses to peers should be written in complete sentences and exhibit the Four Cs. Before posting, proofread for grammar, spelling, and word choice issues. Be sure to respond fully to every aspect of the discussion.
