May 29

First, we completed the writing into the day about “rules” for a thesis (see PowerPoint slide 31).

Together, we created a class list of “rules” on the board.

• Outline
• Contains the point the writer is trying to get across
• Only one sentence
• Could be two sentences
• It is in the introduction paragraph
• It shouldn’t be phrased as a question
• It can be phrased as a question
• It can be implied or directly stated
• Clear and concise
• It should have facts to support the main idea
• It doesn’t have to be at the beginning
• An assertion
• It contains the direction of the paper
• It is the topic of your body paragraphs

What are the different kinds of writing that require a thesis?

• Research papers
• Essays
• Argumentative
• Compare and contrast

Does academic writing always require thesis statements?

• Yes, because it is informative.
• No, because you don’t have a thesis for a descriptive essay
• No, because you don’t need a thesis for creative writing, which is in school

We got into four small groups and scanned through the first 5-6 pages of a professional article.  Each group was assigned one article.  As the groups read through the articles, they paid attention to when the authors did or did not use first person.  We tried to figure out when authors choose to use first person and for what reasons.  In whole group, we had the following discussion:

• He used first person throughout.  He only used third person when he was using metaphors and examples of other people’s writing processes.
• It was from his perspective.
• He used first person when he was giving examples of how to use grammar.
• He is speaking from his experience.
• First person started in the second paragraph because he was making the introduction.  Once the reader had the introductory information, the writer used “we” to speak collectively.
• First person is used to draw the reader in and make it easier to reader.
• A writer might use second person to give a directive.
• The use “you” when they want to convey something directly to you the reader.

Then we talked about the questions on slide 32 of the Power Point.

• Nothing in academia is understood.  You are making an assumption when you use “you”
• It’s unprofessional.
• If you are informing someone of something, you are supposed to assume they don’t agree with you.
• In academia, it’s about personal opinion.
• If you are using second person, you are talking to the student so what would you need a teacher there for?
• It’s like you’re talking down to the reader.
• You are assuming the teacher agrees with you.
• You are supposed to be swaying the teacher’s opinion.
• Teachers say not to use it because they were taught that.
• It’s across the board as far as education.  The professional have already been through school.
• One of the things about writing a paper is that it’s about learning and use second person is absolutes.
• You can use first person, when you are using a personal experience or in narrative.
• If you did research you could talk about your research and the experiment.
• You can use it in compare and contrast if you have collected the data.
• It’s up to the writer when to use first, second or third person.  They just have to make sure it makes sense.
• You can use first and third person in academic writing. 
• When you write about common experience, you can use second person.

In groups of three, we discussed the questions on slide 34 of the PowerPoint.  We read the sentence on slide 35 and took one minute to rewrite it in our own words.  We did the same with the sentence on slide 36.  Then, for writing out of the day, we answered this question:

Both sentences mean the same thing.  For academic writing, which one is better and why?

We will continue this conversation tomorrow.

Homework:

• Read Anne Lamott's "Finding Your Voice" (on Moodle)