Essay

For today:

• Scaffolding Essay 1
• Thesis statements
• Watching an example commercial and getting a thesis out of it

Question of the day – favorite TV show?

Scaffolding an essay

• Pretty much any essay you write for a class like this will have the following sections
  • Introduction
  • Background
  • Argument
  • Conclusion
• As your write longer, more complicated and complex essays, each section will get longer and more complicated, but will still be present
  • Writing for different disciplines will have different expectations, but will have similar sections you can learn to rely on
• For the specifics of essay 1
  • Introduction – 1 paragraph
    • Something to attract your reader’s attention
    • Basic definitions of your product and company
    • Title and information about the ad so that people can look it up
    • Thesis
  • Background – 2 to 3ish paragraphs
    • Summary of the ad
    • Context for company
    • Context for product
  • Argument – 2 to 3ish paragraphs
    • Who is the target audience?
    • How does the ad sell its product or idea to that target audience?
    • What strategies does it use to sell the product?
    • How does it compare to other commercials for similar product and/or from similar companies?
  • Conclusion – 1 paragraph
    • Reaffirm your thesis and argument
    • Conclude by reasserting the main thing you’re claiming about how the commercial functions

Starting the writing process – have a thesis statement

• I recommend, as part of your prewriting and before starting any serious drafting, having a thesis statement
• Thesis statements – the last sentence or two of your introduction that clearly state what your argument is going to be
  • In this case for essay 1, that clearly states who the commercial is targeting and how they appeal to that audience
• Thesis statements do useful things for the author, the audience, and the text
  • Author – because it clearly states your intentions, it’s a useful thing to come back to in order to guide you
  • Audience – it signals to your audience what the thing is going to be about, and what they should expect
  • Text – it tells you what sort of evidence your text should have and how it should be used
• EVERYTHING in your essay needs to come back to the thesis in some way
  • Everything will either directly support your main argument as stated in your thesis
  • Or set up something else that will
• Be open to the idea of a working thesis
  • Everything in your essay is subject to change and revision. This includes your thesis
  • It’s easier to change a couple of sentences to match the pages you’ve written than to change the pages to match a couple of sentences
  • Your first thesis should not be the perfect thesis that you end up with at the end of the process
    • It should be good enough to get your writing
  • When you have finished a drafts, ask yourself “did I write about what my thesis said I would? What do I need to change about my thesis to make this question true?”
    • Pro tip – rough drafts of conclusions often have thesis statement material in them
• How to generate a thesis – TOR
  • Topic – what am I writing about?
  • Opinion – what do I think about what I’m writing about?
  • Reason – why do I think what I do about what I’m writing about?
  • Answer these questions and put them all together into a thesis

Let’s practice – considering audience and generating a working thesis

• As we watch this commercial, consider – are you part of the target audience or not?
  • If you consider yourself part of the target audience, what in the commercial appeals to you to make you want to buy the thing?
    • SMASH ANNOUNCMENT
  • If you don’t consider yourself part of the target audience, what questions do you have about the commercial that you think are important enough to need answers? What DO you recognize?
    • Who are all these characters? Particularly the squid children
    • Are they playing paint ball? INK ball? What?
    • Why is Mario all dark and ominous?
    • What kind of game is this?
    • What’s with the symbol and is it dangerous?
    • Where was this aired? E3 2018 Nintendo Direct
• Getting into the target audience…what defines the Nintendo fan?
  • Children
  • Nostalgic adults
  • Longtime fans
  • Young adults
  • Families, groups
  • Who isn’t?
    • Non-gamers
    • People who for whatever reason don’t like Nintendo
    • People who play the kinds of games you don’t usually see on Nintendo platforms
• Thesis statement
  • Topic – this commercial for a video game
  • Opinion – this commercial is targeted directly at long-time fans of this series who will buy it no matter what
  • Reason – this commercial doesn’t have much in it for people that don’t already know what the game is. Instead, it just announces that the game will exist and teases some of the new content.
  • Thesis – this commercial for a new Super Smash Brothers game targets exclusively longtime fans of the series by announcing that the game is going to come out the year the trailer dropped, and by teasing some new content. It rightly assumes that all it needs to do for that audience is announce that the game is happening.

Now consider your commercial

• Take a few minutes right now to write a working thesis using the TOR method
  • Topic – what is your ad?
  • Opinion – what do you think the ad’s audience is and how it targets them?
  • Reason – why do you think that?
  • Put this all into one statement

Side note – consider as your audience your peers in the class and in English 1A classes like it all over the country. There’s very little you can predict everyone in this audience is aware of and has equal knowledge of. You need to ask yourselves always “what does my audience need to know about this topic for them to be able to follow my

 

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