Thesis Statements

Make your thesis as clear as this ocean.

The Goal: Establish a concise thesis statement for your essay that clearly answers the prompt and guides the essay's development.

The Plan:

1. Book Love Reading!
2. Thesis Statement Discussion
3. Click here for Socrative (Yes, we're actually going to use it today)
4. Time to work on your essay.

Thesis Statement: a proposition stated or put forward for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or to be maintained against objections

Basically, the main argument you're going to prove and defend over the course of your essay.

Your thesis statement goes in front of your two paragraphs. Usually, it goes into a complete introductory paragraph. But I'm not asking you to write that for this essay (you're welcome). I want you to focus on the body paragraphs and how you are creating them to support your thesis thoroughly.

Prompt: How do we establish identity within cultural and societal expectations?

Possible Thesis Statement Frames (these MIGHT work for your argument, but you have to clearly state what your argument is, and that might not fit in these sentences):

• In The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros illuminates/unmasks/reveals/conveys/suggests Esperanza's need/desire/goal/__________________________________ because of/in spite of/so that/regardless of/in hopes of _________________________________________________.
  
• Through Esperanza's struggles in The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, it is argued/illuminated/revealed/ that ___________________________________
  
• The character of Esperanza, in The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros, wants ______________________ and is capable/incapable of achieving that end due to ____________________________.
  
• Sandra Cisneros argues, in The House on Mango Street, that one develops their identity by ___________, which is especially difficult/important/relevant to Esperanza, who ____________________________________________.

Homework:

• Work on your essay
• On Friday, we will be talking about book reviews for your Independent Reading Book Love Book. (You'll need to have finished a book by then.)