Thesis Statement, Topic Sentence, Critique Paper PDF

# English for Academic & Professional Purposes ## Thesis Statement, Topic Sentence, Critique Paper ### LESSON OBJECTIVES * Differentiate thesis statement from a topic sentence * Determine the topic sentence in a paragraph * Determine the thesis statement of an academic text * Differentiate the va...

# English for Academic & Professional Purposes ## Thesis Statement, Topic Sentence, Critique Paper ### LESSON OBJECTIVES * Differentiate thesis statement from a topic sentence * Determine the topic sentence in a paragraph * Determine the thesis statement of an academic text * Differentiate the various literary criticism approaches * Choose the most appropriate literary criticism approach on a given text ## Thesis Statement A thesis statement is the basic stand that an author takes, the opinion that he expresses, and the major point that he wishes to make about his subject. It contains the controlling idea of the essay, and therefore, gives the direction and the unity to all the separate elements of the writing. ## Parts of a Thesis Statement | Part | Description | |---|---| | TOPIC | What is being talked about | | CLAIM | The author's main opinion or assertion about the topic | | REASON/S | Details to support the claim | ## Drill 1 Identify the parts of the following thesis statements: * **Example of a Thesis Statement** * **Topic:** Vote buying in the Philippines * **Claim:** is normal during elections * **Reason:** due to poverty and mal-education of a great fraction of voters. * **Thesis Statement 1:** Cellphone use while driving should be banned, for it creates an unsafe environment not only for drivers using cell phones but also for other people in nearby vehicles * Topic: Cellphone use while driving * Claim: should be banned * Reason: for it creates an unsafe environment not only for drivers using cell phones but also for other people in nearby vehicles * **Thesis Statement 2:** Attending a community college and state university makes sense since the cost is low and the quality of instruction is high. * Topic: Attending a community college and state university * Claim: makes sense * Reason: since the cost is low and the quality of instruction is high * **Thesis Statement 3:** Registering to vote is important simply because it is our moral and social responsibility. * Topic: Registering to vote * Claim: is important * Reason: simply because it is our moral and social responsibility. ## Topic Sentence The topic sentence contains the dominating idea of the paragraph which gives unity to the paragraph by developing one major point presented in the thesis. Thus, all the topic sentences in the paper are directed to the thesis. It is usually the first sentence of the paragraph, but sometimes is placed in any other position of the paragraph. Each paragraph of the essay or paper should have a topic sentence. The other surrounding sentences serve as the supporting information. ## Bonus Trivia Question: What are the two types of topic sentences? 1. Implicit 2. Explicit ## Parts of a Topic Sentence | Part | Description | |---|---| | TOPIC |what is being talked about | | KEYWORD/S | details that usually reflect the writer's opinion | ## Example of a Topic Sentence * **Topic:** Vote buying * **Keywords:** has a lot of negative effects ## Drill 2 Identify the topic sentence of the following paragraphs: * **Paragraph 1:** Cats are very good pets for several reasons. They are naturally good caregivers because they take care of their kittens, so they want to take care of their owners as well. Cats are quite clean, and if you train them to use a litter box, they require almost clean up in their areas. Finally, cats are independent, so you don't need to worry about them being lonely when you're at school all day. * **Topic Sentence:** Cats are very good pets for several reasons. * **Paragraph 2:** First, I went to the wrong classroom for math. I was sitting in the class, surrounded by people taking notes and paying attention to how to do equations, which would have been okay if I was supposed to be in an algebra class. In reality, I was supposed to be in geometry, and when I discovered my error, I had already missed the first twenty minutes of a one-hour class. When I got to the correct class, all twenty-five students turned and looked at me as the teacher said, "You're late." My first day of college was a disaster. * **Topic Sentence:** My first day of college was a disaster. * **Paragraph 3:** The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. * **Topic Sentence:** The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. ## Critique Paper An academic text which is the product of critical assessment, analyses, and evaluation of different works such as scholarly works, literary texts, films, books, games or any work of art. Criticism is not about finding fault on the subject but elucidating both the strengths and weaknesses. ## Critical Approaches/Literary Criticism Theories * Reader Response Theory * Formalism/Formalist Criticism * Feminism/Feminist Criticism * Marxism/Marxist Criticism ### Reader Response Theory: * removes the focus from the text and is more concerned with the reviewer's reaction and understanding as an audience of a text * interested in the reader's individual experience with a text rather than the correct interpretation #### Example of a Reader Response Critique of *Dead Stars* by Paz Marquez Benitez: The title gives a melancholic atmosphere because of the word "dead". It shows how love works in ways no one can totally take in control. Although Alfredo was already engaged to Esperanza, he developed a whirlwind of emotion, which can also be said to be love for Julia. The story is a picture of reality nowadays. There are people who are already committed to a person who eventually develop feelings toward another person. Though the way each and every person deals with the situation differs. ### Formalism: * focuses on the form of the work, the relationships between the parts - the construction of the plot, the contrasts between characters, the point of view, narrative techniques used, relationship of the form and the content, the function of rhymes, and so on. #### Example of a Formalist Critique of *Dead Stars* by Paz Marquez Benitez: The title of the work already gives an idea as to what it means. In Physics, it is stated that the light and energy of the stars must travel light years to reach us. Since they are millions of miles away and light has to travel this large distance, it is highly possible that the star has already exploded while its light is still traveling towards us. Therefore, it is possible that a bright light we see at night actually comes from a dead star. In the story, this metaphor is used to refer to Alfredo's love for Julia, a woman he meets and falls for one fateful summer. ### Feminism * focuses on how literature presents women as subjects of socio-political, psychological, and economic oppression * **Questions:** * How culture determines gender? * How gender equality or the lack of it is presented in the text? * How gender issues are presented in literary works and other aspects of human production? * How patriarchal ideology is an overpowering presence? * **Raise your hand if you agree**. * "All right, I'm glad it's a girl. And I hope she'll be a fool - that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool" - *from The Great Gatsby* ### Marxism * concerned with differences between economic classes and implications of a capitalist system, such as the continuing conflicts between the working class and the elite * attempts to reveal that the ultimate source of people's experience is the socioeconomic system. * **Aspects looked for:** * The social class as represented in the work * The social class of the writer and the characters