Notes on Purpose, Developing Ideas, and Thesis

Purpose in Writing

• The second one is purpose.
• What did you talk about in middle school and high school? What is purpose in writing?
• Possible purposes in writing:
  • to entertain,
  • to express feelings or ideas,
  • to expose, explain something,
  • or to persuade.
• The writing in this class will be mostly persuasive, argumentative writing, though your writing may reflect a combination of these, but the primary purpose of your essays in this class will be persuasive, will be unargumentative writing.
• The third is to develop ideas.

Developing Ideas

• How do we develop ideas? The key processes are:
  • Analysis: analyzing what you are reading.
  • Inference: you draw inferences when you look for clues in writing that help you come up with decisions or determine how does the main character change throughout the story. You look at inferences and details throughout the writing.
  • Synthesis: when you gather different ideas and you get a combination of ideas within the work to form and generate your own theory of what is going on. Synthesis is one way to develop ideas, looking at literary works.
  • Evaluation: make a decision. How effective is the poem's portrayal of the limitations of women in an Irish eighteenth century society? You're evaluating whether that poem is effective in that regard or not.

Prewriting: Constructing the Thesis Sentence

• What else do we need before we begin writing? We have to construct our thesis sentence. This is the most important sentence of your entire essay. This sentence tells us what the focus is of your entire essay. It is the controlling idea of your essay.
• What kind of things should that thesis sentence include?
  • It should narrow the subject.
  • It should assert a claim.
  • It should show your purpose and voice.
  • It should hint at your audience.
  • It should show the direction of your essay.
• How can you do all this in one sentence? Let's break that down and form an example.
• The subject, let’s say we wanna talk about the characterization of the character of Eveline in our short story.
• But this is too broad. We do have to limit it. So let's narrow our subject, and perhaps we're gonna focus on her being a dutiful daughter.
• Now that we have narrowed our subject, we need to form a claim. Being a dutiful daughter caused Eveline to make her strange decision at the end.
• Now I have an argument to make. And then based on that, I showed my purpose. I hinted at my audience. I showed the direction of the essay.
• So let's construct our thesis sentence based on this information.
• Joyce's characterization of Evelyn as a dutiful daughter enables us to discover why she makes her strange decision at the end. And now we have a thesis sentence that includes all these components.
• So today, we looked at the prewriting process, audience, purpose, developing ideas, and thesis. You have to know all four before you begin writing an essay.

Key Concepts and Connections

• Thesis sentence as the controlling idea and guide for the essay.
• The relationship between subject, claim, purpose, audience, and direction.
• The idea that prewriting components should align to form a coherent, focused argument.
• Real-world relevance: clear thesis and prewriting steps help organize persuasive writing in academics and professional settings.
• Ethical/philosophical note: choosing a direction and audience implies responsibility for tone and persuasion.

Examples and Practice Notes

• Example subject and narrowing:
  • Broad subject: the characterization of Eveline.
  • Narrowed subject: Eveline as a dutiful daughter.
• Example argument:
  • Claim: Being a dutiful daughter caused Eveline to make her strange decision at the end.
• Example thesis:
  • Joyce's characterization of Evelyn as a dutiful daughter enables us to discover why she makes her strange decision at the end.
• Final takeaway:
  • You should be able to identify the subject, narrow it, form a claim, establish purpose and voice, hint at audience, and indicate the essay’s direction in a single sentence.

Quick Reference: Four (or more) Prewriting Elements

• Prewriting process
• Audience
• Purpose
• Developing ideas
• Thesis
• Note: The closing point references knowing all four before you begin writing, highlighting emphasis on the core elements of prewriting.