Writing Notebook

Each week you will have an opportunity to practice different aspects of the writing process in this writing notebook. It consists of a template you will fill out and submit in Canvas. In addition to introducing and practicing targeted components of the writing process, these notebooks are meant to help you to determine your own strengths and identify opportunities for growth.

This week, the writing notebook focuses on how to develop a thesis sentence.

Before you begin this week’s writing notebook, please read Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.) and review the Writing a Thesis video tutorial found on that page.

In the Week 1 Writing Notebook you will

• Identify the purpose of a thesis statement.
• Construct an effective thesis statement.

Follow the steps outlined below to complete this week’s writing notebook:

• Download the Week 1 Writing Notebook Template below, which has been provided for you in both a Word document and a PDF file.

• Week 1 Writing Notebook Template download(PDF)
• Week 1 Writing Notebook Template download(Word)

• Complete all steps of the Working Thesis Activity in the Week 1 Writing Notebook, including the reflection step.

  1

  Week 1 Writing Notebook Working Thesis Activity

  Each week you will have an opportunity to practice different aspects of the writing process in a writing notebook. It consists of a template you will fill out and submit in Canvas. In addition to introducing and practicing targeted components of the writing process, these notebooks are meant to help you to determine your own strengths and to identify opportunities for growth.

  This week, the writing notebook focuses on how to develop a thesis sentence.

  STEP ONE: Developing your Topic Think of a topic that interests you, something you know a good deal about, or something that you would like to explore more deeply.

  If you’re stuck, view the Overcoming Writer’s Block and the Narrowing a Topic and Developing a Research Question webpages in the Writing Center to help spark some thoughts.

  1. What is the topic that you will be using for this activity?

  Click or tap here to enter text.

  STEP TWO: Building a Thesis As you have learned, a thesis sentence has two main parts – the topic (which is what you are writing about) and the angle (which is what you want to say about that topic).

  1. What do you already know about this topic? Click or tap here to enter text.

  ENG121 Week 1 Writing Notebook

   

  https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/narrowing-topic-and-developing-research-question

  https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/overcoming-writers-block

   

  2

  2. What would you like to say about this topic? Click or tap here to enter text.

  STEP THREE: Creating a Working Thesis Let’s combine the work you’ve done so far to create a working thesis.

  Activity 1: A thesis works to guide the flow of information in a paper, preparing the reader for what the paper will be about. Using the steps from this Writing Notebook, construct a working thesis for a paper about the topic you have selected. Remember, your thesis will have two parts – it will introduce the reader to the topic you have selected, and it will present the reader with the angle for your paper by letting the reader know what you intend to say about the topic. If you’re stuck, use the Thesis Generator from the Writing Center.

  Enter your working thesis below.

  Click or tap here to enter text.

  STEP FOUR: Review and Reflect Review your work in this Writing Notebook. What challenges did you face? Which aspects of thesis creation were new to you, or which aspects might you have already been familiar with? In no more than 150 words, please reflect on your work in this activity.

  Click or tap here to enter text.

  ENG121 Week 1 Writing Notebook

   

  https://writingcenter.ashford.edu/thesis-generator
  1. Question 1 Response:
  2. Question 2 Response:
  3. Question 3 Response:
  4. Question 4 Response:
  5. Question 5 Response: