1. 1. How can we get students thinking about ‘thesis
statements’ as a genre, rather than a distinct form, a “matter of filing in the
blanks” or a checking off a list? What genre conventions for thesis statements do
you think are most important to teach your class?
2. 2. Do you have a favorite book/story/poem/piece of writing
that has shattered your idea of genre in terms of classification or form? How
has that changed the way you define the original genre? How could you use it as
an example in your composition class to get your students thinking about how
they understand genre?
Hey John,
ReplyDeleteFor the first question, I think a good activity for a classroom would be to place several good examples of thesis statements on the overhead and have the class discuss what they have in common. Hopefully, this will help them discover on their own what makes thesis statements a unique genre. The most important genre convention to get across to the students would be that thesis statements must be arguable.