Unit 3: Inventing the University
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The 3-story Thesis
I like Amy Guptill’s explanation of the “three story thesis” for concretizing the difference between a high-school level thesis and a college-level thesis. These slides review her examples and also break Ursula LeGuin’s “Carrier Bag Theory” thesis into three levels, since I introduced them to that around the same time.
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Lit Analysis vs. Rhetorical Analysis
When first learning to do rhetorical analysis, students often ask how it differs from literary analysis. I made this handout for easy reference. Word version:
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Visual Analysis
I was in graduate school before I read a rationale for literary analysis: that we “read the word” in order to “read the world” (Paulo Freire). When you master one form of analysis, whether it’s visual, textual, or auditory, you increase your ability to analyze in other modes as well. I accompany the first lesson…
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Doubting & Believing Games
Peter Elbow introduced the “doubting” and “believing games” in the 1970s to make critical thought conscious and easily practicable. As Elbow described it in his 2008 address to the CCCC, the doubting game is “the disciplined practice of trying to be as skeptical and analytic as possible with every idea we encounter. By trying hard…
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What is a thesis?
I recommend using this in tandem with the following resource: https://louis.pressbooks.pub/englishcomp2/chapter/5-5-connecting-thesis-and-argument/ The chapter by Amy Guptill does an excellent job of explaining the difference between a complex thesis and the kind of simple thesis students used in high school. What is a thesis? Editable version:
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Lehman Alumni
I like to welcome students with this slideshow on the first day of class. Because many of my students are first-generation college students, it’s particularly important to me that they feel proud of their school and confident in their decision to attend.