Level I

Chapter 9
Writing

English | Vietnamese Section

English | Vietnamese
IC3, IT, TOEFL, Best Answer
Self- and Teacher Evaluation

Topic:Art and Culture--Tet: Endurance of Culture and Tradition

Văn hoá và Nghệ thuật

Guiding Question
Which traditions and customs have shaped your culture?

Câu hỏi hướng dẫn:
Những truyền thống và phong tục tập quán nào định hình nền văn hoá nước bạn?

Skills:
In this chapter you will do these things:

• Main Ideas and Thesis Sentences
• Vocabulary: finding ways to translate traditional concepts and objects
• Using literature in the target language for stimulus and vocabulary
• Writing a composition with focus on Main Ideas and Thesis Sentences
• Thesis Statement Self Check
• Thesis Statement Peer Check
• Explore what the web says about Tet

  Vietnamese Language Skills:

  • Explanatory Paragraph
  • Dictation
  • Writing Answers to Cultural Questions

English Language Lesson

Back to Top

Introductory Motivation and Focus:

Read the following introductory paragraph from “Vietnam Exports Literature Lessons West,” by James Borton:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EL04Ae02.html

In Hanoi, families are making preparations for next month's Tet (New Year) celebration. This exuberant three-day affair at the beginning of the lunar year in January translates into new clothes, at least for the children, and plenty of “nuoc mam” (fermented fish sauce) flavored foods. Soon there will be scores of street stalls springing up around Hanoi's Lake of the Restored Sword, or Hoan Kiem Lake, offering packets of assorted teas, liquor, red dragon fruit and the fabled “banh chung” cakes, made of glutinous rice and bean paste, wrapped in green banana leaves and tied with bamboo twine, giving them the appearance of a present.

During my regular visits to Vietnam over the Christmas and New Year holiday, a Vietnamese friend has often quoted an old adage: "Hungry all year, but at Tet, three days full." After all, Tet is considered everyone's birthday - an occasion to meditate on the past, to enjoy the present and to contemplate the future.  

 

 

Here is something more to read:

"Banh Chung" or square rice cake is a Vietnamese traditional dish most commonly found during the "Tet" New Year celebration. Every Vietnamese family must have "Banh Chung" among their offerings to be placed on the ancestors' altars.

One or two days before Tet, the family gathers to prepare and cook the rice cakes around the warm fire. "Banh Chung" is made of glutinous rice, pork meat and green bean paste, and is wrapped in a square of "Dong" leaves (rush leaves) giving the rice a green color after boiling for ten hours.

Making the dish requires care and precision. The rice has to be soaked in water for an entire day, the pork meat must include skin and fat, the green beans must be of the same size and the leaves must be fresh. Squaring off and tying the cakes with bamboo strings require skillful hands.

During "Tet" New Year, the rice cakes are served with "gio lua" or lean pork pie, and "hanh muoi" or salted sour onions.

http://www.nguyentientam.com/banhchung.html

VIETNAM NEW YEAR INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT TET:

• The New Year does not fall on the same date each year, although it is always in January or February.
• The Tet holiday is officially three days but is often celebrated for seven.
• It is believed that the course of the few days of Tet will determine the path of the coming year.
• People are on their best behavior. People stop their quarreling, children vow to behave, and families make special efforts to gather together.
• Prior to the celebrations homes are cleaned and painted. However cleaning during Tet is avoided.
• The yellow blossoms of the Hoa Mai decorate the home.
• New clothes are purchased and old debts are paid.
• Deceased relatives are also remembered during Tet. Families build altars with photographs, flowers, incense, money, and food. People typically visit the gravesites of deceased loved ones.
• At the midnight hour of the New Years' Eve Le Tru Tich is held. The spirits of the old year are rushed out and the new spirits are welcomed.
• The first person to enter the home after the start of the New Year sets the precedence for the coming year. Many people will arrange to have a child or someone well off enter the home minutes after the start of the New Year .
• Food is enjoyed throughout the Tet holiday. One belief holds that when a watermelon is cut open the redder the flesh the more luck the family will have in the Tet New Year.

http://www.loveofasiavietnam.com/Vietnam/tet_new_year.asp

Depending on if you are from the north, center or south of Vietnam, parts of the above readings will be familiar to you. If you are from other parts of Vietnam, there may be variations on how you celebrate Tet.

Freewrite: For at least 30 minutes write down your thoughts about Tet. Write about what Tet means to you and to your family. Write about traditions at Tet. Write about how you prepare for Tet. Write about Vietnamese folklore that explains Tet. Do not worry about grammar or spelling. Get your thoughts and memories down on paper. Write without stopping.

---

Introduction to Skill(s):

Main Ideas and Thesis Sentence: Throughout the previous eight chapters, we have been developing skills that are part of the process of writing. In this curriculum we emphasize that writing is a process that is learned through practice. Few people can write a perfect paper without working at it—writing, rewriting, reading and re-reading, composing and rewording.

In this chapter, we return to the beginning. We began with topic sentences, but now we focus on the main idea or thesis sentence for the entire composition.

A thesis statement . . .

• shows the purpose of your essay or composition.
• tells the reader about the scope, purpose and direction of your paper.
• helps you, the writer, to focus your topic and put boundaries and limits on your paper so that you do not ramble.
• is usually located towards the end of the introductory paragraph.
• can be more than one sentence—it may even be a whole paragraph.

If you do not define your thesis clearly, two things may happen: First, your paper has no purpose to which you are committed. Without commitment to a main idea and without boundaries or limits, your writing may ramble and wander. There will be no unity. Secondly, the readers of your paper will be groping and wandering with your ramblings. They may be asking, “SO WHAT?”

Writing a thesis statement is a process that involves responding thoughtfully to your assignment and thinking critically about your topic.

1. Identify a topic

Your topic is the subject about which you will write. Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic; or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper.

• Consider what your assignment asks you to do

• Inform yourself about your topic

• Focus on one aspect of your topic

• Ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts

Consult the table below for suggestions on how to generate a topic from assignments.

Sample assignment	Identified topic	Reason
Analyze the influence Vietnamese folklore has on the Tet Holiday.	Vietnamese folklore and the food of Tet. Banh Chung for example.	This topic brings into question, what came first—the food or the folklore? Does the folklore explain why Tet is celebrated? How much of Tet is the food?
Explain what Tet means to you and what you would hope that a foreign friend understand about the experience Tet.	Tet is the ultimate family tradition. It brings together your family and ancestors both physically and spiritually.	This topic focuses on the gathering of the family and why family is so important to Vietnamese culture.

2. Decide on the main point from topic

Once you have a topic, you will have to decide what the main point of your paper will be. This point, the "controlling idea," becomes the core or base of your argument (thesis statement). This idea will unify your paper and it is the idea that all the other paragraphs will support. You can then turn this "controlling idea" into a purpose statement about what you intend to do in your paper.

Look for patterns in your evidence. For example, in freewriting about Tet, what is it that you write most about? The food? The feelings? The family? The tradition? Then, compose a purpose statement.

Use the table below for suggestions on how to look for patterns in your brainstorming and research and construct a purpose statement.

Topic	Evidence	Purpose statement
How does Vietnamese folklore influence the Tet celebration today?	The origin of Tao Quan, the three kitchen gods Heart makes glutinous rice Prohibition against throwing out trash at Tet The betel and the areca tree The Neu Tree The origin of Banh Giay and Banh Chung	This paper will analyze how Tet is influenced by Vietnamese legend and folklore.
What does the Tet celebration and holiday mean to your family?	The family gathers from different parts of Vietnam to be together We honor our ancestors at Tet by doing these things: _______, ________, __________. We follow tradition in our celebration for these reasons: _____, _________, ___________. Family members have specific duties to perform during the holidays.	This paper will examine why Tet is the most important holiday for my family. or This paper will explain the role of family members in the celebration of Tet. or This paper shows how Tet influences our family life throughout the year.

5. Complete the final thesis statement

As you move through the process of crafting a thesis, you'll need to remember four things:

1) Context matters! Think about your course materials and lectures. Try to relate your thesis to the ideas your instructor is discussing.

2) As you go through the process described in this section, always keep your assignment in mind. You will be more successful when your thesis (and paper) responds to the assignment than if it argues an idea not directly related to the assignment.

3) Your thesis statement should be precise and focused. It should predict the paragraphs that follow or blocks of information that you will use to explain your main idea.

4) Be sure to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Change your thesis as your paper evolves, because you do not want your thesis to promise more than your paper actually delivers.

A good thesis statement has these characteristics:

• The thesis statement is a complete sentence, but is not written as a question.
• The writer's opinion is included in the thesis statement.
• The thesis statement narrows a broad topic to something more specific that can be covered in a five-paragraph essay.
• One main idea is expressed in the thesis statement.
• The thesis statement helps to organize the essay.

In the beginning, the thesis statement was a tool to help you sharpen your focus, limit material and establish the paper's purpose. When your paper is finished, however, the thesis statement becomes a tool for your reader. It tells the reader what you have learned about your topic and what evidence led you to your conclusion. It keeps the reader on track--well able to understand and appreciate your argument.

Once you have written your thesis statement, is there anything your readers ought to know before they go on to read the supporting paragraphs? If so, you may want to add information after your thesis statement at the end of the paragraph.

Wait to do most of the work on your first paragraph until after you have written an extensive outline or rough draft of the entire paper. Your introductory paragraph should “fit” the essay or composition it introduces. Hopefully an outline, rough draft and good introductory paragraph with good thesis statement will make the writing process flow.

(Sources paraphrased and excerpted:
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/thesis_def.html,
http://humanitites.ucsd.edu/writing/workshop/thesis.htm,
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/pbl/ESOL/thesis.htm#3)

---

Writing Assignment:

Below is a quote by Dana Sachs, an American author. Before she experienced Tet in Hanoi, she asked her Vietnamese friends why she should experience Tet. Here is some explanation.

I asked a life-long Hanoian why Tet was so important. "The first few days of the year set the tone for the next 12 months," she explained. "So if you have a happy Tet, you'll have a happy year. If you have a sad Tet, you'll have a sad year." I got even more worried then. I come from the United States, a culture committed to the belief that today is the first day of the rest of your life. As if the constant noise of firecrackers weren't bad enough, I was uncomfortable with the concept that the tone of a whole year could be determined by what happened in the course of one week. Just as I prepared to bow out, though, my Vietnamese friend forced me to look at Tet from a different angle. "You can never understand Vietnam," she told me," until you experience Tet." I decided to stay.

http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_article/article.606.html

In a composition of at least 5 paragraphs, explain what Tet means to you and what you would hope that a foreign friend understands about the experience of Tet. You may write about traditions, folklore, family, emotions, food, national identity, etc. But focus on how you will write an introductory paragraph and thesis statement to limit what you will write about. Tet is a BIG topic. You cannot write about it all. So think about what is most important to write.

Exercises throughout the chapter will help you write a thesis statement.

Vocabulary:

The following article explains the celebration of Tet day by day. In bold print are words that describe Tet events and items that you may not know. Sometimes there are Vietnamese words that have not been translated. Make a list of vocabulary words provided by this article.

For example:

Tet Ong Tao = the 23 rd of the twelfth moon cay neu = Tet tree— a bamboo pole stripped of its leaves except for a tuft on top

Some words will not have a Vietnamese translation, but you can identify the word or name by its description.

For example:

Kitchen God’s Journey = ? Heaven = ? Jade Emperor = ?

Some Vietnamese words will not have a translation. For those words, how would you explain them in English to a foreigner? Perhaps your family tradition is different than the celebration described below or the author of the article forgot something. What vocabulary words does that add to the list?

For example:

hoa mai = ? banh chung = ? red envelopes = ?

Create a list of as many vocabulary words as you can. You may want to work with a friend, classmates, or in small groups.

The Sequence of Tet http://www.vnstyle.vdc.com.vn/lunar_newyear/sequence_tet/index.html Some days before Tet Ong Tao (on the 23rd of the twelfth moon), people start their preparations for the Kitchen God's journey to the Heaven to make his report to the Jade Emperor. This report includes the year's activities of the household in which he has lived. A farewell and thank-you dinner is given to the Kitchen God at Tet Ong Tao. The Kitchen God will need a week for his mission to Heaven. After the Kitchen God has gone to the Heaven, preparations for the New Year festivities begin in enthusiasm. The week before New Year's Eve is called a period of "Tat Nien". Tat Nien (literally meaning the end or "to extinguish the year") is the celebration of the last session of a period, such as the last class of school, the last day in the office, even the last bath, all with parties and great ceremonies. Some families set up a Tet tree outside the house in the week before New Year's Eve. The Tet tree, called cay neu, is a bamboo pole stripped of its leaves except for a tuft on top. It is supposed to ward off the evil spirits during absence of the Spirit of the Kitchen God. Sweeping and scrubbing must be done during this time as tradition discourages it during the Tet holiday. Two items required for the proper enjoyment of Tet are peach flower branches and kumquat trees. Throughout the country, on bicycles of roving vendors, flowers create great splashes of color. In the north, the soft rose-colored dao peach flowers decorate homes and offices while the bright golden yellow branches of the hoa mai are preferred in the south. Kumquat trees, about two or three feet tall, are carefully selected and prominently displayed. To carefully choose a kumquat tree, the buyer must pay attention to the symmetrical shape, to the leaves and to the color and shape of the fruit. The bushes have been precisely pruned to display ripe deep orange fruits with smooth clear thin skin shining like little suns or gold coins on the first day. Other fruits must still be green to ripen later. This represents the wish that wealth will come to you now and in the future. When Tet is approaching, crowds of shoppers at the markets become thicker and more frantic each night, holding up traffic as they jostle each other to reach the counters with the best buys. Prices are a bit higher, but thriftiness is not considered a virtue at Tet. While shoppers roam the streets, banh chung patties wrapped in leaves are steaming in giant vats. After being boiled until the outside of banh chung has taken on a lovely light green tinge, it is taken out of the vats and cooled. Banh chung will be eaten and used as offerings to worship ancestors during Tet. Before the New Year's Eve, shops, stalls and restaurants are locked, leaving a notice hung on the door announcing the date of reopening. Special dishes must be completed to serve the family and its guests for the first three days of the new year.

Passage(s) in English:

Tet in Hanoi
By Dana Sachs
http://www.adoptvietnam.org/vietnamese/tet-hanoi.htm

By early February, I had lived in Hanoi for over a year altogether. I'd experienced every season, from the coldest days of winter to the most sweltering summer heat. I'd witnessed all the holidays, from International Women's Day and Teacher's Day to the Mid-Autumn Festival and the birthday of Ho Chi Minh. I'd experienced every holiday - that is, except for Tet. Most Americans hear the word "Tet" and immediately combine it with "Offensive." But for Vietnamese, the word conjured entirely different ideas. Tet, Vietnam's Lunar New Year, was the most important time on the Vietnamese calendar. For Vietnamese, it was like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and everybody's birthday combined.

According to tradition, in the days before Tet, people bring delicacies to others they want to impress. To keep up with the demand for these items, temporary specialty shops opened all over town, their bright red banners wishing everyone a happy Tet and proclaiming the delectability of their particular products. Yen and I went shopping at one of the biggest markets, where shopkeepers stood in front of dozens of glass jars full of sugar-coated fruits, the holiday treats know as “mut.” A saleswoman weighed out half a kilo of apricot “mut” for Yen to give to her aunt, a mixture of cherry and ginger “mut” for her mother, and tomato “mut” she'd give to her favorite professor from the university. Al around us, shoppers were stocking up on jars of imported pickles, apricot wine, Russian vodka, dried sausages, and tins of golden Danish sugar cookies. In a country where most diets were limited to whatever local farms and factories produced, a jar of French mustard meant real luxury and could serve as the perfect holiday gift. Foods that foreigners bought in Hanoi all year were now being swept up by the locals.

Vendors began to appear on the city streets selling miniature orange trees and “hoa doa”, the small blossoming peach tress that were as much a requisite part of Tet as Christmas trees at Christmas. The vendors roamed the city with trees slung to the frames of their bikes, and prospective buyers checked the trees carefully, looking for just the right mix of branch, bud, and flower. One afternoon, I took Viet to the Tet flower market, in the corner of the city's Old Quarter. With Viet balanced on the back of my bike, I rode right into the center of the market, stopping in what seemed like a forest of trees. The tree-sellers were bundled up against the winter cold, and as the wind picked up, I buttoned all the buttons on Viet's coat. The lacy pink veil of peach blossoms couldn't keep out the chill, but it promised the coming of spring.

Hanoi became strange and dreamlike then. Even time changed. As if following some subtle shift designated by the heavens, just as the holiday began, Vietnamese returned to their ancient tradition of marking days. Throughout the rest of the year, they follow the solar-based calendar that's used in the West. At Tet, they switch to the lunar one. If, for example, Tet began at midnight on February 8, then February 10 was the first day of the Lunar New Year. Suddenly, Vietnamese began to follow the moon. No matter what the Western calendar might call the date on which the Lunar New Year's Eve fell, Vietnamese called it "the thirtieth of Tet," and, according to the logic of the season, New Year's Day itself was known as "the first of Tet," followed by the second, the third, fourth, etc. The rest of the world continued racing through the same old year, while Vietnam stepped off for a week and then, reluctantly stepped back on.

---

Exercises and Activities for Comprehension and Analyzing Content:

The following four paragraphs are introductory paragraphs for writings on the topic of Tet. Read each paragraph and answer the questions that follow.

Paragraph A

Tet has become so familiar, so sacred to the Vietnamese that when Spring arrives, the Vietnamese, wherever they may be, are all thrilled and excited with the advent of Tet, and they feel an immense nostalgia, wishing to come back to their homeland for a family reunion and a taste of the particular flavors of the Vietnamese festivities.
http://www.acjc.edu.sg/Spectra/VibrantCulture/Vietnam/lunar_new_year.html

1. What is the main idea of the paragraph? 2. Does the paragraph have a thesis statement? If so, underline it or highlight it. 3. Does the thesis statement or main idea narrow the focus of Tet? Or is the topic too broad? 4. Fill in the outline with what you think the body of the paper will be about. I. Body Paragraph #1____________________________ II. Body Paragraph #2____________________________ III. Body Paragraph #3____________________________

Paragraph B

If the New Year is the time of renewal, Lunar New Year is surely the queen of new years. Renewal is not merely personal but cosmic; parties aren't just thrown for friends and family but for gods and dead ancestors. You can wish Chúc Mừng Năm Mới (Greet New Year to You) to the Vietnamese, or Phat Tai (Wealth) to the Chinese. The lunar New Year is the most important holiday in the Asian culture. It is a day of colorful festivities, some as familiar as firecrackers and dragon dances. It is also a day of traditional rituals, rich in symbolism, legends and superstitions dating thousands of years —and unknown to non-Asian as well as many Asian American youths.-- Written by: Nguyễn Thị Hòa An
http://www.geocities.com/nha1975/12congiap.htm

1. What is the main idea of the paragraph? 2. Does the paragraph have a thesis statement? If so, underline it or highlight it. 3. Does the thesis statement or main idea narrow the focus of Tet? Or is the topic too broad? 4. Fill in the outline with what you think the body of the paper will be about. I. Body Paragraph #1____________________________ II. Body Paragraph #2____________________________ III. Body Paragraph #3____________________________

Paragraph C

The Vietnamese, wherever they may be, are all thrilled and excited with the advent of Tet, and they feel an immense nostalgia, wishing to come back to their homeland for a family reunion and a taste of the particular flavors of the Vietnamese festivities. Those who have settled down abroad all turn their thoughts to their home country and try to celebrate the festivities in the same traditional way as their family members and relatives to relieve their nostalgia, never forgetting the fine custom handed down from generation to generation.
http://www.vovinam-via.org/newyear19.htm

1. What is the main idea of the paragraph? 2. Does the paragraph have a thesis statement? If so, underline it or highlight it. 3. Does the thesis statement or main idea narrow the focus of Tet? Or is the topic too broad? 4. Fill in the outline with what you think the body of the paper will be about. I. Body Paragraph #1____________________________ II. Body Paragraph #2____________________________ III. Body Paragraph #3____________________________

Paragraph D

According to ancient Vietnamese history, the unicorn made its first appearance during the Chinese Duong Dynasty, about 600 AD. Emperor Duong Cao To, after a military victory which resulted in his conquest of the Central Highlands, popularized the dance of the unicorn to celebrate peace. The unicorn, like the dragon, is a mythological animal and tradition has it that wherever a unicorn appears, people will have peace, happiness and prosperity. Originally the dance came from China where it is called the dragon dance, but in Vietnam it only became accepted after Emperor To's victory.
http://www.vnstyle.vdc.com.vn/lunar_newyear/tet_miscellany/Unicorn-dance.html

1. What is the main idea of the paragraph? 2. Does the paragraph have a thesis statement? If so, underline it or highlight it. 3. Does the thesis statement or main idea narrow the focus of Tet? Or is the topic too broad? 4. Fill in the outline with what you think the body of the paper will be about. I. Body Paragraph #1____________________________ II. Body Paragraph #2____________________________ III. Body Paragraph #3____________________________

---

Exercises and Activities for Developing Content of Student Writing:

Before you write the thesis sentence for your composition, answer the following questions:

1. To help you focus on the topic, summarize the writing assignment: what are you to write about and who will be your audience?

2. Narrow your focus: what will be the main idea of your composition? Tet is a large subject. How will you narrow the focus? Keep in mind what you spent time writing about in your freewriting exercise at the beginning of the chapter.  

Exercises and Activities for Incorporating Skills into Student Writing:

Write Your Thesis Statement and Check Yourself

Now it is time to write the thesis statement for your essay. Write and rewrite your thesis statement until you like it.

When you have a thesis statement that you like, check it against the following checklist. Write Your Thesis Statement Here:

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Check yourself for:

• Spelling mistakes
• Punctuation
• Capitalization
• Correct verb tenses
• Verbs that match subjects
• Singular and plural nouns

I tried to include:

• Inte resting words
• Adjectives

1. Is the thesis statement a complete sentence?	YES	NO
2. Does the thesis statement have my opinion?	YES	NO
3. Does the thesis statement narrow the topic?	YES	NO
4. Does the thesis statement express one main idea?	YES	NO
5. Does the thesis statement organize the essay?	YES	NO

(from: http://www.edb.utexas.edu/pbl/ESOL/thesis.htm#3 )

When you have a workable thesis sentence, outline your composition. What will each paragraph be about?

Fill in the outline with what you think the body of the paper will be about.

I. Body Paragraph #1_____________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

II. Body Paragraph #2_____________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

III. Body Paragraph #3_____________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

IT Exercises and Activities for Developing Ideas:

Explore what the web says about Tet: In the IC3 section of this chapter, the author claims that there is an explosion of websites that explain Vietnamese arts and culture. Here is the paragraph that explains that:

But amid this spreading globalization, the Internet has propelled a renaissance of Vietnam's arts and culture, offering a smorgasbord of cultural websites. For example, Vietnamjournal.org is an excellent starting point for new Vietnamese literature. Now with support and cooperation from Vietnam's Ministry of Culture and Information, Western publishers are importing titles and collaborating with talented translators like Dana Sachs, Wayne Karlin, Phan Huy Duong and Nina McPherson to name but a few. (Excerpted from Vietnam Exports Literature Lessons West by James Borton at
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EL04Ae02.html)

Indeed the internet has many things to offer. For more ideas about Tet for your composition, explore to see what is available. Google or explore search engines by typing in words such as “Tet and Family” or “Banh Chung” or “The Unicorn Dance at Tet.” Use words that would help you find information about the topic you choose for your composition.

---

Writing First Draft:

Write an introductory paragraph with thesis statement. Then follow your outline and write the body of the composition. After the body is written, return to the introductory paragraph and rework it to fit your composition.

Remember these things: A thesis statement . . .

• shows the purpose of your essay or composition.
• tells the reader about the scope, purpose and direction of your paper.
• helps you, the writer, to focus your topic and put boundaries and limits on your paper so that you do not ramble.
• is usually located towards the end of the introductory paragraph.
• can be more than one sentence—it may even be a whole paragraph.

Then write the concluding paragraph. Refer to Chapter 8 for good introductory and concluding paragraphs.

Editing Process and Exercises:

Thesis Statement Peer Check: Sometimes having a peer, classmate or friend read your work helps to see changes that need to be made. Sometimes you work so closely with writing a paper that you cannot see your mistakes.

Writer Directions: Write your thesis statement below. Give this paper to your peer editor.

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Editor Directions:

Read the writer’s thesis statement and then answer the questions that are below.

1. Is the thesis statement a complete sentence?	YES	NO
2. Does the thesis statement have the writer’s opinion?	YES	NO
3. Does the thesis statement narrow the topic?	YES	NO
4. Does the thesis statement express one main idea?	YES	NO
5. Does the thesis statement organize the essay?	YES	NO

The writer’s opinion is:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

What is the main idea?

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Fill in the outline with what you think the body of the paper will be about.

I. Body Paragraph #1____________________________

II. Body Paragraph #2____________________________

III. Body Paragraph #3____________________________

(from: http://www.edb.utexas.edu/pbl/ESOL/thesis.htm#3 )

Proofread and Edit the entire composition. Proofreading skills are found in Chapter 8.

---

Writing Second/Final Draft:

Re-write your composition into its final form. Hand it in to your teacher.

Contact | | © 1996-2008 Eastern Mennonite University
EMU is a liberal arts Christian college with core values of peace and sustainability.