Gerald Graff's Hidden Intellectualism

The way I located the thesis statement was by skimming though the article and reading the bold writing which are the points the author is describing throughout the article. After going over the main points I go back and read the introduction and figured which sentence goes best with the article.

My strongest point in my essay was my thesis statement. The thesis statement was short but very guiding. It guided the reader into the keys points of my essay. 29 I’ve really struggled with writing thesis statements, so what I decided to do was give myself random essays with a topic and write thesis statements on them. I would figure out what the main points would be in my essay and put those topics into my thesis statement. It really made my thesis statements stronger in my writing.

With today’s education, teachers are enforcing much academic work on students to, hopefully, increase their intelligence. The goal of this academic work is to give the students that they will need for their life later. All schools have a group of students that have a lot of “street smarts,” but don’t do well in school. There is a common argument of if “street smarts” and academic work should be combined to better teach students. In Gerald Graff’s piece, Hidden Intellectualism, Graff talks about the academics that teachers enforce on students and “street smarts.” Graff claims that “schools and colleges might be at fault for missing the opportunity to tap into such street smarts and channel them into good academic work” (Graff 1).

In Hidden Intellectualism, Gerald Graff seeks to expose what he believes to be a fundamental issue in today’s schools and colleges. He brings attention to “street smarts”, students who are intelligent about so many things in life, yet their potential is overlooked because the things they are knowledgeable about are not things we associate with educated life such as cars, sports and video games. He claims that students are more likely to enter the world of academics if they were encouraged to view their interests from an academic perspective rather than to be forced into subjects that are considered “more academic” by the rest of society. Gerald Graff’s main point is that teachers should take advantage of the interests that students already have and convince them to pursue those interests with “academic eyes”, rather than forcing content on them that they are uninterested in. Although I agree with the first part of Graff’s statement, I think a crucial skill to acquire is the ability to find interests in something outside of subjects we initially find our interests in so that we may develop more as a whole person.

Thesis statements tend to come from nonfiction texts, and are directly stated by the author, with no wiggle room for interpreting the meaning as any different than it is stated. Thesis statements are also debatable arguments, which is what makes them a thesis. They are also stated early in the nonfiction or other work the thesis is present in. The work that the thesis statement is in does not have to be reflected upon in order to understand the thesis statement, and the reading can hasten with the reader still holding understanding after reading. Thesis statements are very easy to understand unlike their theme counterpart, which makes them easier to find. These factors are what make themes and thesis statements so very

The elements of a thesis are generally stated in a single sentence. A topic is not covered in a thesis, but opinions are expressed. A thesis indicates that there is support to follow, and often organizes supporting material. Effective thesis statements are precisely worded to draw in the audience. The location of a thesis is very important because if it appears at the opening of the essay, it starts the essay off with a strong statement providing clear direction and an outline of the supporting evidence. If a thesis statement appears in the middle it allows the writer to introduce the subject and guide the reader into accepting a thesis that is explained, as well as defended. The thesis being presented at the end allows the writer to close the thesis with a strong statement. The types of evidence that can be used in a thesis vary from personal observations to statistics. Evidence should support a

Your thesis statement is no exception to your writing: it needs to be as clear as possible. By being as clear as possible in your thesis statement, you will make sure that your reader understands exactly what you mean.

* If you’re having difficulties writing a thesis, use the thesis generator in the Ashford Writing Center - https://awc.ashford.edu/writing-tools-thesis-generator.html. Remember, a thesis should make a claim – a definitive statement – about some issue. Here is an example: Effective communication is the most important factor in a successful relationship. Without it, chances are, a relationship will fail.

Thesis is a short statement that recaps the main point of a piece of writing. The thesis statement is developed in the text by use of examples and evidence. This presets the main idea, and states the authors opinion. It is a guide for the rest of the paper, and it keeps the topic focused. Thesis creates a more general idea by condensing the passage into a single sentence.

When writing an essay or summary, one of the most important factors I feel helps the reader understand what the essay will be about is the thesis. Having a well-structured thesis is helpful because it gives me an idea of what I want the general direction of my paper to be. For example, in my literary, in my thesis I write, “In the essay ‘Pride’ by Dagoberto Gilb, he shows how even though people are poor and Mexican American they can find pride in their culture, work, and success.” (“Have Pride In Where You Come From” Final 1). This thesis clearly states all three points and it is easy for the reader to understand that the essay will be about being prideful. Another example of a strong thesis is in my proposal essay, in my thesis I write,

The thesis statement is the most significant part of the essay because it establishes the main idea of what the paper is about. By creating this central idea, the reader will have a better understanding of what the essay is based on, and how the paper is going to be laid out. As Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers describes, in The Bedford Handbook, that the thesis statement is the core of the essay, and that it should clearly target the overall message in the paper (30). The statement must reveal the writers position over the topic in the essay, and then specifically focus on that position to create the overall idea of the story. Without this main idea introduced in the thesis, the essay would have direction, leading to the body paragraphs to be

The first essay I was asked to write was an advertisement analysis. In this essay, I had to analyze an advertisement of my choice from a magazine. I chose to analyze an advertisement for the Toyota 4Runner. When my teacher first mentioned a thesis, I had no idea what she was talking about. Soon, I came to realize that a thesis was a sentence at the end of the introduction paragraph that briefly introduces the topics covered in the essay. I chose to analyze the 4Runner advertisement with the following topics: its appeal to outdoorsmen, its facts used to persuade buyers, and the lively way in which the vehicle was portrayed. I learned that each body paragraph needed to be structured around those topics, and that is exactly what I did. I found this essay to be easy to write. Furthermore, I received my highest grade of the year on this essay, only having one unclear pronoun reference and a misplaced comma.

The thesis starts the paper and leads the paper to the destination or the conclusion which is the ‘treasure’ and concludes the main ideas of the paper. Because these elements are so important I really paid attention to the thesis statements and conclusions in my own papers and the papers that I

Aberdeen's essay on Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance had a clear theme that was supported throughout by many examples. While an actual thesis statement was lacking, or a title that would have provided similar direction, the content stayed close to the topics of striving for equality and cultural identity through the writings of Hughes. A good thesis statement for this essay might be: "This essay will examine how Langston Hughes sought equality and a cultural identity through his writing during the Harlem Renaissance."

Is there a thesis statement that makes the main ideas of the essay clear? No, I must rewrite my topic and thesis statement for all to flow together and correlate with rubric, per instructor Wortley.