Reading Journal Component #5: Thesis
To Do
By now, you should have read your reading selection in detail. Put it aside. Without referring to it, write one sentence in your reading notebook that summarizes what you feel the overall purpose of the reading was.- Go back to the text. Is there a sentence in the text that says something very similar to what you wrote down? If so, quote it. (This is an explicit thesis statement.) If not, say that there is no thesis in the reading. (This is an implicit thesis statement.)
- Identify 2 topic sentences from body paragraphs as quotes. Briefly explain how each topic sentence relates back to the explicit or implicit thesis statement of the reading.
Worked Example
The same student we’ve been following so far writes this:
Reading Journal Component 5
“Multiple Intelligences” by Fred Mednick
I would summarize the thesis of this article as, Describing what multiple intelligences are, where they came from, and what they do for us to understand them.
In the essay, the last sentence of the 2nd paragraph seems to say something very similar: “The readings and assignments that follow discuss multiple intelligences, provide an opportunity for you to apply them, and a way of determining how to assess students.”
Topic sentence #1: “Mindy L. Kornhaber, a researcher at Harvard University, has identified a number of reasons why teachers and policymakers have responded positively to Howard Gardner’s presentation of multiple intelligences.” This sentence indicates that the paragraph that follows will be explaining an application of multiple intelligences, which is the 2nd part of the thesis statement.
Topic sentence #2: “To explore your intelligences, visit ‘Lessons for Hope.’” This sentence addresses the last part of the thesis statement, “a way of determining how to assess students.”
