Discussion

Activity: Reverse Outline

For this activity, you will use the reverse outlining* process and the TEA* formula to help you to revise your critical analysis essay draft. Follow the steps below:

Print out a copy of your essay draft. If you need to generate another copy of your draft, you can revisit 5-4. If you are unable to print a copy of your draft, you can open up your essay document in a word processing program like Microsoft Word and turn on the "Comments" feature that will allow you to insert comments in the margins of the paper.

Write your thesis statement at the top of the page so that you can refer back to it easily.

Read the following tab to analyze the effectiveness of your thesis statement.

Thesis

When reviewing your essay using TEA, the first step is to analyze your thesis statement*, or your main claim. You should be able to answer "yes" to the following questions:

• Is there a thesis statement? Does it appear at the end of the introductory paragraph?

• Does my thesis statement express one single central idea/opinion in response to the essay prompt or course-related topic?

• Have I arrived at a thesis statement only after a careful and well thought out consideration of the prompt or topic and evidence at my disposal?

• Does my thesis statement express my opinion?

• Does the evidence* I present in the body of the essay connect back to the thesis statement?

1. Based on your answers to the questions, make any necessary changes to your thesis statement. You should make these edits directly on the page. (Because this is a draft, you can scribble notes on it, cross things out, and mark up the page as much as you would like.)

2. Read one paragraph at a time and write the main idea of each paragraph in the margins of your paper. Remember that the main idea of the introductory paragraph should be the thesis statement (the last sentence of that paragraph).

3. Click on the following tabs to analyze the effectiveness of your topic sentences, the evidence that supports the thesis statement, and your analysis of the evidence. You will need to do this for each body paragraph.

Topic Sentences

The next step is to analyze the topic sentences* of your body paragraphs. You should be able to answer "yes" to the following questions:

• Do I have a topic sentence at the beginning of each body paragraph?
• Do my topic sentences relate back to the thesis statement?

Evidence

The next step is to look closely at the evidence* that you are using in your essay. You should be able to answer "yes" to the following questions:

• Do I have primary evidence? (Primary evidence is the main evidence that will be used to support the thesis statement.)
• Have I selected relevant and convincing evidence?
• Do I have enough evidence to support my thesis statement?
• Does my evidence fulfill the requirements for the essay?
• Does each selected piece of primary evidence contribute to a different topic sentence, which develops support for my thesis statement?

Analysis

In this final step, you should engage in the process of analysis*by examining how each piece of evidence in your essay supports the thesis statement. You should be able to answer "yes" to each of the following questions:

• Do I have an analysis for each piece of primary evidence?
• Does my analysis go beyond merely re-stating what is obvious in the evidence?

Based on your answers to these questions, make any necessary edits to your draft. Again, you should make these changes directly on the page.

Attachment:- Brittney-English-Assignment.rar