Arna Shines from Tougaloo College recorded a session for the 2021 Lilly Conference online entitled: “The Thesis Is In the Table” that intrigued me. Shines teaches first-year students and “has the privilege of teaching the essay” and wanted to focus on the thesis. Shines believes “the thesis must be one sentence, the last sentence of the introduction, and must contain three thesis points.” Brainstorming needed to be useful for students: “brainstorming as the go to source for the content of the paper… and to teach students how to develop and structure their paper.” Shines developed a process for crafting a thesis for an essay.
- Discuss the value of reading and how it relates to research.
- Read the prompt at least twice or as many times to understand it.
- Make a decision. Select a response.
- Select three points you would like to discuss.
- Brainstorm for each point.
Shines used the brainstorming to be free-flowing and generate a “thesis table” with seven discussion builders for each thesis point. To start completing the table, one begins with three lead words from the brainstorming. For each lead word, Shines explained that we find words that are related. Next, how do the words in each column relate to each other? What is the umbrella word that can be used to connect these terms? From that word, writers can create a thesis. Shines has developed a worksheet to help writers develop their thesis draft using this approach. Examples of completed student worksheets were color-coded and organized. Shines has found that the worksheet provides structure and has become a guide for both participants and the instructor. When the draft thesis does not reflect the worksheet, Shines has a conversation with the student about working on a thesis table and support those points. There are opportunities for revision and making additional connections. As a class, Shines completes the thesis table worksheet and helps students jump into writing! Shines also provides 21 example words for brainstorming. The table is dynamic and not “concrete… but if you work it correctly and take advantage of what it can and can’t do, you will have a paper!” Structure helps guide both learners and instructors, and the Thesis Is In the Table approach is a nice example of how this structure can be used with a class to model brainstorming and thesis writing activities. This session is a nice reminder of what we can do with tables and worksheets when we engage everyone in discussions and request contributions.
