Here are the topics for your first in-class essay:

1. The Virginia Commonwealth
2. What Super Power Would You Have and Why
3. Punishment and Children
4. Fund Raising/Fund Raisers

Remember: You take a topic and narrow it down by asking yourself:

"What differences of opinion do reasonable people have about my topic?"

Once you have identified a difference of opinion about which you want to write, you take a stance in the difference. This stance is the claim you will prove in your paper.

Remember: The basic structure of an academic essay is:

• Introduction, where you hook your reader and lead them to your thesis statement. So, your introduction usually begins with a hook and ends with your thesis statement.
• Body, where you prove your thesis to be true or fully inform your reader about your thesis. Here, you are making the points you need to make to get your reader to beleive your thesis. For each of these points, you'll write a paragraph topic sentence and fully support and develop your point in the remainder of your paragraph.
• Conclusion, where you explain to the reader, who by now has some good reasons to believe your thesis, why your thesis matters. In other words, in your conclusion, you answer the question: "So what?"

I'll see you at 9:30 on Tuesday, come in having picked your topic and prepared to pre-write and draft.