Posted: April 26th, 2016

Definingyour audience and purpose?

Our response essay to Po Bronson’s “What Should I Do With My Life?” will undergo another level of writing and revision this week. Last week, you wrote a rough draft of your response essay. This week, you are creating a plan to revise that rough draft.

Part of your plan will center on details—what details to include, what details your readers need to know, what is an appropriate amount of detail to tell your readers, and what areas in your paper need more detail than others.

To get started, let’s practice coming up with details to include in an essay.

For two of the following topics, do these three things:

1) define your audience and purpose, then
2) generate a list of details to include in an essay, and finally,
3) write a thesis statement for each of your two topics, based on your audience and purpose.

Your thesis statement should communicate your topic and your purpose for writing about that topic:

1. The lack of privacy in our society
2. The value of sports
3. Balancing job and school
4. Choosing a career
5. How to make new friends