State Your Case: December 7, 2015

Today is the 74th anniversary of "the date that will live in infamy" - also known as the attack on Pearl Harbor.  We watched the historic film of President Roosevelt asking Congress to declare war on Japan, before discussing what you know about the causes and effects of that war, and then comparing the causes of WWII to the causes of the Revolutionary War.  Why would we do this?  Because some of the underlying causes of WWII were ALSO causes of the Revolutionary War - and by finding the similarities between these two wars, we identified those causes.

HOMEWORK:  Nearly all of you need to revise your thesis statements.  Below are some ideas to help you:

If you are trying the UNDERLYING CAUSES question, here are some examples of underlying causes we found in per 7 today:

SETTING UP YOUR THESIS:  Your thesis needs to PREVIEW the three major ideas you intend to explore.  Here are some thesis "formulas" you can use:

You can adapt this formula to your essay question.  For example, if you are doing the Major Events question, you can substitute "Major events that led to the Revolution" for "The underlying causes of the Revolution".

A WORD TO THE WISE:  Your thesis statement is the LAST sentence of the intro paragraph.  If you have to add sentences after your thesis statement for it to make sense, you don't have a thesis.  See me for help!