City College English Center

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We provide a community-based learning environment to help City College students become more effective, confident and independent readers, writers and critical thinkers. In support of this mission, the English Center offers assistance for all disciplines through:

• One-on-one peer tutoring sessions
• Group tutoring
• Supplemental instruction
• Workshops for students and faculty
• One-unit refresher courses
• Orientations
• Consultations for faculty
• The opportunity for qualified students to gain experience as peer tutors and mentors

The English Center is dedicated to providing innovation in tutoring strategies, pedagogy, and quality training in all areas of tutoring, as well as ongoing collaboration with faculty, staff, administration, and other tutorial/learning centers.

Owl Purdue Online Writing Lab

MLA Formatting and Style Guide

MLA style specifies guidelines for formatting manuscripts and using the English language in writing. MLA style also provides writers with a system for referencing their sources through parenthetical citation in their essays and Works Cited pages.

Go to Owl Purdue Online Writing Lab

A thesis statement…

is a complete sentence.

 

• My negative experiences in elementary school
• My negative experiences in elementary school pushed me to give up on education at an early age.

 

is a statement, not a question.

• What are the effects of radiation?
• The effects of radiation are often unpredictable.

expresses an opinion, attitude, or unique idea.

It does not just announce the topic.

It does not just express a fact.

• The United States is a country of immigrants.
• The United States has a complex and confusing immigration history, at times celebrating immigrants, and at other times , rejecting them.

The thesis is about one topic.
The thesis provides a good “preview.”

How to Find the Thesis Statement

Talking points

 

A talking point in debate or discourse is a succinct statement designed to support persuasively one side taken on an issue. Such statements can either be free standing or created as retorts to the opposition's talking points and are frequently used in public relations, particularly in areas heavy in debate such as politics and marketing: Wikipedia

In class, we use talking points to organize the discussion of articles, books, movies and other materials. Talking points might be:

·         A point that key to support the author´s thesis statement

·         A point that is a subject of debate

·         A point that is a question to the author, either for clarification or for disagreement

·         A point that is meaningful, challenging or puzzling to the reader

·         A question for clarification