Read the sample student thesis statement from a rhetorical essay. Bassett’s argument that community service does little to teach students about their obligations as citizens is ultimately not very persuasive. What makes this thesis statement weak? It does not make a judgment about the success of the writer’s strategies. It does not explain what the rhetorical analysis will show. It does not state whether you personally agree with the writer’s argument. It does not include either inductive or deductive reasoning.

Postreading strategies are used before reading a text. when reading for specific information. when reading for general meaning. after reading a text.

Read the excerpt from "mother tongue." those tests were constructed around items like fill-in-the-blank sentence completion, such as “even though tom was mary thought he was ” and the correct answer always seemed to be the most bland combinations of thoughts, for example, “even though tom was foolish, mary thought he was ridiculous.” well, according to my mother, there were very few limitations as to what tom could have been and what mary might have thought of him. so i never did well on tests like that. how does tan build a central idea of her story in the excerpt? tan discusses the types of questions on achievement tests to support the idea that the tests limit students’ ability to write well. tan explains a question on a language achievement test to support the idea that the tests should include more interesting content. tan gives an example of her experience with achievement tests to support the idea that they are not always accurate measures of language ability. tan considers how her mother might answer a question on a test to support the idea that nonstandard english limits a person’s ability to communicate.

Which is a run-on sentence? a) all of the fish that we caught were too small to keep. b) ricky changed the oil, he forgot to replace the oil filter. c) the striking patriotic design surprised the memorial planning committee. d) everyone on the harbor cruise reported feeling a little seasick and left early.