Kira Cunningham

Seminar in Composition
Amy Flick
November 15, 2019
Reverse Outline
Your thesis, or the sentence(s) that sum up your argument:
- “I have to go [to college] in order to get the education for my job that allows me to get
the money I need so that I can have all these amenities and necessities the people around
me have… Even if I were to decide against any of these things, society says that I will
have them, like all others including an education. This is what makes students obligated
to go to college, hence why we’re here.”

The first and last sentences of each body paragraph:

1. Introspectively, I could get a job without going to college.
This is what makes students obligated to go to college, hence why we’re here.
2. Not only does just an education come out of the completion of college, but so does a
multitude of positives that can result from going through either those four years or
two years.
They also are the building blocks of succeeding in college from the perspectives of
social positive factors but there still exists the financial issues that college brings.
3. Although following the track towards getting a degree has many benefits and is very
favored in the world we live in today, the controversy to the affordability of it grows
stronger.
This is where the article has informational gaps because it says education is necessary
to succeed but the cost is excessive and potentially not worth it, so the question stands
to be, what is the best option?
4. Mark A. Heckler goes into talking about the financial aspects of college and why it’s
a crucial part of our world in “The importance of a college education”, posted on the
Post-Tribune- Chicago Tribune.
It is the best path to a successful future with the status of our society with currency
being money and profit as degrees lead to accumulating money in order to prosper.
 5. As far as college setting us up for a steady future, there are endless other
opportunities that one may choose to do rather than attend a university or college.
Through this, it can be seen that there are various benefits to each alternative that can
be pursued if one decides to endeavor a path other than that to college.
6. We have been socialized to think we must go to college because of tradition and
social structures that have been normalized in our society.
There are many benefits and opportunities aside from going to college that one could
pursue, it’s just a matter of finding the right path and finding the potential of it to the
individual, not the collective manner.

The sentence in your conclusion that you believe really hammers your point home:
- We have been socialized to think we must go to college because of tradition and social
structures that have been normalized in our society.

You should now have a skeletal version of your paper—read through it and see if your logic
seems to transition well.
First, take a look at your thesis and the relationship between your thesis and body paragraph
sentences. Ask yourself:
Does your narrative stay tightly focused on the issue it raises for you? - Y
Do you have a paragraph or two that contextualizes your issue in relation to the narrative? How
or why did your experience raise these questions for you?
- The paragraphs that contextualize my issue with my narrative are within the transitions,
introduction/conclusion. I did not use my specific example in my narrative as a point in
my literature review, but I did relate them to each other, I think. My experience raised
these questions because I wasn’t sure why I was attending college and what forced me to
be here, so my review gives background to this question.
Is your thesis in your literature review clearly asserting a point about the research you will be
discussing?
- Yes, my sources aren’t all about social norms, but they relate to the collective behavior
that summarizes the social norm/socialization.
Does your thesis statement correspond with your concluding statement(s), or are they making
different arguments?
- They clash a little, my thesis talks about our obligations to attend college, but my
concluding sentences talk about how there are different options specific to people. This
may be okay, though.
Do your body paragraph sentences refer back to, or act as smaller arguments that help to support
your thesis statement? - Yes, they relate and support the thesis
If not, how can you tie your arguments back to your thesis? - Conclude at the end of P’s
Or, how might you alter your thesis to “fit” the arguments you are making in your body
paragraphs and conclusion?
- I may be able to contribute my “hammer home statement more into my thesis. My thesis
is not super clear, it’s more explanatory.
What evidence can you use to better support your thesis and/or your smaller body paragraph
arguments?
- Why we think it’s necessary to attend college- social norm theory?

Second, take a look at your body paragraph sentences and how they relate to one
another. Ask yourself:
Do your body paragraph sentences connect to and flow with one another?
- Yes, they flow well, may need more transitions?
Is each body paragraph sentence introducing a new concept or idea? - Yes, or a variation.
Do the first and last sentence of your body paragraph accurately represent what you want to
argue in that paragraph? - Yes, they connect well.
How do your paragraphs speak to each other?
- Each paragraph runs off of the previous one which connects all the ideas.
Are they disconnected, or do they build toward the statement you’re making in your conclusion?
If not, how can you rearrange or further connect each body paragraph to one another through the
first and last sentences that you have included here?
- They build by covering from the social positive aspects of college, to the financial
positive aspects, then moves to other options apart from the college path. Together, they
 create a picture of all the different paths, but to how college has the largest tendency for
which I attributed to the effect of social norms.
How can you re-work your body paragraph sentences to more accurately express the arguments
you wish to make?
- I could keep the same order of topics but rather re-work the structure of them—maybe
introduce article, the point of it, explain it, then connect it with thesis.
As you revise, consider your answers to the questions above. How can your answers help you
when revising your draft? If the sentences that you have highlighted in your skeletal outline do
not work toward your overall thesis, then revise the portions of the essay that do not seem to
follow. - if you question it, then rework it and change it. But sometimes, it may work
overall with the essay.