Breakthrough Writer

Thesis for Mai's Sleep Deprivation Essay

Youth culture is in a constant clash with the demands of sleep. This clash results from the youth culture lifestyle, which can be characterized by _________________________, ______________________________________, ___________________________________, and ____________________________________________.

1C Structure for Sleep Deprivation by Laura and Parastoo

In your first paragraph, you will create the irony of a culture obsessed with health and good lucks that ignores sleep.

 

In your second paragraph, your thesis paragraph, you'll explain, paradoxically, that the athletic lifestyle of fitness and productivity is in a clash with the need for healthy sleep. This clash is the result of a striving for extreme athleticism, multi-tasking, and excessive gadget dependence.

 

1C Essay Structure for Global Warming

In a page, summarize the article's major points. In your second page, summarize the major arguments that persuade to believe we are in a global warming crisis. On page 3, you'll start your thesis. You will either refute or support the "Civil Heretic." Your refutation or support will have 4 mapping statements, which will be followed by your body paragraphs.

1C Essay Outline for Being John Malkovich

Being John Malkovich

 

In the first page, summarize the film's major plot points and introduce the main characters.

In the next page, write a thesis that argues the film is a commentary on the narcissism, discontent, and mental derangment, addiction to vicarious experience that afflicts a society beholden to celebrity worship.

 

A sample thesis might look like this: Being John Malkovich renders a society seething with several pathologies resulting from celebrity worship. These pathologies include __________________________, _____________________________________, ___________________________________, and _________________________________________________.

 

 

Your body paragraphs will correspond to the above mapping components.

 

To supplement your research, you can use the DREW PINKSY INTERVIEW.

Another valuable essay on the theme of identity is in the Armchair Director. 

1C Essay 2 Spring 2009 Options Consolidated on One Post

Option #1:

Develop an essay from a thesis such as this one: We live in a hyper, frenzied, “caffeinated,” techno-crazed culture that is in constant conflict with the goals of healthy sleep habits. 

In looking at the cultural forces that have waged war against sleep, the essay by Paul Martin will be a huge source for addressing four forces: 

1. ignorance of sleep.

2. complacency about sleep.

3. stubborn refusal to acknowledge the importance of sleep, even in the medical community.

4. artificial stimulation. 

A Variation of Option #1:

Your thesis will be something like this: In this age of technology we have morphed into an Anti-Sleeper ADD Multi-Tasking Personality, which can be characterized by ___________________________, ________________________, _______________________________, __________________________, and _________________________________. 

Suggested Essay Structure

Paragraph 1 You will describe the sleep deprivation crisis as it is laid out in Chapter 8, drawing from relevant passages.

Paragraph 2 You will writing your thesis and mapping components

Supporting Paragraphs will illuminate the Anti-Sleeper ADD Multi-Tasking Personality with examples from your interview, the class survey, and Walter Kirn’s essay. 

Some points to consider for your body paragraphs:

1. We are, as Anti-Sleeper Man, ignorant and/or in denial about the importance of sleep as well described in Paul Martin's essay.

2. We have, as Anti-Sleeper Man, a perverted notion of freedom based on technology, as well described in Walter Kirn's essay.

3. We suffer from brains that cannot evolve quickly enough with our quickly advancing technology. See Walter Kirn's essay.

4. We suffer mental imbalance, as described in Walter Kirn's essay.

5. As Anti-Sleeper Man, we find out multitasking wastes time and money. Specifically, studies show that multitasking costs businesses 650 billion dollars a year. See Walter Kirn's essay. 

Option #2:

Write an essay about yourself or someone you know who has or is suffering sleep deprivation and analyze the causes and effects of this deprivation in light of the current research.  A successful paper will combine a suspenseful, dramatic narrative with concrete research. 

Option #3:

Some say that small amounts of chunk light tuna, about 2 servings a week, is safe. But others argue, such as is voiced in Why Mercury Is Still Legal, that the FDA doesn't warn or regulate mercury content in tuna adequately for our safety. Write a research paper that argues for or against the idea that modest consumption of tuna is safe.  

Option #4:

Write a five-page research paper that defends or refutes this contrarian position on global warming. In one page, summarize the article. Then write your thesis and mapping statements.  

Option #5:

Using no fewer than 4 reviews from Movie Review Query Engine, write a research paper on Being John Malkovich in which you develop a thesis that addresses the film's theme of how we are never content to be ourselves but live vicariously, and obsessively, through the Cult of a Celebrity.  Also you can use Drew Pinsky interview as a research source. Pinsky's book The Mirror Effect argues that celebrities become our gods and give us models of "normal" behavior, which of course is not normal at all but pathological and narcissistic. 

Option #6:

Contrast high school students in America and Asian countries featured in the documentary Two Million Minutes. 

1C Research Link: Drew Pinsky Talks to Pat Morrison about How Celebrities Are Seducing America

For a research source that comments on Being John Malkovich, CLICK HERE for Drew PInsky interview.

1A Lesson Plan for “The Consequences—Undoing Sanity” (299)

Part One. Lexicon

1. Anhedonia: you reach a state of unhappiness from which there is no return. Once you wear this quality on your sleeve, you become unemployable.
2. What’s harder on a man, begging for love or work? Work. Humiliation results in anhedonia.
3. Inertia (see 300 top); paralysis that feeds on itself.
4. Male vs. female hardwiring and their different effects in the workplace: Women are more adaptable, take more risks, and seek change. In contrast, men like routine, comfort, and stability. In sum, women fare better than men in the face of unemployment for 5 reasons: 1. Men's macho pride and identity are inextricably linked to their jobs. 2. Women are more resilient. They bounce back after a crisis. 3. Women are more social than men. Women cooperate. Men on the other hand negotiate. 4. Women take care of themselves during their unemployment. Men on the other hand become shut-ins, withdraw in their homes, and transform into disheveled homeless people. 5. Women thrive on change; men thrive on stagnation and fixed routine.
5. Unemployment is referred to as the “acuteness of the blow”: See page 301 in which the person is so traumatized he cannot face the anxieties, the rejection, and the sense of insignificance all over again, so he sabotages future prospects.
6. The double hit of unemployment: The feeling of being worthless coupled with self-blame: See page 301, last paragraph.
7. “Finessing layoffs”: See page 302 top. The attempt to “finesse” a layoff is futile.
8. The layoff is followed by a breaking of emotional bonds with others; it has a rippling effect. The person withdraws into depression. See page 302.
9. Despondence and apathy set in.
10. Ennui (the cycle: despondence, apathy and inertia, ennui, and then anhedonia)
11. Husband’s unemployment devastates the wife: She has to carry her soul, and his, up the mountain.
12. “Going postal”
13. Unemployment spreads shame through the entire family: See page 307 bottom.
14. Shell-shocked: You become so traumatized that you build a defensive wall that is worse than the problem that made you shell-shocked in the first place. (describe the student with the scowl on her face)  

 

Part Two: Summary of Unemployment Effects

1. family withdraws from one another

2. children are "emotional sponges" and internalize and absorb their parents' emotional trauma.

3. alcoholism increases

4. divorce increases

5. suicide (murder-suicide in Wilmington)

6. long-term stigma

7. long-term low self-esteem and self-blame

8. long-term physical ailments including hypertension, ulcers, chronic fatigue, etc.

9. women reach out for social support more than men so women tend to fare better.

10. Vicious cycle of unemployment: You become depressed, which makes you less employable, which makes you more depressed, and so on and so on. 

Part Three: Writing Options

Option #A:

Write a comparison and contrast essay that explores the similarities and differences between the way men and women handle unemployment. Your first two pages should explore the similarities; the second half should examine the discrepancies.

 

Option #B:

Write an informative essay on the psychological damage and family trauma resulting from unemployment.  

Option #C:

Using no fewer than 3 research sources, write a survival manual for someone who lost his or her job. Evaluate five things that the person must do to avoid some of the traps discussed earlier. 

Research Sources:

Predicting Self-Esteem During Unemployment

Supporting Your Spouse Through Unemployment

Unemployment Blues

How Pink Slips Hurt More Than Workers

Wolf at the Door

Part One. Lexicon

1. Anhedonia: you reach a state of unhappiness from which there is no return. Once you wear this quality on your sleeve, you become unemployable.
2. What’s harder on a man, begging for love or work? Work. Humiliation results in anhedonia.
3. Inertia (see 300 top); paralysis that feeds on itself.
4. Male vs. female hardwiring and their different effects in the workplace: Women are more adaptable, take more risks, and seek change. In contrast, men like routine, comfort, and stability. In sum, women fare better than men in the face of unemployment for 5 reasons: 1. Men's macho pride and identity are inextricably linked to their jobs. 2. Women are more resilient. They bounce back after a crisis. 3. Women are more social than men. Women cooperate. Men on the other hand negotiate. 4. Women take care of themselves during their unemployment. Men on the other hand become shut-ins, withdraw in their homes, and transform into disheveled homeless people. 5. Women thrive on change; men thrive on stagnation and fixed routine.
5. Unemployment is referred to as the “acuteness of the blow”: See page 301 in which the person is so traumatized he cannot face the anxieties, the rejection, and the sense of insignificance all over again, so he sabotages future prospects.
6. The double hit of unemployment: The feeling of being worthless coupled with self-blame: See page 301, last paragraph.
7. “Finessing layoffs”: See page 302 top. The attempt to “finesse” a layoff is futile.
8. The layoff is followed by a breaking of emotional bonds with others; it has a rippling effect. The person withdraws into depression. See page 302.
9. Despondence and apathy set in.
10. Ennui (the cycle: despondence, apathy and inertia, ennui, and then anhedonia)
11. Husband’s unemployment devastates the wife: She has to carry her soul, and his, up the mountain.
12. “Going postal”
13. Unemployment spreads shame through the entire family: See page 307 bottom.
14. Shell-shocked: You become so traumatized that you build a defensive wall that is worse than the problem that made you shell-shocked in the first place. (describe the student with the scowl on her face)  

 

Part Two: Summary of Unemployment Effects

1. family withdraws from one another

2. children are "emotional sponges" and internalize and absorb their parents' emotional trauma.

3. alcoholism increases

4. divorce increases

5. suicide (murder-suicide in Wilmington)

6. long-term stigma

7. long-term low self-esteem and self-blame

8. long-term physical ailments including hypertension, ulcers, chronic fatigue, etc.

9. women reach out for social support more than men so women tend to fare better.

10. Vicious cycle of unemployment: You become depressed, which makes you less employable, which makes you more depressed, and so on and so on. 

Part Three: Writing Options

Option #A:

Write a comparison and contrast essay that explores the similarities and differences between the way men and women handle unemployment. Your first two pages should explore the similarities; the second half should examine the discrepancies.

 

Option #B:

Write an informative essay on the psychological damage and family trauma resulting from unemployment.  

Option #C:

Using no fewer than 3 research sources, write a survival manual for someone who lost his or her job. Evaluate five things that the person must do to avoid some of the traps discussed earlier. 

Research Sources:

Predicting Self-Esteem During Unemployment

Supporting Your Spouse Through Unemployment

Unemployment Blues

How Pink Slips Hurt More Than Workers

Wolf at the Door

1A Lesson Plan for “AWOL in America: When Desertion Is the Only Option”

One: Lexicon

 

1. coercion
2. naiveté
3. conscientious objector : is an individual who, on religious, moral or ethical grounds, refuses to participate as a combatant in war
4. AWOL
5. Marginalized people: people with no education, resources, or support system who are apathetic, feeling no hope to improve their lives; consequently all their decisions are based on physical survival, nothing else.
6. Army’s manpower crisis (360) demand exceeds supply
7. Stop-loss orders (360) A commander must retain at least 85% of soldiers or he will have hell to pay.
8. Principle of Scarcity: Whenever there is a short supply of something, we lower our standards, food, mates, military, etc.
9. Docility, docile
10. Acquiescence, acquiesce, acquiescent 
11. Metamorphosis, drastic transformation for which there is often no return

 

Two. What 10 life lessons do we learn from this essay?

 

1. Morons and madmen reign in high places. Whenever you join an institution—any institution—don’t expect smart, competent, morally savory people to be on top. Expect the contrary to be true. Here you have a military system so desperate for recruits that is it yanking clueless people off the streets to fight a war that by all accounts is a catastrophic failure doomed to drain our country of all its resources and yet nearly impossible for us to leave. The Administration doesn’t even provide proper helmets, properly working gas masks, Hum-Vees and armor and parents are sending safety equipment to their children, paying out of their pockets.

 

 

2. Whenever there is a crisis, it is the clueless, helpless margins of society who get manipulated into be exploited for the uses of the higher-ups. Here we have the worse foreign policy decision every made in US history and smart people know not to get involved with it. So who gets into Iraq, mostly clueless people who don’t have the faintest idea of what they’re getting into. See page 361, top paragraph. See 361 bottom and 362 top.

 

 

3. When privileged and powerful people exploit you for their purposes, not only do the powerful not appreciate you for saving their butts, they insult you by not giving you any compensation. See page 361. Hordes of soldiers are calling hotlines for untreated injuries, mental illness, PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, violence, suicide, etc. 60 Minutes had a story about a VA hospital with sewage leaking everywhere, rats, roaches.

 

 

4. Whenever there’s a screw up, the people on top always defer the pain and punishment to the helpless underlings who don’t have a clue of what’s going on. Rather than admit their mistakes and pull out, the Administration saves face by continuing a war that results in the deaths of thousands of people, soldiers from working class America and innocent Iraqis whose casualties number in the hundreds of thousands.

 

 

5. Bureaucrats do whatever they have to do to save their butts, usually at the expense of doing the right thing. See page 360, bottom paragraph

 

 

6. Don’t ever make a decision based on powerful emotional longing because more often than not your decision will be irrational, misguided, and work against your best interests. Jeremiah was raised by a single mother and hungered for a father figure and a positive role model of healthy masculinity. This hunger was so powerful that it compelled him to join the military even though his personality is at odds with military culture and he’s miserable. See 363 and 364 top.

 

 

7. Related to number 6, don’t ever make a decision without doing the extensive research first because if you screw up, no one is going to bail out. You need to rely on yourself to take care of your own self-interests and you had better protect your interests ferociously and thoroughly or a heavy price will be paid. People get married without knowing what the hell marriage entails other than some sentimental image they got from watching a Hugh Grant movie or listening to some crappy love song on the radio.

 

 

8. Do be an effective killing machine in the military, you have to put on a warrior’s mask that doesn’t come off easily—if ever at all—when you rejoin civilian life. See page 364 in which the sergeant says he joined the Army because he enjoyed killing and being an effective killing machine. Also see 366. We see that being an effective soldier is all about tapping into that vein of violence that exists in all of us. It’s necessary for war, to be sure, but how do you turn it off?

 

 

9. When you’re young, there is no shortage of people who are eager and willing to take advantage of your innocence and naiveté. See 362.

 

10. There is usually a complete disconnect between an institution taking appropriate action and maintaining its official policy. See page 365 in which Jeremiah is clearly having a nervous breakdown and is not useless to the military but presents a danger to others and himself, but the bureaucracy must maintain policy; doing the right thing in this circumstance is irrelevant.

 

 

 

 

 

Three: Qualities of a Good Thesis:

 

1. visceral, from the gut first, the brain second
2. address a relevant topic
3. avoid the obvious and self-evident
4. develop a thesis that is an answer to a compelling question
5. make sure the reader can find the thesis in your essay
6. make sure your thesis is one or two sentences and no more
7. make sure your thesis has enough substance to cover 5 pages
8. make sure there is research material to support your thesis
9. it’s often good to focus on a controversial topic, a 2-sided argument
10. it’s often good to take a contrarian position
11. has a strong voice
12. outlines your essay by being followed with mapping components or sentences.

 

 

 

Broad

 

Dobie is too harsh on the military

Going AWOL is a bad thing.

Sometimes going AWOL is okay.

Walden is a crazy place.

Walden shows us that people shouldn’t spend too much on the Internet.

 

 

Contrarian (Very good) :

 

While McMahon is eager to dismiss the cyber romances at Walden as a pathological exercise, his attack is both alarmist and inaccurate. First, he insults those of us who are intelligent enough to discern fraud and authenticity. Second, he is naïve to dismiss the importance of opening our romantic possibilities over the vast Internet landscape. Third, he is ignorant to belittle the importance of convenience a world with severe time constraints. And finally, McMahon sadly fails to recognize that the written word via e-mail or text messaging opens the window to another soul in ways that cannot be matched through other venues.

 

 

 

Students will write a thesis for today’s essay:

 

Specific

 

The military will enhance its strength and morality if it pardons those who want to quit because __________________, _________________, _________________, and _____________________.

 

Dobie’s argument that special cases should be pardoned for committing AWOL would pose certain dangers to the military, namely, ___________________, _________________, __________________, and _________________________.

 

 

 

One: Lexicon

 

1. coercion
2. naiveté
3. conscientious objector : is an individual who, on religious, moral or ethical grounds, refuses to participate as a combatant in war
4. AWOL
5. Marginalized people: people with no education, resources, or support system who are apathetic, feeling no hope to improve their lives; consequently all their decisions are based on physical survival, nothing else.
6. Army’s manpower crisis (360) demand exceeds supply
7. Stop-loss orders (360) A commander must retain at least 85% of soldiers or he will have hell to pay.
8. Principle of Scarcity: Whenever there is a short supply of something, we lower our standards, food, mates, military, etc.
9. Docility, docile
10. Acquiescence, acquiesce, acquiescent 
11. Metamorphosis, drastic transformation for which there is often no return

 

Two. What 10 life lessons do we learn from this essay?

 

1. Morons and madmen reign in high places. Whenever you join an institution—any institution—don’t expect smart, competent, morally savory people to be on top. Expect the contrary to be true. Here you have a military system so desperate for recruits that is it yanking clueless people off the streets to fight a war that by all accounts is a catastrophic failure doomed to drain our country of all its resources and yet nearly impossible for us to leave. The Administration doesn’t even provide proper helmets, properly working gas masks, Hum-Vees and armor and parents are sending safety equipment to their children, paying out of their pockets.

 

 

2. Whenever there is a crisis, it is the clueless, helpless margins of society who get manipulated into be exploited for the uses of the higher-ups. Here we have the worse foreign policy decision every made in US history and smart people know not to get involved with it. So who gets into Iraq, mostly clueless people who don’t have the faintest idea of what they’re getting into. See page 361, top paragraph. See 361 bottom and 362 top.

 

 

3. When privileged and powerful people exploit you for their purposes, not only do the powerful not appreciate you for saving their butts, they insult you by not giving you any compensation. See page 361. Hordes of soldiers are calling hotlines for untreated injuries, mental illness, PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, violence, suicide, etc. 60 Minutes had a story about a VA hospital with sewage leaking everywhere, rats, roaches.

 

 

4. Whenever there’s a screw up, the people on top always defer the pain and punishment to the helpless underlings who don’t have a clue of what’s going on. Rather than admit their mistakes and pull out, the Administration saves face by continuing a war that results in the deaths of thousands of people, soldiers from working class America and innocent Iraqis whose casualties number in the hundreds of thousands.

 

 

5. Bureaucrats do whatever they have to do to save their butts, usually at the expense of doing the right thing. See page 360, bottom paragraph

 

 

6. Don’t ever make a decision based on powerful emotional longing because more often than not your decision will be irrational, misguided, and work against your best interests. Jeremiah was raised by a single mother and hungered for a father figure and a positive role model of healthy masculinity. This hunger was so powerful that it compelled him to join the military even though his personality is at odds with military culture and he’s miserable. See 363 and 364 top.

 

 

7. Related to number 6, don’t ever make a decision without doing the extensive research first because if you screw up, no one is going to bail out. You need to rely on yourself to take care of your own self-interests and you had better protect your interests ferociously and thoroughly or a heavy price will be paid. People get married without knowing what the hell marriage entails other than some sentimental image they got from watching a Hugh Grant movie or listening to some crappy love song on the radio.

 

 

8. Do be an effective killing machine in the military, you have to put on a warrior’s mask that doesn’t come off easily—if ever at all—when you rejoin civilian life. See page 364 in which the sergeant says he joined the Army because he enjoyed killing and being an effective killing machine. Also see 366. We see that being an effective soldier is all about tapping into that vein of violence that exists in all of us. It’s necessary for war, to be sure, but how do you turn it off?

 

 

9. When you’re young, there is no shortage of people who are eager and willing to take advantage of your innocence and naiveté. See 362.

 

10. There is usually a complete disconnect between an institution taking appropriate action and maintaining its official policy. See page 365 in which Jeremiah is clearly having a nervous breakdown and is not useless to the military but presents a danger to others and himself, but the bureaucracy must maintain policy; doing the right thing in this circumstance is irrelevant.

 

 

 

 

 

Three: Qualities of a Good Thesis:

 

1. visceral, from the gut first, the brain second
2. address a relevant topic
3. avoid the obvious and self-evident
4. develop a thesis that is an answer to a compelling question
5. make sure the reader can find the thesis in your essay
6. make sure your thesis is one or two sentences and no more
7. make sure your thesis has enough substance to cover 5 pages
8. make sure there is research material to support your thesis
9. it’s often good to focus on a controversial topic, a 2-sided argument
10. it’s often good to take a contrarian position
11. has a strong voice
12. outlines your essay by being followed with mapping components or sentences.

 

 

 

Broad

 

Dobie is too harsh on the military

Going AWOL is a bad thing.

Sometimes going AWOL is okay.

Walden is a crazy place.

Walden shows us that people shouldn’t spend too much on the Internet.

 

 

Contrarian (Very good) :

 

While McMahon is eager to dismiss the cyber romances at Walden as a pathological exercise, his attack is both alarmist and inaccurate. First, he insults those of us who are intelligent enough to discern fraud and authenticity. Second, he is naïve to dismiss the importance of opening our romantic possibilities over the vast Internet landscape. Third, he is ignorant to belittle the importance of convenience a world with severe time constraints. And finally, McMahon sadly fails to recognize that the written word via e-mail or text messaging opens the window to another soul in ways that cannot be matched through other venues.

 

 

 

Students will write a thesis for today’s essay:

 

Specific

 

The military will enhance its strength and morality if it pardons those who want to quit because __________________, _________________, _________________, and _____________________.

 

Dobie’s argument that special cases should be pardoned for committing AWOL would pose certain dangers to the military, namely, ___________________, _________________, __________________, and _________________________.

 

 

 

1C Writing Option for Essay #2 Spring 2009: How Safe Is Tuna?

Some say that small amounts of chunk light tuna, about 2 servings a week, is safe. But others argue, such as is voiced in Why Mercury Is Still Legal, that the FDA doesn't warn or regulate mercury content in tuna adequately for our safety. Write a research paper that argues for or against the idea that modest consumption of tuna is safe. 

1C Writing Option for Essay #2 Spring 2009: Defend or Refute This "Civil Heretic"

Write a five-page research paper that defends or refutes this contrarian position on global warming. In one page, summarize the article. Then write your thesis and mapping statements.