Answer Question: Poor Teeth by Sarah Smarsh

1. Write a potential initial thesis for A1. Identify both texts, both authors, and quickly describe one point of tension in the rhetoric of this essay that raises a question you can then follow.

2. Give one piece of evidence from each text that shows something about the claim you just made, but in a way that builds on the line of questioning you’ve started. These can be quotations, paraphrases, summaries, or concrete descriptions of one piece of the rhetoric.

3. Explain what each piece of evidence might plausibly mean.

4. Connect each bit of evidence (step 2) and analysis (step 3) to your initial thesis. How are you carrying a single idea forward?

5. Give one piece of complicating evidence from at least one of the essays you’ve chosen—something that doesn’t just illustrate the points you’ve already made, but that somehow requires you to make a more complex explanation of the evidence you’re showing than you did in step 1.

6. Explain how this piece of complicating evidence evolves your initial thesis. What deeper implications does this new piece of evidence carry?