BP9-Tom March:Thesis Builder

Screen capture of http://tommarch.com/electraguide/

Tom March: Thesis Builder is a good tool for research projects.  It gives students access to a variety of tools that will allow them to use a variety of topics to build outlines and concise thesis statements.  On the main page the student has many options to choose form to help build a thesis.  The site gives three steps to complete the initial beginning to writing an essay.  First the student chooses a topic, which they are given a variety of topic examples.  In the second step they create a good thesis statement and an example is given for reference as well. And the last step is to generate an outline, which another detailed example is given.  

Screen capture of http://tommarch.com/electraguide/

After the steps are completed, students have several choices based on which type of essay they are expected to create, on thesis builder.  The choices are: The Original, Persuasive Essay, thesis Builder & Online Outliner, Topic-O-Rama, Causinator, and TubePrompter.

Each choice links them to another page that allows them to fill in the necessary information to have one created based on their input. Topic-O-Rama, one of the listed choices, offers an idea pool of 50 prompts to help brain storm topics for persuasive essays.

What's great about this site is it allows students the choice to choose a format for their essay.  It gives students how may not be familiar with outlines a base to create one without the hassle of the formal format.  And for students who aren’t as creative with topics, it gives them a list to pull from if needed.

The tools I used prior was just having them type it in Word. I taught a lesson on outline structure and then gave them an example, and hoped for the best.  I usually got a whole lot of questions and if I didn’t, I would find alignment issues at the least and the content incorrectly placed and stated.

Screen capture of http://tommarch.com/electraguide/

A similar tool that I am aware of and use at times is Inspiration.  It is a program that allows the students not only to create mind maps/ graphic organizers using all types of visual representation, but outlines as well.  Whats good about the program is students get a template of an outline that they only need to plug in their on content to complete.  The bad about the program is that some still don’t fill in the correct information in the outline which is why Thesis Builder is a wonderful site.