Great podcast episode, Heather!

I always enjoy chatting with Dr. Pannekoek.  The GSA is currently lobbying the provincial government to provide sustainable and predictable post-secondary institutional funding (that is, an increase to base operational funding and a three-year funding plan).  We're also asking the provincial government to provide two seats on university Boards of Governors to graduate students, for the creation of a provincial part-time student loan program, and for government support for graduate student professional development programs.

We've had reasonable traction on these issues thus far, so we'll see what happens!

Amanda

He certainly is a great advocate for students!

Love it! Thanks Heather and Dr Pannekoek! 

Also, wow, I knew he was still teaching, but I didn't realize how many students he had!

Thanks Heather, I had a lot of fun. I've listened to the other podcasts. I am happy you've started this up.

Go Sans-Belt

- @Shouldice

Hawks? I thought those were ravens. On closer look, I guess they are hawks. I like ravens, and there are plenty of them in Athabasca.

- Mary Pringle

I like ravens better, too - I prefer to think of them as ravens!

Knock, Knock!
Who's there?
Yacht!
Yacht who?
Yacht a know me by now!

I think this is a fabulous interview addressing what "gentrification" actually means to people work in precarious fields.  Sex workers are our neighbors and fellow citizens, not non-humans made for exploitation by "artists" and politicians.  Sarah is so fucking fantastically smart and has really prompted me to think more deeply about workers rights and feminism.

- AJ

?Developing A Thesis
Think of yourself as a member of the jury, listening to the lawyer who is presenting an opening argument. You'll like to know very soon whether the lawyer believes the accused to be guilty or not guilty, and how the lawyer plans to convince you. Readers of academic essays are like jury members: before they have check out too far, they plan to know what the essay argues in the process as how the writer plans to make the argument. After reading your thesis statement, the reader should think, "This essay is going to try to convince me of something. I'm not convinced yet, but I'm interested to see how I would probably be."
An effective thesis cannot be answered accompanied by a hassle-free "yes" or "no." A thesis shouldn't be a topic; nor is it a fact; nor is it an opinion. "Reasons for your fall of communism" is known as a topic. "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" is actually a fact known by educated people. "The fall of communism is the optimal thing that ever happened in Europe" is surely an opinion. (Superlatives like "the best" almost always lead to trouble. It's impossible to weigh every "thing" that ever happened in Europe. And what about the fall of Hitler? Couldn't that be "the perfect thing"?)
A advantageous thesis has two parts. It should tell what you plan to argue, and it should "telegraph" how you plan to argue-that is, what particular assist for the claim is going where on your essay.
Steps in Constructing a Thesis
For starters, analyze your primary resources. Glimpse for tension, interest, ambiguity, controversy, and/or complication. Does the author contradict himself or herself? Is usually a point made and later reversed? What are the deeper implications for the author's argument? Figuring out the why to an individual or greater of these questions, or to related questions, will put you over the path to developing a working thesis. (Without the why, you probably have only come up with the observation-that there are, for instance, quite a few different metaphors in such-and-such a poem-which is simply not a thesis.)
Once you have a working thesis, compose it down. There exists nothing as frustrating as hitting on the useful idea for a thesis, then forgetting it at the time you lose concentration. And by producing down your thesis you will be forced to think of it clearly, logically, and concisely. You probably will not be able to write down out a final-draft version of your thesis the initial time you try, but you'll get yourself to the right track by creating down what you have.
Keep your thesis prominent on your introduction. A fantastic, standard destination for ones thesis statement is with the conclusion of an introductory paragraph, most definitely in shorter (5-15 web site) essays. Readers are chosen to finding theses there, so they quickly fork out extra attention when they learn the last sentence of your introduction. Although this is simply not required in all academic essays, it is actually a wonderful rule of thumb.
Anticipate the counterarguments. Once you have a working thesis, you should think about what may very well be explained against it. This will help you to definitely refine your thesis, and it will also make you think within the arguments that you'll have to have to refute later on inside your essay. (Every argument has a counterargument. If yours doesn't, then it's not an argument-it may be a fact, or an opinion, but it surely is absolutely not an argument.)
Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election seeing that he failed to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention.
This statement is on its way to being a thesis. However, it is too relatively easy to imagine achievable counterarguments. For example, a political observer would believe that Dukakis lost mainly because he suffered from the "soft-on-crime" image. If you should complicate your thesis by anticipating the counterargument, you'll strengthen your argument, as demonstrated during the sentence below.
At the same time Dukakis' "soft-on-crime" image hurt his chances inside of the 1988 election, his failure to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention bore a greater responsibility for his defeat.
Some Caveats and Some Examples
A thesis is never a question. Readers of academic essays expect to have questions discussed, explored, or even answered. A question ("Why did communism collapse in Eastern Europe?") is simply not an argument, and without an argument, a thesis is dead during the water.
A thesis is never a list. "For political, economic, social and cultural reasons, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" does a reputable job of "telegraphing" the reader what to expect with the essay-a section about political reasons, a section about economic reasons, a section about social reasons, together with a section about cultural reasons. However, political, economic, social and cultural reasons are pretty considerably the only potential reasons why communism could collapse. This sentence lacks tension and doesn't advance an argument. All people knows that politics, economics, and culture are important.
A thesis should never be vague, combative or confrontational. An ineffective thesis would be, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe mainly because communism is evil." This is hard to argue (evil from whose perspective? what does evil mean?) and it is probable to mark you as moralistic and judgmental rather than rational and thorough. Furthermore, it may spark a defensive reaction from readers sympathetic to communism. If readers strongly disagree with you right off the bat, they may stop reading.
An effective thesis has a definable, arguable claim. "While cultural forces contributed to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of economies played the key role in driving its decline" can be an effective thesis sentence that "telegraphs," so that the reader expects the essay to have a section about cultural forces and another about the disintegration of economies. This thesis makes a definite, arguable claim: that the disintegration of economies played a a good deal more important role than cultural forces in defeating communism in Eastern Europe. The reader would react to this statement by thinking, "Perhaps what the author says is true, but I am not convinced. I have to look over further to see how the author argues this claim."
A thesis should be as clear and exact as probable. Avoid overused, general terms and abstractions. For example, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe considering from the ruling elite's inability to address the economic concerns belonging to the people" is a little more powerful than "Communism collapsed due to societal discontent."
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- RobertkeymN

Great production values, especially considering Heather's admission that she produced it late at night, at her computer, in her pygamas (we're not supposed to know that). Is there any way to send this podcast, and others, out on a subscription basis?

Waiting for the next one.

Ken

I do hope so - I'm trying to work out a solution that would allow for the podcast to be published to iTunes.

Episode three is live, though! Go the 'files' section of the Unofficial Landing Podcast group. And I'm working on episode four.

Congrats Heather - a nice addition to student community indeed! I love podcasts and hope AU (officially) begins exploring how these can enrich the distance learning experience.