LESSON 2.3
Create the What Statement

Grades 7 - Adult

What is a What Statement?

The What Statement boils down the main parts of an essay or other piece of writing so the reader (or listener) knows exactly what the subject is.  For older or more topnotch students, it’s technically called an assertion.

It consists of an Old Idea and a New Idea. They can go in either order in the What Statement itself, but in the document the Old Idea will always go first.

The What Statement boils down the main parts of an essay or other piece of writing so the reader (or listener) knows exactly what the subject is.  For older or more topnotch students, it’s technically called an assertion.

It consists of an Old Idea and a New Idea. They can go in either order in the What Statement itself, but in the document the Old Idea will always go first.

What Statement Flowchart

To check your What Statement, answer these three questions.  If all three are not yes, then you have done something wrong.

  1. Is it a sentence?
  2. Are there two variables?
  3. Is at least one of the variables a New Idea?

More About What Statements

Go to More About What Statements and work through the material.

Add a Tie Line 

A tie line connects your essay to the prompt. For example:

Prompt: If you could be any wild animal, what would you be?

Incorrect: I would be a didinium.

Correct: If I could be any wild animal, I would be a didinium

Task 2.3.1 – Individual or Tandem

Create a What Statement for each question below.  Include a tie line. Use the animal in parenthesis.

  1. If you were stranded on a desert island with one animal, what kind of animal would it be? (Maui dolphin.  This is a tricky one!)
  2. What is your favorite animal? (didinium)
  3. If you fell into an imaginary well, what animals would you see? (xylophone fish, three-headed eel, smore fish.)

Task 2.3.2 – Small Group

Name the two variables in each “what statement” below, and grade them. Then create a Decision Table to determine which “A” idea will most interest adult strangers.

  1. I like ski-joring
  2. I like collecting stamps
  3. I like collecting stamps from Pitcairn Island
  4. I like collecting stamps from Pitcairn Island, home of the Bounty mutineers
  5. I like basketball
  6. I like sleeping
  7. I like making Athabascan slippers
  8. I like shooting around
  9. I like shooting free throws
  10. I like playing HORSE in basketball
  11. I like sleeping at the sleep disorders center
  12. I like sleeping beneath the stars.
Do not accept without extensive, professional training!

Task 2.3.3 – Small Group

  1. Write your winning idea from Lesson 2.2 as a What Statement:

    If I could be any wild animal, __________________________________

Task 2.3.4 – Individual

Go to What is a sentence? And work through the lesson.  DO NOT SKIP THIS. DO NO ASSUME THAT YOU ALREADY KNOW WHAT A SENTENCE IS!

  1. Is the What Statement a sentence? How do you know?
  2. Are there two variables? What are they?
  3. Is at least one variable a New idea?
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