In our Essay 3 unit, students will learn how to write a thesis-driven essay in the form of a Classical Argument while arguing about the import of implicit as opposed to explicit motivation in extreme sport competitions.

Required Texts For This Essay

Read or listen to the following:

Happiness Lab Season 1, Episode 10 podcast “Making the Grade” (Links to an external site.) (audio) with Dr. Laurie Santos or Making the Grade TranscriptActions. 

Tutorial on how todownload podcasts to an Iphone or Ipad (Links to an external site.)for convenient listening on the go.

How to download podcasts to an Android device. (Links to an external site.)

Read the following selections from Steven Kotler’s Rise of Superman (Links to an external site.)

Kotler’s summary of Csikszentmihalyi on flow (pages 16-21 in Chapter 2)

Chapter 7 “Inner Flow” on world champion freediver Mandy-Rae Cruickshank

Chapter 10: The Dark Side of Flow” on backcountry snowboarders Jeremy Jones and Travis Rice

Parenting for the Brain web article “Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Motivation–What’s the Difference?” (Links to an external site.)

Alfie Kohn’s “Rewards are Still Bad News (25 Years Later)” (Links to an external site.)

Marcel Berger’s “What Motivates Successful Athletes” (Links to an external site.)

(Links to an external site.)HSC Core 2 Sport Psychology“Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation” (Links to an external site.)

(Links to an external site.)Kendra Cherry’s “Extrinsic Motivation” (Links to an external site.)

Read Model Student Essay Three for a nice example of what you should aim for in your own essay.

Learn More About MLA Style Formatting and Download a Template for Your Essays

See Model Essay 3 for an Example

Instructions

Introduction paragraph (3/4 page)

Start with a hook that grabs the reader’s interest and introduces the essay topic.

• Next, define “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” motivation.

Then illustrate “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” motivation with your own personal example of each one.

Add a transition sentence that credits the authors you plan to use in this paper, introduces the topic of flow states, and brings up the perspective of extreme sport athletes.

End with your introduction paragraph with a 1 sentence thesis statement that is specific, concise, clear, and arguable.

Thesis (one sentence)

Thesis Question: Using examples from specific athletes’ flow experiences from our Essay 3 readings, argue whether you think intrinsic or extrinsic motivation is more capable of increasing an athlete’s peak performances. Support your thesis with 2 reasons, all in one sentence.

Body Paragraphs

Very Important Requirement: Provide specific examplesfrom the stories of at least 2 athletes featured in our assigned readings.

Provide supporting quotations from Happiness Lab, Kotler’s Rise of Superman, and the other assigned readings.

Provide 3 Body Paragraphs. The first two body paragraphs will support your thesis. The third body paragraph will contain your counterargument and rebuttal.

Each body paragraph should be restricted to supporting one specific thesis idea. There should not be multiple main ideas in one paragraph.

No other outside sources besides those assigned should be used in your essay.

• Conclusion

Restate your thesis using new wording and phrasing so you are not simply cutting and pasting.

End with some interesting reflections on the topic that go beyond merely repeating what you said earlier.

Organization Tips

Thesis formation: The thesis should subdivide into the same number of points as your total number of body paragraphs. If you have two body paragraphs, your thesis would subdivide into two points. Thesis needs to be the last sentence of your introduction. The thesis should fully answer the essay question. It should also be specific, concise, and arguable.

Body Paragraph Organization and Unity: Each body paragraph should discussion one idea that supports the thesis; in other words, body paragraphs should not repeat ideas from previous paragraphs and should not contain more than one main idea.

• Topic Sentences: Each body paragraph must begin with a topic sentence that tells the reader which thesis idea that paragraph will be about.

Concluding Sentences: Each body paragraph should end with a concluding sentence that restates topic sentence main ideas and adds supportive reasoning. The goal is to summarize the main examples you covered in that body paragraph.

Quotations: You will need to support any assertions you make with a discussion of quotations from the texts assigned. All quotations should have an introductory phrase and should use the following MLA format: Westwick and Neushul write, “XX” (24).

Quotation Analysis: All quotations should be followed by 4-5 or more sentences that provide a detailed explanation of how the quotation supports your body paragraph’s main idea.

Title: Divided into two parts separated by a colon. Centered. Double-spaced like your heading and the rest of your paper. Capitalize all key words. Should be a fragment. Not underlined or in boldface. No period at the end of the title. Your title should not just copy the title of this essay prompt or the title of the readings. Example:

Myth Topic: Your Two Thesis Ideas

Conclusion: A place for you to summarize your thesis and add any last reflections on your topic. Should be no longer than half of a page.