In Davenport’s essay “On Reading,” I believe that his thesis sentence is not located in the usual place. I believe I have found it in the middle of the essay. This is what I believe is Davenport’s thesis sentence: “All of this points to our having a society that reads badly and communicates execrably about what we read.” Davenport’s thesis is summing up the idea that desensitized by what we read, and …showed first 75 words of 345 total…

…showed last 75 words of 345 total…what everyone was being taught in the adjacent rooms. We were mesmerized by his shear audacity to work against the system for our benefit. He is the one who allowed me to open up my mind and never rule out anything just because a teacher said it was wrong or could not be done. He said, “Keep your mind open and free but when it comes to the test you must think like your teacher.”