Thesis: the thesis should be a specific one sentence explantion of the final conclusion of your paper. It should not be a question.

Not a good thesis: Literacy means many things.

A good thesis: While the meaning of literacy includes being able to read and write, we might expand our notion of literacy to include the ability being able to participate in an intelligent and informed discussion about such topics as art, music, and literature.
Personal experience. This calls for your specific personal experience, things you have done, seen, or participated in.

Not specific personal experience: I went through many things in high school and had a hard time. [It's personal, but not specific]

Not specific personal experience: My father wrecked a car when he was in high school. [You are not your father]

Not specific personal experience: Many people wrecked cars in high school. [You are not many people]

Not specific personal experience: A lot of my friends wrecked cars in high school. [You are not your friends]

Specific personal experience: I wrecked a car in high school.

Even better specific personal experience: One December, when I was a junior in high school, I wrecked an 82 white two-door Toronado in high school and nearly killed myself. [this has more detail]

Using the readings in a paragraph: Incorporate short, quotes of no more than several sentences that you clearly connect to what you are talking about.

Not using the readings in a paragraph: W. B. Yeats' "The Second Coming" talks about a world gone mad. [I want specific quotes, not a general summary]

Not using the readings in a paragraph: Nuclear war is a big problem. As Robert Frost says in "The Road Not Taken," "I took the one less traveled by" (702 line 19). [How in the world does this quote and this poem relate to nuclear war? Looks like the writer is just sticking in a random quote]

Using the readings in a paragraph: War is a problem that the world has faced for thousand of years. W.B. Yeats' "The Second Coming" eloquently illustrates this recurring historical situation. The narrator of the poem states that "mere anarchy is loosed upon the world / the blood-dimmed tide is loosed" (705 lines 4-5). The blood-dimmed tide comes from the bloodshed of individuals fighting and dying in a war. Furthermore, "the ceremony of innocence is drowned," according to the speaker (705 line 6). In other words, society has lost its innocence, its sense that everything will be okay, due to all of the fighting. [This pargraph uses specific quotes and clearly explains and relates these quotes to the topic sentence]