English 102 Thesis Statement Requirements Six Page Essay--Argument/Persuasion

1. English 102 Thesis Statement Requirements Six Page Essay--Argument/Persuasion I evaluate your essay based on the effectiveness of your central idea.

2. Water pollution Carcinogens in work place Home energy waste Solid waste Car emissions Acid rain Industrial Individual Pollution Over cutting forests Overpopulation Environmental Problems Saving Rain Forests Global warming Developing alternative energy sources Polar Bears Narrow the focus

4. Although they are worthy of our utmost efforts to protect them and their Artic habitat, adding polar bears to the nation’s list of endangered species, as some are now proposing, should not be a part of those efforts. Sarah Palin, June 2008 To further help environmental groups force the federal government to either stop or severely limit any public or private action that effects, or even allows, the production of greenhouse gases, the polar bear should be placed on the endangered species list. The New York Times’ Editorial Writers July 2008

5. Antithesis Examples SCC offers more user-friendly internet enhanced classes than does South Mountain Community College. SMCC offers more user-friendly internet enhanced classes than does Scottsdale Community College. Because harm perpetrated over the Internet continues to grow each year--the pirates have arrived on the high seas of the online world-- and the lack of regulation makes their predations all too easy, the time has come for lawmakers or the UN to implement sensible policies designed to reign in the pirates while minimizing the impact on law-abiding Internet users. A current effort to place the Internet under the control of the UN is portrayed by some as a desirable method of reducing U.S. control or influence over the Internet and reducing criminal activity. In reality, the Internet is already free from government interference, to the benefit of users worldwide. The UN's or any government’s attempt to take control of the Internet is motivated by a desire for greater power and should be stopped.

6. MoreAntithesis Examples The testing of nuclear weapons in the U.S. should be banned because of the exorbitant costs and because nuclear testing can threaten U.S. national security by undermining efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons. The proliferation of nuclear weapons may be the chief threat America faces in the new, post-Cold War era. Cost and advancing the spread of more nuclear weapons aside, as long as we rely upon those weapons to keep the peace, we must test them to maintain an effective and credible deterrence posture. We need to know that the weapons in our arsenal are safe and reliable. We need to know that they will survive an attack. Banning their testing would be an egregious error.

7. Structuring a Thesis An effective thesis for an argumentative essay may consist of two parts: an independent clause stating the pro side of the argument--the side you support--and a dependent element (clause or phrase) stating the con side in which you acknowledge the opposition. Common openers of the dependent element are although, despite, and despite the factthat. In addition, especially for longer essays, an argumentative thesis is often divisional: it contains specific parts that give the reader a clearer focus on the direction and scope of the essay. Example: Although the U.S. government has made manyefforts to advance minorities, their upward movementthrough social class is still hindered by obstacles in employment, housing, lending, and education.

8. Example Thesis Statement Broad Area: Public Education Narrowed to: Alternatives to Public Education in Arizona Narrowed to: Home Schooling in Arizona Thesis= Specific Subject + Predicate which asserts an opinion about the subject and states the main discussion points (divisional) Example:Although some parents in Arizona think that teaching their own child might undermine the youngster’s education, home schoolingis a viable alternative to public education because it enables the youth to seek more academic and artistic freedom, permits him or her to participate in the discussion of family values and morals, and strengthens familial relationships.

9. Is this statement a thesis?Explain your choice. Approximately twenty percent of Arizona parents think the state’s public education system has significant problems and that alternative methods of educating their children, like home schooling, may offer better solutions. NO: not an opinion statement

10. Is this statement a thesis?Explain your choice. Because of the increase in blatant corruption, the pervasive power of warlords and drug lords, and a revived Taliban, the Obama administration should focus more energy on bolstering Afghanistan’s democracy--to displace the venality and to prevent further violence in the south; a loss in this country will be a loss in the larger struggle against terrorism. Yes: this is an opinion statement

11. Is this statement a thesis?Explain your choice. Even though Advanced Cell Technology has proposed a way to produce human embryonic stem cells without destroying an embryo, religious conservatives have denounced it as ethically unacceptable, which illustrates how much weight morality places on this scientific enterprise. NO: not an opinion statement

12. Is this statement a thesis?Explain your choice. Although President Obama and his defenders have called for “a looking forward, not backward” when discussing whether the Justice Department should prosecute those who participated in the EIT programs, the only way our country can regain our moral compass, for the sake of our own national conscience, is to investigate exactly what happened and, if necessary, prosecute those responsible. Yes: this is an opinion statement

13. Is this statement a thesis?Explain your choice. A congressional investigation into the insurance industries’ use of rescission found that many large companies--among them Blue Cross of California--used this technique to cancel over 20,000 policies in a five year period, saving the companies more than 300 million dollars in claims; a strategy like this can be quite efficacious in sustaining their stock price. NO: not an opinion statement

14. Is this statement a thesis?Explain your choice. A rendition program with “diplomatic assurances” as its centerpiece will be ineffective at preventing torture. Concerned citizens must urge the administration to uphold its absolute obligation to prevent torture. Any transfer it engages in must fully comply with domestic and international human rights law. Anything less will mark a return to the unlawful “extraordinary rendition” program. . Yes: this is an opinion statement

15. Is this statement a thesis?Explain your choice. In recent years, U.S. health officials have been addressing one of medicine’s most troubling questions: who should get a chance to survive when the number of severely ill people far exceeds the resources needed to treat them all? There is controversy over what values and ethical principles should guide triage decisions, how to engage the public, and whether withdrawing life support in the hospital and withholding it at the hospital door are distinct. NO: not an opinion statement

16. Is this statement a thesis?Explain your choice. Many of the issues covered in the latest Sate of the Union address--reviving the economy, fostering competition and innovation, reforming education goals to effect more success, keeping Americans healthy, reforming the tax codes to make them more equitable, bringing home our overworked troops--are indispensible for helping the United States gain a stronger foothold in the global community. Yes: this is an opinion statement

17. Is this statement a thesis?Explain your choice. If any important legislation is to be passed--especially bills related to the looming “Fiscal Cliff” or “Debt Ceiling”--or if any significant executive or judicial nomination is to be upheld, it is imperative that the United States Senate, in January, votes to oust the current filibuster rules by bringing back and implementing the proposal by senators Tom Udall of New Mexico and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, which preserves the filibuster but makes it much more difficult to use. Yes: this is an opinion statement

18. Is this statement a thesis?Explain your choice. Although there were many opponents to President Clinton’s 1993 deficit reduction plan, some even going so far as to predict a recession, the higher rates on the very rich helped lead to more economic expansiveness, including prodigious job creation; consequently, our current economic policy makers should shun the call for more austerity, for eliminating important middle class tax deductions, and put in place more revenue producing taxes on the top one percent of wage earners. Yes: this is an opinion statement

19. Is this statement a thesis?Explain your choice. Although the recent election says a great deal about minorities’ enfranchisement, if we are to preserve the essence of the Voting Rights Act of 1965—to break down any barriers to minority political participation, especially as it is dealt with in Sction 5—civil rights organizations should start preparing now for the inevitable confrontation at the Supreme Court level by calling for new changes in the law which would be able to stand strong against future election challenges Yes: this is an opinion statement

20. Token “legalizing marijuana” slide

21. Is this statement a thesis?Explain your choice. It’s high time that California legalize marijuana in next Tuesday’s election; our nearly century old quest to ban the substance has failed as abysmally as Prohibition did, so the state now has a chance to effect a saner approach and to perhaps eradicate our current drug policies’ three catastrophic consequences: the squandering of billions of dollars that would be better spent on education, the exacerbating of poverty and devastation to African American families, and its actually creating more crime and empowering gangs. Yes: this is an opinion statement

22. Web sites to help you write a better thesis • Purdue’s OWL • Indiana University • Rensselaer Polytechnic

23. The following slides show you the difference between an incorrect thesis and a correct one

24. A thesis statement is not • A fragment, lacking a subject or predicate; nor is it an interrogative statement or an announcement: “I will discuss . . .” or “This paper will explore . . .” • Incoherent • Not over-generalized or too broad

25. An effective thesis is: • a complete declarative sentence or sentences • coherent • specific (often a divisional statement: see slide # 7 above) Use the length of the assignment to help determine the degree of specificity.

26. A thesis is not • Nebulous • Implicit • Objective (reportorial, unbiased, impersonal) • Another person’s words or original idea

27. An EffectiveThesis is • One that shows the writer’s direction and purpose • explicit • argumentative (judgmental, evaluative, opinionated, editorialized, subjective) • the writer’s own words

29. You may also write the thesis without the opposing-side phrase or dependent clause, but still include divisions Regarding the United States involvement in what many have labeled “genocide”: To save the over two million people in regions of Sudan who are at risk of of dying wouldn't require troops--just a bit of gumption to declare a no-fly zone, to press our Western allies and nearby Arab and African states for help, to impose an arms embargo and other targeted sanctions, to push for a meaningful U.N. resolution even at the risk of a Chinese veto, and to insist upon the deployment of a larger African force. (Each of the five divisionswould be a paragraph)