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Thesis statement worksheet

Announcements vs. Thesis Statements: Thesis statements should not announce what the paper will talk about or what the author wrote about, but should rather present the topic or argument. Rewrite the following announcements as thoughtful thesis statements.

I want to tell you about the many defects in the administration's proposals for restructuring the Social Security program.

My thesis asks whether affirmative action programs are just a new form of racism.

This paper will examine recent proposals to reinstate the death penalty.

This essay explains the difficulty of solving our environmental problems.

In this essay, I argue for supporting Planned Parenthood in order to reduce crisis spending.

Broad vs. Specific Thesis Statements: A good thesis deals with restricted, bite-size issues rather than issues that would require a lifetime to discuss intelligently. The more restricted the thesis, the better the chances are for supporting it fully.The following thesis statements, however, are not sufficiently narrowed down. Rewrite each statement by narrowing down the topic and focusing on a specific aspect of the topic or issue stated.

Education budget cuts are a bad idea.

The technological changes of the last hundred years have been amazing.

The North and South fought the Civil War for many reasons, some of which were the same and some different.

Many people in the world are victims of stereotyping.

Teenagers in the past had more responsibilities than teenagers today.

Unified vs. Disjointed Thesis Statements: A thesis should express one major idea about its subject. The tight structural strength of your paper depends on its working to support that one idea. A good thesis may sometimes include a secondary idea if it is strictly subordinated to the major one, but without that subordination the writer will have too many important ideas to handle, and the structure of the paper will suffer.The following thesis statements have too many ideas or contain conflicting ideas. Rewrite to create more unified thesis statements.

Natural parks must be preserved, but government agencies often make foolish decisions on this matter, and jobs must also be preserved.

College students shouldn’t have to take a required core curriculum, and many core courses are graded too stiffly.

Different cultures celebrate holidays in different ways, and different cultures celebrate the coming of age at different times in a person’s life.

The new health program is excellent, but it has several drawbacks, and it should be run only on experimental basis for two or three years.

Providing iPads for each student is probably an unrealistic goal because damaging cuts are being made to educational spending, but this new technology is a useful tool for teaching students several skills.

Thesis Statement and Paper Plan

Prompt: After watching the documentary, Food, Inc., and reading the essays on Biotech Agriculture and the Ethics of Food Production (p. 599-621), construct an essay that explains a particular aspect of the issue. You cannot realistically write an essay covering all of the information, so choose a point that can be explained thoroughly in a 5-10 paragraph essay written in 55-60 minutes.

1. Begin by thinking about the information you have received regarding our current and/or future food industry. There are several aspects you can choose explain (think back to our class discussion). What is the topic of your essay? (ex: the health risks of factory meat production OR the benefits of biotech agriculture for solving world hungry)

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2. Next, think about the major points you’ll need to make in order to explain you topic (you should have between 3 and 6 points). List them here:

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3. Now that you’ve identified the topic and the major supporting points you’ll be covering, construct a thesis statement that clearly and concisely summarizes your essay. This will be your working thesis statement (you may end up altering it in some way before writing your final paper).

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4. In the spaces following, write a topic sentence for each paragraph using the points you noted in question 2. Remember to think about logical progression—what points should you make first, second, third, etc.? Then, note any information from the readings or the film that you’d like to cite as support for that thesis statement.

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