This thesis has two main problems: lack of specific evidence and too much hedging. The author should reference specific aspects of the book which suggest this interpretation in order to make a stronger and more acceptable claim. Additionally, the use of “it seems” and “in my opinion” weaken the claim by showing that the author may not believe his or her own words on this subject. A better thesis might be “Stephen King’s The Long Walk exemplifies the evils of laissez-faire capitalism through its depiction of the main characters’ competition amongst themselves, alienation from each other, and exploitation by commercial media.”
Show Answer? The Great Gatsby does thematically allude to the “American Dream,” this is a “swashbuckling” thesis which makes too grand of a statement to be effectively supported in simply one essay, or even in one book. The author should specify under what context he or she is judging The Great Gatsby (American novels? 20th-century novels across the world? 20th-century Western novels?) and refer to the main reasoning behind this assertion (Is it the strength of the thematic elements? The descriptive prose? The witty dialogue?). In other words, the author has not established the HOW (context) and WHY (reasoning) of the thesis. A better version of this thesis might state “ The Great Gatsby is widely regarded one of the best 20th-century American novels due to its rich symbolism: success, knowledge, corruption and alienation are but a few of the themes explored in Fitzgerald’s novel, but together they form a meaningful commentary on living the American Dream.”</font></span>')" /> While The Great Gatsby does thematically allude to the “American Dream,” this is a “swashbuckling” thesis which makes too grand of a statement to be effectively supported in simply one essay, or even in one book. The author should specify under what context he or she is judging The Great Gatsby u> (American novels? 20th-century novels across the world? 20th-century Western novels?) and refer to the main reasoning behind this assertion (Is it the strength of the thematic elements? The descriptive prose? The witty dialogue?). In other words, the author has not established the HOW (context) and WHY (reasoning) of the thesis. A better version of this thesis might state “ The Great Gatsby is widely regarded one of the best 20th-century American novels due to its rich symbolism: success, knowledge, corruption and alienation are but a few of the themes explored in Fitzgerald’s novel, but together they form a meaningful commentary on living the American Dream.”
Show Answer? This is statement cannot act as a thesis because it does not answer a question or make an arguable claim. It cannot be disputed that college education is generally becoming more expensive, but the reader will ask “so what?” This statement can act as evidence to support a governing claim, but the governing claim should address a larger question which requires multiple pieces of evidence to support it. A more expansive thesis might something like: “While a college education is meant to be a gateway for any citizen to achieve success through hard work, the rising cost of college tuition along with more difficult loan-application processes have made attending college more and more a socioeconomic class-based activity.”
Show Answer? Not necessarily; in fact, you should have a fair amount of research and perhaps some analytical writing completed before attempting to refine your thesis. Because the thesis also acts as a governing claim to your paper, mapping out the main points of your argument, you will want to have a thorough concept of what your entire argument will be before condensing it into a thesis statement. Additionally, trying to create a thesis simply from a question or preconceptions about a topic may tempt you to overlook any evidence which refutes that thesis while in the writing process. For step-by-step instructions on how to form a thesis after writing the body of your paper, see “The Thesis Statement: Where to End, Not Begin.”
Show Answer? The two films differ greatly, because one focuses on close friendship between two women whereas the other focuses on a more casual friendship between two men.
“In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , Robert Louis Stevenson symbolizes English upper and lower-class society.”
Show Answer? The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , Robert Louis Stevenson symbolizes the disparity between upper and lower-class society through the opposing physical and psychological characteristics of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.</font></span>')" /> In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , Robert Louis Stevenson symbolizes the disparity between upper and lower-class society through the opposing physical and psychological characteristics of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
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7. the thesis statement: description and exercise – writing a unified argument.
The thesis statement of an argument, no matter how long the argument, has the same relation to that argument that a topic sentence has to its paragraph. In other words, just as a paragraph has a kind of “syntax,” so does an entire argument. The thesis also governs the argument by committing you to a position that you must prove in the argument that follows.**
Because your thesis commits you to a certain argument, you need to be quite sure about what that commitment entails. Specifically, you need to know what topics must be dealt with and what relation(s) must be proven among those topics. (Inexperienced writers often notice the former and neglect the latter, which is like recognizing that the subject of a topic sentence needs to be dealt with, but not that what’s predicated about the subject also needs to be treated.) For instance, in analyzing the thesis statement Binney and Smith revolutionized the children’s art world with the Crayola line , it is not enough to note that the topics of the argument are a) Binney and Smith’s Crayola line and b) the children’s art world. The thesis proposes a relation between the two, that “a” caused a specific (“revolutionized”) effect in “b,” which the writer must prove.
As you can see, analyzing the syntax of your thesis statement is one way to discover what it obliges you to prove. You especially want to note the grammatical subject and the predicate. In our example sentence, Binney and Smith is the grammatical subject, and revolutionized the children’s art world with the Crayola line the predicate. (This is the moment, by the way, to check that the grammatical subject of your thesis is in fact the topic about which you mean to write. If your assigned topic is, say, Crayolas, then your sentence is not well structured, because the topic of the argument is, grammatically, in the very subordinate position of object of the preposition.) You can further analyze the predicate into verb and direct object. You now have the complete set of relations: the subject (a) is related to the direct object (b) through the verb (c). Therefore, the nouns (a) and (b) are the topics of your argument, and (c) is the relation you must prove. You can also recognize that, subsidiary to your main argument, your prepositional phrase asserts the means by which a and b are related.
Another way to discover at least the relation(s) you must prove is to look for the transitions within your thesis or, if there are none, to temporarily restructure that thesis so that you have one. Our example sentence, which is grammatically just fine, has a simple structure and therefore no transitions, but you could restructure it to make more clear the relations among terms: Because Binney and Smith introduced the Crayola line, the children’s art world was revolutionized. You can see now that the relation you have to prove is one of cause and effect. Whether you use the first or second method, what you are doing is determining the point at issue , to use an expression that rhetoric long ago borrowed from law, the point on which your argument will turn.
This determination of the relation between terms reveals, as you can see, the line or lines of argument you must pursue to prove your thesis. These lines of argument are limited. In brief, they are
See “Discovery of Arguments,” “The Topics,” in Chapter 2 of Edward P.J. Corbett and Robert J. Connor’s Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student , 4th edition (Oxford, 1999) for a much more developed discussion of lines of argument.
You may find that you have not only a major line of argument, but also some minor or supporting lines of argument. In, for instance, the thesis, The policy of workfare will never be successful, because it assigns jobs which are dull and demoralizing and which, as a result, create unwilling recipients, the major line of argument is obviously cause and effect (it’s also, by the way, an evaluation argument): the independent clause must be shown to be an effect of the dependent adverbial clause structure. But within the dependent adverbial clause, the two dependent adjectival clauses must also be shown to stand in a causal relation to one another. In brief, the topics to be dealt with are policy of workfare, jobs, and recipients .
Exercise : First diagram each of the following thesis statements. Then provide a complete analysis of what must be proven. Indicate both the topics that must be addressed and the line(s) of argument , the relation(s) among those topics.
1. The social, political, and cultural atmosphere of the Impressionist Era had an adverse effect on the reception of the art of the period.
2. The life of Martin Luther King, Jr. serves as a model for all those who strive for civil rights today.
3. The lack of challenge found in many secondary schools can be remedied through different levels of classes and stricter demands on the students.
4. In “Consolations,” Linda Pastan’s metaphors illustrate the passage of time and the inadequacy of written communication.
5. The two sonnets by John Milton are fundamentally different, despite a remarkable similarity between their religious subjects, in the ways they speak of human activity and existence.
*All of the thesis statements used in this section are versions of ones former students wrote.
**Obviously, then, the thesis of an argument must be an arguable statement ; it differs from the thesis of a report or an exposition. For instance, Insurance companies argue that owning small animals increases the expected life span of senior citizens is the thesis statement of a report on the findings of the companies, not the thesis statement of an argument. As given, this statement is not arguable. One way to establish whether or not you have an arguable statement is to ask yourself what the opposing argument is.
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Listen to "beyond weight loss: five yale experts on the benefits of exercise".
Most of us know that regular physical activity can strengthen muscles, burn fat, and lower our risk of heart disease. But many advantages of exercise go beyond physical fitness and cardiovascular health, according to Yale School of Medicine experts.
Five Yale Department of Internal Medicine specialists in areas ranging from infectious diseases to allergy and immunology discuss why exercise is key to optimal health.
Studies led by Gerald I. Shulman, MD, PhD , George R. Cowgill Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology) and Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Investigator Emeritus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and co-director of the Yale Diabetes Research Center, have demonstrated that exercise can reverse muscle insulin resistance.
“Insulin resistance in skeletal muscle is a major factor in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, heart disease, and obesity-associated cancers,” said Shulman, who recommends daily exercise to promote cardiometabolic health. “There is also increasing evidence that insulin resistance may be a contributing factor in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.”
Exercise can reduce the risk of poor outcomes when infections occur, according to Scott Roberts, MD , assistant professor of medicine (infectious diseases). “For many infections, such as influenza, COVID-19, and RSV, comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes, and poor respiratory health are all major contributors to severe disease,” he said. “Exercise can help mitigate these risks and boost the odds of a speedy recovery.”
There is evidence that light to moderate aerobic exercise, like walking or jogging, can help the immune system work better, says Elise Liu, MD, PhD , instructor of medicine (rheumatology, allergy and immunology). “People who regularly get this type of exercise get sick less frequently than people who are sedentary,” she said. “This could be because several types of immune cells have been shown to work better shortly after exercise.”
Evidence suggests that exercise leads to a more diverse gut microbiome and an increase in butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid that may prevent disease, according to Avlin Imaeda, MD, PhD , associate professor of medicine (digestive diseases). “Butyrate is one of the key fuels that the cells lining the colon need to grow, divide, and stay healthy, and higher levels of butyrate can reduce the severity of inflammatory bowel disease and the risk of colon cancer, as well as general inflammation,” she said.
Exercising during the day can help you sleep at night, notes Brienne Miner, MD, MHS , assistant professor of medicine (geriatric medicine). “Exercise is an external cue to your circadian clock, sending a physiologic message that lets your brain and body know when it is time to be awake versus when it is time to sleep,” she said. “A robust and regular circadian clock allows more regular and restorative sleep.”
Regular physical activity also contributes to better physical and mental health, decreasing the risk of developing sleep problems and potentially improving existing sleep problems, Miner said.
The Department of Internal Medicine at Yale School of Medicine is among the nation's premier departments, bringing together an elite cadre of clinicians, investigators, educators, and staff in one of the world's top medical schools. To learn more, visit Internal Medicine.
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5. A troublesome thesis is a fragment; a good thesis statement is expressed in a complete sentence. Example: How life is in New York after September 11th. Better: After September 11th, the city of New York tends to have more cases of post-traumatic disorder than other areas of the United States and rightfully so.
Be ready to defend your choices. Because these thesis statements appear outside the context of complete essays, all responses are judgment calls, not absolute certainties. (a) The Hunger Games is a science fiction adventure film based on the novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins. (b) The Hunger Games is a morality tale about the dangers of ...
Honors Thesis Theses, Dissertations, and Student Projects Fall 11-21-2019 The Effect of Exercise on College Students' Overall Health Tanner Steineke ... Exercise, along with healthy eating, is of the most important things a person can do to reduce the chance of illness. Regular exercise reduces the risk of health issues such as: stroke, cancer,
Placement of the thesis statement. Step 1: Start with a question. Step 2: Write your initial answer. Step 3: Develop your answer. Step 4: Refine your thesis statement. Types of thesis statements. Other interesting articles. Frequently asked questions about thesis statements.
Exercise 1. On a separate sheet of paper, write a thesis statement for each of the following topics. Remember to make each statement specific, precise, demonstrable, forceful and confident. ... Weak thesis statement: Religious radicals across America are trying to legislate their Puritanical beliefs by banning required high school books.
Thesis statements are sentences that writers use to focus their ideas and express the main point of their writing. For practice, complete the following exercises. Identification Checklists Read the following sentences. As you read, complete the following tasks: A. Identify and correct sentences which are too broad or too narrow using (TB/TN)
A thesis statement: tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion. is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper. directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself.
Part I: Possible Example Thesis Statements. Choose the best revision for each thesis statement. 1) "The Raven" is a dark and morose poem that leaves the audience feeling depressed by the last stanza. Poe succeeds in creating that effect in "The Raven" through use of repetition and adds to it through contrast of religious Christian and ...
The theoretical framework of this thesis is built around the self determination theory and research consisting of exercise, healthy lifestyle and the impact on the youth. The thesis is done by way of narrative literature review method. Thirty eight articles on exercise and healthy lifestyle are reviewed and analyzed to support the author's aim.
A Strong Thesis Statement. Tip; Exercise 1; Examples of Appropriate Thesis Statements; Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis. 1. A thesis creates an argument that builds from one point to the next, giving the paper a direction that the audience can follow as the paper develops. 2. A thesis fits comfortably into the Magic Thesis Sentence (MTS).
Topic sentences and thesis statements are similar to main ideas. This section discusses those similarities and the differences associated with them. ... EXERCISE 1: Identify the Topic and Focus. Choose a piece of writing, perhaps an essay or some news articles found online, and for each paragraph identify (1) the topic and (2) the more focused ...
Exercise #1: Writing topic sentences first, and then using the topic sentences to create your thesis While writing a first draft, many writers write their introduction and thesis statement first. But in this exercise, write your body paragraphs with topic sentences first, before you write your thesis.
The "Judging Thesis Statements" exercise from the Purdue University Online Writing Lab appears under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Writing Your Own Thesis Statements. A thesis statement is a single sentence (or sometimes two) that provides the answers to these questions clearly and concisely. Ask yourself, "What is my ...
Tips for Writing Your Thesis Statement. 1. Determine what kind of paper you are writing: An analytical paper breaks down an issue or an idea into its component parts, evaluates the issue or idea, and presents this breakdown and evaluation to the audience.; An expository (explanatory) paper explains something to the audience.; An argumentative paper makes a claim about a topic and justifies ...
Thesis Activity. One way to think about a thesis statement is: An effective thesis is one that is not obvious; rather it is one that is discussible, arguable, and interesting. Avoid self-evident statements. In the US, movie stars are greatly admired. A strong thesis will give readers an idea of the general direction of your paper and the ...
For step-by-step instructions on how to form a thesis after writing the body of your paper, see "The Thesis Statement: Where to End, Not Begin.". Part II: Practice Revising Thesis Statements. 6) Revise this thesis to make the language more precise. "The two films are different. One focuses on two women who are close friends and the other ...
THE THESIS STATEMENT: DESCRIPTION AND EXERCISE - WRITING A UNIFIED ARGUMENT. The thesis statement of an argument, no matter how long the argument, has the same relation to that argument that a topic sentence has to its paragraph. In other words, just as a paragraph has a kind of "syntax," so does an entire argument.
The Thesis Statement A successful, well-developed thesis statement states the point of your argument explicitly (clearly and without doubt). Think of your thesis statement as the "road map" to your paper, which sets ... Thesis Formation Exercise **To write an effective thesis statement, start with a general idea and then sharpen your focus.
In the lower right corner of the activity, click the printer icon. (NOTE: This is not the Print button at the bottom of the page.) Select either Print all slides or Print current slide.On the Print popup, under Destination, click the Change… button. Select Save as PDF.In the Print popup, click the Save button In the Save As popup window, give the file a name.
Arguable thesis statement: The government should ban smoking altogether. Statement of fact: Small cars get better fuel mileage than 4x4 pickup trucks. Arguable thesis statement: The government should ban 4x4 pickup trucks except for work-related use. Statement of fact: On average, people with college degrees earn more money in the workplace.
Exercise 5: Thesis Statements By Dr. Karen Petit Analyze the following groups of sentences. Then on the blank lines, write TS for a good thesis statement, A for an announcement, T for a title, N for a sentence that is too narrow, and G for a sentence that is too general. Each kind of sentence (TS, A, T, N, and G) appears only once in each activity.
3. Exercise enhances immunity. There is evidence that light to moderate aerobic exercise, like walking or jogging, can help the immune system work better, says Elise Liu, MD, PhD, instructor of medicine (rheumatology, allergy and immunology). "People who regularly get this type of exercise get sick less frequently than people who are ...
THESIS EXERCISES What a Thesis Is Not. Not a Title. A title can often give the reader some notion of what the thesis is going to be, but it is not the thesis itself. The thesis itself, as presented in the thesis statement, does not suggest the main idea-it is the main idea. ... Thesis statements themselves, however, may not always have been ...