English
1A
Holper
The Arguable Thesis
Much of the writing that students do in college (and some
business writing as well) is thesis-driven: that is, papers which focus on
clarifying and supporting a main point.
In this English 1A class, the essays we'll do are thesis-support papers,
as are the timed essays we'll take.
In English 1A, you will hear a lot about the “argument”
of your essays. By “argument” we don’t
mean a disagreement or a dispute as we use the word in everyday life. Instead we mean the logical structure of an
essay, the process of reasoning that the writer uses to present and support the
thesis
So how do we “define” thesis? The following answers are often the first to pop into the average
person’s head:
The
main topic or subject of an essay
The
main topic plus an opinion about it
The
main point of an essay
The last two answers are closest to how we will use the term
in English 1A, but our definition will need to be much more finely tuned,
and our standards for what makes a strong thesis will be more difficult to
achieve.
In English 1A, you will hear and read the following
admonition over and over again:
The thesis must clearly assert an arguable
judgment That is relevant to a general audience.
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Two fairly Easy
Ways to create an arguable thesis:
1) Use
"should", "must", "needs to" to reveal the
imperative that you're arguing for:
Example:
The Klamath River must be given sufficient water to avoid further salmon
die-offs, as happened recently.
2) Add your opposition to your thesis, so we know what the
opposing argument is early on:
Example: Although the farmers and other competing
water interests would argue against this, the Klamath River must be given
sufficient water to avoid further salmon die-offs, as happened recently.
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the
characteristics of a strong thesis also include
•
A thesis
must clearly identify the main topic of the essay and establish the focus for the rest of
the essay. It is like a contract
you are making with your readers, promising them that the rest of the essay
will concentrate on this primary point.
•
A thesis
must assert an arguable judgment rather than a self-evident one. Common
knowledge or a statement of fact cannot serve
as an acceptable thesis. In English 1A, your thesis statements
should take a definite position on an arguable issue.
Examples of
statements of fact: “A healthy environment has a positive effect on
humans,” “Environmental conflicts, no
matter your stand on them, cost a lot of money,”
Examples of
common knowledge: “Environmental law is full of many changes–some positive
and some negative,” “Saving the environment can be very difficult,"
"Politicians tend to be influenced by money.”
•
A thesis
must assert a point that is relevant to a general audience.
Avoid judgments that are so personalized that a reader who is outside
your circle of family and friends will be unable to assess the argument and/or
to muster up much interest in the subject.
Examples of
theses which are not relevant to a general audience: “From the time I was
small, I have been very active in defending our environment,” “From the first
time I saw environmental protestors, I realized that they were all crazy.”
Note that some of
these topics could be converted into theses that would be arguable to a general
audience if they were de-personalized and established as arguable issues. Also keep in mind that personal examples
may play a significant supporting role in your essay–but not in the thesis or
topic sentences.
•
A thesis
should be very clearly written in precise, familiar terms, avoiding language
that is overly vague, broad, specialized, or technical. You
can assume that your general audience consists of well-informed, intelligent
adults with good, general vocabularies, but you cannot assume they are
specialists in a particular subject–at least not in English 1A.
Example of a vague and overly
broad thesis: “In some cultures, aspects of the environment may play a role
in life’s spiritual and metaphysical dimension.”
Example of a
thesis that is too specialized for a general reader: “The image of the
child in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century scientific, historical, and
literary narratives is often representing or figuring interiority, growth,
historicity, and development.” (This
thesis may be quite clear to advanced scholars of literature or history, but a
general audience would probably find it too obscure.)
•
A thesis may
reliably forecast the organization of the essay, letting the reader know what
main supporting points will be covered and in what order. This
forecast is sometimes called a plan of development (POD) or a
blueprint. A POD is often a good idea,
but it is not an obligatory part of the thesis in English 1A; you may present
it in the sentence following the thesis, or you may skip it altogether
Example of POD in
thesis: Skateboarding should be limited to special parks because it
poses a nuisance to pedestrians, leads to serious injuries, and causes
thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to public and private property.
Example of POD following
thesis: Skateboarding is not just a
harmless recreation and should, in fact, be limited to special parks. As it now stands, the sport poses a
nuisance to pedestrians, leads to serious injuries, and causes thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to public and
private property.
The following thesis rules also
apply to your essays in English 1A, but keep in mind that as your academic
writing becomes increasingly skilled and sophisticated, you may outgrow these
restrictions. And they may not apply to
the essays you write in other courses (check with your instructors).
•
Limit your
thesis statement to one sentence.
•
Do not frame your thesis as a question–it
should be a declarative statement.
•
Do not rely on an implied thesis. We will encounter some implied theses in our
readings, but your essays must have an explicit thesis statement.
•
The thesis must
appear in the essay’s first paragraph (the introduction) at the end of
the paragraph.
•
Underline
your thesis in English 1A to
make it easier for me (and for you!) to identify it.