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Date

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Developing Thesis Statements for an Essay

Using your notes, define thesis statement:

Using your notes define blueprint:

What is a combined thesis and blueprint?

***You should NOT include “I” believe, or Inmy opinion in a thesis statement.

Mastering Thesis Statements

Be careful of Thesis Statements that are too broad or too narrow.

For example:

Prompt: Convince your reader whether school uniforms should be mandatory in public schools.

Weak Thesis Examples:

Too broad: It is outrageous for students to be forced to wear school uniforms.

Too narrow: Students who are forced to wear school uniforms have their creativity stifled.

Off topic: When kids grow up, they will have bad memories of school.

STRONG THESIS: School uniforms should not be mandatory in public schools because it would stifle students’ creativity, take away students’ rights, and cause students to lose interest in school.

Directions: For each prompt/question, begin by:

  • Writing a position statement, a bold opinion on the topic.
  • Next, write at least three reasons why you believe as you do.
  • Once you have your position and your reasons why, form all of that into one sentence, which will be your combined thesis statement and blueprint.
  • You may choose to write out your thesis and blueprint as two separate sentences.

Stated plan:

Before the industrial revolution most people lived on farms, but after the invention of the steam engine and the building of railroads, life dramatically changed. The most important changes were the method used to ship goodsor products and the freedom for people to travel.

EXAMPLE:

Question: Should the FBI or police be able to see what books you have checked out from the library?

Position:It should be illegal for the government to see what books a person checks out from the library.

Reasons Why:

It is a violation of the First amendment.

It violates our right to privacy.

It turns librarians into law enforcement officials.

Combined Thesis/Blueprint:

It should be illegal for the government to access someone’s library records because to do so violates the First Amendment, violates our right to privacy and turns librarians into law enforcement officials.

Thesis 1:

Should schools be one gender schools, i.e. schools for all boys or schools for all girls?

Topic + Opinion:

Plan- Reasons Why:

1

2

3

Combined Thesis/Blueprint:

Thesis 2:

Should the driving age be raised to eighteen?

Topic + Opinion:

Plan- Reasons Why:

1

2

3

Combined Thesis/Blueprint: