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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Associated Press
Protests over the Israel-Hamas war have spread across U.S. university and college campuses in recent weeks, leading to disruptions and arrests. Some demonstrations extended into weekend graduation celebrations, although they were muted in comparison to the encampments and rallies that have roiled campuses and resulted in nearly 2,900 arrests of students and other protesters.
Most of the commencement exercises took place as scheduled and remained largely peaceful . Here is a look at some of the ceremonies that included protests:
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DUKE UNIVERSITY
Dozens of the 7,000 graduates at Duke University left their seats to protest pro-Israel speaker and comedian Jerry Seinfeld during the commencement in Durham, North Carolina, on Sunday.
Some waved the red, green, black and white Palestinian flag and chanted “Free Palestine” amid a mix of boos and cheers.
Seinfeld, whose decade-long namesake show became one of the most popular in U.S. television history, was there to receive an honorary doctorate from the university.
The stand-up comedian and actor has publicly supported Israel since it invaded Gaza to dismantle Hamas after the organization attacked the country and killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel on Oct. 7. The ensuing war has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians , according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
POMONA COLLEGE
Southern California’s small Pomona College moved Sunday evening’s commencement 30 miles (48 kilometers) to the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles after pro-Palestinian protesters set up an encampment last week on the campus’ ceremony stage. A few dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators tried to block access to the graduation event.
Anwar Mohmed, a Pomona senior, said the school repeatedly ignored calls to consider divesting its endowment funds from corporations tied to the war in Gaza.
“We’ve been time and time again ignored by the institution,” Mohmed said outside the Shrine on Sunday. “So today we have to say, it’s not business as usual.”
EMERSON COLLEGE
Student protesters at Emerson College in Boston occasionally erupted into chants during Sunday’s commencement ceremony, trying to disrupt the event.
Several speakers stopped briefly and then spoke louder while the chants died down and ended. Some graduates wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves. Others took off their graduation gowns and dropped them on the stage after receiving their diplomas.
VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
Dozens of graduating students at Virginia Commonwealth University walked out Saturday during an address by Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
While some of the estimated 100 students and family members who left during the Republican governor’s speech showed support for Palestinians, others held signs signaling opposition to Youngkin’s policies on education, according to WRIC-TV .
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
At the University of California, Berkeley, on Saturday, a small group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators waved flags and chanted during commencement and were escorted to the back of the stadium, according to the San Francisco Chronicle . There were no major counterprotests, but some attendees voiced frustration.
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill splattered red paint on the steps of a building hours ahead of the school's commencement and chanted on campus while students wearing graduation gowns posed for photos, the News & Observer reported .
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
A small group of demonstrators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison staged what appeared to be a silent protest during commencement at Camp Randall Stadium. A photo posted by the Wisconsin State Journal showed about six people walking through the rear of the stadium. Two carried a Palestinian flag.
Marc Lovicott, a spokesperson for campus police, said the group, which he believed included students because they were wearing caps and gowns, “was kind of guided out, but they left on their own.” No arrests were made.
Pro-Palestinian protesters at the campus had agreed Friday to permanently dismantle their 2-week-old encampment and not disrupt graduation ceremonies in return for the opportunity to connect with “decision-makers” who control university investments by July 1.
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
At the University of Texas at Austin, a student held up a Palestinian flag during Saturday's commencement ceremony and refused to leave the stage briefly before being escorted away by security.
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
In Boston, commencement ceremonies for Northeastern University were held peacefully in the rain on May 5 at Fenway Park.
Some students waved small Palestinian and Israeli flags, but those were dotted among flags from India, the U.S. and other nations. Undergraduate student speaker Rebecca Bamidele drew brief cheers when she called for peace in Gaza.
Police arrested about 100 protesters at Northeastern last month when they broke up an encampment on campus.
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
A 53-year-old woman fell from the stands to her death during the May 5 graduation ceremony for Ohio State University, university officials said. The woman’s daughter was among those receiving a diploma.
The fall happened around midday near where the last graduates were filing into Ohio Stadium. The Columbus Dispatch reported the death was being investigated as an apparent suicide, citing coroner documents.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Police officers stood nearby as some graduates holding Palestinian flags and shouting pro-Palestinian messages protested during commencement at the University of Michigan on May 4. One banner said, “No universities left in Gaza.”
The protests were located away from the stage and didn’t stop the nearly two-hour event. Protesters have demanded Michigan cut financial ties with any companies connected to Israel. The university allowed protesters to set up an encampment in the middle of campus.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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Exercise 1: Order the following ideas from general (1) to narrow (5). Exercise 2: Narrow the following general topic. Topics: the general subject of the essay e.g. Taking risks Thesis statement: 1 to 2 sentences that tell the reader your topic and what you will say about it. e.g. Biological need, social environment, and psychological ...
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.
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.
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.
Step 2: Write your initial answer. After some initial research, you can formulate a tentative answer to this question. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process. The internet has had more of a positive than a negative effect on education.
Thesis Statements and Topic Sentences A thesis driven essay is comprised of an initial thesis statement that establishes a claim or argument, and ... College Composition and Communication 37.4 (1986): 431-441. example a On one level, Ondaatje's "The Cinnamon Peeler" shows a man who desires total ownership and possession of a
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 ...
Thesis Statements What this handout is about This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, ... Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion—convincing others that you have an interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill you practice ...
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 ...
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.
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.
The thesis sentence is the one sentence that encapsulates the result of your thinking, as it offers your main insight or argument in condensed form. A basic thesis sentence has two main parts: Topic: What you're writing about. Angle: What your main idea is about that topic. Thesis: A regular exercise regime leads to multiple benefits, both ...
Microsoft Word - Document1. Directions: Carefully read the writing prompt and the Bad Thesis Statement. Then, rewrite a Good Thesis Statement. State the subject and tell the author's purpose for writing or the point to be proved. A good thesis statement will directly respond to each part of the writing prompt.
Step 4: Revise and refine your thesis statement before you start writing. Read through your thesis statement several times before you begin to compose your full essay. You need to make sure the statement is ironclad, since it is the foundation of the entire paper. Edit it or have a peer review it for you to make sure everything makes sense and ...
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 ...
Weak thesis statement: ... Exercise 2. Read the following thesis statements. On a separate piece of paper, identify each as weak or strong. ... Revised thesis: Recent college graduates must have discipline and persistence in order to find and maintain a stable job in which they can use and be appreciated for their talents.
Adaptions: Reformatted, some content removed to fit a broader audience. 5.2: Identifying Thesis Statements and Topic Sentences is shared under a CC BY-NC-ND license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts. Topic sentences and thesis statements are similar to main ideas. This section discusses those similarities and the ...
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 Statement Exercises . Complete the following exercise to practice drafting effective thesis statements / governing claims: Part One: Analysis of problematic thesis statements. ... "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 ...
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.
Exercise Directions: Create a thesis statement based on the following information. Topic 1: Education is important to have. It could enable one to get a better paying job. It makes a person a more interesting individual. It makes a person a more informed citizen. Topic 2: Bowling is a sport for everyone.
Mission. The Purdue On-Campus Writing Lab and Purdue Online Writing Lab assist clients in their development as writers—no matter what their skill level—with on-campus consultations, online participation, and community engagement. The Purdue Writing Lab serves the Purdue, West Lafayette, campus and coordinates with local literacy initiatives.
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, diabetes, liver and kidney disease, obesity, osteoporosis and brain diseases such as dementia and. depression (Wilson, 2010).
Protests over the Israel-Hamas war have spread across U.S. university and college campuses in recent weeks, leading to disruptions and arrests. Some demonstrations extended into weekend graduation ...
MIT Will Stop Asking Faculty Applicants for Diversity Statements. By Ryan Quinn. Massachusetts Institute of Technology departments will no longer ask for diversity statements as part of applications for faculty positions, the university says. UnHerd, an online publication, reported the news Sunday. An MIT spokeswoman confirmed the change in an ...