LEARNING STEPS ANALYZING 1. Students analyze the structure of the final draft
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113 On the Whole
On the whole, while writing argumentative thesis statements, be
sure to
have a debatable topic, state your claim and stance as strongly as
possible and make the reader understand that your aim is to
persuade rather than only to inform.
Time to Practice
1. ________ Censorship is the best way of controlling the minds of the citizens.
2. ________ Newspapers should not identify victims of sexual assault without their consent.
3. ________ Parents control their children‟s TV viewing habits in
three ways. 4. ________ In war journalism, it is never appropriate to show on the
news how a country‟s soldiers suffer in combat.
5. ________ The only way to receive high ratings for a TV series is to cast attractive actors or actresses.
ARG. ARG.
INF. ARG.
ARG.
COUNTER- ARGUMENTS
Every controversial issue has two sides.
Once you can support your position with research, you need
to explore what others think.
SUPPORT THE THESIS
Support your thesis with three reasons.
Write down each of the three main reasons
that support your belief on a separate piece of paper.
These are your arguments.
PREPARING YOUR ARGUMENTS
Look at the three main reasons for your opinion.
What objections would others have to each of your reasons?
Write these down under each of your
reasons. Now you have three arguments and three counter-arguments.
ANSWERING COUNTER- ARGUMENTS
Write your answers down under the counter-arguments.
Now you have the raw material for each paragraph of the argumentative essay.
INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH
The first sentence is a general statement, designed to attract the reader’s attention.
Second and perhaps third sentences narrow the idea down to your specific idea.
The last sentence in the introduction must be your thesis.
INTRODUCTION
Think of the introduction as having a funnel shape:
General statement hook Specific information
Thesis
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BUILDING BODY PARAGRAPHS
The first topic sentence of the first paragraph will be the first
reason that supports your position.
You may even wish to begin the sentence with the word first
to focus the reader’s attention on its importance.
FIRST BODY PARAGRAPH
Write a topic sentence and three details that
support the reason you believe what you believe.
Repeat the process until you have three paragraphs with
three different reasons and
three details to support that
reason.
BUILDING PARAGRAPHS
The final sentence in each paragraph should sum up and make a transition to
the main idea of the next paragraph.
Concluding Paragraph
• Indicate in the conclusion that you have shown the thesis statement to be true.
• Has a powerful ending often relating to the introduction.
• Do not include any new information in a conclusion.
Sample Essay - Introduction
ADVERTISING MANIPULATES VIEWERS
In the simplest form, advertising can be defined as a kind of message or message transmission that is
designed to promote a product, service, or an idea. Today this basic marketing strategy has become a
natural part of our daily life. Considering that the 20 billion spent on advertisements in 1979 had
drastically risen to 120 billion in 1999 and that in the course of a lifetime, one will see about three years
worth of advertisements on television and approximately 3,000 ads per day, a person may
easily acknowledge the impact of advertising DiChiara, 2008.
Nonetheless, as Touzard 2008 explains, advertising, which originally intended to be a source
of information for people on the availability of products, “has developed into an industry that
shapes people‟s identity” p. 2. Coming in various forms
– in print, audio, or visual form – advertisements not only bombard audience with their
messages, but they also sell the ideas of who we are and what we should do or be.
Thus, advertisements are harmful for the society owing to their disruptive influence.
Thesis statement authority’s
opinion
definition facts