LEARNING STEPS ANALYZING 1. Students analyze the structure of the final draft

113 113 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 114 114 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