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Thesis Statements Handout l. Functions and purposes of a Thesis Statement a. To announce the topic to the reader b. To reflect a Judgment about a topic c. To provide the reader with a blueprint for what is to come in the paper II. Evaluating a thesis statement a. There are several ways to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a thesis statement. i. First, Broad thesis statements are claims that are vague, ambiguous or overreaching. These are claims that do not meet at least two of the three criteria above and/or attempt to address a topic with too many issues to deal with in the given writing assignment. i’.
Second, Narrow thesis statements are claims that do not meet at least two of the three criteria above and/or are too specific and single- minded to be developed into a thorough essay. b. Next, use the topic-comment approach to specifically identify what you believe to be your topic and the comment about that topic. i. By isolating the topics from the comments, writers can evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the comments they are attempting to put forth. Ill. Generating a working thesis a. After practicing with this worksheet, practice developing your own thesis statement for any current writing assignment. Use narrow/broad & topic/comment techniques to evaluate and revise your thesis. Thesis Statement Worksheet Directions: For each of the following statements, identify whether the statement is strong or weak (too narrow, or too broad). If the statement is weak, rewrite it to fix the problem. 1 . Media violence is harmful to society. Strong ( too broad) 2. The death penalty is wrong. => Strong (too broad) 3. School uniforms provide many benefits to students, parents and educators. => Strong (Too broad) 4. Technology has changed our lives. => Strong (too broad) 5. Violent crime is up.
Weak > The Violent crime is up. (too broad) 6. The recall electlon wlll ao more narm tnan g => Strong ( too broad) => strong ( too Droa0) I Ilke my apartment. 8. Taking care of older pets can be challenging. Strong ( too broad) 9. Participating in volunteer work is essential to the development of strong character. => Strong (too broad) 10. The neighbor’s cat is unfriendly. =>weak > The cat of our neighbor is unfriendly. ( too broad) Armstrong, Nancy. (n. d. ). Thesis statements- web worksheet. Retrieved from http://www. csudh. edu/studentaffairs/class/documents/thesis- statements-worksheet. pdf