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Module 5: Identifying Your Thesis and Drafting Your Persuasive Essay Module 5: Identifying Your Thesis and Drafting Your Persuasive Essay In this module, you will learn about what goes into a strong thesis statement, and identify your own thesis in the context of your Persuasive Essay. 5-1 Reading: Incorporating Feedback This assignment does not contain any printable content. 5-2 Reading: Thesis Identification Reading: Thesis Identification When writing an essay, many sources will suggest you begin by writing a thesis statement—a statement that makes a claim and provides the main reasons for which you came to the conclusion you did. However, starting with a well-defined thesis statement can be problematic when writing a persuasive essay. Persuasive essays require that you begin with a question and a tentative position that you are willing to change while doing research. Thesis statements can cause persuasive essay writers to develop tunnel vision—focusing solely on sources that support the claims made in the statement and ignoring opposing viewpoints. To avoid these pitfalls, you began by first identifying a topic, formulating a tentative argument, and then researching material to support it. Once you have determined what you will argue, conducted research to support that argument and to learn about opposing positions, and responded to feedback from your peers, you will create a working thesis statement. Your thesis statement will represent the essence of your research paper, and it will be the roadmap for your subsequent research and writing. Thesis statements are made up of a claim and a series of points or reasons that you will elaborate on to support that claim. In Copyright © 2020 MindEdge Inc. All rights reserved. Duplication prohibited. the thesis statements below, the claim is highlighted in yellow, and each point or reason is highlighted in a different color: Your research question, of course, asks that you identify a problem in your degree-specific program or career. Your task is to form an argument for a solution to that problem, which is what you should state at the beginning of your thesis statement, and to identify reasons to persuade your audience to accept that solution, which is what you should outline in the latter half of the thesis statement. 5-3 Activity: Thesis Identification (GRADED) This assignment does not contain any printable content. 5-4 Reading: Drafting Process Research question: Should city-dwellers be allowed to keep bees? Potential thesis statement: Urban beekeeping is good for people and for the environment because bees are relatively harmless, they produce honey with high nutritional value, and they help pollinate urban gardens. Major point 1: Bees are relatively harmless. Major point 2: Bees produce honey of high nutritional value. Major point 3: Bees pollinate urban gardens. Your thesis statement should be made up of two parts: 1) your narrowed topic stated as an argumentative claim and 2) the reasons or major points you found to support your claim. Sometimes, the claim and reasons will be linked by the word "because." Eventually, you will need to find research to support each of these points. Research question: What are the most important reasons for vaccinating children? Potential thesis statement: Research suggests that the most compelling justifications for childhood vaccinations are safety-based because there are many positive effects for the vaccinated child, there are few risks, and there's a possibility other children could become sick after coming into contact with an unvaccinated child. Major point 1: Vaccinations prevent illness in the vaccinated child. Major point 2: Vaccination has few risks or side effects. Major point 3: Babies and other people who cannot get the vaccine may become sick after contact with an unvaccinated child. For most topics, you'll need to be able to answer your research question in three different ways. Research question: What is the best way to encourage people to be more cautious about their disposal of household materials that are hazardous? Potential thesis statement: The government can encourage people to be more cautious about their disposal of hazardous household materials by clearly labeling materials that are hazardous, by running a public service announcement campaign, and by providing easy access to proper waste disposal processes because these methods are most effective. Major point 1: Labeling materials that are hazardous are effective at helping people to understand when they should be cautious about throwing those materials away. Major point 2: Public service announcement campaigns are effective. Major point 3: People will be more likely to dispose of items correctly if easy access to proper disposal processes are available. Copyright © 2020 MindEdge Inc. All rights reserved. Duplication prohibited. Reading: Drafting Process Now that you've identified your argument, researched supporting evidence, received peer feedback on your writing plan, and constructed your thesis statement, it's time to begin writing the first full draft of your paper. All of the work you've done so far will make constructing the first draft much easier. It can be overwhelming to think about where to start your draft, so it's important to take the drafting process one step at a time and to allow yourself the space to make errors. The point of drafting is to see what works and doesn't work—to see what is working well and what needs to be fixed. Although the draft should demonstrate the direction your final paper will go, and it should contain the components required of the assignment, it's important to remember that it's a first step, a work in progress. Paragraph Purposes Before you begin drafting, let's review the different components of an essay. Essays are made up of paragraphs. Each paragraph in an essay serves a purpose in moving the paper forward. Let's discuss the different types of paragraphs you will use when writing an essay. Introduction Paragraphs An essay should begin with an introduction paragraph. The introduction presents the audience with the topic of the essay, the thesis statement, and a general overview of the topic, which previews the information that will be covered throughout the essay. Click on the highlighted sections of the sample introductory paragraph below to read more about how each section functions. Recycling programs are vital to our planet's wellness. This introduction paragraph lets the reader know right away the topic of the essay, recycling programs, and a preview of the main point the essay will make—that recycling programs are valuable. Landfills are overflowing across the U.S., packed full of garbage that could easily be recycled into re-usable materials. This is extremely wasteful, and it taxes the natural environment and its resources. Recycling programs offset the damage caused by our production of excessive and unnecessary garbage. Including these programs in schools, specifically, offers not only the opportunity to reduce the environmental impact of this waste but also offers the opportunity to teach future generations how to value and protect the environment. The bulk of the introduction paragraph gives some information on the topic, just so the reader understands what the topic means and what kinds of supporting ideas the essay will explore. Implementing recycling programs in schools will not only increase environmental awareness, it will also help keep school grounds clean and help the school save money by cutting down on waste removal. The introduction paragraph ends with a thesis statement. One important function of an introduction paragraph is to engage the audience and draw the reader in. So, you should introduce Copyright © 2020 MindEdge Inc. All rights reserved. Duplication prohibited. the topic you will be writing on in the most interesting and appealing way possible. After introducing the general topic of your essay, you should go on to provide an overview of how the rest of the paper will proceed. This brief overview of the structure of the essay should show the audience how the subsequent sections of the essay are supposed to relate to one another. It is important that introduction paragraphs be as clear as possible, so it is usually a good idea to reread and revise an introduction paragraph once the rest of a paper has been written. Sometimes during the writing of a paper, an author might change how he or she chooses to present or defend his or her position. When this happens, the introduction paragraph must be revised to reflect those changes. Supporting Paragraphs The thesis statement presented in the introduction paragraph is the main idea of the entire paper, and each subsequent paragraph should work towards supporting that thesis statement. The majority of an essay is made up of supporting paragraphs that serve this purpose. Each supporting paragraph should begin with a topic sentence, contain supporting sentences that back up the main idea presented in the topic sentence, and end with a summary sentence that reiterates that main idea. Click on the highlighted sections of the sample supporting paragraph below to read more about how each section functions. Schools that embrace recycling send a powerful message to students that environmental stewardship matters. Supporting paragraph 1. Supporting paragraphs begin after the introductory paragraph and start with a topic sentence. The thesis for this essay is "Implementing recycling programs in schools will not only increase environmental awareness, it will also help keep school grounds clean and help the school save money by cutting down on waste removal." Therefore, this topic sentence correlates to the part of the thesis statement that states, "increase environmental awareness." This correlation is incredibly important to an essay's development. Students learn about the consequences of their own behavior and how their actions impact the broader environment. Students are exposed to the concept of "thinking globally and acting locally" (Standards for Environmental Education in the Curriculum). Some research suggests that school children involved in these programs are better informed on major environmental issues than their parents. Focusing on recycling initiatives in the schools can have a wider, societal impact, too since children learn from their parents how to be socially and environmentally aware. Recycling programs, therefore, positively impact our world, both immediately and in the future. Supporting paragraphs move from topic sentence to supporting sentences to summary sentence. You will be integrating your sources into the supporting paragraphs of your essay, so you should include citations to keep track of which sources you are using to support each point. You'll learn to properly format those sources in Module 6. For now, include informal citations to keep track of sources you will need to formally cite later on. Copyright © 2020 MindEdge Inc. All rights reserved. Duplication prohibited. Each of the topic sentences in your supporting paragraphs should correspond to one of the reasons listed in the thesis statement. You should also dedicate at least one supporting paragraph to addressing counterarguments. Identify reasons someone might object to your argument, and respond to that objection using evidence you gathered during your research. When constructing your supporting paragraphs, keep in mind the PIE method introduced in 4-2. The following graphic reviews the PIE method. Conclusion Paragraphs The last paragraph in an