T HESES SHOULD BE: Specific Clear (not too wordy) Argumentative Analytical Defensible (something you can back up with evidence)

SPECIFIC DO THIS “The death of all elm trees in Antigonish due to Dutch Elm Disease has made the downtown unattractive.” NOT THIS “Trees along the street can help make it look better.”

CLEAR DO THIS “The Xaverian is a good newspaper because its writers are carefully screened.” NOT THIS “Due to the fact that some of the writers that apply to write for the Xaverian are English majors, this means that they have to take a test to write for the paper.”

ARGUMENTATIVE DO THIS “Children should be taught sexual education in elementary schools.” NOT THIS “Some children learn sexual education in elementary school.”

ANALYTICAL DO THIS “The bystander effect in today’s social climate presents itself in the form of cell-phone videos taken by observers, who do not intercede but who do record the incident.” NOT THIS “Lots of crimes could be prevented by people who just stand around videoing the whole thing on their phones.”

DEFENSIBLE DO THIS “Although studies have demonstrated the positive medical effects of marijuana, recent reports show the potential abuse of a health-care system that supports the legalization of pot.” NOT THIS “I think that pot should be legal, because it helped my mum when she was having chemo.”

A VOID Descriptions Vagueness Using the 1 st person

CHEATS Statement + Because “This is a nice town because of the strong sense of community involvement.”

Make a question, then answer it. Q: “Do you think that it is possible for prison to reform criminals?” A: “Criminals commit crimes because of a genetic or environmental defect; they cannot be rehabilitated by prisons.”

Use independent clauses (like “although” or “despite”) State something more obvious, then show how your argument relates “Although contemporary Canadian society has made significant advancements towards racial integration, the disproportionate number of Natives incarcerated in our prisons reveals the disadvantages still perpetuated by our current system.” ALTHOUGH + STANCE + BECAUSE

INTRODUCTIONS Introductory phrase (like, “Jones’ Madhatter (2001) highlights Canadian society’s intolerance of racial prejudice and stereotyping.”) Outline of main points (in order) Thesis REMEMBER – Write the intro last Avoid the 1 st person It’s okay to write, “This paper will argue that …”