1. Thesis Statements MRS. WILLIAMS

2. Thesis Statements  Your thesis statement should include two parts: 1.WHAT: What claim are you making about the text? 2.WHY: Why should we care? Why is your claim important? Your thesis should answer the “so what?” question. *Usually only 1 sentence long, but can be 2

3. Thesis Statements  A thesis statement is an assertion, not a statement of fact or an observation. Fact or observation: People use many lawn chemicals. Thesis: People are poisoning the environment with chemicals merely to keep their lawns clean.

4. Example 1  Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel. What is wrong with this thesis statement? * It is an opinion about the book, not an argument

5. Example 2  In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and life on the shore. Better? How so? What is still missing? * It does not answer the “so what” question. What is the point of the contrast? What does the contrast signify?

6. Example 3  Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American ideals, one must leave ‘civilized’ society and go back to nature. Even better? How so? * It presents an interpretation of a literary work based on an analysis of its content and answers the “so what” question.

7. Template  In the (novel/short story/poem), (author) (suggests/proposes/advocates/argues/presents) that (your claim), (causing/showing/suggesting) (human interest/so what).  In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien presents the paradox that to be a soldier is to be a coward, suggesting that war is seldom justified as heroic means to solving conflict.

8. Thesis Variations  In the novel The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien presents the paradox that to be a soldier is to be a coward, suggesting that war is seldom justified as heroic means to solving conflict.  Tim O’Brien uses the paradox that to be a soldier is to be a coward throughout his novel The Things They Carried in order to suggest that war is seldom justified as heroic means to solving a conflict.  Through the use of the paradox that to be a soldier is to be a coward, Tim O’Brien suggests that war is seldom justified as heroic means to solving a conflict.