Purdue owl thesis

Purdue owl thesis

2/17/ · The Thesis & Dissertation Office recommends using the blogger.com file. Please take note that Overleaf SHOULD NOT be used for writing, editing, or publishing documents or research papers that contain data subject to EAR, ITAR, DFARS Clause , and other controlled data designators due to the increased security required for these types of data Additional Information on Organization and Content of the Expository/Persuasive Essay from Other Areas of Purdue OWL. The structure of the argumentative/expository/persuasive essay is held together by the following: A clear, concise, and defined thesis statement that occurs in the first paragraph of the essay Full text is available to Purdue University faculty, staff, and students on campus through this site. No login is required. Off-campus Purdue users may download theses and dissertations by logging into the Libraries' proxy server with your Purdue Career Account. Links to log in to the proxy server directly below the download button of each thesis

Purdue Owl - Organizing Your Expository/Persuasive Essay — HCC Learning Web

An argumentative or persuasive piece of writing must begin with a debatable thesis or claim. In other words, the thesis must be something that people could reasonably have differing opinions on. If your thesis is something that is generally agreed upon or accepted as fact then there is no reason to try to persuade people. This thesis statement is not debatable. First, the word pollution means that something is bad or negative in some way, purdue owl thesis.

Further, all studies agree that pollution is a problem, they simply purdue owl thesis on the impact it will have or the scope of the problem. No one could reasonably argue that pollution is good. This is an example of a debatable thesis because reasonable people could disagree with it. Some people might think that this is how we should spend the nation's money.

Others might feel that we should be spending more money on education, purdue owl thesis. Still others could argue that corporations, not the government, should be paying to limit pollution. In this example there is also room for disagreement between rational individuals. Some citizens purdue owl thesis think focusing on recycling programs rather than private automobiles is the most effective strategy.

Although the scope of your paper might seem overwhelming at the start, generally the narrower the thesis the more effective your argument will be. Your thesis or claim must be supported by evidence. The broader your claim is, purdue owl thesis, the more evidence you will need purdue owl thesis convince readers that your position is right. There are several reasons this statement is too broad to argue. First, what is included in the category "drugs"?

Is the author talking about illegal drug use, recreational drug use which might include alcohol and cigarettesor all uses of medication in general? Second, in what ways are drugs detrimental? Is drug use causing deaths and is the author equating deaths from overdoses and deaths from drug related violence?

Is drug use changing the moral climate or causing the economy to decline? Finally, what does purdue owl thesis author mean by "society"? Is the author referring only to America or to the global population? Does the author make any distinction between the effects on children and adults?

There are just too many questions that the claim leaves open. Purdue owl thesis author could not cover all of the topics listed above, yet the generality of the claim leaves all of these possibilities open to debate. In this example the topic of drugs has been narrowed down to illegal drugs and the detriment has been narrowed down to gang violence.

This is a much more manageable topic. At least twenty-five percent of the federal budget purdue owl thesis be spent on helping upgrade business to clean technologies, researching renewable energy sources, and planting more trees in order to control or eliminate pollution.

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just the amount of money used but also how the money could actually help to control pollution. America's anti-pollution efforts should focus on privately owned cars because it would allow most citizens to contribute to national efforts and care about the outcome.

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just what the focus of a national anti-pollution campaign should be but also why this is the appropriate focus. Qualifiers such as "typically," "generally," "usually," or "on average" also help to limit the scope of your claim by allowing for the almost inevitable exception to the rule.

Claims typically fall into one of four categories. Thinking about how you want to approach your topic, in other words what type of claim you want to make, is one way to focus your thesis on one particular aspect of you broader topic, purdue owl thesis.

Claims of fact or definition: These claims argue about what the definition of something is or whether something is a settled fact, purdue owl thesis. What some people refer to as global warming is actually nothing more than normal, long-term cycles of climate change. Claims of cause and effect: These claims argue that one person, purdue owl thesis, thing, or event caused another thing or event to occur.

Claims about value: These are claims made about what something is worth, whether we value it or not, how we would rate or categorize something, purdue owl thesis.

Claims about solutions or policies: These are claims that argue for or against a certain solution or policy approach to a problem. Instead of drilling for oil in Alaska we should be focusing on ways to reduce oil consumption, such as researching renewable energy sources. Which type of claim is right for your argument? Which type of thesis or purdue owl thesis you use for your argument will depend on your position and knowledge on the topic, your audience, and the context of your paper.

You might want to think purdue owl thesis where you imagine your audience to be on this topic and pinpoint where you think the biggest difference in viewpoints might be.

Even if you start with one type of claim you probably will be using several within the paper. Regardless of the type of claim you choose to utilize it is key to identify the controversy or debate purdue owl thesis are addressing and purdue owl thesis define your position early on in the paper!

Houston Community College Eagle Online Edutube Libraries Tutoring Support Search, purdue owl thesis. Faculty Programs Resources, purdue owl thesis. Home Faculty Judy Bouvier Purdue OWL - Thesis Statements. Developing Strong Thesis Statements The thesis statement or main claim must be debatable An argumentative or persuasive piece of writing must begin with a debatable thesis or claim.

Example of a non-debatable thesis statement: Pollution is bad for the environment. Example of a debatable thesis statement: At least twenty-five percent of the federal budget should be spent on limiting pollution. Another example of a debatable thesis statement: America's anti-pollution efforts should focus on privately owned cars, purdue owl thesis.

The thesis needs to be narrow Although the scope of your paper might seem overwhelming at the start, generally the narrower the thesis the more effective your argument will be. Example of a thesis that is too broad: Drug use purdue owl thesis detrimental to society. Example of a narrow or focused thesis: Illegal drug use is detrimental because it encourages gang violence. We could narrow each debatable thesis from the previous examples in the following way: Narrowed debatable thesis 1: At least twenty-five percent of the federal budget should be spent on helping upgrade business to clean technologies, purdue owl thesis, researching renewable energy sources, and planting more trees in order to control or eliminate pollution.

Narrowed debatable thesis 2: America's anti-pollution efforts should focus on privately owned cars because it would allow most citizens to contribute to national efforts and care about the outcome.

Types of Claims Claims typically fall into one of four categories. Example: What some people purdue owl thesis to as global warming is actually nothing more than normal, long-term cycles of climate change.

Example: The popularity of SUV's in America has caused pollution to increase. Example: Global warming is the most pressing challenge facing the world today. Example: Instead of drilling for oil in Alaska we should be focusing on ways to reduce oil consumption, such as researching renewable energy sources, purdue owl thesis.

Purdue OWL Vidcast: Drafting and Revising

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OWL at Purdue University: Writing a Thesis Statement

Full text is available to Purdue University faculty, staff, and students on campus through this site. No login is required. Off-campus Purdue users may download theses and dissertations by logging into the Libraries' proxy server with your Purdue Career Account. Links to log in to the proxy server directly below the download button of each thesis Writing a Thesis Statement. A thesis statement is a sentence (or sentences) that expresses the main ideas of your paper and answers the question or questions posed by your paper. It offers your readers a quick and easy to follow summary of what the paper will be discussing and what you as a writer are setting out to tell them 9/20/ · This video helps you consider the form and function of thesis statements and give you tips for writing statements that are specific to your text's rhetorical Author: OWLPurdue