DO NOT SUMMARIZE KARL MARX WORDS.
MUST UNDERLINED THESIS STATEMENT
The thesis statement should exhibit three characteristics. First and most importantly, your thesis statement must constitute a response to the topic question. Upon completion of your paper, check to see whether the thesis statement youve provided actually answers the topic question in some intelligible and provocative fashion. If not, go back and rewrite it. Second, your thesis statement should be a one sentence summary of the argument you intend to make. It should be the clearest, most specific expression of your argument and should appear somewhere in the first paragraph of your essay. Third, I require you to underline your thesis statement so that I know exactly what you think your argument is.
Recall that Im asking you to advance an argument in your paper. This means several things. For starters, it means that you must advance a position with which someone could disagree. To say that the Empire State Building is tall is not an argument, its a statement of fact. To say that the Empire State Building is beautiful is neither an argument nor a fact, its an opinion. To say that the Empire State Building should no longer be used because the events of September 11th conclusively demonstrated the inherent dangers of high rise office towers is an argument. Why? Because its something with which someone could disagree and its a claim for which you can provide evidence. Accordingly, you must always say why you think what you think and provide appropriate evidence in the form of direct quotations from our readings. Recall as well that the thesis statement is the clearest expression of the argument youre making. What this means is that every point you make in the supporting paragraphs of your essay must in some way support the thesis statement. If, after completing your paper, you discover sentences or paragraphs that dont obviously and coherently relate to the thesis statement, re-write or discard them.
