This presentation introduces students to college level thesis statement writing, with a little bit of help from Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein.

1. CONSTRUCTING
THESIS STATEMENTS
Guidelines for Critical Reading and
Writing
Prepared by
Christina Neckles

2. What is a thesis statement?
• A statement of one or two sentences that indicates the argument
and position of a paper.
• A college level thesis statement will have three parts.
• I call those parts:
• The CONVERSATION
• The INTERVENTION
• The ASSESSMENT

3. CONVERSATION
• The conversation is a topic about which there could be
disagreement.
• If there can’t be disagreement about the topic you have chosen,
you can’t make an argument about it.
• Why would that be?
• Conversations are often expressed in the form of a question before you
answer those questions in your thesis statement.

4. Intervention
• The intervention is the part of the thesis statement that tells the
reader what position you are going to take on the topic.
• How are you intervening in the conversation?
• What do you add to the discussion?

5. Assessment
• The assessment explains how your intervention in a conversation
should change the reader’s perspective on the topic.
• It explains why your argument matters.
• The assessment is often the hardest part to write, and writers often
revise their assessments throughout the writing process.

6. Developing a thesis statement from a general
topic:
• Sample Assignment: Write a paper about a reality competition
program.
• Sample Show Chosen: American Idol.
• In order to make an argument about a topic, you have to find a
question about the topic that could be asked, but not answered
with a fact.
• What kind of questions could you ask about American Idol?

7. From question to thesis:
• Question:
• What does American Idol have to say about the nature of talent?
• Reframe in the form of a statement to make this the conversation of your thesis.
• Often, the conversation part of a thesis will summarize the background given in the rest
of a paper’s introduction.
• EXERCISE:
• Take FIVE minutes to answer the question above, Try to determine both
what your answer is and how your answer might change your readers’
perspectives about the TV show.

8. This is one example of a thesis statement about
celebrity and American Idol:
• The television show American Idol trades on the idea that stars are
born and not made, as each season the producers and judges
search for a hidden, undiscovered talent. But, what each episode of
the show reveals is that idols are in fact manufactured and, worse,
tragically subject to the whims of the masses and the profit margins
of the music industry.
• 1. Conversation: What does American Idol say about talent?
• 2. Intervention: The show claims that it’s a search for talent, but it’s
more a lesson in “How to Make a Star.”
• 3. Assessment: The show reveals that “talent” is a relative term,
dependent on fashion and fortune.

9. The thesis is only a beginning.
• A thesis should also pave the way for a wider conclusion (perhaps
something relevant but beyond the scope of your essay).
• Here’s a possible piece of a conclusion paragraph that may come
out of this thesis statement:
• By understanding Idol less as a talent search and more as a peek
into the workings of an industry that flourishes by manufacturing
public tastes, viewers can begin to step back, listen, and learn to
make their own choices both in their AI text votes and in their
encounters with Top 40 hits

10. Now, try your hand at thesis statements.
• Exercise:
• Take 10 minutes to review the thesis statement draft you bought to
class.
• Can you identify the conversation, intervention, and assessment?
• If not, which piece is missing.
• Write down possibilities to “fill in the blank.”
• After ten minutes, we’ll take volunteers to share.

11. How about a little help?
• Thesis statements can be difficult to structure.
• Try the following templates to help organize your ideas for writing
an analysis of a single piece of writing:
• In [title of selection], X suggests _____, which is emphasized
through _____. Ultimately, readers come to understand
__________.
• While X focuses [title of selection] on the issue of ________, the
_______ also reveals __________.
• Despite X’s suggestion that ________, the _______ exposes
_______.

12. How about some more help?:
• Writing about one text is a little bit different than a controversial
topic (as you will for your research papers and Paper 3):
• Here are some more templates to help you structure your thoughts:
• “In discussions of X, one controversial issue has been ________. On
the one hand, _______ argues __________. On the other hand,
________ contends ________.” I argue ________ (Graff and
Birkenstein 26).
• “When it comes to the topic of __________, most of us will readily
agree that ________. Where this argument usually ends, however,
is on the question of ______,” which fails to consider _______
(Graff and Birkenstein 26-27).

13. Works Cited
Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say/ I Say: The Moves that
Matter in Academic Writing. 2nd Ed. New York: W.W. Norton
2010. Print.