Qualities of Successful Thesis:
1. One sentence that establishes a demonstrable argument or purpose.
2.
Demonstrable means two things: writer has authentic emotional
connection to material so he or she doesn’t run out of gas at the
midway point. Secondly, it means writer can support the thesis with
mapping statements. Sample: The popularity of SUVs reveals a
malignancy about American consumerism. First, SUV makers market their
vehicles toward people who wish to dominate and bully on the road;
second, SUV drivers feel entitled to cheap gas to quench their driving
habits, at the expense of American dependency on oil from hostile
countries; third, SUV drivers often recklessly multi-task as they live
inside their little cockpit fantasy. Lipstick, DVD, Carl’s Jr.
gluttony, cell phone, etc.
3. A good thesis defies the obvious
and possesses the So-What Factor: Sample: Tom Cruise and Terrell Owens
are jerks. A better thesis: Society requires grotesque celebrities,
such as Tom Cruise and Terrell Owens, to be our punching bags. First,
these vile celebrities refute the unhealthy notion that riches result
in goodness; second, our communal hatred for them gives us a sense of
shared values; third, our loathing for these miscreants gives us
catharsis and we vent our class envy and middle class frustrations.
4.
A good thesis answers a compelling question. Why does no one care
about Barry Bonds, even as he closes in on Hank Aaron’s record? In the
wake of Hurricane Katrina, how did the US government leave so many
people to die in a country that is the richest and freest in the world?
Why do women continue to outnumber men in college enrollment? Patience,
fortitude, humility, pride, long-term vision. What is it?
Another compelling question: Why do Americans spend more and more money on diets and workout programs and personal trainers as they continue to getter fatter and fatter and fatter and fatter?: Americans grow obscenely fatter in the face of their diet obsessions because none of their “programs” address the root of their fatness. To the contrary, their dieting exacerbates their real problem, which is that they are blind, incorrigible consumers. The diet is just another consumer commodity that promises a “magic bullet.” The diet is, like their overeating, a form of obsessive neurosis and orality. Finally, the diet becomes a form of shared communal experience that gives them a feeble sense of belonging and assuages their loneliness. Their laziness compels them to seek magic bullets rather than change behavior and get educated. Their diet obsession intensifies their food obsession. Their diet becomes a feeble way to stave off their loneliness.
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