Providing Support for Your Thesis Practice

Review the lesson for Providing Support for Your Thesis Help.

Providing Support for Your Thesis Practice

Practice 1

Choose one of the essays for which you developed an outline. List at least four supporting ideas for your thesis. Include at least one specific example and at least one fact.

Practice 2

Provide support for another essay that you have written or outlined for class. List four supporting ideas, using at least two of the following types of evidence: reasons, descriptions or anecdotes, expert opinion and analysis, or quotations from the text.

Answers

Practice 1 and 2

Look again at the outline for school uniforms (a response for Logical Organizational Strategies for Essay Writing Practice), noticing how each of the three main supporting ideas has several supporting ideas of its own. In the following, you'll find additional support for one of those ideas. Notice the mix of specific examples, facts, reasons, descriptions, and expert opinion.

• Students will be more confident.
  • will equalize students who can afford the most stylish, expensive clothes with those who can't
  • students often judge each other based on dress
• the most popular kids are usually the ones who can also keep up with the most recent fashion trends. "In any school yard, all you have to do is look around to see how important clothing is in defining groups and determining social status. The most popular students are always the ones in the designer clothes. The least popular are often dressed in clothes that are two, three, or more fashion cycles out of date." Edward Jones, "The Clothes Make the Kid," American View magazine.
• Status is often determined by how you dress, not who you are.
  • A shirt that has an alligator or polo pony isn't just a shirt— it's a status symbol
  • "A student who wears 'retro' clothing will often be seen as 'cool' or 'hip,' while someone who wears polyester trousers and a pocket protector will be stereotyped as a 'nerd' or 'dork'— even though he may be just as 'hip' as she." Jamie Ernstein, professor of Cultural Studies, personal interview.
• Logos and labels have now become part of the design in clothing. A T-shirt that used to have a picture or geometric design will now sport the company's logo.
• If everyone has to wear uniforms, the social divisions created by those who can afford designer clothing and those who can't will disappear.
• Students will be judged for who they are, not for what they wear.