hi I'm Don Knight an English teacher from Westfield Indiana thank you so much for joining me today today we're going to talk about the argument essay specifically we'll focus on uh writing thesis statements for the argument essay and you do have access to um The Prompt for this uh you're welcome to download it to follow along um it's okay if you can't I will also walk through everything that you need so a couple of reminders before we get started just about thesis statements one I always tell my students that um thesis statements should AP answer the prompts we want to make sure we really look at the prompt and understand that we're answering what it's asking us to do they should also be complex and nuanced and I'll explain what I mean by that in a little bit um for today's video we are going to use the prompt that you see on the screen and I'll read it um aloud in a second as well um Ty typically you're going to see the same idea um for any argument uh prompt the thing that'll change will be the topic um and the um context so for this one in her book gift from the Sea author and Aviator an Mara Lindberg writes we tend not to choose the unknown which might be a shock or a disappointment or simply a little difficult to cope with and yet it is the unknown with all its disappointments and surprises that is the most enrich in write an essay that argues your position on the value of exploring the unknown in your response you should respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible position that's what we'll be focused on today now I want to point out the section that you see in red here um the beginning section of the prompt is always going to be a little bit of context or background this is important um to help us fully understand but it is not what the prompt is asking us to do so don't be to confused by that you always want to look for what does it ask of you here it says write an essay that argues your position on the value of exploring the unknown that is what we're a um answering with our thesis statement a basic thesis statement is going to answer the question in its most basic form it's going to be kind of the black and white of the issue so here we might say it is valuable to explore the unknown or it is not valuable to explore the unknown and that would answer the prompt but it's in like I said its most basic form we want to try to do something more nuanced or complex so we want to think about going beyond that just simple black and white of the issue and looking at those Shades of Gray This is where we hope our um thesis statement Falls where we could acknowledge some of those Shades of Gray so we first need to think about because unlike the synthesis essay um the argument essay doesn't come with sources so we have to use what we know um here when I'm thinking about the value of exploring the unknown I'm thinking about okay I've had some personal experiences exploring the unknown getting a scuba certification moving to a new city starting a new job um but I also know of examples from science classes and history classes like um exploring the unknown through genetic sequencing and space exploration and ocean exploration and when I think about what I know um and just kind of do a mental um file of okay what do what do I know about exploring the unknown then I can think about what do I think about this topic um and it goes beyond the simple black and white because I had personal experiences that certainly led to personal growth but they were scary um and I know that the Space Race led to unprecedented scientific breakthroughs it uh a push for stem education but I also know that some astronauts lost their lives in that process and then genetic sequencing we know is helping uh scientists explore treatments for terrible diseases but but there are also some pretty important ethical questions um as part of that and so it's not a simple black and white when I start thinking about what I know about this topic so now that I've thought through some of those things I can again find a thesis that maybe Falls in that grayer category it might be something like although it can be dangerous to explore the unknown it is valuable to do so so because it can lead to personal growth and can help Advance science or although exploring the unknown can lead to personal and scientific progress it should be done cautiously because it is inherently dangerous so look at the difference between those first two thesis statements and those very basic black and white ones we talked about it is valuable to explore the unknown it is not valuable to explore the unknown this level of complexity um shows that we're capable of thinking um more deeply about important topics and one of the things that I love about the essay is that um your practicing um is that it's not the essays themselves it's the skills that you're getting when you're practicing these that are so important because I hope that um through this process you'll be able to take um a part in important conversations that are going on in the world about important topics and that you'll have the skills to do just that um and acknowledging the complexities of a situation is so important okay so it's your turn we're going to look at another um prompt here and this time you are going to think about what you know and write a thesis statement for it again notice how similar The Prompt is it's just the um topic that changes the term overrated is often used to diminish Concepts places role roles Etc that the speaker believes do not deserve The Prestige commonly enjoy for example many writers have argued that success is overrated a character in a novel by Anthony Burgess famously describes Rome as an vastly overrated City and queen Ria of Jordan herself has asserted that being Queen is overrated select a concept Place role Etc to which you believe that the term overrated should be applied and then write an essay that argues your position remember that your uh thesis you should be responding to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible position and remember this uh um context at the beginning is not the prompt this is what it's asking you to do so you're selecting something to which you believe the term overrated should be applied that is what we want to think about for your thesis so remember to ask yourself what do I know about this the topic and what do I think about the topic you can pause here and think for a moment and then try to write a nuanced thesis statement for this prompt when you're ready you can just hit play all right so I'm going to show you a couple of examples again our most basic thesis statements might look something like this and of course you could choose anything to which you wanted to apply that so yours might be about totally different topics but a basic thesis statement for this prompt might be something like being popular is overrated or being famous is overrated but a more complex thesis statement might look something like although homework can help students practice important Concepts its usefulness is overrated or despite economic success America's attitude about work ethic is overrated European countries seem to have a better work life balance again not is the complexity of those last two and because yours can be about anything it might look totally different but you should get the idea that we see that there's a stance and that IT addresses the prompt we're choosing something that we think the term overrated should be applied to so some final reminders make sure your thesis statement directly answers the prompt avoid absolutes those proon or black white and then delve deeper into the Shades of Gray instead those more nuanced um ideas around the issue and then finally make sure you're still taking a stance thank you so much for joining me today I hope you have a great rest of your day and remember to be kind to yourself and to others