Now that you’ve started working on expanding your argument essay, the next step is to sharpen / revise your paper’s thesis statement and begin planning how you will use the research you’ve gathered for your paper.

Now that you’ve started working on expanding your argument essay, the next step is to sharpen / revise your paper’s thesis statement and begin planning how you will use the research you’ve gathered for your paper.

A good thesis for an argument paper does the following:

Narrows down your topic.

Makes a claim about your topic.  This claim should be debatable, not something that everyone would necessarily agree with.

• Encompasses your entire main idea in a single sentence.
• For a reminder about what makes an argumentative thesis statement effective, you might want to review the argument chapter of your online textbook.
• This week, please post the thesis statement you plan to use in your argument paper.

Then, create a complete outline for your paper.  Make sure to indicate (tentatively) where you plan to use the research you’ve gathered in support of your claim. 

Some tips:

You should mention each of your points in the outline, along with the specific item of research you’ll use to support each one.

Outline assignments follow a specific format.  Please review this video on making outlines before you write your discussion.