Thesis statements in Chicago (CMS) papers 2

Click on the sentence that would work well as the thesis statement for a research paper from five to ten pages long. Remember that a thesis should be a central idea that requires supporting evidence; it should be of adequate scope for a five-to-ten-page paper; and it should be sharply focused.

For help with this exercise, see Thesis statements.

Example

1 of 10

Question

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◯ Ever since President John F. Kennedy was shot to death in November 1963, people have wondered whether his assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was working alone or as part of a conspiracy.
◯ The tragic circumstances surrounding President John F. Kennedy’s death in 1963 were instrumental in allowing Lyndon B. Johnson to achieve many of his Great Society initiatives.
Thesis statements in Chicago (CMS) papers 2 – 1

2 of 10

Question

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◯ Lord Elgin removed friezes from the Parthenon and housed them in the British Museum in the early nineteenth century, thus earning them the name “Elgin marbles.”
◯ The British Museum should honor Greece’s request to have the ancient Parthenon friezes, known as the Elgin marbles, returned to their native country and displayed in a Greek museum.
Thesis statements in Chicago (CMS) papers 2 – 2

3 of 10

Question

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◯ Richard Nixon was probably not the first president to engage in illegal activity while in office, but Americans in 1973, war-weary and distrustful of authority, would no longer tolerate excuses based on historical precedent.
◯ Throughout history, presidents have been suspected of engaging in illegal activity, but few have been involved in scandals that caught the attention of the public, and even fewer have been impeached.
Thesis statements in Chicago (CMS) papers 2 – 3

4 of 10

Question

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◯ In the decades following World War II, many Americans began to understand that the practice of the Japanese internment in the early 1940s had been cruel, racist, and ineffective.
◯ In the second half of the twentieth century, Americans were able to accept responsibility for the mistakes made during the Japanese internment of World War II largely because Japan was no longer seen as a military threat.
Thesis statements in Chicago (CMS) papers 2 – 4

5 of 10

Question

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◯ The most successful Jesuit missionaries in China during the Ming dynasty were able to adapt to Chinese culture: learning Mandarin, adopting Chinese clothing, and finding parallels between Christianity and the teachings of Confucius.
◯ Throughout history, the most successful missionaries have been those willing to engage in diplomacy with the people of power, respect the customs and language of the people they served, and emphasize similarities rather than differences between traditions.
Thesis statements in Chicago (CMS) papers 2 – 5

6 of 10

Question

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◯ Within two decades of their arrival in Peru, the Spanish nuns founded a convent in Cuzco called Santa Clara, which was given control over much of the confiscated Inca lands.
◯ Much of the economic power in colonial Peru was held by cloistered nuns, who played a crucial role in that country’s early development.
Thesis statements in Chicago (CMS) papers 2 – 6

7 of 10

Question

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◯ In 1921, the long-term goal of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was to form a Communist society, but it first focused on organizing the working class and on removing foreign influence from the government.
◯ Although not all historians agree, evidence suggests that the success of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was due in large part to the Japanese invasions of Manchuria and central China in the 1930s.
Thesis statements in Chicago (CMS) papers 2 – 7

8 of 10

Question

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◯ Concern about a growing threat from Nazi Germany was the principal reason that the United States did not adequately prepare for a possible Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
◯ There is no way of knowing why the United States was so unprepared for the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Thesis statements in Chicago (CMS) papers 2 – 8

9 of 10

Question

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◯ The United Nations had to weigh many competing agendas when it created the Jewish state of Israel in 1948.
◯ The British withdrawal from Palestine in 1947 had more to do with Britain’s economic and political motives at home than with its relations with other countries.
Thesis statements in Chicago (CMS) papers 2 – 9

10 of 10

Question

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◯ In May 1966, Protestant loyalists in Northern Ireland formed the Ulster Volunteer Force, a paramilitary group whose aim was to combat the Irish Republican Army.
◯ Evidence suggests that protests in Northern Ireland against Catholic discrimination in the 1960s were heavily influenced by the American civil rights movement.
Thesis statements in Chicago (CMS) papers 2 – 10