Revising Your Thesis Statement

Before you can begin to draft your argumentative essay and even before you can start to arrange your ideas, you need to revise your tentative thesis statement so it says exactly what you want it to say. After you have gathered and evaluated evidence to support your position and considered the merits of opposing ideas, you are ready to refocus your thesis and state it in more definite terms. Although a tentative thesis statement such as “College campuses should go green” is a good start, the thesis that guides your essay’s structure should be more specific. In fact, it will be most useful as a guide if its phrasing actually acknowledges opposing arguments.

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REVISED THESIS STATEMENT

Despite the expense, colleges should make every effort to create green campuses because doing so improves their own educational environment, ensures their own institution’s survival, and helps solve the global climate crisis.

EXERCISE 7.12

Consulting the sources you gathered in Exercise 7.10, list all the arguments against the position in your thesis statement. Then, list possible refutations of each of these arguments. When you have finished, revise your thesis statement so that it is more specific, acknowledging the most important argument against your position.

After you have revised your thesis statement, you will have a concise blueprint for the essay you are going to write. At this point, you will be ready to plan your essay’s structure and write a first draft.