4.2 Formulating a Thesis Statement

Step Five:

Now that it is clear what issues have to be dealt with in each area, the writer needs to address the actual assignment question, namely:

The world cannot continue to exist without organizations like Greenpeace. Discuss

The writer has to take a stand on this statement and defend that stand by examining both sides of the argument. (NB The word, “discuss” means exploring the statement thoroughly and taking a stand on it, using logical arguments.)

The stand that the writer takes is called a thesis statement. A thesis statement is the writer’s claim, position or point of view about the topic. It can do one of two things:

The way the writer chooses to formulate a thesis statement will influence the whole slant of the argument. For example, the writer could claim:

The work of Greenpeace and similar organisations alone cannot save the world from its downward course of destruction. (Judgment)

Or

In order to know how far Greenpeace is responsible for world preservation, one should examine other possibilities, such as the work of scientific research and human effort. (Recommendation)

To sum up:

The thesis statement distils the writer’s argument into a sentence, assists the writer to organize and develop the argument and provides a guide to the reader. It must be present in every section of the essay. The writer will explain, support the explanations with evidence and then tie both explanations and evidence to the central point that is being argued in the thesis statement.

Let us suppose:

That the first thesis statement has been chosen, namely: the work of Greenpeace and similar organizations alone cannot save the world from its downward destruction.

To have chosen this thesis statement means that the writer has first assessed the kind of work that Greenpeace does, such as prevention and intervention, and weighed it against the work of scientific bodies in their observation, research and finding of solutions. Then he/she has considered what humans can contribute through careful/restricted use of commodities, disposal of waste materials and development of forestation programs. It is obvious that Greenpeace and similar organizations cannot alone achieve all that needs to be done to restore the status quo.

Greenpeace, for instance, keeps everyone (including governments) aware of environmental issues by its bold actions of intervention and the resulting preventions, and alerts people and governments to the detrimental effects that they are having on the environment through some of their actions; Science attacks the actual ecological problems and finds scientific solutions which it can then use to approach people (governments) to implement and makes scientific information available to Greenpeace. Then humans, through organizations such as Greenpeace, government regulations and scientific experiments and observation are made aware of serious ecological problems. They can resolve to change any practices detrimental to the environment through implementation of various directions and regulations.

Obviously, only a holistic approach can save the world from its downward destruction. This point must be argued clearly by the writer, who, at the same time, should appraise the contributions of both Greenpeace and Scientific bodies and acknowledge how humans have caused the problems and how humans can correct the problems by working in with the information and results achieved by the two different bodies and the subsequent government regulations.

If the writer conducts this kind of exploration, backed by evidence, he/she will certainly satisfy the directive: discuss.