1

I. Thesis

How is ENG102 different from ENG101?

CREATIVE ESSAY (101) EXPOSITORY ESSAY (102)

Creative Composition Argumentative research

“I” believe/ “I” feel / “I” Think “Facts show” [never use “I”] – confident universal
statements

Opinion Proof
Creative examples Expert knowledge with quotes & citations
Listed personal experience, details of your life and 3rd party listed sources, detailed explanations quoted
beliefs as source from outside sources
Purpose: Use writing skills to entertain Purpose: to convince someone with an open mind
Fun and funny and/or moving to readers Removed voice
Creative & drama Critical thinking
Argue what you feel Argue what you can prove

Imagination and personal exploration are still important, but the focus in ENG102 is on
 researching
 communicating a particular argument
 presenting evidence
 putting it all together in a non-fiction essay or paper.
Real world versions include: proposing an idea or project, debating a point (for example, why your dept. should get
raises at work), writing an analysis essay, defending against accusations or assumptions, etc.

There are a few basic steps that maybe review for many of you:

Thesis: your paper’s topic is an affirmative sentence.

Never a QUESTION. Never NEGATIVE. Never a FRAGMENT.

WHAT IS an Argumentative THESIS? A single sentence summary of an argument you are going to make or
point of view you are going to take.

HOW TO MAKE SURE YOUR TOPIC IS IN ARGUMENTATIVE FORM

By nature of being argumentative, there must exist opposite or opposing points of view. Ask this question as a test
of whether your thesis is in argumentative form:

What counterarguments do you expect to address? OR What kinds of counterarguments may you have to
address?
If you can't find any possible opposite/opposing point of view to your argument, you probably don't have a
thesis in argumentative form.

GENERALLY, ARGUMENTATIVE THESIS:

NOT A QUESTION / DOES NOT END IN QUESTION MARK.

BAD: Could drinking tap water in former Arizona industrial lands increase risk of cancer?
BETTER: Drinking tap water from former Arizona industrial lands will increase risk of cancer.
 2

SOMEONE CAN DISAGREE WITH YOU/ TAKE THE OPPOSITE SIDE; otherwise, it’s not
argumentative.
BAD: Plastic Surgery in teenagers.
BETTER: Plastic surgery in teenagers is a growing trend caused by peer and media image pressure

BAD: Preparing a car to win a street race.

BETTER: Chip modification is the most important way to prepare a car for a street race.

BAD: Misdiagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder

BETTER: Misdiagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder is leading to overmedication of school age children.

NARROWED TO MATCH the AUDIENCE

TAKES A SIDE FIRMLY, NOT JUST uses weak words like “possibly, sometimes, might, could, and so
on”

BAD: Video games might increase violence in pre-teens.

BETTER: Video games increase violence in pre-teens.

BAD: Sometimes it is possible to use supplements to win bodybuilding contests.

BETTER: Supplements are now a necessity in order to win bodybuilding contests.

EVERYTHING YOU SAY YOU ARE GOING TO COVER IN YOUR APPROVED THESIS, MUST BE
COVERED IN YOUR PAPER.

For example: If your approved thesis is:

Grappling is the most effective mixed martial arts technique in Ultimate Fighting competitions.

THEN….
You must compare it to all other major techniques, and discuss it for defense, offense and counter moves….

MORE SPECIFIC makes it reasonable to do within the time limits of an ENG102 course: Grappling is the most
effective mixed martial arts technique for dealing with reach-based attack styles in Ultimate Fighting competitions.

How to convert a topic idea into argumentative form:

HOW DO YOU MAKE A TOPIC IDEA ARGUMENTATIVE?

1) WRONG: Effects of nerve gas on soldiers who survive chemical attacks are detrimental.
WHY WRONG: As is, it is informational, not argumentative. For it to be argumentative, remember the test: Can
someone disagree with you?

HOW CAN YOU FIX IT? Rewrite in some way so that you are making a claim -- express your point in a way that
someone could disagree with you.
For example:
OK: Nerve gas has an effect long after exposure that can shorten a soldier’s life span.
OK: Post Traumatic stress disorders are typical in soldiers who are exposed to chemical attacks and survive.
 3

Think of it in terms of having to take a specific point of view or stand in a topic. For example, in a debate, you
can't argue that there are "Different treatments for dealing with Cancer": that's an informative paper, appropriate to
ENG101 or call for an informative paper.

YOU COULD ARGUE: "Herbal treatments have become an effective alternative to cancer patients not
responding to Chemotherapy."

II. Introduction
An introduction should be one paragraph, and it should end with the thesis statement.

You use one of the creative techniques below, A-G, to briefly but dramatically hook the attention of the reader.

Technique STYLES: Sample intros for the technique

A) Story/Quote/dramatic, important example (5
Styles)
Best if you…: If you are creative, have a life experience
related to your topic, or know a very dramatic example
B) Then and Now (7 Styles)
Best if you…: If you are dealing with a topic or thesis
that concerns a very dramatic or impressive change
C) Controversial Statement (5 Styles)
Best if you…: You want to make a shocking statement
*AND* you HAVE strong proof to counter the initial
shock
D) What really Happened (4 styles)
Best if you…: Know something most don't/ discover a
secret or a hidden truth
E) Biographical Fact that plays vital role in
Achiever's nature (5 Styles)
Best if you…: are doing an Achiever paper, and there
are some unique biographical factors for a person or
group that are significant, surprising, amusing, or vital
1)A Dramatic example
2)Dramatic example: the only person who could make
achievement
3) A quote that summarizes/exemplifies the
achiever/achievement
4)Story Someone enjoying benefit of XXXXX
5)Tell a story: What if the achievement hadn’t
happened?
1) The situation before the issue/achievement, how it
used to be. Then what was done/happened/arrived
2) Narrate the now: narrate an example of the
achievement in action, and how it wasn't always like
this
3) Obstacles in the way then: how it did not stop the
achiever
4) Briefly list a few important achievements in
chronological order and achiever’s role in them
5) Outdid a past achievement/record: everyone though
achievement was peak, but it was outdone
6) Achievement perceived then/ vs perceived
7) Frowned upon then/highly regarded now
1) Is ________ [really] __________? Or is he
pretending? Lying?:
2) The beginning (end) of __________ really wasn’t
good
3) The beginning (end)of __________ really wasn’t
bad
1) Some say this/some say that
2) What people believed vs what really happened
3) Clearing up a misconception: what people think,
what really was ______ or Few people know….:
4) Too humble to take credit
1) Humble beginnings
2) Unusual beginnings
3) ”It was his whole life” :
4) What achiever’s life was before the achievement:
5) One small step foreshadowing future
 4

importance/First small achievement “pointing to

F) Differences/Different point of view/Compare &
Contrast (4 styles)
Best if you…: If your topic deals with very different
things or arguments with radically different points of
view
greater things”
1) Many achievements, but one stands out far above the
others
2) What people thought of the achiever/achievement vs
what he or she thought of himself or herself
3) Compare two people/groups trying to be first to an
achievement
4) Compare/contrast one group that gained from an
achievement and one group that lost from the same
achievement

III. Conclusion
A conclusion is at the end of your paper, and is typically one paragraph, but may extend to two under extraordinary
circumstances.

Sample topic (narrowed to 6th level and in argumentative form): In Arizona, the trucking industry’s “look the other
way” attitude to Amphetamine use leads to risk and dangers to all.

1) Restatement In Arizona, the trucking industry’s “look the other way” attitude to Amphetamine
use not only raises safety issues, draws law suits to the industry, and eventually costs
the shipper more in insurance and accidents than the extra hours of driver time, but it
is simply a criminal practice that like other potential felonies, must be stopped.
2) Judgment In Arizona, is the trucking industry’s “look the other way” attitude to Amphetamine
use simply part of trucker culture and tradition? Perhaps, but it doesn’t balance
against the estimated 400 fatal accidents a year that it causes, or the millions in
lawsuits and insurance premiums. Amphetamine use anywhere else is a crime. It
should most definitely NOT be tolerated in a profession where the potential for
destruction is both daily and in such great numbers.
3) What if? What if amphetamine use were also an accepted practice among airplane pilots,
ambulance drivers, or school bus drivers? All three of those other professions face
some of the same issues as Arizona’s truckers: massively long and or early hours,
stressful driving, and deadlines to keep. Why do those professions have drug testing
and clear practices and weeding out amphetamine users? It makes no sense to
protect airline passengers, the ill, and our children from reckless driving, only to
allow a “pick up” trucker to kill them because he’s chemically stayed awake for 59
hours. Truck drivers, regardless of the demands of their jobs, must remain of sound
mind if they are to remain employed.
4) In the Future Perhaps trucks will one day have autopilot safety features that would compensate for
a trucker who drifts off or is too tweaked to have correct response time and
behaviors. But for now, amphetamine use as the “stay” alert method is the dominant
recourse of action for truckers. This recourse is a death race to those in and around
their trucks: who wants to be the one to tell a child that the rest of his family is dead
because a trucker thought wrong that “Speed” would keep him straight under the
burden of exhaustion?
5) What the topic Bottom line is that amphetamine use by Arizona’s truckers, though an established
really means and accepted practice, is a game of Russian roulette being played on our highways
every single day. Whether the unlucky result is a law suit, road accidents, or
fatalities, the one certainty is that some time, some place, amphetamine use will cost
 5

more than the risk is worth.

6) The insider/the Most people think that only a few renegade truckers are still using amphetamines in
unknown or little Arizona, because of the on the books regulations and laws prohibiting such. The
known (until now) real story is that 8 out of 10 times the companies themselves are telling the truckers,
truth either directly or with threats to their jobs, that not using amphetamines means not
being on time, means unemployment. This is not simply tolerance, but passive
enforcement of the pill popping culture that runs rampant among professional drivers
in the trucking industry.
7) "At first you might At first, one might think that when balanced against losing one’s job, the occasional
think….XXX" use of amphetamines is a necessary evil and part of the trucker’s job – not just a
However… xxxxx" lifestyle choice. However, hundreds of accident reports, dozens of deaths a year,
and an insurance cost that raises the prices far higher than a more realistic time
schedule would show that amphetamine use by truckers not only is a crime, but
makes no sense economically, either.
8) Why you are right: Some arguments call the demand for stricter enforcement of non-amphetamine use a
why your particular waste of time: impossible to do, high-minded, and showing no understanding of
thesis is the correct/ what it means to live and die by delivery time. This type of reasoning is a lazy
most acceptable / acceptance of the status quo, and ultimately, if either by death, injury, or lawsuit, it
strongest/ best is the trucker as well as his victims whose life will be wasted in the effort to save
time.
9) "The paper has In Arizona, the trucking industry’s “look the other way” attitude to Amphetamine
shown xxxxxx. Most use raises safety issues, draws law suits to the industry, and eventually costs the
importantly you will shipper more in insurance and accidents than the extra hours of driver time. Most
find…" importantly is the basic idea that driving is a privilege, not a right, and if a trucker
cannot drive because of drug use and impairment, that privilege stops immediately.