Revising Persuasive Main Points

Below is just one way of looking differently at our current or non-existing topic sentences. There are other techniques, I am sure, that will be just as valid, but here is one way of going about making our ideas as clear as we can. The basics of this technique rely on those rhetorical qualities we've already emphasized to death in our course: specificity, strong word choice, active voice sentence structure, and more.

How to look at your main points:

1. Use the subject matter that your essay is on, such as "Racial profiling" or "Not treating homosexuals as equal citizens," as the subject of your main sentences (thesis and topic sentences)

• If you don't have a more in-depth term used, expand your subject matter/word it in a way that makes it depthful and specific

2. Use a powerful verb that emphasizes a larger claim! Click this link for a great list of words that are good with argument/analysis!

3. Lastly, express the benefit, consequence, result -- or something else significant the reader should LEARN about that subject matter--as the object of the sentence.

• Here is where you think about the last blog post, where societal viewpoints come in to play. What are common arguments, perceptions, misconceptions, or results of society's arguing? 

***Good ideas will have 1+2+3!

Examples:

Racial profiling being commonly accepted or done by a society (subject matter in expanded form from topic) + elevates (strong verb) + the tension and distrust between people of different races (significance/result).

• Racial profiling being commonly accepted or done by a society elevates the tension and distrust between people of different races.

Not treating homosexuals as equal citizens + challenges + the US Constitution's assertions that all citizens are afforded the same legal rights and freedoms. 

• Not treating homosexuals as equal citizens challenges the US Constitution's assertions that all citizens are afforded the same legal rights and freedoms. 

Your turn (We'll do each step, timed, as a class):

Do 1 first. Identify and work on expressing your Essay 2 subject matter in the clearest context.

Then, pick a verb from the list in # 2.

Then three. 

Then, put them all together as a coherent arguable claim!