Hi, Franklin kowski here talking about the second lecture in the course on debatable thesis. The second rule in analyzing stories is to have a clear original thesis or or point of view, you need to you need to formulate a debatable main idea, you need to take a stance on a particular issue. As we pointed out in the first lecture, your audience will be looking for an effective thesis statement and effective argument. So let's have a look at the overview, which I'll call up here in a second. So, by the end of this lecture, you will be able to formulate a good thesis statement. We will first define what is a good thesis statement.

And having an effective thesis statement is an essential building block of any good critical analysis and then we will look at some bad thesis statements. It's important to know what not to do. So let's move on now to defining a thesis statement what is a thesis statement and a thesis statement is a is a fancy term for main idea. Just sometimes difficult to grasp a main idea, any any analysis you do must have a controlling idea. That's very important. According to experts in in story analysis, a good thesis statement presents the issue and shows your position on it.

The thesis may also mention your supporting points very important to have supporting points, either based on the the the text itself or external source of information. The thesis statement is the most important part in introducing your analysis. It explains it defends and proves your point of view on Topic the the issue the literary element that you're analyzing. And this requires that you do research to know more about the subject and associated topic. As we pointed out in the first lecture. You need to become in a sense a bit of an expert on the on the issue.

The the thesis also uses action verbs. Nick Walker, a great colleague of mine and creator of the virtual writing tutor, which we'll talk about in the next course on drafting a good critical essay recommends using action verbs in the thesis statement in the thesis sentence, and so action verbs show action, and they're much more powerful than what he calls state of verbs which describe being or or possession. They're good verbs, but not for a thesis statement. So let's look at in the next slide here, let's look at the examples of thesis statements using examples that Nick Walker uses in his article on writing a good thesis statement. Example one. Romeo is an ideal tragic hero, because he is noble.

He is virtuous and he has a tragic death. What do you think? How many state of verbs can you see? Well, in fact, there are four is is used three times, and has appears once. Not a particularly powerful thesis statement. Example two now Romeo embodies the ideal tragic hero, because he belongs to a noble family displays great virtue and dies, the tragic death of a tragic flaw.

How many verbs Do you see? Are there any state of verbs? Well, no. And how many action verbs are there? Well, in fact, there are four In bodies, belongs, displays and dies. That's a good thesis statement.

So to summarize, the thesis statement identifies the issue shows the writers point of view. And previews the main arguments that you will use in the analysis. So let's move on now to what is not a thesis statement. There are many things that are not a good thesis statement and then this is it. First of all, it's not an obvious fact. That's kind of boring.

It's not a question or an incomplete sentence lacking a subject and a verb. A thesis statement is not a quote from a book or a website about a topic or a literary element. You'll see in the next lecture It's not too general, and doesn't include phrases like this analysis we'll discuss. And a thesis statement expresses one specific idea and not several different points to confuse your audience. And finally, a good thesis statement is not an original, or adult, but provocative, rather provocative and controversial, as we had mentioned in lecture one. In other words, it should have an interesting angle or point of view that you want to develop and impress your audience.

So let's move on to the next slide here. Let's analyze a few thesis statements. Can you identify what's wrong with these thesis state with these five thesis statements? Ernest Hemingway, great American writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel, The old man in the sea. Not very good. It's a fact.

Example. This essay will examine the symbolism and Hemingway's The old man in the sea, and not particularly good because of the announcement it makes. We'll examine. Number three, Ernest Hemingway's The old man in the sea is a great book. Ah, it's a, it's too general. doesn't say anything.

What is the theme of Hemingway's, the old man in the sea? This is a question and sometimes, again, students think a question is a good thesis statement one, and in fact, it might be a generative idea to find a good thesis statement. But in itself, it's not a thesis statement. There are many examples of symbolism in Hemingway's old man in the sea. Problem folder. There's no problem here.

This is a good topic for literary analysis. So, so this lecture sets the stage for the next lecture in the the course on the topic, the gist of the course on literary analysis. So wrap up in the second lecture, we continued laying the foundation for coming up with a good story analysis, and you learn how to formulate a good thesis statement, or controlling idea for your analysis. You need to ask yourself these questions is your thesis clear and original? Is your argument focused and specific? Is your purpose clear.

You'll also learn how to avoid writing bad thesis statements, which is easy to do, and you need to practice so keep in mind that a thesis statement is not necessarily set in stone. You can modify your thesis statement as you do research on the topic. This is important, the topic what the literary element that you're that you're analyzing. So this is important. Keep in mind, it might evolve your your critical thesis statement. So see you in the next lecture, an introduction to literary and film analysis.

Bye