Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:

Respond to each of the following with a minimum of 200 words and one reference. There should be two separate responses totaling a minimum of 400 words and 2 references. Separate response 1 from response 2


PERSON 1

According to Purdue OWL, a thesis statement should express the key purpose, or main point of an essay (Tardiff & Brizee, 2014).  Additionally, the thesis statement sets the tone for the writer’s intentions and commitment to the reader regarding the essay’s purpose, content, and overall organization (id.). A thesis statement may also include the importance of the writer’s opinion given the essay’s topic (Furman, 2007).  Since the thesis statement is the key expression describing the purpose of an essay, it is vitally important that it be constructed effectively and remains fluid-constantly subject to revision-throughout the essay writing process (id.). Furman states, “you are your article, and…that your manuscript represents you…therefore, you will want to make sure that you handle every detail professionally” (id.). A thesis statement is often the last one or two sentences in the opening paragraph of an essay and a very specific, detailed accounting concerning the topic of discussion supported by facts and evidence (Tardiff & Brizee, 2014).
Once a topic is chosen, the writer must decide whether or not his or her essay will be objective or subjective based.  When writing an objective essay, the author must present factual, unbiased information or a critical review of a topic through an organized presentation of evidence, examples, and analysis (Silvia, 2007). When writing a subjective essay, the author simply makes a claim or assertion about a given topic, which is also supported through an organized presentation of evidence, examples, and analysis (id.). According to Purdue OWL, the writer must also determine the type of paper he or she is writing before settling on a thesis statement, examples of which are:
• [A]n analytical paper breaks down an issue or an idea into its component parts, evaluates the issue or idea, and presents this breakdown and evaluation to the audience.
•An expository (explanatory) paper explains something to the audience.
•An argumentative paper makes a claim about a topic and justifies this claim with specific evidence. The claim could be an opinion, a policy proposal, an evaluation, a cause-and-effect statement, or an interpretation. The goal of the argumentative paper is to convince the audience that the claim is true based on the evidence provided (id.).
An example of a criminal justice-based analytical thesis statement would be:
An analysis of the inmate intake process reveals the challenges that jail officers must endure when accepting inmates who are HIV positive.
The essay that follows this statement would explain the inmate intake process of an average jail and also explain the unique challenges faced by jail officers when handling HIV positive personnel. An example of a criminal justice-based expository thesis statement would be:
The life of a typical police patrol officer is characterized by time spent on peacekeeping, order maintenance, and problem solving.
An essay that follows should explain how police officers spend their time on peacekeeping, order maintenance, and problem solving. And an example of a criminal justice-based argumentative thesis statement would be:
The emphasis on crime-fighting creates an unrealistic expectation about the ability of the police to catch criminals and prevent crime.
An essay that follows might explain how police officers spend only about 1/3 of their daily activities on criminal enforcement, that more time is spent on peacekeeping, order maintenance, and problem solving, and how movies and television play a vital role concerning the misconceptions surrounding police work (Walker & Katz, 2005). Regardless of the topic chosen, it’s important to remember that the thesis statement establishes the key purpose, or claim which will be supported by the body of paragraphs that provide clear and distinct supporting evidence to the initial claim of the thesis statement leading to a conclusion that re-emphasizes the initial argument as it relates to larger societal issues (Silvia, 2007).
PERSON 2

A thesis statement is the purpose of the writing that follows it. A thesis statement is extremely important because it is how the writer can grab the attention of the reader and persuade them to read and possibly persuade them to choose the writer’s point of view. The thesis statement should be located within the writing either at the very beginning or within the first paragraph of the writing. It is important for the writer to understand the intended audience for their writing so they can tailor their writing to the needs of the audience. For example, it is well known that college text books are ridiculously expensive and more often than not, not worth the price. A writer who wishes to write about this topic needs to decide who their audience will be and determine some supporting information based on the needs of the reader without disregarding contradictory information.

If the writer was writing with the intention of having students as their audience, their thesis statement could be: College textbooks are often prohibitively expensive and universities should select textbooks that contain the same information but in a cheaper fashion. Some of the supporting information that can be used with this thesis statement are as follows:

- Biannual edition updates to college textbooks do not offer enough to justify the cost between editions.
- Textbook publishers employ certain strategies to ensure new editions are purchased such as one time use codes with textbook purchases.
- Many disciplines such as literature and mathematics have not had huge advances in recent academics and does not require a new edition every year or two.

On the other hand, if the writer intended the audience to be the university or the textbook publisher, a thesis statement could be: College students are increasingly seeking different methods to obtain textbooks and the publishers should create more value for the student in order to obtain them as customers. Some supporting information for this thesis statement could be:

- Some students obtain pirated copies of the required textbooks because the new or used textbooks may be too expensive.
- Some professors may tell their students that while the text is officially required, it will not be needed for the course.
- Making textbooks prohibitively expensive could be more harmful to the sales of textbooks while making them cheaper could help ensure that they will be required more often and used.

Most importantly though, a thesis statement is used to guide the research and supporting information for the paper and can help to keep the writer or researcher on topic. They can continue to ask themselves how each piece either supports or refutes the claim or solution that is offered in the thesis statement. For my proposed topic with the sex offender registry, a possible thesis statement could be: The government should focus efforts on other solutions to protect the community from sex offenders and largely abolish the sex offender registration requirements. Some supporting information for this thesis statement could be as follows:

- There is little to no empirical evidence to show that the sex offender registration has protected the community in any way (Mancini & Mears, 2013, p. 1152)
- Sex offender registration alienates sex offenders attempting to reintegrate back into society and could lead them to reoffend due to socioeconomic factors such as homelessness and unemployment.
- Oftentimes, there is no real clear delineation between sex offenders who are considered dangerous and those who are not dangerous. The 19 year old who had sex with his 17 year old girlfriend is given the same title of sex offender as a 50 year old man who had sex with a 7 year old.