OT: Thesis statement help

[spilled_milk]

Hi everyone!


I need big help. In my AP World History class we're starting a large thesis paper. We were supposed to choose an event or issue that took place or was pertinent in the world between the years 1950-1990. I'm a little bit morbid [img]smileys/smilies_04.gif[/img], so I chose the death penalty issue.


I was planning to just take a side and compare and contrast how opinions on the penalty and methods of killing perpetrators changed from the 60's to now. I still sort of intend to do that, but I was talking to my teacher and he said that maybe I should relate it a little bit more to the world, and maybe talk about what makes a civilized country, and if a country has a death penalty if it should be considered civilized. I don't know if i have enought thoughts to go this route though, and so i was wondering if any of you had ideas for a thesis on this topic?


Thanks!


<3 Anya--

[Girlygirl1980s]

Wow, that's an interesting topic. As far as if we are civilized - I often wonder about that. I know it costs so much to keep these prisoners alive, but killing them.....I understand some of them are serving consecutive life sentences for having done absolutely heinous crimes, but I personally cannot see killing them. Maybe you should think of another topic. I absolutely sucked in history! But if I can think of a good topic, I'll let you know.

[spilled_milk]

Thanks! I can't really change my whole topic because I already chose it, but I can manipulate the thing that i'm discussing/trying to prove.


The problem is that I just kind of make up my essay as I write...i dont have any clear plans. So it's kind of weird to tie myself down, so i can't decide on just one thing!


<3 Anya--

[crimgoddess]

Hmmmm.....maybe you should focus on dichotomy of believing that places like the United States that still practice the death penalty are advanced, learned, and supposedly a worldleader, yet they still practice a relatively barbaric form of punishment that is a relic from an earlier era. You can speak to the other advances that the US has made politically, socially, and technology-wise, but then focus on how they still cling to this method of literally exterminating people that has it's roots entrenched in an era before recorded time.


Or, if you were interested in changing your topic a bit, there is a lot of literature relating to shifts in ideology in American corrections- from prisons where individuals could not look or speak to one another and were expected to read the bible in complete silence, to workhouses, to houses of reform, to the medical model, to the risk management/warehousing model which is in place today. But being a criminology major, that would probably only be of interest to me.


I recently read a lot of stuff relating to the evolution of the "sex offender" within western society- did you know that the term did not even exist prior to 1921?


*amber*

[wing]

Ooh, um, sorryI can't really help but are you taking it this week? I just want to say good luck if you are! =] I've got AP US History. Taking AP World next year. ;] Edited by: wing

[spilled_milk]

Well we're writing it over a course of a month or so, due right after memorial day. But we need to be completely decided on a topic NOW, and i'm just not good at that! I like to manipulate what i'm answering as i go along [img]smileys/smilies_12.gif[/img]


I'm taking AP U.S. next year, actually! Guess we're switched!


Amber, those are some really good points! I never thought about all of those aspects, and I think that I will try to use some of them, it gives a lot more depth to what I was trying to say before. Thanks! [img]smileys/smilies_04.gif[/img]


<3 Anya--

[sillygirl]

Do you have to turn in your thesis statement before you write the paper? I am like you - I usually just start writing the body of the paper and see where I end up. Then I go back and write my entire introduction last. It has always worked well for me, but teachers always seem to want things done in their order. I'm sorry I don't have any advice for you, I just wanted to let you know I know exactly what you are going through. That is one thing I do not miss about school!

[spilled_milk]

Yep, I have to turn in the statement first. I'm consoled myself with the fact that if my essay takes another direction, I'll just say that I was having trouble fulfilling my proposed thesis. I wish the teachers would let you do it in your own order...people are different!


<3 Anya--