Your Position Statement

• a position statement (PS) is the core of your entire paper• it addresses -- “What’s your point?”• it lets the reader know why he/she should care about your

assertion “So What?”

• it provides a mini-summary of the paper’s content• it tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of

the subject matter under discussion• it allows the reader/audience to know in advance how the

paper is organized

Your Position Statement

• makes a claim that others might dispute

• is usually a single sentence somewhere in your first paragraph that presents your argument to the reader

• the rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation

Express Yourself

• your position statement • expresses the main ideas of your paper and • previews the answer to the question or questions posed

by your paper

• your position statement directly answers the question asked of you

Express Yourself

• your position statement is an interpretation or analysis of a question or subject, not the subject itself

• the subject, or topic, of an essay might be “The 360 Degree Performance Evaluation”

• a position paper must offer an attribution to the improvement of employee performance due to 360 Degree Performance Evaluation, not just a statement of facts on the topic

What Can the Position Statement Do for You?

• helps you start drafting

• helps keep you focused

• helps to narrow your subject to a single, central idea

• serves as a point of reference if changes occur

Two Main Parts

• your position statement generally consists of two main parts

• your chosen topic, theory, concept, practice• the analysis, explanation, or assertion, that you’re

making about the topic

• “I am writing about ______________________, and I am going to argue, show or prove ______________________.”

Two Main Parts

• your analysis• breaks down your text into its component parts, • evaluates the data, and • presents this breakdown and evaluation to the audience

as an argument

• in other words, • “I believe this issue is saying . . . and here’s how I know

and here’s why you should believe it too”

Challenges

• briefly introduce your topic; make a concise assertion about your topic

• limit the statement to only one idea

• make the assertion specific and significant

Challenges

• state your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence -- this sentence is the position statement, and it serves as a summary of the argument you'll make in the rest of your paper

• imply your purpose

• unify the statement so that the parts relate to each other

A Position Statement with No Position

XYZ Company practices 360 Degree Performance Evaluation

•this is a statement of fact without an assertion

•what is the significance of the performance evaluation success? (the “So What?,” the “What’s your point?”)

Before:

•XYZ Company practices 360 Degree Performance Evaluation

After:

•The employees of XYZ Company have since been motivated to perform because of the implementation of the 360 Degree Performance Evaluation

A Position Statement with Position

Purpose to Explain

• the following examples of position statements announce that the essays’ purposes are mainly to explain about their subjects

Pecking Order in an Office

• two months working in a large government agency taught me that an office’s pecking order should be respected

Topic: Office’s pecking order

Assertion: Should be respected

What Public Relations Does

• although most of us are unaware of the public relations campaigns directed at us, they can significantly affect the way we think and live

Topic: Public relations campaigns

Assertion: Affect the way we think and live

Organization

• the following example on preventing juvenile crime clearly predicts the organization of the essay

Preventing Juvenile Crime

• juveniles can be diverted from crime by active learning programs, full-time sports, and intervention by mentors and role models

Topic: Juveniles Assertion: Can be diverted from crime in

three ways

Persuasion

• the following example on federal aid to college students announces that the essay’s main purpose is to convince the reader of something

Federal Aid to College Students

• to compete well in the global economy, the United States must make higher education affordable for any student who qualifies academically

Topic: Affordable education

Assertion: Must be made available to any qualified

student in the U.S.

Three Specific Types of Position Statements

• Analytical (compare/contrast essays)

• Expository (explanatory)

• Argumentative

Analysis Essay

• in an analytical paper, you are

• breaking down an issue or an idea into its component parts,

• evaluating the issue or idea, and • presenting this breakdown and evaluation to your reader

• an analytical thesis statement will explain:

• what you are analyzing• the parts of your analysis• the order in which you will be presenting your analysis

Analysis Questions

• what did I analyze?

• what did I discover in my analysis?

• how can I categorize my discoveries?

• in what order should I present my discoveries?

Three Specific Types of Position Statements

• expository (explanatory)

• illustrative essays

• explicative essays

• descriptive essays

Explanation Essay

• in an expository paper, you are explaining something to your reader

• an expository (explanatory) thesis statement will tell your audience:

• what you are going to explain to them

• the categories your are using to organize your explanation

• the order in which you will be presenting your categories

Explanation Questions

• what am I trying to explain?

• how can I categorize my explanation into different parts?

• in what order should I present the different parts of my explanation?

Three Specific Types of Position Statements

• argumentative

• persuasive essays

• argumentative essays

• cause/effect essays

• in an argumentative paper, you are making a claim about a topic and justifying this claim with reasons and evidence

Argumentation Essay

• this claim could be :• an opinion, • a policy proposal, • an evaluation, • a cause-and-effect statement, or • an interpretation

• this claim must be one that someone could possibly disagree with because the goal of the paper is to convince the reader that your claim is true based on your presentation of your reasons and evidence

Argumentation Questions

• what is my claim or assertion?

• what are the reasons I have to support my claim or assertion?

• in what order should I present my reasons?

Checklist Questions in Writing Position Statement

• does the statement make a concise assertion about your topic?

• is the assertion limited to only one idea?

• is the assertion specific and significant?

• does the statement at least imply your purpose?

• is the statement unified so that the parts relate to each other?

How do I arrive at my position statement?

• a position statement is the result of a lengthy thinking process

• formulating a position statement is not the first thing you do after reading an essay assignment

• before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to: • collect and organize evidence, • look for possible relationships between known facts

(such as surprising contrasts or similarities), and • think about the significance of these relationships

How do I arrive at a position statement ?

• once you do this thinking, you will probably have a• "working position statement "

• a basic or main idea,

• an argument that you think you can support with evidence

• but that may need adjustment along the way

How do I know if my position statement is strong?

• do I answer the question?

• in this case, the question is “what do YOU think your text(s) is saying and how is it saying it?”

How do I know if my position statement is strong?

• have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose?

• if your position statement simply states facts that • no one would, or even could, disagree with,

• it's possible that you are simply providing a summary,• rather than making an argument

How do I know if my position statement is strong?

• is my position statement specific enough?

• position statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument

• if your position statement contains words like "good" or "successful,“

• see if you could be more specific: why is something "good";

• what specifically makes something "successful"?

How do I know if my position statement is strong?

• does my position statement pass the “so what?" test?

• if a reader's first response is “so what?" then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue

How do I know if my position statement is strong?

• does my essay support my position statement specifically and without wandering?

• if your thesis and the body of your essay do not seem to go together, one of them has to change

• it's OK to change your working thesis to reflect things you have figured out in the course of writing your paper

• remember, always reassess and revise your writing as necessary

How do I know if my position statement is strong?

• does my position statement pass the "how and why?" test?

• if a reader's first response is "how?" or "why?" your thesis may be too open-ended and lack guidance for the reader

• see what you can add to give the reader a better take on your position right from the beginning

Works Cited

• Most of the information provided in these slides was plucked (either word-for-word or paraphrased) from Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab.

• Visit the website for more information:• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print

Works Cited

• Most of the information provided in these slides was plucked (either word-for-word or paraphrased) from The Little Brown Handbook, 8th ed. Instructor’s Annotated Edition.

• Author’s: H. Ramsey Fowler, Jane E. Aaron, and Janice Okoomian

• Visit the website for more information:• http://www.awl.com/littlebrown