Draft Thesis Statements

Kevin Carter, the photojournalist who shot a photo in Sudan in 1993 of a small emaciated child being closely watched by a nearby bird of prey, won the Pulitzer for his work. He was widely criticized for shooting the photo to begin with instead of going immediately to the child and rendering aid. A year after accepting the award, he took his own life. Rumors spread rapidly about his reasons for doing so: many were of the opinion that the guilt, embarrassment, shame from accepting an award by way of exploiting a child barely living through a famine was too much for him. However, by putting together the relevant facts of his life, we see a person who was much more troubled and haunted by his occupation than was generally known, and that the situation in which he shot the photo was not something he had any control over.

It is easy to make snap judgements about people we don't know personally, especially if they are in the public eye. Photojournalists, in their mission to inform the public, can often seem cold and unaffected emotionally by the sometimes horrific images they capture. In this text, the author seeks to change this perception with regard to one photojournalist, using parts of his back-story to lend credibility to his work, stories from friends and co-workers who knew him well, even intimately, about his daily emotional ordeal, and the sociopolitical situation of the subjects he shot, which was, typically, a major problem.

Statement 1: Kevin Carter was not a cold-blooded overly ambitious photojournalist who took the opportunity to exploit a starving child for his own gain instead of assisting her. He was necessarily detached from, but not unaffected, by the atrocities he witnessed. It was this, and a series of misfortunes in his life, that eventually caused his suicide, and not guilt from winning the award.

Statement 2: The photos of people living and dying in areas of war and famine are not exploitative, but necessary for the rest of the public to see, process, and be aware of, the problems in the global society in which we all live.

I don't see many problems in being able to develop this thesis statement, short of not finding much varied supporting material; this text is just a part of a wider picture in photo journalistic ethics.

Reflection:
I had a thought that a more organized thesis statement with precise points would be easier to use to write a draft. Its also a good idea to use emotional appeals on issues like budgeting the research efforts of programs like NASA; numbers and stats aren't always enough.

http://acjatana2.blogspot.com/2015/07/draft-thesis-statements-1-in-article.html?showComment=1438222705415#c8828836111762087897

Again, simplicity is as important as the topic.

http://selenacarbajal19.blogspot.com/2015/07/draft-thesis-statements.html?showComment=1438222498545#c3847099080267286147

I don't know that I will alter the main bulk of what I've already written, but I know that the major parts of the draft will need to meld and transition more effectively.

Reflection #2:
Sometimes it's good to consider combining two separate ideas into one more inclusive and yet precise statement. Unneeded words can make a statement unwieldy and confusing. Language level is an important thing to consider when writing for a specific audience.

http://adamkarsten.blogspot.com/2015/07/draft-thesis-statements.html?showComment=1438392572606#c4670535882326414590

When I found that my article wasn't as substantive as I first thought it was, I figured it was a way to see how creative I could get without being disingenuous. It's made the writing process easier and more difficult at the same time; less material to work with saves time and agony, but it also means I don't get to assert certain things that I would have liked to had there been a stronger link to the idea in the article. On the whole, though, constraints can be a good thing.
http://livinginsonder.blogspot.com/2015/07/draft-thesis-statements.html?showComment=1438394101507#c3133230319847841798