Ryan Wild

Professor Malcolm Campbell

WRDS 1104
9/24/2021
Studio Two: Bully Thesis
S: Author and professor at Boise University Bruce Ballenger seeks to teach the dangers
of the thesis statement to his audience at the Writing Pedagogy Conference at the University of
Florida. He explains that a thesis statement while being a powerful tool in objective research-
based writing heavily limits a writer in their openness to research and other opinions and ideas.
Instead, he recommends writers ask a question opening themselves to the research and opinions
of others who may have differing ideas.

Ballenger notes the classes he has taught and the lectures he has given and uses his
background knowledge to infer that the education system is flawed when teaching students, the
structure of research-based essays and writings. The system of creating a thesis statement first
before writing or doing any sort of research on the topic almost always creates poor statements or
questions unless backed by prior knowledge of a subject. Ballenger teaches his students to do
inquisitive research on the applied topic to establish a background of information to establish a
well-grounded foundational question that can be revisited and revised throughout the writing
process.

The author describes the thesis as a writing tool that has taken “too much room in the
bed” due to its more recent grounds in America’s history of teaching writing. Essays are taught
in school to provide a narrow-minded point of view on a topic and to be backed with one sided
evidence to support one’s claim. These teachings can be traced back to early textbook entries in
1939 supported by Ballenger’s research, the usage of the term picked up in popularity in the
fifties and sixties and by today has become a main stay in the way objective and researched
based writing is taught to students. Only recently has it become a problem with topics being
assigned to students and very linear statements being written.

R: As a student myself I couldn’t agree more with Ballenger’s opinion on thesis

statements, the fact that this writing was so relatable to me instantly stuck out to me and
maintained my interest as an audience. I’ve had strong statements on essays about topics I’ve had
more background knowledge on than ones where I don’t know the topic of. I was taught to
establish a strong thesis before doing research and before writing any of my essays, firmly
planting me into the belief I previous stated in my thesis. I would often go back and do research
after submitting the assignment only to find that my thesis was weaker than I thought, or I just
plain didn’t agree with it. Asking an open question or having a hypothesis established before
writing is a strong way to keep oneself open to the possibilities and what one might learn when
writing a research-based paper. Reflection and revision are also important on the writer’s part as
their opinions on the topic may change over time. Writing is fluid and should never confined
before the actual writing starts, to do this is to diminish the very point of writing itself.