Is Citizen Privacy or National Security More Important?
Develop a thesis statement focused on determining if citizen privacy or national security is more important. You can choose any country or region. Your chosen topic needs to be specific and might address a question like the ones you see in these examples:
- Should officials make citizens’ privacy more of a priority than national security? Why or why not?
- Is national security likely to pose a risk for citizen privacy? Why or why not?
- You may choose another topic regarding the relationship between citizen privacy and national security as well; just be sure that your main thesis addresses the association between these two ideas.
Develop at least three strong arguments in addition to a counterargument and refutation (this resource can assist you in developing the counterargument and refutation). This organization should yield four body paragraphs. Using argumentative topic sentences
that include your opinion for each section can help ensure the majority
of your essay is argumentative. The beginning of a sample topic
sentence might be, “Primarily, exceptional national security is likely
to reduce citizen privacy because….” Then, be sure to support that claim
with a point or two of researched data, followed by mostly original
material that helps to explain how your research supports your claims as
well as provides new insights and perspectives. Conclude each paragraph with a sentence that synthesizes the paragraph’s main ideas.
Sample Thesis Statement: Ideally, a thesis would include the major assignment objectives for the essay, which in this case would be your claim/opinion, reasons why you have that opinion, and the counterargument: Implementing national security measures could lead to citizen privacy dilemmas because (add argument 1), (add argument 2), and (add argument 3), even though (add counterargument focus). *Note that a thorough thesis statement will include the counterargument in addition to your own arguments, but be sure to frame your counterargument as the opposition’s opinion so that readers do not think that you are changing your stance.
