A relevant opening might be to discuss the recent wave of investigation into athletes who used or have used player enhancement drugs. Steroid and other PED usage has gained traction in the last five years in multiple sports and has helped to define the parameters as to what constitutes "cheating." For example, was it cheating when Mark McGwire was using a substance to enhance his performance when it was not banned by Major League Baseball, only to be banned a year afterwards? The idea of players seeking to enhance performance and the institutional inertia faced when trying to catch them could be a great opening topic and one that could be revisited because of its highly relevant and timely nature. In the final analysis, I think you will have to examine what you have, what you are going to prove, and how it will be discussed and carve your opening...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
to be relevant to this as the body of the paper should be reflected in its opening.
Every thesis statement has three parts: a topic, a focus and an opinion. Your thesis is also dependent on what the assignment is and how long it is. I'm going to assume it's for a standard one to two page essay for the purpose of answering this question.
So, you have your topic: cheating in sports. Now, that's pretty broad--you can't cover all the cheating in all sports in one to two pages. You probably couldn't do it justice in 10 pages. So, you need to narrow your focus. Do you want to talk about cheating in a particular sport? Baseball? Basketball? The Olympics? Or maybe you want to talk about a particular type of cheating--throwing boxing matches on purpose or steriod use.
Let's say you decide you want to talk about baseball players and steroid use. Now you have a focus.
Last piece is your opinion. What do you think about baseball players and steriod use? If your answer is, "well, I don't care," you either need to find a new topic to write about or pretend to care for the sake of the assignment. Do you think performance enhancing drugs should be allowed? Have stricter penalties? Should records made by a player using performance enchancing drugs be wiped from the record?
Let's say you think the use of performance enhancing drugs and steriod have tarnished the game of baseball.
Now you have topic--cheating in sports; focus--baseball and steriod use; and opinion--they've ruined the game of baseball.
Put them together in a sentence, and bingo--thesis statement.
"The use of steriods and other performance-enhancing drugs by baseball players has ruined the game of baseball because using these substances is a form of cheating."
For us to help you with your thesis statement, it would be very helpful if we could know your ideas. Your thesis statement, of course, will depend a lot on what you want to say about cheating. Your ideas would help us know what you want to say.
I can think of a few, but I don't know which one matches best with your ideas.
- Cheating in sports is something that has always happened and will always happen. It is the job of the referee to make sure players do not get away with it.
- Cheating goes against the very nature of sports. Anyone who cheats should be punished for trying to cheat because cheating diminishes the purity of the contest.