Quick questions on Constructing a persuasive thesis: IA1 extended response (QCE English Unit 3)

Topic. Housing affordability in Australian capital cities.

A thesis you can press across 800 to 1000 words should pass four tests.

The dot point names two crafts together: selection (what you include) and sequencing (the order in which you include it). Both serve the thesis.

Selection is where most IA1 drafts lose marks. Three rules.

The IA1 criteria reward sustained voice. Sustained does not mean monotonous. It means consistent in register, position and rhetorical posture across the piece.

Confusing topic with thesis. Stating what the piece is about in the place where the thesis belongs. The thesis is a claim, not an announcement.

Does the thesis name a particular position on a particular issue? "Housing affordability is a serious problem" is too general; "the binding constraint is the structure of tax incentives" is specific.

Could a reasonable reader disagree? If everyone in your intended audience already agrees, the thesis is not arguable and the piece becomes ceremony rather than persuasion. If no reasonable person could agree, the thesis is unarguable and the piece becomes provocation rather than persuasion.

Can the thesis be supported by evidence available to you? A thesis that requires data you cannot access or expertise you do not have is not usable in a school IA1.

If the thesis were taken seriously, would anything change? A thesis with no consequence is not worth defending. Argue for something that matters.

Open with a concrete entry: a quoted phrase, a small case, a recent event, a single arresting fact. The hook earns the reader's attention and previews the thesis without stating it.

State the thesis directly. Do not bury it. The reader needs to know what they are being asked to believe.

Develop the thesis from two or three distinct angles. Each paragraph should argue the thesis from a different vantage, with different evidence, in a complementary register. Avoid restating the thesis identically in each paragraph; develop it.

Name the strongest opposing view. Quote or paraphrase a credible advocate. Concede what the view gets right.

Return to the hook with the thesis now visible behind it. The close does not need to be loud; it needs to be earned. A short, precise final sentence that crystallises the thesis is better than a flourish.