what is a good thesis statement for forgiveness

66 Forgiveness Essay: Examples, Titles, & Thesis Statement

A forgiveness essay is an exciting yet challenging task. In our article, you can find good forgiveness essay examples in literature, history, religion, and other spheres

📝 Writing a Forgiveness Theme Statement

🏆 best forgiveness essay examples, 🔍 simple forgiveness titles for essay, 💡 interesting forgiveness essay examples.

In your forgiveness essay, focus on different aspects of forgiveness. Some good forgiveness titles for the essay reveal themes of revenge, justice, and personal forgiveness. You can write an excellent reflective or argumentative essay on forgiveness – it is a versatile topic.

Regardless of your forgiveness essay’s specific topic and type, you should develop a strong thesis statement. Below we will provide recommendations on making a good forgiveness theme statement. This will help you come up with a solid base and arguments to prove your position.

Check these tips to make a powerful forgiveness thesis statemen:

Determine the primary idea. What are you trying to prove? Can anything be forgiven, or are there cases when it’s not possible? Introduce your one main idea and the angle from which you will look at it. You can also include some facts or opinions about the acuteness of the topic.
Work out your argumentation. It is crucial to have a firm structure in your forgiveness essay. You need to support the thesis statement with several arguments and evidence to demonstrate the consistency of your paper.
Think of the opposing views. Every argument has a counterargument. When working on your forgiveness theme statement, always keep an opposite thesis statement in mind. Having considered counter positions, you gain additional arguments for your position.
Don’t quote others in your thesis statement. A thesis statement is the first and foremost chance to introduce your point of view. Use your own strongest words to reach a reader. This is where they get the first impression about the whole work.

We also have lots of other tips on developing A+ thesis statements. Check our free thesis statement generator to discover more information and get a perfect forgiveness theme statement.

Christ’s Atonement and the Concept of Forgiveness This study will connect the atonement of Jesus Christ and attitudes towards forgiveness through the revision of the current church, Love and God’s commandment to forgive.
Philosophy of Forgiveness I believe that if anyone had gone through all the pain and horror that Simon had, and was asked to forgive Karl, the instinct, and most humane reaction at that moment would be to strongly […]
Forgiveness in the Christian Texts and the World Today The apostle calls upon the church’s people to stop the punishment of the wrongdoer and forgive, comfort, and affirm their love for him. It instructs Muslims to follow God and forgive others instead of following […]
Hamlet and Forgiveness: A Personal Reflection Some of the most prominent themes in the story are the ideas of mutual forgiveness, people’s motivation to be proactive and take risks, and their willingness to forgive and ask for forgiveness.
Service Recovery and Customer Forgiveness Studies suggest that after apologizing to customers plus taking responsibility for the problem, getting to the root of the problem is very important to prevent such occurrences in the future. Getting to the root of […]
Racial Inequality Targeted Student Loan Forgiveness Programs The research into this topic seems highly significant as the reduction of racial inequality was one of the most debated topics in the U.S.for the last several decades.
Forgiveness for Workplace Conflict Resolution The problem with the relationship between the two workers is that Jake feels that Monica is a relatively malicious individual. In the outlined scenario, Jake is doing all that he can to avoid dealing with […]
The Effects of Forgiveness Therapy After gathering the relevant data, the researchers compared the recovery of the participants to their controls to determine the effects of forgiveness therapy.
Self-Forgiveness: The Step Child of Forgiveness Research Other than the similarities and the differences, the two types of forgiveness relate to each other as self-forgiveness facilitates interpersonal forgiveness, this is through allowance of one to identify with one’s offender.
The Amish Philosophy of Forgiveness It is important to note that the immediate forgiveness of the enemy does not mean that the Amish will let the perpetrators of crime go free.
Review: “Interventions Studies on Forgiveness: A Meta-analysis” by Baskin T. and Enright R. In the church, members come to the pastor with a variety of social and psychological issues. The first step the pastor should undertake is to sympathise with the victims.
Self-Forgiveness as the Path to Learning to Forgive the Others The key issues that the given research responds to or, at least, attempts to solve, are the definition of self-forgiveness, the relation between self-forgiveness and interpersonal forgiveness, and the means to differentiate between self-forgiveness and […]
The Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Depression, Anxiety and Posttraumatic Stress for Women After Spousal Emotional Abuse Enright forgiveness model applied in the study proved effective since it systematically addressed the forgiveness process identified the negative attributes caused by the abuse, and prepared the women for positive responses.
Divine and Human Forgiveness in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” By Samuel Taylor Coleridge After killing the albatross who was suppose to provide them with wind, all the people in the ship died but he managed to survive because he had asked God to forgive him all the sins […]
Forgiveness & Reconciliation: The Differing Perspectives of Psychologists and Christian Theologians Based on the research design there is evidence of measures put in place to control against most of these biases which strengthens the study findings; this is the strength to the study.
Forgiveness and Reconciliation Critique Availability of literature; as stated in the literature though the area of forgiveness is new in the field of psychology, but there is enough literature to cover the study.
Forgiveness in Simon Wiesenthal’s Work The Sunflower Taking into account the major themes of the book The Sunflower, one is to make a conclusion that such response to atrocities as forgiveness is considered to be the key aspect of humanity.
Forgiveness in Martin Luther’s Movement for Rights Blacks The bible teachings tell us that God exists in the holy trinity and the only way to forgive others is for us to be able to forgive our own transgressions.
The Idea Of Forgiveness Resonates Differently With Every Individual
Accident Forgiveness in Automobile Insurance
The Association Of Feathers And Forgiveness
Christians’ Beliefs About Justice And Forgiveness
Debt Forgiveness: The Missing Link in Closing Gap with Third World
Christian Beliefs about Justice, Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Learning About Forgiveness From the Teachings of the Bible
Crusades and the Forgiveness of Sins of the Sinners
Feelings Surrounding the Need for Forgiveness in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights
Why Forgiveness Is Essential and the Forgiveness Manadala
The Desirability of Forgiveness in Regulatory Enforcement
The Styles of Forgiveness Communication in Association with Determinants of Forgiveness in In the Wake of Transgressions, an Article by Andy Merolla
The Spiritual Principle of Forgiveness in Wes Anderson’s Film The Royal Tenenbaums, Saint Augustine’s Confessions, and the Biblical Story of Adam and Eve
The Problems With Forgiveness: An Analysis of Literary Works
The Relationship Between Forgiveness and Sleep Quality
The Themes of Betrayal and Forgiveness in Paradise Lost by John Milton and A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
Love, Forgiveness, and Trust: Critical Values of the Modern Leader
Compassion and Forgiveness: Wilde’s Insincerity
The Secret Life of Bees An Analysis of Forgiveness and Responsibility
Themes Of Forgiveness In The Tempest By William Shakespeare
Resolutions of Forgiveness, Repentance and Reconciliation in Shakespeare
The Kite Runner: Forgiveness, Loyalty, and the Quest for Redemption
Why Forgiveness Is Vital In Our Society
Morals And Forgiveness In Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower
The Emotional and Physical Benefits of the Act of Forgiveness
The Monster’s Lack of Forgiveness in Frankenstein, a Book by Mary Shelley
Conflict Management : Forgiveness And Reconciliation
Man Alive: A True Story Of Violence, Forgiveness And Becoming
The Renaissance Figure That Wonders the Lands in Hope of Bring Forgiveness in the Pardoner and His Tale
The Impact of Acceptance, Tolerance, and Forgiveness in Frankenstein, a Novel by Mary Shelley
Racism, Redemption, Forgiveness and Hope in Minor Miracle, a Poem by Marilyn Nelson
Why Perspective in Forgiveness and Redemption is so Important
The Themes Punishment vs. Forgiveness Present in the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Dynamics of Corporate Debt forgiveness and Contract Renegotiation
Throwing Stones-Resilience and Forgiveness in The Glass Castle
The Importance of Granting Forgiveness to One’s Enemies in Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower: on Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness
The Meaning and Significance for Christians Today of Forgiveness
Penalties and Exclusion in the Rescheduling and Forgiveness of International Loans
Gender Differences in the Relationship Between Empathy and Forgiveness
Conflicts And Forgiveness In Family
The Importance of Perspectives in Forgiveness and Redemption
The Economic And Ethical Ambiguities Of African Debt Forgiveness
Exploring the Themes of Forgiveness and Reconciliation in The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Vengeance and Forgiveness in Shakespeare’s The Tempest
The Effects of Forgiveness Therapy on Depression
Theme Of Betrayal, Revenge, And Forgiveness
Unbroken A Story Of Redemption And Forgiveness By Laura
The Christian View On Justice Forgiveness And Reconciliation
Positive Psychology Titles
Consciousness Ideas
Bible Questions
Virtue Essay Ideas
Moral Development Essay Topics
Belief Questions
Idealism Paper Topics
Personal Values Ideas
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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Emotions & Feelings — Forgiveness

Essays on Forgiveness

Hook examples for forgiveness essays, anecdotal hook.

"In a moment of profound hurt, I found the strength to forgive, and it transformed my life. The power of forgiveness is a force that can mend even the deepest wounds."

Rhetorical Question Hook

"What does it take to let go of anger, resentment, and seek reconciliation? The concept of forgiveness prompts us to explore the complexities of human relationships."

Startling Statistic Hook

"Studies show that holding onto grudges and refusing to forgive can have adverse effects on physical and mental health. How does forgiveness impact our well-being?"

"'To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.' Lewis B. Smedes' words resonate with the profound transformation that forgiveness brings to both the forgiver and the forgiven."

Historical Hook

"From ancient philosophies to religious teachings, forgiveness has been a recurring theme in human history. Exploring the historical context of forgiveness reveals its enduring significance."

Narrative Hook

"Join me on a journey through personal stories of forgiveness, where individuals found the strength to heal relationships and find peace within themselves. This narrative captures the essence of forgiveness."

Psychological Healing Hook

"How does forgiveness promote emotional healing and psychological well-being? Analyzing the psychological aspects of forgiveness adds depth to our understanding."

Religious and Spiritual Perspective Hook

"Forgiveness is a central theme in many religious and spiritual traditions. What do these teachings reveal about the transformative power of forgiveness in our lives?"

Social Reconciliation Hook

"In societies marked by conflict and division, forgiveness plays a crucial role in the path to reconciliation. Delving into the role of forgiveness in social healing offers important insights."

Interpersonal Relationships Hook

"How does forgiveness impact our relationships with others? Exploring forgiveness within the context of interpersonal dynamics sheds light on the bonds we share."

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The Transformative Power of Forgiveness

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A Question of Forgiveness of The Large Scale Crimes Such as Genocide

Conflict and forgiveness from the religious perspective, the themes of betrayal and forgiveness in paradise lost by john milton and a doll's house by henrik ibsen, the secret of forgiveness in joseph play, the theme of forgiveness in "a gift from my grandparents" by mark sakamoto, the theme of forgiveness and resilience as illustrated in "the glass castle", eva kor, forgiving doctor mengele, a literary review of alan paton’s story, cry the beloved country with focus on the journey to freedom, the hiding place: forgiveness for our enemies, an issue of forgiveness in an article by andy merolla, the importance of forgiveness (in 100 words), the interlopers conflict, forgiveness and how it is important in life, the power of forgiveness: healing through forgiveness, the power of forgiveness, the power of forgiveness: healing and transformation, the power of forgiveness: a moral dilemma in the sunflower, power of forgiveness: healing journey to redemption, power of forgiveness: forgiving oneself, power of forgiveness in the journey of injustice, relevant topics.

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Psychology of Forgiveness: 10+ Fascinating Research Findings

These grievances only offer a lifetime of hurt and should be dealt with.

Despite the enormity of suffering a person may have faced, it is possible to let this pain go and forgive.

Not only is forgiveness good for the soul, but it also has positive benefits on our mental and even physical wellbeing (Luskin, 2003).

“ Pain in life is inevitable. Suffering, on the other hand, is optional ,” writes compassion and mindfulness expert Dr. Shauna Shapiro (2020).

In this article, we explore the research behind forgiveness and look at tools to help us along the journey.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Emotional Intelligence Exercises for free . These science-based exercises will not only enhance your ability to understand and work with your emotions but will also give you the tools to foster the emotional intelligence of your clients, students, or employees.

This Article Contains

The science behind forgiveness: 10+ findings, positive psychology research, 5 skills for forgiveness, benefits of forgiveness, tools for forgiveness, useful books, a take-home message.

In his book, Forgive for Good , Dr. Frederic Luskin, Director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Project (2003), describes his personal and academic journey into forgiveness.

When Luskin began his research, there were few studies in the field of forgiveness and limited knowledge of the tools that could help those who had suffered the most.

In the absence of clear guidance, Luskin began his work with several untested assumptions:

The process of forgiveness remains the same, irrespective of the offense.
Forgiveness is more about our past than our present life.
Forgiveness should be about all grievances – big and small.

Forgiveness is a process. And while the duration and difficulty will vary significantly, it can be equally applied to all levels of pain – whether it’s the result of someone being rude to us in a store, a life cut short, or a partner cheating.

For one of his studies, he recruited students between 18 and 30 who wished to attend forgiveness training to resolve personal issues. Split into groups, he interviewed them before and after the training.

Results confirmed that forgiveness training helps people:

Feel significantly less hurt
Learn techniques for forgiving specific and more general resentment
Forgive the particular person who had caused them pain

Overall, findings suggested that learning to forgive improves psychological and physiological wellness and offers protection against future upsets. Forgiveness training also leads individuals to become emotionally stronger , experience greater confidence, and be increasingly optimistic (Luskin, 2003).

Such findings were echoed in Luskin’s later work. As part of the Stanford University Forgiveness Project working with adults between 25 and 50 years of age, forgiveness training was also found to reduce stress and improve overall health.

More recently, as part of the Northern Ireland HOPE Project, Luskin worked with families whose loved ones were murdered during the political troubles of Northern Ireland.

One of the groups included women whose sons had been tragically killed, often shot for no other reason than their religious or political upbringing.

Understandably, these women – even years after their son’s death – were suffering extreme pain and anger and felt their healing had been largely ignored.

The forgiveness training offered by the team at Stanford had incredible, life-changing results.

On arrival, the women averaged a hurt score of 8.5 out of 10. By the time they left, their self-reported hurt had reduced to 3.5. Also, longer term, the women reported fewer feelings of depression and increased optimism.

While previously entirely consumed by anger, hurt, and grief, they left still mourning their loved ones but with a measure of forgiveness and the ability to cope.

If I develop bad feelings toward those who make me suffer, this will only destroy my own peace of mind. But if I forgive, my mind becomes calm.

The power of forgiveness, while at times painfully difficult, can be life changing and life affirming (McCullough, Root, Tabak, & Van Oyen Witvliet, 2020).

Increasing positive emotions while reducing negative ones, such as blame and anger, benefits our cardiovascular health and reduces ill health (Tennen & Affleck, 1990; Miller, Smith, Turner, Guijarro, & Hallet, 1996).

Forgiveness is essential for a fully functional society and has considerable personal benefits – increasing our potential for making connections with others and having a more positive, happier outlook on life.

Crucially, as we have already seen, forgiveness can be learned and used in many different contexts, including:

Children of neglectful parents
Older people experiencing lack of care
Women abused as children
People whose partners were unfaithful

One of the earliest studies focusing specifically on the link between forgiveness and health benefits found that even thinking about forgiving an offender improved people’s cardiovascular and nervous system (Van Oyen Witvliet, Ludwig, & Laan, 2001).

Furthermore, by mentally switching between thoughts of goodwill and holding a grudge, blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension increased, while feelings of control (linked to mental toughness) reduced.

Also, Luskin (2003) reported that the mental benefits of forgiveness training – including increased optimism, self-confidence, compassion, reduced stress, and spiritual inclinations – were still present six months after training.

Though the number of studies is small, there does not appear, medically speaking, to be a downside to forgiveness. Elsewhere, work is underway to manage stress responses in premenopausal women and lower blood pressure in cardiac patients.

It is clear from the ongoing research that forgiveness – of both day-to-day incidental issues and longer term grudges – offers prolonged physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.

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“ Forgiveness is perhaps the most challenging of all the resources available to us–and the most transformational ,” writes Shauna Shapiro in Rewire Your Mind: Discover the Science + Practice of Mindfulness (2020).

Forgiveness is not one skill but several, including acceptance, shifting perspectives, emotional regulation, compassion, and radical responsibility.

Finding the right balance helps you forgive not only those whom you have grievances against but also the daily annoyances we face. It can lead you to be more compassionate and satisfied, and feel your life is complete.

Shapiro addresses each of the skills in turn:

1. Acceptance

Acceptance is not about defeat or resignation; it is about accepting what has happened.

After all, while change is inevitable, suffering is the result of our resistance to it.

Acceptance shifts the balance. Your view of what is happening alters. You “ separate the pain that is inevitable from the suffering that is optional ” (Shapiro, 2020).

To forgive, you must accept the past. That is not to say you like it or that it was within your power to stop it, but it has happened – and cannot be undone.

2. Emotional regulation

Emotional regulation helps you manage your emotions and avoid “hijacking” your amygdala – the part of the brain responsible for initiating your fight or flight reaction .

Research has shown that you cannot suppress negative emotions. And indeed, if it appears you have (based on your behavior), your limbic system tells a different story and remains highly active.

Instead, it is better to become aware of your emotions, recognize and label them, and interrupt and calm your response.

“ I feel tense ,” “ My heart is beating so fast ,” or “ I am scared .”

Naming emotions provides space, and emotional regulation helps you identify and learn from your feelings. This is important for forgiveness , where you need to be aware of the hurt, anger, and grief you may be facing.

3. Shifting perspectives

Shifting perspectives can help you stand back and observe your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. You cease to be a slave to your selfish narrative.

An awareness of the sensation is very different from experiencing it and can provide the psychological distancing needed to move forward.

Observing anger is not the same as being angry.

Mindfulness practices can provide a practical path to shifting your perspective and seeing that your experiences do not define who you are.

4. Empathy and compassion

Empathy and compassion help you feel what another is experiencing and can be incredibly helpful on the path to forgiveness.

While empathy is powerful at understanding the pain of another, compassion encourages you to take action needed to reduce that suffering.

5. Radical responsibility

Radical responsibility requires being accountable for yourself, owning your actions, feelings, thoughts, and behavior.

Rather than reacting with fear, running away, or denying you have any power over what is happening, you must take action to avoid recurring, harmful behavior.

You must recognize behaviors that are unhealthy – without judgment – and take responsibility.

The process does not attempt to ignore suffering – your own or others – but instead strengthens your capacity to remove emotional barriers to finding happiness.

And forgiveness provides vital benefits to your mental and physical wellbeing, summarized as follows (Luskin, 2003):

A reduction in:

Cardiovascular disease

Increases and improvements in:

Self-confidence
Immune response

Forgiveness provides us with “ a powerful path to reduce our suffering and bring greater dignity and harmony to our life ,” writes Shapiro (2020).

Recently research has begun to uncover the links between “ emotional stability, agreeableness, a focus on others, and religious commitment” (McCullough et al., 2020). If associated with an apology, signs of remorse, and restitution, forgiveness can be adopted more easily and provide effective relief from hurt.

Self-Compassion, a widely discussed topic in positive psychology, is one of several skills needed for forgiveness.

To better understand this concept, let’s explore the definition provided by Dr. Kristin Neff, a renowned expert in the field. Dr. Neff identifies three key elements that comprise self-compassion:

Self-Kindness versus Self-Judgment: Self-kindness refers to the inclination to treat oneself with care and understanding instead of engaging in self-criticism. Rather than attacking and berating oneself for perceived flaws or shortcomings, self-compassion offers warmth and unconditional acceptance.
Common Humanity versus Isolation : Recognizing our common humanity involves acknowledging that all individuals are imperfect and prone to failure, mistakes, and significant life challenges. It’s an understanding that these adversities are not unique to oneself but are experiences shared by all.
Mindfulness versus Over-Identification : Mindfulness entails being aware of one’s painful experiences in a manner that neither disregards nor amplifies distressing thoughts and emotions. It involves cultivating an awareness of personal suffering without becoming overly identified or consumed by it. This mindful approach is essential for extending compassion towards oneself.

Simply put, self-compassion includes being kind and understanding towards oneself, recognizing our shared human experiences, and maintaining a mindful awareness of personal suffering without becoming overwhelmed by it.

what is a good thesis statement for forgiveness

Forgiveness is most successful when you know how you feel and what was wrong about what happened, and you can share your experiences with a couple of trusted people (Luskin, 2003).

To begin forgiveness, you need to take responsibility for how you feel. That is not to say that you must like what has happened, and it is certainly not the case that what took place was your fault.

Instead, you can regain control of how you react, in terms of your emotions and behavior.

This is your life, and that should not be taken away from you.

Luskin uses a three-step process to take responsibility for feeling by learning how to relax and use good feelings to focus on the positive (modified from Luskin, 2003):

Step one – Dust off your remote control

Try to remember that pain is an integral part of life and that you can still appreciate the good while hurting.

While we typically overly focus on what is wrong in our lives, there is much for which we should be grateful.

A rude comment by someone in a store should not outweigh the beauty of a sunrise or the joy in seeing our child doing something new.

Luskin uses the TV remote as a metaphor for choosing the channel we watch on a day to day basis. Rather than remain on the grievance channel, we must regularly tune in to what is right in our lives: love, beauty, and forgiveness.

A sample of practical actions to help include (modified from Luskin, 2003):

At a supermarket, be thankful for the fantastic food available.
At a hospital, appreciate your health.
Recognize and thank the salesperson in a store.
Appreciate the beauty of the clouds when you are stuck in traffic.
Step into nature and be overwhelmed by its wonder.
Listen to stories of people who have forgiven others.
Practice forgiving the small upsets you carry on a day-to-day basis.
Forgive those you love and recognize how easy it is.
Observe love in families and friends.

Step two – Practice the “breath of thanks”

Allocate time daily to the breath of thanks:

Stop, sit, and focus on your breathing (our Anchor Breathing worksheet can offer a useful introduction).
Recognize your breath – each inhalation and exhalation.
Breathe slowly and deeply for three to five breaths.
For each of the next five breaths, silently say the words thank you while registering how lucky you are to be alive.
Gently return to normal breathing before returning to your earlier activities.

Step three – Practice the “heart focus”

Repeat the heart focus practice three or more times a week:

As above, draw your attention to your breathing.
Focus on a time when you experienced intense feelings of love or a peaceful scene, perhaps beside the sea or in a forest.
Re-experience these feelings deeply.
When you drift away from them, gently return.
Maintain for up to 15 minutes.

Positive Emotion Refocusing Technique

While the three-step process is incredibly powerful for focusing on what is positive and avoiding long-term pain and upset, when a painful experience hits us, we need something more immediate.

The Positive Emotion Refocusing Technique (PERT) can help (modified from Luskin, 2003).

PERT can be performed in less than a minute and can discreetly return you to a state of calm, restore control, and prepare you to make useful decisions:

Find a comfortable place to sit and attend to each inhalation and exhalation.
On the third breath, focus on someone you love.
Breathe gently, maintain focus, experiencing the emotions deeply.
Ask yourself what you can do to overcome the present difficulty.

Use the above practices for both ongoing emotional maintenance and emergencies.

For further reading, we have a blog post dedicated to forgiveness exercises .

17 Exercises To Develop Emotional Intelligence

These 17 Emotional Intelligence Exercises [PDF] will help others strengthen their relationships, lower stress, and enhance their wellbeing through improved EQ.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

1. Forgive for Good

Author: Frederic Luskin

This book provides an incredible insight into both the science and practice of forgiveness, reminding us of our good fortune while tackling issues from the past.

Available on Amazon .

2. Rewire Your Mind: Discover the Science + Practice of Mindfulness

Author: Shauna Shapiro

An authoritative and enjoyable guide to using mindfulness to regain control over our life and rewire our brain for positivity.

3. The Art of Forgiveness, Loving Kindness, and Peace

Author: Jack Kornfield

Showing that peace is in every situation we face in life.

4. What Doesn’t Kill Us: A Guide to Overcoming Adversity and Moving Forward

Author: Stephen Joseph

Working with survivors of trauma, Joseph explores how growth can rise out of the most challenging situations.

There are 86,400 seconds in a day. How do you spend them?

For many of us, we choose to focus on the wrongs done to us. A peer doesn’t listen to us in a meeting; a sibling takes something without asking; a waiter ignores us while on their phone.

These grievances are small, and yet we devote an excessive amount of time to them.

But what if we forgave those who upset us?

Perhaps we could redress the imbalance in our lives, focusing on a world full of beauty, kindness, and love, instead of anger, annoyance, and even hate.

And what of those incidents that are much bigger? A partner cheats on us, a drunk driver injures a loved one, or a father murders a mother.

Research suggests that while immeasurably more painful, the process is the same. Forgiveness ultimately frees us from a pain that we hold so close that it damages our physical and mental wellbeing, along with our happiness.

Work through some of the tools provided, seek appropriate support where needed, and take back control of your life. Check out some of the stories on The Forgiveness Project; recognize and embrace the strength of others to do what we find difficult to do ourselves: forgive.

While bad things cannot always be stopped, you can choose how you respond and how they shape your life.

If you wish to learn more, our Emotional Intelligence Masterclass© is a 6-module emotional intelligence training package for practitioners which contains all the materials you’ll need to become an emotional intelligence expert, helping your clients harness their emotions and cultivate emotional connection in their lives.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Emotional Intelligence Exercises for free .

Joseph, S. (2013). What doesn’t kill us: A guide to overcoming adversity and moving forward . London, UK: Piatkus.
Kornfield, J. (2008). The art of forgiveness, lovingkindness and peace, Illustrated ed. New York, NY: Bantam.
Luskin, F. (2003). Forgive for good . New York, NY: HarperOne.
McCullough, M. E., Root, L. M., Tabak, B. A., & Van Oyen Witvliet, C. (2020). Forgiveness. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of positive psychology (pp. 427–435). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Miller, T. Q., Smith, T. W., Turner, C. W., Guijarro, M. L., & Hallet, A. J. (1996). A meta-analytic review of research on hostility and physical health. Psychological Bulletin , 119 (2), 322–348.
Shapiro, S. L. (2020). Rewire your mind: Discover the science + practice of mindfulness . London, UK: Aster.
Tennen, H., & Affleck, G. (1990). Blaming others for threatening events. Psychological Bulletin , 108 (2), 209–232.
Van Oyen Witvliet, C., Ludwig, T. E., & Laan, K. L. (2001). Granting forgiveness or harboring grudges: Implications for emotion, physiology, and health. Psychological Science , 12 (2), 117–123.

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This is such an important subject – for all types of situations where forgiveness may be necessary for a person to resolve emotions and move on. I was in a situation at work, where I was extremely angry with one of my colleagues. To the extent that I didn’t even want to work with the person anymore. It was getting to a “them or me” situation in my head. A friend recommended Colin Tipping’s book Radical Forgiveness with a caveat as his perspective is not for everyone. In my own experience, I could only relate to about half of what he says and from a metaphorical sense only. What “tipped” me into forgiveness was the thought experiment that what if this other person and I knew each other from some other plane of existence and we made a deal to help each other grow? We then set out to challenge each other emotionally through our actions, words etc. The other person gets to us because we have willingly and purposefully given them the “keys to our soul” and they are acting out of a profound sense of love toward us to help us control our reactions to challenges we come up against in the world. It was was the most bizarre transformation for me. Almost immediately, the anger toward this other person evaporated and I could see them as someone with feelings, insecurities and sensitivities of their own. I felt ashamed for denying the “gift” they were trying to give me. It has been over a year now and the feelings have not returned even though the other person has not changed. I have changed and I thank them for their help. Look forward to reading more on this subject at Positive Psychology.

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The Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research

Forgiveness

The science of forgiveness and why it's good for you, a body of research demonstrates that forgiving someone promotes mental health..

Posted May 1, 2023 | Reviewed by Davia Sills

The Importance of Forgiveness
Find a therapist near me
A systematic review finds that interventions that promote forgiveness can improve mental health.
Some people learn how to forgive in therapy, but others can cultivate forgiveness on their own using evidence-based exercises.

Unfortunately, injustice and wrongdoing are part of everyday life. Whether you experience someone cutting to the front of the line at the grocery store or you are the victim of a serious crime , transgression is a part of the human experience.

While it’s natural to get upset when something unfair happens, a growing body of research demonstrates that how we react to injustices affects our overall well-being. Psychologists have shown that holding onto wrongdoing and reliving angry feelings perpetuates negative thoughts and emotions, which ultimately contributes to poor mental health and harms your overall well-being.

Researchers have come up with all sorts of ways to promote forgiveness , primarily through interventions designed to be delivered during counseling sessions.

One systematic review collected data from 15 randomized, controlled studies that measured the effectiveness of these interventions. The analysis found that forgiveness interventions reduce levels of depression , anger , and hostility, along with improving mood and stress levels.

But you don’t need a therapy appointment to start working on forgiveness. A leading forgiveness researcher—psychology professor Everett Worthington—has created self-directed forgiveness interventions designed to help anyone explore their feelings and learn forgiveness.

Worthington's most recent workbook includes exercises that take about two hours to complete. The program is called REACH, and involves the following five stages:

Recall the hurt by remembering what happened to you and deciding that you want to forgive.
Empathize with the offender. Try to understand what the offender may have been thinking or feeling.
Give the altruistic gift of forgiveness. It may be helpful to remember a time that you hurt someone else who forgave you. Offer this same gift to the person who wronged you.
Commit publicly to forgiveness. This could mean writing a note to yourself or the person who wronged you, telling a trusted friend, or talking to the person who wronged you.
Hold onto the forgiveness. You will doubtless remember the injustice and your angry feelings. Remind yourself that you have made a choice to forgive.

Worthington has studied this program across the globe. His most recent study used the two-hour-long workbook to teach forgiveness to more than 7,000 participants in five countries. The study found that the workbook promoted forgiveness and improved symptoms of depression and anxiety among participants compared to those who didn’t complete the workbook.

The take-home message: Forgiveness is not simply a nice thing to do. Learning how to forgive people for transgressions—both large and small—is proven to help improve your mental health and overall well-being.

The Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research at Cornell University is focused on using research findings to improve health and well-being of people at all stages of life.

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The Ethics of Forgiveness: A Collection of Essays

Christel Fricke (ed.), The Ethics of Forgiveness: A Collection of Essays , Routledge, 2011, 212pp., $125.00 (hbk), ISBN 9780415885430.

Reviewed by Linda Radzik, Texas A&M University

Christel Fricke's rich collection of essays arose from a conference held in Oslo in 2008 on Charles L. Griswold's 2007 book Forgiveness . However, very little of the text is spent critiquing Griswold's work. Instead, Fricke's authors use Griswold's text as a map that points to areas worthy of further exploration. Like Griswold, most of these writers resist the temptation to develop simple, unified accounts of forgiveness and instead dedicate themselves to plotting the complexities of human interaction in the aftermath of wrongdoing. The examples the authors use along the way range from subtle, personal failings to large-scale atrocities. While most of the contributions are works in moral theory, the volume also represents other disciplinary approaches to issues of forgiveness, including literary criticism and linguistics. The result is a satisfyingly diverse range of perspectives on the nature, justification and limits of forgiveness.

Part I includes a pair of essays dedicated to the interpretation of particular, historical traditions of forgiveness. In "Forgiveness and Forbearance in Ancient China," Christoph Harbsmeier surveys the language of forgiveness in Chinese, arguing that, "for a Chinese person to forgive, is always to forgive 'in terms of' one of the concepts outlined" (21). Harbsmeier goes on to present twenty-nine different terms in ancient and modern Chinese related to "forgiveness." To me, their differences were not as remarkable as their similarity. All seemed to portray forgiveness as a matter of letting the wrongdoer off, in some way, from the possible consequences of wrongdoing. Shù , which Harbsmeier suggests as the best translation for 'forgiveness,' involves a general sort of empathetic forbearance.

So far, the virtue of shù will seem familiar enough to contemporary Westerners. But Harbsmeier emphasizes that it must be understood in a hierarchically structured culture, where, he tells us, "egalitarianism is not in any way envisaged or aspired to at any level, practical or psychological" (13). Shù is something one shows to people below oneself on the social scale. What one owes to people above oneself is, in contrast, zhong , "doing one's moral best" (22). When those above oneself commit wrongs, then, the question of forgiveness does not really arise. Instead the question for the underling is how to continue to do his duty to his superior in this new context. Harbsmeier's analysis helps explain, for example, why in China the question "whether they forgive or do not forgive Deng Xiaoping [for the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989] has become purely academic (i.e., quite irrelevant)" (14).

Ilaria E. Ramelli's contribution on forgiveness in Christian thought argues that what is almost invariably labeled as "the Christian view" is historically inaccurate. It is commonplace for contemporary writers on the ethics of forgiveness to assert that Christianity requires its followers to forgive wrongs unconditionally , that is, to forgive whether or not their abusers have met any conditions, such as apologizing, repenting or making amends. Ramelli painstakingly reviews an impressive range of ancient sources to show that, throughout the early history of Christianity, forgiveness was always predicated on repentance. Her argument is so convincing that I was left wondering how it has come to be that most contemporary writers -- and, I would add, all my students who self-identify as Christians -- have come to see a commitment to unconditional forgiveness as central to Christianity.

Part II on "Forgiveness and Selfhood" begins with Fricke's contribution, "What We Cannot Do to Each Other: On Forgiveness and Moral Vulnerability." Fricke provides an admirable description of the normative terrain of forgiveness and specifically the interconnections between moral and social norms. Fricke anchors her discussion of forgiveness in a social, relational understanding of the nature and consequences of moral wrongdoing. Wrongdoing damages the trust that normally marks relations among victims, wrongdoers and their communities; forgiveness is one way of repairing that damage.

Fricke goes on to emphasize that, as complex selves, we relate to one another, not just as moral agents, but also as friends, partners and neighbors. This leads her to distinguish between personal forgiveness, in which personal relationships such as friendships are repaired, and moral forgiveness, in which victims come to once again see their abusers as having intrinsic moral value as human beings. She argues plausibly that one may morally forgive a wrongdoer without personally forgiving. I was less convinced by her claim that "personal forgiveness always implies moral forgiveness" because "any close personal relationship includes mutual respect of moral value or dignity" (63). Might not someone who does not value humanity as such (say, a mafia hitman) value his personal relationships (with other mafiosos)? This combination of attitudes may not be able to be held in a fully, rationally consistent way, but it seems psychologically possible. The last portion of the essay poses the question of whether wrongdoers can deserve forgiveness and victims can be morally required to forgive in either of the two senses of forgiveness; however, Fricke provides no clear answers to those questions.

The next pair of articles pursues Griswold's claim that forgiveness requires a narration of the past, one which will both acknowledge its wrongful character yet allow for the forgiver to overcome her negative attitudes toward the wrongdoer. Garry L. Hagberg and Peter Goldie each ask how this might work in cases of self-forgiveness. Both worry whether "in self-forgiveness there is not the possibility of a narrative accounting from an appropriate distanced perspective" (Goldie, 83-4). In "Self-Forgiveness and the Narrative Sense of Self," Goldie suggests that such distancing is enabled by the wrongdoer's ability to think about herself in a way that is "essentially ironic" and involves seeing one's past, wrongdoing self as, in a sense, another person (87):

This opens up the epistemic and evaluative ironic gap that is at the heart of the notion of narrative: an epistemic gap because one now knows what one did not know then; and an evaluative gap because one can now take an evaluative stance which differs from the stance that one took then (87).

Hagberg, in "Forgiveness and the Constitution of Selfhood," rejects this dyadic view of the self as phenomenologically inaccurate. Instead, he believes that self-forgiveness is enabled by "one identity seeing bi-focally, not two persons gazing from a distance upon each other" (75). Hagberg draws on literary concepts to explain his view, comparing self-forgiveness to the experience of reading fiction, wherein "we simultaneously identify with a character in fiction but also stand apart from that narratively-entwined persona" (75). For Hagberg, this narrative process is not performed by a later self that is independently distinguishable from the wrongdoing self, but is instead what constitutes the new, forgivable self. Both Goldie's and Hagberg's essays provide satisfyingly complex examples of processes of self-forgiveness. Goldie's essay is also notable for its discussion of the odd case of self-pardoning, in which one regards one's own action as involuntary on the grounds that the circumstances overstrained one's nature without actually undermining one's freedom.

Part III includes six essays that address the limits of forgiveness, that is, a variety of possible restrictions on the possibility or permissibility of forgiveness. For example, almost all theorists of forgiveness claim that forgiveness is not possible where there is no wrong. But in "Forgiveness Without Blame," Espen Gamlund defends the position that forgiveness can occur even when harm-causing is not blameworthy but rather excused or justified. Cases of agent-regret (such as the regret felt by an unlucky driver who faultlessly kills a child), disagreements over culpability between the harmed and the harm-causer, and moral dilemmas all present disruptions to peace of mind and social relations that can be solved by the sorts of interactions and changes in view that we associate with forgiveness and self-forgiveness. While critics may insist that forgiveness requires culpability by definition, Gamlund's discussion will lead many readers to find such a stipulation unsatisfying.

A major debate in the literature on forgiveness is whether forgiveness is "conditional," meaning that forgiveness is only appropriate in cases where the wrongdoer has met some sort of requirement, such as repentance or moral improvement. Jerome Neu's essay, "On Loving Our Enemies," defends the conditional view. Drawing on work by Jeffrie Murphy, Neu argues that resentment is a morally appropriate reaction to being victimized that can be set aside only for a moral reason. Also working within a conditional framework, Arne Johan Vetlesen asks whether there are cases where no moral reason could justify forgiveness and where forgiveness is, therefore, wrong. In this rather unwieldy essay, Vetlesen emphasizes the relevance of the characteristics of the wrongful acts themselves, rather than the characteristics of the agents who perform the acts, claiming that "some acts are worse, morally speaking, than any individual agent" (161).

Eve Garrard and David McNaughton, in contrast to Neu and Vetlesen, defend the position that forgiveness is unconditional by addressing objections posed by Griswold and others. The authors argue that some critics of unconditional forgiveness conflate two senses in which forgiveness can be unconditional: "(1) forgiving no matter what condition the wrongdoer is in; and (2) forgiving no matter what the reason for doing so is" (102). While defending the view that "there is sufficient reason to forgive a wrongdoer whatever his state of mind" (97), Garrard and McNaughton go on to identify reasons for extending such unmerited forgiveness. While the points made in favor of unconditional forgiveness are perhaps not novel, the skill with which the issues are explained and defended makes this essay a good candidate for course syllabuses on forgiveness.

Geoffrey Scarre strays slightly from the theme of forgiveness to look at issues of apology. In "Apologising for Historic Injustices," Scarre dives into the controversy surrounding Australia's official apology to the "Stolen Generations," which addressed the century-long practice of removing aboriginal children from their parents' care, a practice that ended only in the late 1960s or early 1970s. In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered an official apology for this history, which was met with general approval from both the aboriginal and settler populations. Scarre argues that the apology was not appropriate because the people doing the apologizing did not have "ownership" of the wrongful deeds. While he defends the legitimacy of "insider-regret," a particular form of negative reactive attitude towards one's group's historical injustices, Scarre denies that this attitude can ground the practice of apology. Debates about the nature of collective responsibility are well established in the literature and are not much advanced by the arguments to be found here. However, Scarre's essay does provide opportunity for reflection on the nature and functions of apology. Scarre's clear and straightforward account of when an apology can be given and what functions it can perform is quite narrow and so leaves the reader reflecting on what a broader concept of apology might look like.

Finally, literary scholar Jakob Lothe provides a reading of W. G. Sebald's novel Austerlitz . Sebald was a writer who was born in Germany in 1944 but who lived most of his adult life in England. His fiction and non-fiction writings have become important to current discussions of how German identity has been shaped by the memory of World War II and the Holocaust. The narrator of the novel, who, like Sebald, is a German exile of the immediate postwar generation, develops an unusual friendship with a Jewish man who survived the Holocaust as a child and is now attempting to recover the story of his parents' lives and deaths in the camps. Lothe argues that Sebald's narrative techniques reveal that the main theme of the novel is forgiveness. This claim remains puzzling for much of the essay, but by the end it becomes clear that Lothe's theme is not 'what is involved in granting forgiveness,' but instead 'what it is like to feel the need to be forgiven for the injustices of previous generations.' As such, the essay is fruitfully paired with Scarre's contribution.

Griswold, C. L., Forgiveness: A Philosophical Exploration , Cambridge University Press, (2007).

Murphy, J. G. and J. Hampton (eds.), Forgiveness and Mercy , Cambridge University Pres, (1988).

Murphy, J. G., Getting Even , Oxford University Press, (2003).

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How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

Published on January 11, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on August 15, 2023 by Eoghan Ryan.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . It usually comes near the end of your introduction .

Your thesis will look a bit different depending on the type of essay you’re writing. But the thesis statement should always clearly state the main idea you want to get across. Everything else in your essay should relate back to this idea.

You can write your thesis statement by following four simple steps:

Start with a question
Write your initial answer
Develop your answer
Refine your thesis statement

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What is a thesis statement, placement of the thesis statement, step 1: start with a question, step 2: write your initial answer, step 3: develop your answer, step 4: refine your thesis statement, types of thesis statements, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about thesis statements.

A thesis statement summarizes the central points of your essay. It is a signpost telling the reader what the essay will argue and why.

The best thesis statements are:

Concise: A good thesis statement is short and sweet—don’t use more words than necessary. State your point clearly and directly in one or two sentences.
Contentious: Your thesis shouldn’t be a simple statement of fact that everyone already knows. A good thesis statement is a claim that requires further evidence or analysis to back it up.
Coherent: Everything mentioned in your thesis statement must be supported and explained in the rest of your paper.

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The thesis statement generally appears at the end of your essay introduction or research paper introduction .

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts and among young people more generally is hotly debated. For many who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education: the internet facilitates easier access to information, exposure to different perspectives, and a flexible learning environment for both students and teachers.

You should come up with an initial thesis, sometimes called a working thesis , early in the writing process . As soon as you’ve decided on your essay topic , you need to work out what you want to say about it—a clear thesis will give your essay direction and structure.

You might already have a question in your assignment, but if not, try to come up with your own. What would you like to find out or decide about your topic?

For example, you might ask:

After some initial research, you can formulate a tentative answer to this question. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process .

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Now you need to consider why this is your answer and how you will convince your reader to agree with you. As you read more about your topic and begin writing, your answer should get more detailed.

In your essay about the internet and education, the thesis states your position and sketches out the key arguments you’ll use to support it.

The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education because it facilitates easier access to information.

In your essay about braille, the thesis statement summarizes the key historical development that you’ll explain.

The invention of braille in the 19th century transformed the lives of blind people, allowing them to participate more actively in public life.

A strong thesis statement should tell the reader:

Why you hold this position
What they’ll learn from your essay
The key points of your argument or narrative

The final thesis statement doesn’t just state your position, but summarizes your overall argument or the entire topic you’re going to explain. To strengthen a weak thesis statement, it can help to consider the broader context of your topic.

These examples are more specific and show that you’ll explore your topic in depth.

Your thesis statement should match the goals of your essay, which vary depending on the type of essay you’re writing:

In an argumentative essay , your thesis statement should take a strong position. Your aim in the essay is to convince your reader of this thesis based on evidence and logical reasoning.
In an expository essay , you’ll aim to explain the facts of a topic or process. Your thesis statement doesn’t have to include a strong opinion in this case, but it should clearly state the central point you want to make, and mention the key elements you’ll explain.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

It gives your writing direction and focus.
It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

Follow these four steps to come up with a thesis statement :

Ask a question about your topic .
Write your initial answer.
Develop your answer by including reasons.
Refine your answer, adding more detail and nuance.

The thesis statement should be placed at the end of your essay introduction .

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Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

What is Forgiveness?

This month, Greater Good features videos of a presentation by Fred Luskin, a pioneer in the science and practice of forgiveness. In his talk, Luskin discusses why forgiveness can be so hard to practice and explains his research-tested “ nine steps to forgiveness ” that have helped thousands of people worldwide give up their grudges, from Northern Ireland to Sierra Leone to communities across the U.S. Here, he sheds light on what it takes to be ready to forgive.

I’ve been teaching forgiveness for more than a decade, and the simple definition of forgiveness that I work with now is that it’s the ability to make peace with the word “no.”

People have come to me with a whole host of problems, and the essence of all of them is: I didn’t get something I wanted. I got “no.” I wanted my partner to be faithful; they weren’t faithful. I got “no.” I wanted somebody to tell the truth; they told a lie. I got “no.” I wanted to be loved as a child; I wasn‘t loved in a way that I felt good about. I got “no.”

It’s so important to be able to understand the universal experience of this—of objecting to the way life is and trying to substitute the way you want it to be, then getting upset when your substitution doesn’t take.

The essence of forgiveness is being resilient when things don’t go the way you want—to be at peace with “no,” be at peace with what is, be at peace with the vulnerability inherent in human life. Then you have to move forward and live your life without prejudice.

It’s the absence of prejudice that informs forgiveness. You realize that nobody owes you, that you don’t have to take the hurt you suffered and pay it forward to someone else. Just because your last partner was unkind to you doesn’t mean you always have to give your new partner the third degree. With an open heart, you move forward and accept what is, without prejudice.

You don’t just accept it because life sucks and there’s nothing you can do about it—though that may be true—but you accept it in a way that leaves you willing to give the next moment a chance.

The resolution of grief But before you can forgive, you have to grieve.

At the most basic level, forgiveness is on a continuum with grief. The way I understand it now is that when you’re offended or hurt or violated, the natural response is to grieve. All of those problems can be seen as a loss—whether we lose affection or a human being or a dream—and when we lose something, human beings have a natural reintegration process, which we call grief. Then forgiveness is the resolution of grief.

But the challenges we have with grief are twofold: Some people never grieve, and some people grieve for too long.

A deep human being feels pain and allows oneself to suffer because that’s part of the human experience. Without acknowledging that you’ve been wounded and you’ve lost something, you don’t gain the benefit of the experience—of acknowledging that you’ve been hurt and mistreated, but also of healing. And so there is a power that comes from the experience.

But a deep human being also lets go of their suffering—they don’t maintain it forever, don’t create their personality around it, and don’t use it as a weapon. You don’t cling to the negative part of the experience so that you can have something to hold accountable for your failures.

In my experience, I’ve identified three steps of grief that are essential before someone can start to forgive.

Steps to forgiveness The first step is to fully acknowledge the harm done, whether by you or somebody else, and to own the fact that you’ve lost something—that you didn’t get something you wanted, and it hurts. In a therapeutic context, that could be painful work. Sometimes its take therapeutic work before somebody’s ready to forgive because they’ve suppressed a bad experience or been in denial about it, and it may take effort to get them to acknowledge the harm or its consequences.

More on Forgiveness

Watch the video of Fred Luskin's Greater Good talk on forgiveness

Read more about Fred Luskin's pioneering work on forgiveness, including his research-tested Nine Steps to Forgiveness

The second step of the grief process is to experience the feelings normally associated with the negative experience. It’s not enough just to have someone say, “Hey, I was beaten for 12 years and I want to get over it” if they’ve never been miserable about their suffering. They’re going to have to be miserable before they let it go. I’ve never met anyone who suffered real loss and didn’t suffer at some level. You experience a range of emotions—you’re sad, you’re scared. But when you forgive, you understand that there are other options besides continued suffering. You’re not letting go of the event—that’s immutable. But you can transform the emotional response to it.

The third and final step is that what you’re grieving can’t be a secret. I try not to let people forgive stuff that they haven’t shared with others because there’s such good research on resilience showing that people who go through harmful experiences and don’t tell anybody have much worse consequences than people who do tell others. The human connection is central to healing.

That said, the people who tell everybody about their grievance have the second worst outcomes. The resilience research shows that what you need for a healthy response to difficulty is to share your problem with a few select, caring people over time. You don’t spill your guts to everybody, and you don’t spill your guts to nobody. For people who don’t have trusted confidants, I have suggested that they go to a therapist or enroll in a 12-step program—something to make sure they’re not holding any shame.

If you proceed through these steps, you can reach a point with your grief where you’re ready to forgive. But it takes time. I once had a woman come into a workshop of mine, very early in my experience teaching forgiveness, and say, “I need to forgive the fact that somebody murdered my son.” I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t done work with families of murder victims yet, and so the only thing I could ask was, “When did it happen?” And she replied, “A month ago.” I said, “Go home. This is not what you need now. Come back in two years. Come back after you’ve done the unimaginably hard work of grieving that loss, then forgive it.”

About the Author

Fred Luskin

Fred Luskin, Ph.D. , is the director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects, a senior consultant in health promotion at Stanford University, and a professor at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, as well as an affiliate faculty member of the Greater Good Science Center. He is the author of Forgive for Good: A Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness (HarperSanFrancisco, 2001) and Stress Free for Good: Ten Proven Life Skills for Health and Happiness (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), with Kenneth Pelletier, Ph.D.

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komanwel | 12:22 am, September 3, 2010 | Link

Once my friend stole my mac disk recovery tool and I must admit it was not easy to forgive!

Time changes everything. But still there are and there would be people who can never forgive

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Always be true to your self

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9:30am Contemporary Service 11:00am Traditional Service

Essay on Forgiveness by C.S. Lewis

By Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc. N.Y. 1960

We say a great many things in church (and out of church too) without thinking of what we are saying. For instance, we say in the Creed " I believe in the forgiveness of sins." I had been saying it for several years before I asked myself why it was in the Creed. At first sight it seems hardly worth putting in. "If one is a Christian," I thought " of course one believes in the forgiveness of sins. It goes without saying." But the people who compiled the Creed apparently thought that this was a part of our belief which we needed to be reminded of every time we went to church. And I have begun to see that, as far as I am concerned, they were right. To believe in the forgiveness of sins is not so easy as I thought. Real belief in it is the sort of thing that easily slips away if we don't keep on polishing it up.

We believe that God forgives us our sins; but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the second part of this statement. It is in the Lord's Prayer, it was emphatically stated by our Lord. If you don't forgive you will not be forgiven. No exceptions to it. He doesn't say that we are to forgive other people's sins, provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are extenuating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don't we shall be forgiven none of our own.

Now it seems to me that we often make a mistake both about God's forgiveness of our sins and about the forgiveness we are told to offer to other people's sins. Take it first about God's forgiveness, I find that when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality (unless I watch myself very carefully) asking Him to do something quite different. I am asking him not to forgive me but to excuse me. But there is all the difference in the world between forgiving and excusing. Forgiveness says, "Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology; I will never hold it against you and everything between us two will be exactly as it was before." If one was not really to blame then there is nothing to forgive. In that sense forgiveness and excusing are almost opposites. Of course, in dozens of cases, either between God and man, or between one man and another, there may be a mixture of the two. Part of what at first seemed to be the sins turns out to be really nobody's fault and is excused; the bit that is left over is forgiven. If you had a perfect excuse, you would not need forgiveness; if the whole of your actions needs forgiveness, then there was no excuse for it. But the trouble is that what we call "asking God's forgiveness" very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses. What leads us into this mistake is the fact that there usually is some amount of excuse, some "extenuating circumstances." We are so very anxious to point these things out to God (and to ourselves) that we are apt to forget the very important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit which excuses don't cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable. And if we forget this, we shall go away imagining that we have repented and been forgiven when all that has really happened is that we have satisfied ourselves without own excuses. They may be very bad excuses; we are all too easily satisfied about ourselves.

There are two remedies for this danger. One is to remember that God knows all the real excuses very much better than we do. If there are real "extenuating circumstances" there is no fear that He will overlook them. Often He must know many excuses that we have never even thought of, and therefore humble souls will, after death, have the delightful surprise of discovering that on certain occasions they sinned much less than they thought. All the real excusing He will do. What we have got to take to Him is the inexcusable bit, the sin. We are only wasting our time talking about all the parts which can (we think) be excused. When you go to a Dr. you show him the bit of you that is wrong - say, a broken arm. It would be a mere waste of time to keep on explaining that your legs and throat and eyes are all right. You may be mistaken in thinking so, and anyway, if they are really right, the doctor will know that.

The second remedy is really and truly to believe in the forgiveness of sins. A great deal of our anxiety to make excuses comes from not really believing in it, from thinking that God will not take us to Himself again unless He is satisfied that some sort of case can be made out in our favor. But that is not forgiveness at all. Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in all its horror, dirt, meanness, and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it.

When it comes to a question of our forgiving other people, it is partly the same and partly different. It is the same because, here also forgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. (This doesn't mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart - every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God's forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily, in other people's we do not accept them easily enough. As regards my own sins it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are not really so good as I think; as regards other men's sins against me it is a safe bet (though not a certainty) that the excuses are better than I think. One must therefore begin by attending to everything which may show that the other man was not so much to blame as we thought. But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine per cent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one per cent of guilt that is left over. To excuse, what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

This is hard. It is perhaps not so hard to forgive a single great injury. But to forgive the incessant provocations of daily life - to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son - How can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night "Forgive our trespasses * as we forgive those that trespass against us." We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God's mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what He says.

*Trespasses=offences, being offended or offending. (Notes are not authored to Mr. Lewis.)

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How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement: 4 Steps + Examples

What’s Covered:

What is the purpose of a thesis statement, writing a good thesis statement: 4 steps, common pitfalls to avoid, where to get your essay edited for free.

When you set out to write an essay, there has to be some kind of point to it, right? Otherwise, your essay would just be a big jumble of word salad that makes absolutely no sense. An essay needs a central point that ties into everything else. That main point is called a thesis statement, and it’s the core of any essay or research paper.

You may hear about Master degree candidates writing a thesis, and that is an entire paper–not to be confused with the thesis statement, which is typically one sentence that contains your paper’s focus.

Read on to learn more about thesis statements and how to write them. We’ve also included some solid examples for you to reference.

Typically the last sentence of your introductory paragraph, the thesis statement serves as the roadmap for your essay. When your reader gets to the thesis statement, they should have a clear outline of your main point, as well as the information you’ll be presenting in order to either prove or support your point.

The thesis statement should not be confused for a topic sentence , which is the first sentence of every paragraph in your essay. If you need help writing topic sentences, numerous resources are available. Topic sentences should go along with your thesis statement, though.

Since the thesis statement is the most important sentence of your entire essay or paper, it’s imperative that you get this part right. Otherwise, your paper will not have a good flow and will seem disjointed. That’s why it’s vital not to rush through developing one. It’s a methodical process with steps that you need to follow in order to create the best thesis statement possible.

Step 1: Decide what kind of paper you’re writing

When you’re assigned an essay, there are several different types you may get. Argumentative essays are designed to get the reader to agree with you on a topic. Informative or expository essays present information to the reader. Analytical essays offer up a point and then expand on it by analyzing relevant information. Thesis statements can look and sound different based on the type of paper you’re writing. For example:

Argumentative: The United States needs a viable third political party to decrease bipartisanship, increase options, and help reduce corruption in government.
Informative: The Libertarian party has thrown off elections before by gaining enough support in states to get on the ballot and by taking away crucial votes from candidates.
Analytical: An analysis of past presidential elections shows that while third party votes may have been the minority, they did affect the outcome of the elections in 2020, 2016, and beyond.

Step 2: Figure out what point you want to make

Once you know what type of paper you’re writing, you then need to figure out the point you want to make with your thesis statement, and subsequently, your paper. In other words, you need to decide to answer a question about something, such as:

What impact did reality TV have on American society?
How has the musical Hamilton affected perception of American history?
Why do I want to major in [chosen major here]?

If you have an argumentative essay, then you will be writing about an opinion. To make it easier, you may want to choose an opinion that you feel passionate about so that you’re writing about something that interests you. For example, if you have an interest in preserving the environment, you may want to choose a topic that relates to that.

If you’re writing your college essay and they ask why you want to attend that school, you may want to have a main point and back it up with information, something along the lines of:

“Attending Harvard University would benefit me both academically and professionally, as it would give me a strong knowledge base upon which to build my career, develop my network, and hopefully give me an advantage in my chosen field.”

Step 3: Determine what information you’ll use to back up your point

Once you have the point you want to make, you need to figure out how you plan to back it up throughout the rest of your essay. Without this information, it will be hard to either prove or argue the main point of your thesis statement. If you decide to write about the Hamilton example, you may decide to address any falsehoods that the writer put into the musical, such as:

“The musical Hamilton, while accurate in many ways, leaves out key parts of American history, presents a nationalist view of founding fathers, and downplays the racism of the times.”

Once you’ve written your initial working thesis statement, you’ll then need to get information to back that up. For example, the musical completely leaves out Benjamin Franklin, portrays the founding fathers in a nationalist way that is too complimentary, and shows Hamilton as a staunch abolitionist despite the fact that his family likely did own slaves.

Step 4: Revise and refine your thesis statement before you start writing

Read through your thesis statement several times before you begin to compose your full essay. You need to make sure the statement is ironclad, since it is the foundation of the entire paper. Edit it or have a peer review it for you to make sure everything makes sense and that you feel like you can truly write a paper on the topic. Once you’ve done that, you can then begin writing your paper.

When writing a thesis statement, there are some common pitfalls you should avoid so that your paper can be as solid as possible. Make sure you always edit the thesis statement before you do anything else. You also want to ensure that the thesis statement is clear and concise. Don’t make your reader hunt for your point. Finally, put your thesis statement at the end of the first paragraph and have your introduction flow toward that statement. Your reader will expect to find your statement in its traditional spot.

If you’re having trouble getting started, or need some guidance on your essay, there are tools available that can help you. CollegeVine offers a free peer essay review tool where one of your peers can read through your essay and provide you with valuable feedback. Getting essay feedback from a peer can help you wow your instructor or college admissions officer with an impactful essay that effectively illustrates your point.

Forgiveness Essay

Author Kimberly Ball
Category Popular Essay Topics

Disclaimer: This paper has been submitted by a student. This is not a sample of the work written by professional academic writers.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of StudySaurus.

Topic: Why is forgiveness important

Throughout your life, you will have to forgive people. Often times, forgiveness can be difficult. A wise man once declared, “Holding a grudge does not make you strong; it makes you bitter. Forgiving does not make you weak; it sets you free.” Forgiving others allow you to overcome your anger, to heal spiritual wounds, and to be set free.

First, forgiving others allows you to overcome your anger. If you hold a situation against someone, you begin to also hold a grudge. This is also known as bitterness. Bitterness builds up over time and eventually, you become a negative form of yourself. Anger is not something you should hold in. It’s proven that anger is more than just an emotion, it has physiological effects on you.

Secondly, forgiving allows you to heal spiritual wounds. Matthew 6:14-15 “ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Once you forgive others, our Father in Heaven will forgive you. Healing spiritual wounds will allow you to grow closer to Jesus and your family in Christ. With spiritual wounds, you will never be fully whole.

Last, forgiving simply sets you free. Forgiving others will allow weight to come off your shoulders. When you do not forgive, a bad feeling exists inside of you. It makes you feel hatred. One element of life is loving everyone, you cannot do this until you forgive. You have to be a blessing. With bitterness in your thoughts and mind, you cannot do this.

Overall, you will have to forgive people every day. Everyone makes mistakes. You should forgive people as fast as you would want them to forgive you. Forgiving gives you the chance to overcome your anger, to heal your spiritual wounds, and to set you free. Forgiveness is the key to life.

Explain why it is important to forgive

The Freedom of Forgiveness

It is very important to forgive others. Forgiveness means to forget someone’s bad deed or mistake. Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never received. You react to someone else’s mistake can be vital to your life and the lives of the others around you. Avoiding forgiveness can leave frustration in your heart and destroy your personality. You must learn to forgive others and yourself. It is very important to forgive.

First of all, it is important to react in the right way to someone else’s mistake. When you act in a response to an act or mistake, it could cause damage to good and bad sides. Fighting or taking revenge will only make a situation worse and it also means that you would commit a bad deed as well. If you do not fight or take revenge, but choose to forgive, you are at a higher place than the other person. By acting mature and not fighting or taking revenge, you will not damage your self-respect. Also, there will be peace between you and the other person because you both acted in a mature way. It is important to react in the right way to someone else’s mistake.

Secondly, it is important to forgive because avoiding forgiveness causes frustration in your heart and destroys your personality. If you forgive someone, you will feel better about yourself. Your heart and your mind will become more relaxed because you have peace in knowing that you do not have to be angry with anyone. In history, war broke out because countries could not forgive each other. If you simply learn to forgive, your mind and heart will be at peace instead of at war. Forgiveness is very important.

Lastly, forgiveness is important to you and the people around you. If you do not find forgiveness in yourself, others can become victims of your ego and revenge. If you are too prideful to forgive someone, you need to change your mindset. If someone does you wrong, you must treat everyone in a kind way because it is not their fault. If you don’t forgive yourself, you can’t forgive others. Forgiveness is very important to you and the people around you.

In conclusion, it is very important to forgive others. It is important to react in the right way to someone else’s mistake. It is important to never avoid forgiveness. Also, the way you react to forgiveness will affect you and the people around you. It is very important to forgive others.

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Developing a Thesis Statement

Many papers you write require developing a thesis statement. In this section you’ll learn what a thesis statement is and how to write one.

Keep in mind that not all papers require thesis statements . If in doubt, please consult your instructor for assistance.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement . . .

Makes an argumentative assertion about a topic; it states the conclusions that you have reached about your topic.
Makes a promise to the reader about the scope, purpose, and direction of your paper.
Is focused and specific enough to be “proven” within the boundaries of your paper.
Is generally located near the end of the introduction ; sometimes, in a long paper, the thesis will be expressed in several sentences or in an entire paragraph.
Identifies the relationships between the pieces of evidence that you are using to support your argument.

Not all papers require thesis statements! Ask your instructor if you’re in doubt whether you need one.

Identify a topic

Your topic is the subject about which you will write. Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic; or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper.

Consider what your assignment asks you to do

Inform yourself about your topic, focus on one aspect of your topic, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts, generate a topic from an assignment.

Below are some possible topics based on sample assignments.

Sample assignment 1

Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II.

Identified topic

Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis

This topic avoids generalities such as “Spain” and “World War II,” addressing instead on Franco’s role (a specific aspect of “Spain”) and the diplomatic relations between the Allies and Axis (a specific aspect of World War II).

Sample assignment 2

Analyze one of Homer’s epic similes in the Iliad.

The relationship between the portrayal of warfare and the epic simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64.

This topic focuses on a single simile and relates it to a single aspect of the Iliad ( warfare being a major theme in that work).

Developing a Thesis Statement–Additional information

Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic, or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper. You’ll want to read your assignment carefully, looking for key terms that you can use to focus your topic.

Sample assignment: Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II Key terms: analyze, Spain’s neutrality, World War II

After you’ve identified the key words in your topic, the next step is to read about them in several sources, or generate as much information as possible through an analysis of your topic. Obviously, the more material or knowledge you have, the more possibilities will be available for a strong argument. For the sample assignment above, you’ll want to look at books and articles on World War II in general, and Spain’s neutrality in particular.

As you consider your options, you must decide to focus on one aspect of your topic. This means that you cannot include everything you’ve learned about your topic, nor should you go off in several directions. If you end up covering too many different aspects of a topic, your paper will sprawl and be unconvincing in its argument, and it most likely will not fulfull the assignment requirements.

For the sample assignment above, both Spain’s neutrality and World War II are topics far too broad to explore in a paper. You may instead decide to focus on Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis , which narrows down what aspects of Spain’s neutrality and World War II you want to discuss, as well as establishes a specific link between those two aspects.

Before you go too far, however, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts. Try to avoid topics that already have too much written about them (i.e., “eating disorders and body image among adolescent women”) or that simply are not important (i.e. “why I like ice cream”). These topics may lead to a thesis that is either dry fact or a weird claim that cannot be supported. A good thesis falls somewhere between the two extremes. To arrive at this point, ask yourself what is new, interesting, contestable, or controversial about your topic.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times . Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Derive a main point from topic

Once you have a topic, you will have to decide what the main point of your paper will be. This point, the “controlling idea,” becomes the core of your argument (thesis statement) and it is the unifying idea to which you will relate all your sub-theses. You can then turn this “controlling idea” into a purpose statement about what you intend to do in your paper.

Look for patterns in your evidence

Compose a purpose statement.

Consult the examples below for suggestions on how to look for patterns in your evidence and construct a purpose statement.

Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis
Franco turned to the Allies when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from the Axis

Possible conclusion:

Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: Franco’s desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power.

Purpose statement

This paper will analyze Franco’s diplomacy during World War II to see how it contributed to Spain’s neutrality.

The simile compares Simoisius to a tree, which is a peaceful, natural image.
The tree in the simile is chopped down to make wheels for a chariot, which is an object used in warfare.

At first, the simile seems to take the reader away from the world of warfare, but we end up back in that world by the end.

This paper will analyze the way the simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64 moves in and out of the world of warfare.

Derive purpose statement from topic

To find out what your “controlling idea” is, you have to examine and evaluate your evidence . As you consider your evidence, you may notice patterns emerging, data repeated in more than one source, or facts that favor one view more than another. These patterns or data may then lead you to some conclusions about your topic and suggest that you can successfully argue for one idea better than another.

For instance, you might find out that Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis, but when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from them, he turned to the Allies. As you read more about Franco’s decisions, you may conclude that Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: his desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power. Based on this conclusion, you can then write a trial thesis statement to help you decide what material belongs in your paper.

Sometimes you won’t be able to find a focus or identify your “spin” or specific argument immediately. Like some writers, you might begin with a purpose statement just to get yourself going. A purpose statement is one or more sentences that announce your topic and indicate the structure of the paper but do not state the conclusions you have drawn . Thus, you might begin with something like this:

This paper will look at modern language to see if it reflects male dominance or female oppression.
I plan to analyze anger and derision in offensive language to see if they represent a challenge of society’s authority.

At some point, you can turn a purpose statement into a thesis statement. As you think and write about your topic, you can restrict, clarify, and refine your argument, crafting your thesis statement to reflect your thinking.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Compose a draft thesis statement

If you are writing a paper that will have an argumentative thesis and are having trouble getting started, the techniques in the table below may help you develop a temporary or “working” thesis statement.

Begin with a purpose statement that you will later turn into a thesis statement.

Assignment: Discuss the history of the Reform Party and explain its influence on the 1990 presidential and Congressional election.

Purpose Statement: This paper briefly sketches the history of the grassroots, conservative, Perot-led Reform Party and analyzes how it influenced the economic and social ideologies of the two mainstream parties.

Question-to-Assertion

If your assignment asks a specific question(s), turn the question(s) into an assertion and give reasons why it is true or reasons for your opinion.

Assignment : What do Aylmer and Rappaccini have to be proud of? Why aren’t they satisfied with these things? How does pride, as demonstrated in “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” lead to unexpected problems?

Beginning thesis statement: Alymer and Rappaccinni are proud of their great knowledge; however, they are also very greedy and are driven to use their knowledge to alter some aspect of nature as a test of their ability. Evil results when they try to “play God.”

Write a sentence that summarizes the main idea of the essay you plan to write.

Main idea: The reason some toys succeed in the market is that they appeal to the consumers’ sense of the ridiculous and their basic desire to laugh at themselves.

Make a list of the ideas that you want to include; consider the ideas and try to group them.

nature = peaceful
war matériel = violent (competes with 1?)
need for time and space to mourn the dead
war is inescapable (competes with 3?)

Use a formula to arrive at a working thesis statement (you will revise this later).

although most readers of _______ have argued that _______, closer examination shows that _______.
_______ uses _______ and _____ to prove that ________.
phenomenon x is a result of the combination of __________, __________, and _________.

What to keep in mind as you draft an initial thesis statement

Beginning statements obtained through the methods illustrated above can serve as a framework for planning or drafting your paper, but remember they’re not yet the specific, argumentative thesis you want for the final version of your paper. In fact, in its first stages, a thesis statement usually is ill-formed or rough and serves only as a planning tool.

As you write, you may discover evidence that does not fit your temporary or “working” thesis. Or you may reach deeper insights about your topic as you do more research, and you will find that your thesis statement has to be more complicated to match the evidence that you want to use.

You must be willing to reject or omit some evidence in order to keep your paper cohesive and your reader focused. Or you may have to revise your thesis to match the evidence and insights that you want to discuss. Read your draft carefully, noting the conclusions you have drawn and the major ideas which support or prove those conclusions. These will be the elements of your final thesis statement.

Sometimes you will not be able to identify these elements in your early drafts, but as you consider how your argument is developing and how your evidence supports your main idea, ask yourself, “ What is the main point that I want to prove/discuss? ” and “ How will I convince the reader that this is true? ” When you can answer these questions, then you can begin to refine the thesis statement.

Refine and polish the thesis statement

To get to your final thesis, you’ll need to refine your draft thesis so that it’s specific and arguable.

Ask if your draft thesis addresses the assignment
Question each part of your draft thesis
Clarify vague phrases and assertions
Investigate alternatives to your draft thesis

Consult the example below for suggestions on how to refine your draft thesis statement.

Sample Assignment

Choose an activity and define it as a symbol of American culture. Your essay should cause the reader to think critically about the society which produces and enjoys that activity.

Ask The phenomenon of drive-in facilities is an interesting symbol of american culture, and these facilities demonstrate significant characteristics of our society.This statement does not fulfill the assignment because it does not require the reader to think critically about society.

Drive-ins are an interesting symbol of American culture because they represent Americans’ significant creativity and business ingenuity.

Among the types of drive-in facilities familiar during the twentieth century, drive-in movie theaters best represent American creativity, not merely because they were the forerunner of later drive-ins and drive-throughs, but because of their impact on our culture: they changed our relationship to the automobile, changed the way people experienced movies, and changed movie-going into a family activity.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast-food establishments, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize America’s economic ingenuity, they also have affected our personal standards.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast- food restaurants, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize (1) Americans’ business ingenuity, they also have contributed (2) to an increasing homogenization of our culture, (3) a willingness to depersonalize relationships with others, and (4) a tendency to sacrifice quality for convenience.

This statement is now specific and fulfills all parts of the assignment. This version, like any good thesis, is not self-evident; its points, 1-4, will have to be proven with evidence in the body of the paper. The numbers in this statement indicate the order in which the points will be presented. Depending on the length of the paper, there could be one paragraph for each numbered item or there could be blocks of paragraph for even pages for each one.

Complete the final thesis statement

The bottom line.

As you move through the process of crafting a thesis, you’ll need to remember four things:

Context matters! Think about your course materials and lectures. Try to relate your thesis to the ideas your instructor is discussing.
As you go through the process described in this section, always keep your assignment in mind . You will be more successful when your thesis (and paper) responds to the assignment than if it argues a semi-related idea.
Your thesis statement should be precise, focused, and contestable ; it should predict the sub-theses or blocks of information that you will use to prove your argument.
Make sure that you keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Change your thesis as your paper evolves, because you do not want your thesis to promise more than your paper actually delivers.

In the beginning, the thesis statement was a tool to help you sharpen your focus, limit material and establish the paper’s purpose. When your paper is finished, however, the thesis statement becomes a tool for your reader. It tells the reader what you have learned about your topic and what evidence led you to your conclusion. It keeps the reader on track–well able to understand and appreciate your argument.

Writing Process and Structure

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Getting Started with Your Paper

Interpreting Writing Assignments from Your Courses

Generating Ideas for

Creating an Argument

Thesis vs. Purpose Statements

Architecture of Arguments

Working with Sources

Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources

Using Literary Quotations

Citing Sources in Your Paper

Drafting Your Paper

Generating Ideas for Your Paper

Introductions

Paragraphing

Developing Strategic Transitions

Conclusions

Revising Your Paper

Peer Reviews

Reverse Outlines

Revising an Argumentative Paper

Revision Strategies for Longer Projects

Finishing Your Paper

Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist

How to Proofread your Paper

Writing Collaboratively

Collaborative and Group Writing

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Developing Strong Thesis Statements

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The thesis statement or main claim must be debatable

An argumentative or persuasive piece of writing must begin with a debatable thesis or claim. In other words, the thesis must be something that people could reasonably have differing opinions on. If your thesis is something that is generally agreed upon or accepted as fact then there is no reason to try to persuade people.

Example of a non-debatable thesis statement:

This thesis statement is not debatable. First, the word pollution implies that something is bad or negative in some way. Furthermore, all studies agree that pollution is a problem; they simply disagree on the impact it will have or the scope of the problem. No one could reasonably argue that pollution is unambiguously good.

Example of a debatable thesis statement:

This is an example of a debatable thesis because reasonable people could disagree with it. Some people might think that this is how we should spend the nation's money. Others might feel that we should be spending more money on education. Still others could argue that corporations, not the government, should be paying to limit pollution.

Another example of a debatable thesis statement:

In this example there is also room for disagreement between rational individuals. Some citizens might think focusing on recycling programs rather than private automobiles is the most effective strategy.

The thesis needs to be narrow

Although the scope of your paper might seem overwhelming at the start, generally the narrower the thesis the more effective your argument will be. Your thesis or claim must be supported by evidence. The broader your claim is, the more evidence you will need to convince readers that your position is right.

Example of a thesis that is too broad:

There are several reasons this statement is too broad to argue. First, what is included in the category "drugs"? Is the author talking about illegal drug use, recreational drug use (which might include alcohol and cigarettes), or all uses of medication in general? Second, in what ways are drugs detrimental? Is drug use causing deaths (and is the author equating deaths from overdoses and deaths from drug related violence)? Is drug use changing the moral climate or causing the economy to decline? Finally, what does the author mean by "society"? Is the author referring only to America or to the global population? Does the author make any distinction between the effects on children and adults? There are just too many questions that the claim leaves open. The author could not cover all of the topics listed above, yet the generality of the claim leaves all of these possibilities open to debate.

Example of a narrow or focused thesis:

In this example the topic of drugs has been narrowed down to illegal drugs and the detriment has been narrowed down to gang violence. This is a much more manageable topic.

We could narrow each debatable thesis from the previous examples in the following way:

Narrowed debatable thesis 1:

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just the amount of money used but also how the money could actually help to control pollution.

Narrowed debatable thesis 2:

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just what the focus of a national anti-pollution campaign should be but also why this is the appropriate focus.

Qualifiers such as " typically ," " generally ," " usually ," or " on average " also help to limit the scope of your claim by allowing for the almost inevitable exception to the rule.

Types of claims

Claims typically fall into one of four categories. Thinking about how you want to approach your topic, or, in other words, what type of claim you want to make, is one way to focus your thesis on one particular aspect of your broader topic.

Claims of fact or definition: These claims argue about what the definition of something is or whether something is a settled fact. Example:

Claims of cause and effect: These claims argue that one person, thing, or event caused another thing or event to occur. Example:

Claims about value: These are claims made of what something is worth, whether we value it or not, how we would rate or categorize something. Example:

Claims about solutions or policies: These are claims that argue for or against a certain solution or policy approach to a problem. Example:

Which type of claim is right for your argument? Which type of thesis or claim you use for your argument will depend on your position and knowledge of the topic, your audience, and the context of your paper. You might want to think about where you imagine your audience to be on this topic and pinpoint where you think the biggest difference in viewpoints might be. Even if you start with one type of claim you probably will be using several within the paper. Regardless of the type of claim you choose to utilize it is key to identify the controversy or debate you are addressing and to define your position early on in the paper.

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Forgiveness Theses Samples For Students

2 samples of this type

While studying in college, you will inevitably have to craft a lot of Theses on Forgiveness. Lucky you if putting words together and turning them into relevant content comes easy to you; if it's not the case, you can save the day by finding an already written Forgiveness Thesis example and using it as a template to follow.

This is when you will certainly find WowEssays' free samples catalog extremely useful as it embodies numerous skillfully written works on most various Forgiveness Theses topics. Ideally, you should be able to find a piece that meets your criteria and use it as a template to build your own Thesis. Alternatively, our skilled essay writers can deliver you a unique Forgiveness Thesis model crafted from scratch according to your custom instructions.

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COMMENTS

66 Forgiveness Essay: Examples, Titles, & Thesis Statement
Some good forgiveness titles for the essay reveal themes of revenge, justice, and personal forgiveness. You can write an excellent reflective or argumentative essay on forgiveness - it is a versatile topic. Regardless of your forgiveness essay's specific topic and type, you should develop a strong thesis statement.
Forgiveness Essays
The Importance of Forgiveness (in 100 Words) In this paragraph I will talk on forgiveness in 100 words. Forgiveness is essential for physical, mental, and spiritual health, benefiting both the forgiver and the forgiven. It fosters love, acceptance, and harmony in families, communities, and nations.
Psychology of Forgiveness: 10+ Fascinating Research Findings
The Science Behind Forgiveness: 10+ Findings. In his book, Forgive for Good, Dr. Frederic Luskin, Director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Project (2003), describes his personal and academic journey into forgiveness. When Luskin began his research, there were few studies in the field of forgiveness and limited knowledge of the tools that could help those who had suffered the most.
The Science of Forgiveness and Why It's Good For You
Commit publicly to forgiveness. This could mean writing a note to yourself or the person who wronged you, telling a trusted friend, or talking to the person who wronged you. Hold onto the forgiveness.
Research on the Science of Forgiveness: An Annotated…
Research on the Science of Forgiveness: An Annotated Bibliography. Summaries of research on forgiveness, peace, and well-being. By Adam Cohen | October 1, 2004. Imagine all of the ways that people hurt or annoy each other in a day. The barista at the coffee house took too long to make your latte--and then used lowfat milk, instead of regular ...
The Ethics of Forgiveness: A Collection of Essays
While the points made in favor of unconditional forgiveness are perhaps not novel, the skill with which the issues are explained and defended makes this essay a good candidate for course syllabuses on forgiveness. Geoffrey Scarre strays slightly from the theme of forgiveness to look at issues of apology.
A Function of Forgiveness: Exploring the Relationship Between Negative
Forgiveness has traditionally been defined via dictionaries as ceasing to feel anger or resentment against an offender, or forgoing a desire for revenge or restitution for a wrongdoing (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2011).We, however, utilize the empirical and theoretically derived definition of forgiveness as a prosocial process whereby negative, resentment-based thoughts, emotions, and ...
How to Write a Thesis Statement
Step 2: Write your initial answer. After some initial research, you can formulate a tentative answer to this question. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process. The internet has had more of a positive than a negative effect on education.
PDF FORGIVENESS AND PUNISHMENT
Thesis Statement In this thesis, I will create and articulate account of forgiveness and punishment which I find to be the most accurate and truthful in order to define the relationship, if any, between forgiveness and punishment to answer my central question of whether one can forgive while endorsing punishment.
What is Forgiveness?
What is Forgiveness? Forgiveness expert Fred Luskin explains what it takes to give up a grudge. This month, Greater Good features videos of a presentation by Fred Luskin, a pioneer in the science and practice of forgiveness. In his talk, Luskin discusses why forgiveness can be so hard to practice and explains his research-tested " nine steps ...
Forgiveness: Definitions, Perspectives, Contexts and Correlates
letting go or forgiveness is a quality of growth seeking individual. In. has survived so far [1]. Major religions like Chr istianity, Judaism, is divine' [2]. Scholars in behavioral science have ...
Essay on Forgiveness by C.S. Lewis
Essay on Forgiveness by C.S. Lewis. By Macmillan Publishing Company, Inc. N.Y. 1960. We say a great many things in church (and out of church too) without thinking of what we are saying. For instance, we say in the Creed " I believe in the forgiveness of sins." I had been saying it for several years before I asked myself why it was in the Creed.
PDF Stuart Jesson Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham
Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2010 . Abstract Forgiveness might be said to involve a certain kind of intellectual suffering: we forgive, and are forgiven, whilst a great many questions remain undecided, and while it is far ... the sun that rises on the evil and the good, and ...
Forgiveness Essays: Examples, Topics, & Outlines
Forgiveness and Personality The impact that personality has on the ability to forgive has been a topic of much debate for many years. Many experts believe that certain personality traits can make an individual more susceptible to forgiveness. The purpose of this discussion is to examine whether or not any personality seems to be more forgiving of self and others than other personalities.
How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement: 4 Steps + Examples
Step 4: Revise and refine your thesis statement before you start writing. Read through your thesis statement several times before you begin to compose your full essay. You need to make sure the statement is ironclad, since it is the foundation of the entire paper. Edit it or have a peer review it for you to make sure everything makes sense and ...
Forgiveness Essay: Why is Forgiveness Important?
Avoiding forgiveness can leave frustration in your heart and destroy your personality. You must learn to forgive others and yourself. It is very important to forgive. First of all, it is important to react in the right way to someone else's mistake. When you act in a response to an act or mistake, it could cause damage to good and bad sides.
Developing a Thesis Statement
A thesis statement . . . Makes an argumentative assertion about a topic; it states the conclusions that you have reached about your topic. Makes a promise to the reader about the scope, purpose, and direction of your paper. Is focused and specific enough to be "proven" within the boundaries of your paper. Is generally located near the end ...
Strong Thesis Statements
This thesis statement is not debatable. First, the word pollution implies that something is bad or negative in some way. Furthermore, all studies agree that pollution is a problem; they simply disagree on the impact it will have or the scope of the problem. No one could reasonably argue that pollution is unambiguously good.
Forgiveness Thesis Examples That Really Inspire
2 samples of this type. While studying in college, you will inevitably have to craft a lot of Theses on Forgiveness. Lucky you if putting words together and turning them into relevant content comes easy to you; if it's not the case, you can save the day by finding an already written Forgiveness Thesis example and using it as a template to follow.
What is a good thesis statement about characters struggling with the
Get an answer for 'What is a good thesis statement about characters struggling with the aftermath of decisions in The Great Divorce?' and find homework help for other C. S. Lewis questions at eNotes
[Solved] what would be a good thesis statement for forgiveness with
Q Consider the following example thesis statement and state whether you think it is a weak or strong thesis statement: " Answered over 90d ago Q I need some help in turning a topic I am interested in, into a research question.