Which sentence marks the best thesis statement?

Which sentence marks the best thesis statement in the following article.(read the article its funny.)

We all know the most famous line in movies

when Rhett Butler said to Scarlett O鈥橦ara,

鈥淔rankly, my dear, I don鈥檛 give a damn,鈥?but

another Butlerian comment to that same

southern belle carries a lot more meaning:

鈥淲hat most people don鈥檛 seem to realize is

that there is just as much money to be made

out of the wreckage of a civilization as

from the upbuilding of one...I鈥檓 making

my fortune out of the wreckage.鈥?br> Today, as we close out the millennium

in a time of prosperity, it鈥檚 clear that the

wreckage of society is coming in many

forms, among them the continual erosion of

language. Indeed, language skills are at their

lowest ebb ever. For the past 30 years, edu-

cators have come up with every reason why

not to teach spelling, grammar, and punctu-

ation in favour of a 鈥渉olistic鈥?approach to

learning. The result is an entire generation

of people who aren鈥檛 up to snuff on basics.

Item. Earlier last year, an American televi-

sion news announcer鈥攚hose name I didn鈥檛

catch鈥攚as commenting on the Senate

impeachment hearings, and what she said

still boggles my mind. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just getting inter-

esting-er and interesting-er.鈥?br> Now she was young and pretty and if

those were the only requirements for a tele-

vision news announcer in the 鈥?0s, terrific,

but it would be nice if they know some-

thing about words too. With her hair neatly

coiffed and her colours perfectly coordinat-

ed for the camera, she had the temerity to

coin a comparative right up there with fasci-

natinger, remarkabler, and tremendouser

and if we made these words superlatives,

we鈥檇 have fascinatingest, remarkablest, and

tremendousest.

She鈥檚 not alone. Spelling errors and bad

grammar are increasingly common in ads

and newspapers, never mind the Internet,

which is the best place to learn how not to

spell. Author Tom Wolfe calls the Internet

a 鈥済reat time waster,鈥?but he鈥檚 68 and what

does he know? Maybe more than we think.

His colleague, Gore Vidal, once said:

鈥淔ewer and fewer young people are addict-

ed to reading. If they don鈥檛 get into it from

the time they are 10 or 12 years old, they鈥檒l

never enjoy reading, and if you don鈥檛 enjoy

reading, there goes literature. Literature is

still the most profound of arts, but its prog-

nosis is very bad.鈥?Vidal said this six years

ago when the Internet was just coming out

of the embryo and now that it鈥檚 a child, our

young read even less than they did back in

鈥?4, opting to surf instead.

In the middle of the last century, Alexis

de Tocqueville wrote in Democracy in America

that the future would result in an egalitarian

dismissal of excellence. Well, guess what?

The future is here! While companies like

Microsoft and IBM keep telling us about

the benefits of the Internet, who stops to

think that maybe no one is really benefit-

ing鈥攅xcept Microsoft and IBM?

Any parent with kids in high school

knows that standards aren鈥檛 what they used

to be. I teach writing to public relations stu-

dents in college, some of them with univer-

sity degrees and many from other countries.

Without fail, the ones with the worst profi-

ciency in English are those who were edu-

cated in Canada. Not Jamaica, Algeria, or

Russia. Canada.

A Canadian-educated student up on

grammar is a diamond in the rough; it鈥檚 usu-

ally due to a grade 9 English teacher who

went against the grain and stressed what the

curriculum abandoned.

What do you do with 20-year-olds who

are just learning the basics? I give them

some standard punctuation and the parts of

speech, tell them to toss 鈥渟pellcheck鈥?and

鈥済rammarcheck鈥?out the window, and take a

look at George Orwell鈥檚 鈥淪ix Rules of Good

Writing.鈥?(Some of them have actually heard

of Orwell.) (See sidebar.) Come to think of

it, professionals could use these rules too.

Rules aside, it is also a good idea to

study both good and bad communicators.

Former US Secretary of State Alexander

Haig (鈥渁 dialectic fashion at one end of the

spectrum鈥?, aspiring presidential candidate

Dan Quayle (鈥淲e Republicans understand

the importance of bondage between a

mother and child鈥?, and many of our lead-

ers in Canada (anything Jean Chr茅tien says)

are all poor communicators. Winston

Churchill and Martin Luther King, on the

other hand, were wonderful. Unfortunately,

male cadavers are unyielding of testimony.

Huh? Sorry. I mean, 鈥淒ead men don鈥檛 talk.鈥?br> But that鈥檚 not really true. Their speeches

survive. Why not have a look?

Jerry Amernic of Wordcraft Communications is a

writer and public relations professional. This article

is reproduced with permission from the Readers

Showcase, Vol. VII, Issue 4.

Language Out, Style In

JERRY AMERNIC

Six Rules of Good

Writing

GEORGE ORWELL (with addition-

al comments by JERRY AMERNIC)

1.

Never use a figure of

speech which you are not used

to seeing in print. This brings to

mind techies who use 鈥渃onnec-

tivity,鈥?鈥渕ulti-tasking,鈥?and

鈥渄esign methodology鈥?when

they should just try to speak

plain English.

2.

Never use a long word

where a short one will do. A

popular phrase like 鈥渉ome

sweet home鈥?would never have

lasted if the original was 鈥渞esi-

dence sweet residence.鈥?br> 3.

If it鈥檚 possible to cut out a

word, always cut it out. Lawyers

are especially guilty of breaking

this rule. Example. 鈥淚f the com-

pany revises this policy form

with respect to policy revisions,

endorsements or rules by which

the insurance hereunder could

be extended or broadened with-

out additional premium charge,

such insurance as is afforded

hereunder shall be extended or

broadened effective immediate-

ly upon approval or acceptance

of such revision during the poli-

cy by the appropriate insurance

supervisory authority.鈥?Doesn鈥檛

it work better this way? 鈥淲e

will automatically give you the

benefits of any extension of this

policy if the change doesn鈥檛

require additional cost.鈥?By the

way, the word count dropped

from 59 to 20, so a pox on all

those history and English

majors who think it鈥檚 better to

use more words.

4.

Never use the passive

where you can use the active.

This is any politician鈥檚 pet

peeve; be vague and don鈥檛 take

responsibility for anything (and

your writing will be as exciting

as a Hansard debate).

5.

Never use a foreign phrase,

a scientific word or jargon word

if you can think of an everyday

English equivalent. (See lawyer

example in No. 3).

6.

Break any of these rules

sooner than say anything out-

right barbarous. In other words,

a good lead with 18 words is

still better than a bad one with

15, but we should still strive to

say more with less.

Which sentence marks the best thesis statement?

Today, as we close out the millennium

in a time of prosperity, it鈥檚 clear that the

wreckage of society is coming in many

forms, among them the continual erosion of

language. Indeed, language skills are at their

lowest ebb ever. For the past 30 years, edu-

cators have come up with every reason why

not to teach spelling, grammar, and punctu-

ation in favour of a 鈥渉olistic鈥?approach to

learning.

Which sentence marks the best thesis statement?

My Gosh..can't believe you wrote this big....

Which sentence marks the best thesis statement?

wow, a lot to read at this late hour, me has to go to bed, gnight