TOPIC X

The producers of Frontline’s “The Merchants of Cool,” which can be found on the Public Broadcasting System’s web site at www.pbs.org, presents a number of arguments on the creation and marketing of “youth culture” in the United States.

Discuss the three statements or ideas from “Merchants” that you found to be the most interesting or informative.

Your thesis should look like this: “The three ideas that I found to be the most interesting or informative in Merchants are A, B and C.”

For example, “The three ideas that I found to be the most interesting or informative in Merchants are the fact that corporations use “cool hunters” to identify teen values, that corporations market to the lowest common denominator like the “mook” and “midriff” and that corporations like MTV try to play both sides of the fence and buy off alternative culture.”

As stated in class discussion, this sample is a base thesis. It is the kind that will give you a passing paper. However, you will need to develop a more complex argument to receive a higher grade. (A complex argument involves analysis.) If you do decide to present a more complex argument, you may discuss fewer points.

However, complex X topics may be easier to set up as Red topics. In a Red topic, you use your personal experiences to support a specific argument or set of arguments from MOC.