College Writing Skills with Readings 8th Edition by John Langan

Exercise 60

Sometimes a subject must go through several stages of limiting before it is narrow enough to write about. Below are four lists reflecting several stages that writers went through in moving from a general subject to a narrow thesis statement. Number the stages in each list from 1 to 5, with 1 marking the broadest stage and 5 marking the thesis.
List 1
____ Major league baseball players
____ Athletes
____ Major league pitchers' salaries too high
____ Professional athletes
____ Major league pitchers
List 2
____ John Philip Souza
____ American composers
____ Music 101 taught me to appreciate Souza's band music.
____ Music
____ Band music
List 3
____ Retail companies
____ Supermarkets
____ Dealing with customers
____ Working in a supermarket
____ I've learned how to handle unpleasant supermarket customers.
List 4
____ Camping
____ First camping trip
____ Summer vacation
____ My first camping trip was a disastrous experience.
____ Vacations