A thesis statement must concentrate on a specific area of a general topic. As you may recall, the creation of a thesis statement begins when you choose a broad subject and then narrow down its parts until you pinpoint a specific aspect of that topic A thesis statement must present a relevant and specific argument. A factual statement often is not considered arguable. Be sure your thesis statement contains a point of view that can be supported with evidence. Ability to be demonstrated. For any claim you make in your thesis, you must be able to provide reasons and examples for your opinion A thesis statement should show exactly what your paper will be about, and will help you keep your paper to a manageable topic. For example, if you're writing a seven-to-ten page paper on hunger, you might say: World hunger has many causes and effects. This is a weak thesis statement for two major reasons
Developing a Strong, Clear Thesis Statement – Writing for Success
Have you ever known a person who was not very good at telling stories? You probably had trouble following his train of thought as he jumped around from point to point, either being too brief in places that needed further explanation or providing too many details on a meaningless element. Maybe he told the end of the story first, then moved to the beginning and clear thesis statement help added details to the middle.
His ideas were probably scattered, and the story did not flow very well. When the story was over, you probably had many questions. Just as a personal anecdote can be a disorganized mess, an essay can fall into the same trap of being out of order and confusing. That is why writers need a thesis statement to provide a specific focus for their essay and to organize what they are about to discuss in the body. Just like a topic sentence summarizes a single paragraph, the thesis statement summarizes an entire essay.
It tells the reader the point you want to make in your essay, while the essay itself supports that point. You should form your thesis before you begin to organize an essay, but you may find that it needs revision as the essay develops.
For every essay you write, clear thesis statement help, you must focus on a central idea. This idea stems from a topic you have chosen or been assigned or from a question your teacher has asked. It is not enough merely to discuss a general topic or simply answer a question with a yes or no. You have to form a specific opinion, and then articulate that into a controlling idea —the main idea upon which you build your thesis.
Remember that a thesis is not the topic itself, but rather your interpretation of the question or subject. A thesis is one sentence long and appears toward the end of your introduction.
It is specific and focuses on one to three points of a single idea—points that are able to be demonstrated in the body. It forecasts the content of the essay and suggests how you will organize your information.
Remember that a thesis statement does not summarize an issue but rather dissects it, clear thesis statement help. A strong thesis statement contains the following qualities. A thesis statement clear thesis statement help concentrate on a specific area of a general topic.
As you may recall, the creation of a thesis statement begins when you choose a broad subject and then narrow down its clear thesis statement help until you pinpoint a specific aspect of that topic. For example, clear thesis statement help, health care is a broad topic, but a proper thesis statement would focus on a specific area of that topic, such as options for individuals without health care coverage.
A strong thesis statement must be precise enough to allow for a coherent argument and to remain focused on the topic. If the specific topic is options for individuals without health care coverage, then your precise thesis statement must make an exact claim about it, such as that limited options exist for those who are uninsured by their employers. You must further pinpoint what you are going to discuss regarding these limited effects, such as whom they affect and what the cause is.
Ability to be argued. A thesis statement must present a relevant and specific argument. A factual statement often is not considered arguable. Be sure your thesis statement contains a point of view that can be supported with evidence.
Ability to be demonstrated. For any claim you make in your thesis, you must be able to provide reasons and clear thesis statement help for your opinion. You can rely on personal observations in order to do this, or you can consult outside sources to demonstrate that what you assert is valid. A worthy argument is backed by examples clear thesis statement help details.
A thesis statement that is forceful shows readers that you are, in fact, making an argument. The tone is assertive and takes a stance that others might oppose. In addition to using force in your thesis statement, you must also use confidence in your claim. In other words, your stance has insufficient backing.
Taking an authoritative stance on the matter persuades your readers to have faith in your argument and open their minds to what you have to say.
Even in a personal essay that allows the use of first person, your thesis should not contain phrases such as in my opinion or I believe. These statements clear thesis statement help your credibility and weaken your argument. Your opinion is more convincing when you use a firm attitude.
On a separate sheet of paper, write a thesis statement for each of the following topics. Remember to make each statement specific, precise, demonstrable, forceful clear thesis statement help confident.
Each of the following thesis statements meets several of the following requirements:. You can find thesis statements in many places, such as in the news; in the opinions of friends, coworkers or teachers; and even in songs you hear on the radio. Pay attention to your own everyday thesis statements as well, clear thesis statement help, as these can become material for future essays.
Now that you have read about the contents of a good thesis statement and have seen examples, take a look at the pitfalls to avoid when composing your own thesis:. A thesis is weak when it is simply a declaration of your subject or clear thesis statement help description of what you will discuss in your essay. Weak thesis statement: My paper will explain why imagination is more important than knowledge. A thesis is weak when it makes an unreasonable or outrageous claim or insults the opposing side, clear thesis statement help.
Weak thesis statement: Religious radicals across America are clear thesis statement help to legislate their Puritanical beliefs by banning required high school books. A thesis is weak when it contains an obvious fact or something that no one can disagree with or provides a dead end.
Weak thesis statement: Advertising companies use sex to sell their products. Weak thesis statement: The life of Abraham Lincoln was long and challenging. Read the following thesis statements. On a separate piece of paper, identify each as weak or strong. For those that are weak, list the reasons why. Then revise the weak statements so that they conform to the requirements of a strong thesis. Often in your career, you will need to ask your boss for something through an e-mail.
Just as a thesis statement organizes an essay, it can also organize your e-mail request. While your e-mail will be shorter than an essay, using a thesis statement in your first paragraph quickly lets your boss know what you are asking for, why it is clear thesis statement help, and what the benefits are. In short body paragraphs, you can provide the essential information needed to expand upon your request. Your thesis will probably change as you write, so you will need to modify it to reflect exactly what you have discussed in your essay.
Working thesis statements often become stronger as you gather information and form new opinions and reasons for those opinions. Revision helps you strengthen your thesis so that it matches what you have expressed in the body of the paper. The best way to revise your thesis statement is to ask questions about it and then examine the answers to those questions.
By challenging your own ideas and forming definite reasons for those ideas, clear thesis statement help, you grow closer to a more clear thesis statement help point of view, which you can then incorporate into your thesis statement.
You can cut down on irrelevant aspects and revise your thesis by taking the following steps:. Pinpoint and replace all nonspecific words, such as peopleeverythingsocietyor lifewith more precise words in order to reduce any vagueness. Working thesis: Young people have to work hard to succeed in life. Revised thesis: Recent college graduates must have discipline and persistence in order to find and maintain a stable job in which they can use and be appreciated for their talents.
The revised thesis makes a more specific statement about success and what it means to work hard. The original includes too broad a range of people and does not define exactly what success entails. By replacing those general words like people and work hardthe writer can better focus his or her research and gain more direction in his or her writing.
Clarify ideas that need explanation by asking yourself questions that narrow your thesis. Working thesis: The welfare system is a joke. Revised thesis: The welfare system keeps a socioeconomic class from gaining employment by alluring members of that class with unearned income, instead of programs to improve their education and skill sets. A joke means many things to many people. Readers bring clear thesis statement help sorts of backgrounds and perspectives to the reading process and would need clarification for a word so vague.
This expression may also be too informal for the selected audience. By asking questions, the writer can devise a more precise and appropriate explanation for joke. The writer should ask himself or herself questions similar to the 5WH questions.
By incorporating the answers to these questions into a thesis statement, the writer more accurately defines his or her stance, which will better guide the writing of the essay. Replace any linking verbs with action verbs. Linking verbs are forms of the verb to bea verb that simply states that a situation exists. Working thesis: Kansas City schoolteachers are not paid enough.
Revised thesis: The Kansas City legislature cannot afford to pay its educators, resulting in job cuts and resignations in a district that sorely needs highly qualified and dedicated teachers. The linking verb in this working thesis statement is the word are.
Linking verbs often make thesis statements weak because they do not express action. Rather, they connect words and phrases to the second half of the sentence.
The writer should ask himself or herself questions in order to replace the linking verb with an action verb, clear thesis statement help, thus forming a stronger thesis statement, one that takes a more definitive stance on the issue:.
Many girls have strict parents, dress appropriately, and do not engage in sexual activity while in middle school and high school, clear thesis statement help. The writer of this thesis should ask the following questions:. You then completed a freewriting exercise about an clear thesis statement help you recently experienced and chose a general topic to write about. Using that general topic, you then narrowed it down by answering the 5WH questions.
After you answered these questions, clear thesis statement help, you chose one of the three methods of prewriting and gathered possible supporting points for your working thesis statement. Now, on a separate sheet of paper, clear thesis statement help down your working thesis statement.
Identify any weaknesses in this sentence and revise the statement to reflect the elements of a strong thesis statement.
Thesis Statements: Four Steps to a Great Essay - 60second Recap®
, time: 4:31Developing a Strong, Clear Thesis Statement
Remember that the thesis statement is a kind of "mapping tool" that helps you organize your ideas, and it helps your reader follow your argument. After the topic sentence, include any evidence in this body paragraph, such as a quotation, statistic, or data point, that supports this first point. Explain what the evidence means. Show the reader how this entire paragraph connects back to the thesis statement. Apr 23, · A thesis statement is a concise claim (one or two sentences) that reflects the main idea of an essay or research paper and establishes the structure of the main body. Your main purpose is to make your thesis relevant to the body paragraphs so that they Estimated Reading Time: 5 mins A thesis statement must concentrate on a specific area of a general topic. As you may recall, the creation of a thesis statement begins when you choose a broad subject and then narrow down its parts until you pinpoint a specific aspect of that topic
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