A thesis statement is the roadmap to what content will be covered within an essay. Usually found in the introductory paragraph, it is a concise statement -- but can sometimes be longer than a single sentence -- that tells the reader what the essay will be about and also how the body of the essay will be organized. The thesis statement is an important component of a strong essay space exploration essay against, and there are two main types: the stated thesis statement and the implied thesis statement. The stated thesis statement should include a clear outline of the body of the essay and what content will be covered. This type of explanation is useful when the writer wishes to map out what the reader should expect. An example of a stated thesis statement, according to Keith Folse's book "Great Essays" would be: "The main problems facing South American countries are a lack of job opportunities for citizens, increasing demand for better health care, and limited university programs for poor students." Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion—convincing others that you have an interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill you practice regularly in your daily life. You persuade your roommate to clean up, your parents to let you borrow the car, your friend to vote for your favorite candidate or policy. In college, course assignments often ask you to make a persuasive case in writing. You are asked to convince your reader of your point of view. This form of persuasion, often called academic argument, follows a predictable pattern in writing. After a brief introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it serves as a summary of the argument you’ll make in the rest of your paper. A thesis is the result of a lengthy thinking process. Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do after reading an essay assignment. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts (such as surprising contrasts or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you do this thinking, you will probably have a “working thesis” that presents a basic or main idea and an argument that you think you can support with evidence. Both the argument and your thesis are likely to need adjustment along the way. Writers use all kinds of techniques to stimulate their thinking and to help them clarify relationships or comprehend the broader significance of a topic and arrive at a thesis statement. For more ideas on how to get started, see our handout on brainstorming . Why is this thesis weak? Think about what the reader would expect from the essay that follows: most likely a general, appreciative summary of Twain’s novel. But the question did not ask you to summarize; it asked you to analyze. Your professor is probably not interested in your opinion of the novel; instead, she wants you to think about why it’s such a great novel—what do Huck’s adventures tell us about life, about America, about coming of age, about race, etc. First, the question asks you to pick an aspect of the novel that you think is important to its structure or meaning—for example pay to do my paper, the role of storytelling practice makes you perfect essay, the contrasting scenes between the shore and the river, or the relationships between adults and children. The North and South fought the Civil War for many reasons, some of which were the same and some different. Let’s look at another example. Suppose your literature professor hands out the following assignment in a class on the American novel: Write an analysis of some aspect of Mark Twain’s novel Huckleberry Finn. “This will be easy,” you think. “I loved Huckleberry Finn !” You grab a pad of paper and write: If your assignment asks you to take a position or develop a claim about a subject, you may need to convey that position or claim in a thesis statement near the beginning of your draft. The assignment may not explicitly state that you need a thesis statement because your instructor may assume you will include one. When in doubt, ask your instructor if the assignment requires a thesis statement. When an assignment asks you to analyze, to interpret, to compare and contrast, to demonstrate cause and effect good review essay topics, or to take a stand on an issue, it is likely that you are being asked to develop a thesis and to support it persuasively. (Check out our handout on understanding assignments for more information.) This weak thesis restates the question without providing any additional information. It does not tell the reader where you are heading. A reader of this weak thesis might think “What reasons? How are they the same? How are they different?” Ask yourself these same questions and begin to compare Northern and Southern attitudes (perhaps you first think “The South believed slavery was right, and the North thought slavery was wrong”). Now, push your comparison toward an interpretation—why did one side think slavery was right and the other side think it was wrong? You look again at the evidence, and you decide that you are going to argue that the North believed slavery was immoral while the South believed it upheld the Southern way of life. You write: Ruszkiewicz, John J. et al. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers. 9th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. Know the type, purpose, and audience of the paper. These are usually assigned by the instructor, but even if you get to choose them, you must understand that these will affect your thesis statement considerably. If you are writing a persuasive paper, your purpose will be to prove something to a specific group. If you are writing a descriptive paper, your purpose will be to describe something to a specific group. Each of these must be expressed in your thesis somehow. Idea 3. Spend time "mulling over" your topic. Make a list of the ideas you want to include in the essay, then think about how to group them under several different headings. Often, you will see an organizational plan emerge from the sorting process. Beginning thesis: Between 1820 and 1860 women's domestic labor changed as women stopped producing home-made fabric, although they continued to sew their families' clothes, as well as to produce butter and soap. With the cash women earned from the sale of their butter and soap they purchased ready-made cloth, which in turn, helped increase industrial production in the United States before the Civil War. Your reader’s blueprint for reading: Idea 1. If your paper assignment asks you to answer a specific question, turn the question into an assertion and give reasons for your opinion. Idea 4 .Use a formula to develop a working thesis statement (which you will need to revise later). Here are a few examples: The first sentence of the third paragraph (second paragraph of the body) uses the words "sense of sight" and "sense of feeling" to hook back into the previous paragraph. Note that in the second paragraph "feeling" came first, and in this paragraph "sight" comes first. The first sentence also includes the topic for this paragraph--imagery in a dynamic scene. Again, a quotation is taken from the story, and it is briefly discussed. The last sentence uses the words "one blind eye" which was in the quotation. This expression provides the transitional hook for the last paragraph in the body of the paper. 1 The sense of sight, the primary sense, is particularly susceptible to manipulation. 2 In "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe uses the following image to describe a static scene: "His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness. " Poe used the words "black," "pitch," and "thick darkness" not only to show the reader the condition of the old man's room essays about grandmothers, but also to make the reader feel the darkness." 3 "Thick" is a word that is not usually associated with color (darkness), yet in using it, Poe stimulates the reader's sense of feeling as well as his sense of sight. This paragraph should include the following: 1 Stephen King what is an expository essay topics, creator of such stories as Carrie and Pet Sematary. stated that the Edgar Allan Poe stories he read as a child gave him the inspiration and instruction he needed to become the writer that he is. 2 Poe, as does Stephen King society essay, fills the reader's imagination with the images that he wishes the reader to see, hear, and feel. 3 His use of vivid, concrete visual imagery to present both static and dynamic settings and to describe people is part of his technique. 4 Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a story about a young man who kills an old man who cares for him essay writing topics zoo, dismembers the corpse, then goes mad when he thinks he hears the old man's heart beating beneath the floor boards under his feet as he sits and discusses the old man's absence with the police. 5 In "The Tell-Tale Heart," a careful reader can observe Poe's skillful manipulation of the senses. 1 The reader does not know much about what the old man in this story looks like except that he has one blind eye. 2 In the second paragraph of "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe establishes the young man's obsession with that blind eye when he writes: "He had the eye of the vulture--a pale blue eye, with a film over it." 3 This "vulture eye" is evoked over and over again in the story until the reader becomes as obsessed with it as does the young man. 4 His use of the vivid, concrete word "vulture" establishes a specific image in the mind of the reader that is inescapable. Some Caveats and Some Examples Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election because he failed to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention. Once you have a working thesis essays for college to buy, write it down. There is nothing as frustrating as hitting on a great idea for a thesis, then forgetting it when you lose concentration. And by writing down your thesis you will be forced to think of it clearly, logically, and concisely. You probably will not be able to write out a final-draft version of your thesis the first time you try samples essays about myself, but you'll get yourself on the right track by writing down what you have. Keep your thesis prominent in your introduction. A good, standard place for your thesis statement is at the end of an introductory paragraph, especially in shorter (5-15 page) essays. Readers are used to finding theses there white paper writing services, so they automatically pay more attention when they read the last sentence of your introduction. Although this is not required in all academic essays, it is a good rule of thumb. A thesis is never a question. Readers of academic essays expect to have questions discussed, explored, or even answered. A question ("Why did communism collapse in Eastern Europe?") is not an argument, and without an argument, a thesis is dead in the water.
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