What is this handout about?

This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how it works in your writing, and how you can make or refine a thesis statement for your draft.

introduce

College writing usually takes the form of persuasion-convincing others that you have an interesting and logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill that you often practice in your daily life. You persuade your roommate to clean up, your parents let you borrow your car, and your friends vote for your favorite candidate or policy. In college, course assignments often require you to present a convincing case in writing. You are asked to convince your readers of your point of view. This form of persuasion is usually called academic debate and follows a predictable pattern in writing. After briefly introducing your topic, directly state your views on the topic, often in one sentence. This sentence is a thesis statement, which summarizes the arguments in the rest of your thesis.

What is a thesis statement?

Thesis statement:

Tell the reader how you will explain the meaning of the discussion topic.

It is the road map of the paper; In other words, it tells readers what to expect from the rest of the paper.

Answer your question directly. A thesis is an explanation of a problem or topic, not the topic itself. The theme of an article may be World War II or Moby Dick; Papers must provide a way to understand war or novels.

Put forward an idea that others may question.

Usually, somewhere in your first paragraph, show your argument to the reader in one sentence. The rest of the paper, that is, the main body of the article, collects and organizes evidence to convince readers to understand the logic of your explanation.

If your homework requires you to take a position or put forward a proposition on a topic, you may need to convey that position or proposition in your thesis statement near the beginning of the draft. Homework may not explicitly state that you need a thesis statement, because your tutor may think that you will include one. If in doubt, ask your tutor if you need a paper presentation for your homework. When a task requires you to analyze, explain, compare and contrast, prove causality or take a stand on a problem, it is likely to require you to put forward an argument and support it convincingly. See our handout on understanding homework for more information. )

How do I get a paper?

Thesis is the result of a long thinking process. Writing a paper is not the first thing you should do after reading the paper assignment. Before you argue on any topic, you must collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts (such as surprising comparisons or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you think like this, you may have a "work argument", a basic or main idea, an argument that you think you can support with evidence but may need to be adjusted.

Writers use a variety of techniques to stimulate their thinking, help them sort out the relationship or understand the broader meaning of the topic, and reach a thesis statement. For more ideas on how to start, please see our handout on brainstorming.

How do I know if my thesis is strong?

If you have time, ask your instructor to do it, or make an appointment at the writing center to get some feedback. Even if you don't have time to get advice from other places, you can do some paper evaluation yourself. When reviewing your first draft and working paper, ask yourself the following questions:

Shall I answer this question? Re-reading the question prompt after constructing the working paper can help you correct an argument that doesn't grasp the key point of the question.

Did I take a position that others might question or object to? If your paper only states the fact that no one will, or even may not, object, then you may only provide a summary, not an argument.

Is my thesis statement specific enough? Too vague paper statements often have no strong arguments. If your paper contains the words "good" or "success", see if you can be more specific: why something is "good"; What exactly makes a thing "successful"?

My thesis passed "So what?" Testing? If the reader's first reaction is, "So what?" Then you need to clarify, establish a relationship, or connect to a bigger problem.

Does my thesis specifically support my thesis, and there is no deviation? If your paper and the main body of the article seem to be out of harmony, one of them must be changed. It is ok to revise your work paper to reflect what you found in the process of writing it. Remember to re-evaluate and revise your article frequently when necessary.

Did my thesis pass "How and Why?" Testing? If the reader's first reaction is "How?" Or "why?" Your paper may be too open and lack guidance for readers. See what you can add, so that readers can better understand your position from the beginning.

example

Suppose you are taking a course about America in the19th century. The teacher assigned the following paper assignment: Compare and contrast the causes of the Civil War. You turn on the computer and enter the following:

There are many reasons for the civil war between the north and the south, some of which are the same and some are different.

This weak argument reiterated the problem, but did not provide any additional information. You will expand this new information in the body of the article, but it is important for readers to know your direction. Readers of this weak paper may think, "What is the reason? How are they the same? What is the difference between them? " Ask yourself the same question, and start to compare the attitudes of the North and the South (maybe you first think that "the South thinks slavery is right and the North thinks slavery is wrong"). Now, push your comparison to an explanation-why does one side think slavery is right and the other side thinks it is wrong? You read the evidence again, and you decide that you want to argue that the north thinks slavery is immoral, while the south thinks it supports the lifestyle of the south. You wrote:

Although both sides fought a civil war over slavery, the North fought for moral reasons, while the South fought for its own system.

Now you have a working paper! In this working paper, the causes of the war and the differences between the two sides on this cause are included. When you write a paper, you may begin to describe these differences more accurately, and your work paper may begin to appear too vague. Maybe you decide that both sides are fighting for moral reasons, and they just pay attention to different moral issues. You finally revised your working paper into a final paper, which really grasped the argument in your paper:

Although both northerners and southerners believe that they oppose tyranny and oppression, northerners are concerned about the oppression of slaves, while southerners defend their autonomy.

Compare this with the original weak paper. This last paper puts forward a way to explain the evidence and illustrates the importance of this issue. Remember, this is one of many possible explanations for the civil war-it is not the only correct answer to this question. There is no right answer; There are only strong and weak statements in the thesis, and there are only strong and weak points in the use of evidence.

Let's look at another example. Suppose your literature professor assigned the following assignment to a class on American novels: Analyze a certain aspect of Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. "It's easy," you think. "I like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn!" You grab a piece of paper and write it down:

Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.

Why is this paper weak? Think about what readers will get from the following article: You are likely to provide a general and appreciative summary of Twain's novels. The question does not require you to summarize; It lets you analyze. Your professor may not be interested in your opinion of this novel; On the contrary, she wants you to think about why this is such a great novel-what does Huck's adventure tell us about life, about America, about adulthood, about race relations and so on? ? First of all, this question requires you to choose an aspect of the novel that you think is important to its structure or significance-for example, the role of storytelling, the contrast between the coast and the river, or the relationship between adults and children. Now you write:

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain contrasted life on the river with life on the shore.