Thesis

Thesis

CHAP TER
From Start to Finish

Writing Essays
1. DEVELOPING A STRONG, CLEAR THESIS STATEMENT
L E A R N I N G O B J E C T I V E S

9

1. Develop a strong, clear thesis statement with the proper elements 2. Recognize common errors in thesis statements

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, being too brief in places that needed further explanation, or providing too many details about a meaningless element. Maybe he told the end of the story ?rst, then moved to the beginning, and later added details to the middle. His ideas were probably scattered, and the story did not ?ow 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 speci?c 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 ?nd that the thesis needs revision as the essay develops.

thesis statement A sentence that presents the controlling idea of an essay. A thesis statement is often once sentence long and it states the writer’s point of view.

1.1 Elements of a Thesis Statement
For every essay you write, 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 speci?c opinion, and then articulate that into a controlling idea—the idea upon which a thesis...