Now that you have decided, at least tentatively, what information you plan to present in your essay argument essay thesis examples, you are ready to write your thesis statement. This final thesis statement presents an interpretation of a literary work based on an analysis of its content. Of course, for the essay itself to be successful, you must now present evidence from the novel that will convince the reader of your interpretation. This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, and how you can craft or refine one for your draft. Compare this to the original weak thesis. This final thesis presents a way of interpreting evidence that illuminates the significance of the question. Keep in mind that this is one of many possible interpretations of the Civil War—it is not the one and only right answer to the question. There isn’t one right answer; there are only strong and weak thesis statements and strong and weak uses of evidence. We consulted these works while writing the original version of this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find the latest publications on this topic. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . Suppose you are taking a course on 19th-century America, and the instructor hands out the following essay assignment: Compare and contrast the reasons why the North and South fought the Civil War. You turn on the computer and type out the following: Here’s a working thesis with potential: you have highlighted an important aspect of the novel for investigation. However, it’s still not clear what your analysis will reveal. Your reader is intrigued but is still thinking, “So what? What’s the point of this contrast? What does it signify?” Perhaps you are not sure yet, either. That’s fine—begin to work on comparing scenes from the book and see what you discover. Free write software management project, make lists, jot down Huck’s actions and reactions. Eventually you will be able to clarify for yourself, and then for the reader, why this contrast matters. After examining the evidence and considering your own insights, you write: 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 academic peer reviewed journal articles, and the North thought slavery was wrong”). Now essay radio, 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: Anson, Chris M. and Robert A. Schwegler. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers. 6th ed. New York: Longman sample thesis statement for expository essay, 2010. Ruszkiewicz, John J. et al. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers. 9th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. Think of yourself as a member of a jury, listening to a lawyer who is presenting an opening argument. You'll want to know very soon whether the lawyer believes the accused to be guilty or not guilty, and how the lawyer plans to convince you. Readers of academic essays are like jury members: before they have read too far, they want to know what the essay argues as well as how the writer plans to make the argument. After reading your thesis statement, the reader should think, "This essay is going to try to convince me of something. I'm not convinced yet essay types of students, but I'm interested to see how I might be." 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. 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, 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. Michael Dukakis lost the 1988 presidential election because he failed to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention. A thesis should never be vague, combative or confrontational. An ineffective thesis would be, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because communism is evil." This is hard to argue (evil from whose perspective? what does evil mean?) and it is likely to mark you as moralistic and judgmental rather than rational and thorough. It also may spark a defensive reaction from readers sympathetic to communism. If readers strongly disagree with you right off the bat, they may stop reading. Almost every assignment you complete for a history course will ask you to make an argument. Your instructors will often call this your "thesis" -- your position on a subject. Idea 4 .Use a formula to develop a working thesis statement (which you will need to revise later). Here are a few examples: 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. Beginning thesis: Between 1820 and 1860 women's domestic labor changed as women stopped producing home-made fabric samples of personal statement letter for college, 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 essay about teachers life, which in turn dissertation proposal service uk, helped increase industrial production in the United States before the Civil War. As you work on your essay, your ideas will change and so will your thesis. Here are examples of weak and strong thesis statements. Below is a list of some of the common errors students make when writing a thesis statement or statements. For each kind of error there is an example of a flawed as well as a sound thesis. You may think you need a definite thesis when you are writing, but that’s a myth. You can write a fine essay with a working thesis and then re-write it as your essay progresses. CPP Investment Board is giving you the opportunity to build your resume and prove your skills. All theses must: Some examples of descriptive theses: Eventually essay on formative assessment, you will have refined your research question, putting it into a well-focused form that allows you to identify many sources, all dealing with that question in some waytrying to answer it, providing information needed to answer it, trying to answer related questions that shed light on it somehow. Your paper will then attempt to answer this question why do we write essays, and the answer you provide will be your thesis. Because the thesis is what youre trying to prove, it must be possible to express it in the form of a statement or assertion (e.g. the sky is blue). It is not a question (what color is the sky?) or a topic (the color of the sky). Notice that The sky is blue is a complete declarative sentence, while the topic (the color of the sky) is notit does not say anything about the skys color. A descriptive thesis
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
ArchivesCategories |