Thesis Statement

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Thesis Statement

• Hints for writing and using a thesis statement

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Thesis Statement

• A thesis statement is a lot like a topic
  sentence. There are few differences, however.
  One difference you will notice right away is that
  a thesis statement appears as the last sentence
  of your first paragraph, whereas a topic sentence
  usually appears as the first sentence of the
  first paragraph. When writing research papers,
  you will use a thesis statement rather than a
  topic sentence.

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Thesis statement

• Where does a thesis statement appear?
• A. First sentence of the paper
• B. Last sentence of the first paragraph.

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Thesis Statement

• If you answered BYou are right! The thesis
  statement appears as the last sentence of the
  first paragraph! You dont use a topic sentence
  in a research paper. You use a thesis statement
  instead.

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Thesis Statement

• Your thesis statement is developed from the
  information you have gathered.

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Thesis Statement

• Your thesis statement should be limited in
  topic. You must prove your thesis statement by
  the end of your paper. You don want to try to
  prove something too big or too vague.

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Thesis Statement

• Your thesis statement should reflect your
  purpose for writing. For example, if you are
  trying to argue that you believe smoking is
  harmful, and yet teens are targeted by tobacco
  companies, this should be clear in your thesis
  statement. An example of a simple thesis
  statement follows.
• Even though smoking is extremely detrimental to a
  teenagers health, tobacco companies are
  targeting teens.

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Thesis Statement

• Your thesis statement should keep you focused as
  you outline, draft and revise your paper. For
  each paragraph you write, you can check your
  thesis statement to see if the information in the
  paragraph helps prove the thesis statement.

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Thesis Statement

• Lets take the thesis statement about smoking for
  example Even though smoking is extremely
  detrimental to a teenagers health, tobacco
  companies are targeting teens. Which of the
  following paragraphs would work in the paper?
• A paragraph outlining how a teenage athlete is
  effected if he/she smokes.
• A paragraph on the advertisements used by
  tobacco companies.
• A paragraph mortality rates for adult smokers
  that started smoking in their teens.
• A paragraph on cocaine usage

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Thesis Statement

• If you said all the paragraphs except the one on
  cocaine would work, you are right. Give yourself
  a big pat on the back!
• As you write your own paper, use your thesis
  statement to keep you on course. You want
  everything you say in your paper to relate in
  some way to your thesis statement!

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Thesis Statement

• Make sure that your thesis statement can stand
  alone. If someone reads JUST your thesis
  statement, they should be able to tell what your
  paper is about.
• This would not work
• Even though it is extremely detrimental to a
  teenagers health, they are targeting teens(Be
  Specificwhat is it? Smoking and tobacco
  companies.)

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Thesis Statement

• Also, dont use I, you or paper anywhere in
  your thesis statementor your entire research
  paper for that matter.
• This wouldnt work
• I am going to tell you in this paper about how
  research indicates that smoking is extremely
  detrimental to a persons heath, and smoking
  should be avoided.
• The thesis statement is much better if that part
  is left out!