Thesis Statements

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Thesis Statements
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What is a thesis statement?

• It is the guiding focus for your entire essay.
• It is the main or controlling point for your
  whole paper.
• Everything in your essay should support your
  thesis.

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Thesis Continued

• The thesis appears early on to help guide your
  reader through the points you will be making.
• Nothing should appear in the body of the paper
  that does not directly connect to the thesis
  statement.
• Your thesis can be explicit or implicit.

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Explicit Implicit

• The thesis is directly stated and can be
  physically underlined and identified clearly by
  any one reading the essay.
• All of your thesis statements will need to be
  explicit.

• The thesis is hinted at or implied. The reader
  will understand the main point by the time they
  are finished reading the essay.
• These are often used in personal narratives

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A Good Thesis Statement

• Includes your opinion (but stated as a fact)
• Contains only one main idea
• States something worthwhilenot obvious
• Has an argument built into it

• Is specific
• It is narrow enough to fit the assignment
• It is easily recognized as the main idea
• It appears as the last sentence or two of your
  introduction

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Thesis Statement Mistakes to Avoid

• Dont just announce your subject matter.
• Dont state a fact or statistica thesis must be
  debatable.
• Dont use in my opinion or I think this
  creates a non-debatable thesis.
• Dont form your thesis as a question.

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Which is a Thesis?

• In my opinion, Animal Farm, by George Orwell,
  expresses the theme of corruption prevails when
  power is unchecked.
• Animal Farm, by George Orwell, expresses the
  theme of corruption prevails when power is
  unchecked.

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Which is a Thesis?

• In the year 1987, 500,000 high school students
  died from extreme exhaustion resulting from
  annotating required texts.
• In order to improve the quality of health for
  students, the annotating of required course texts
  should be banned in high schools.

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Which is a thesis?

• The use of journaling and free-writing in the
  high school classroom, contributes to the
  delinquency of minors.
• Could the extended use of journaling and
  free-writing in the high school classroom,
  contribute to the delinquency of minors?

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Remember

• A thesis statement may need to be split between
  two sentences, but should be as concise as
  possible.
• The thesis statement may go through many
  revisions by the time you finish your essay.
  Writing is discovery. All points in the essay
  must fit under the thesis, so be prepared to make
  revisions as you go.