English 020 connections developing a working Thesis

WHAT IS A THESIS STATEMENT?

A thesis statement is a sentence that states the topic and purpose of your paper. A good thesis statement will direct the structure of your essay and will allow your reader to understand the ideas you will discuss within your paper.

WHERE DOES A THESIS STATEMENT GO?

Your thesis should be stated somewhere in the opening paragraphs of your paper, most often as the last sentence of the introduction. Often, a thesis will be one sentence, but for complex subjects, you may find it more effective to break the thesis statement into two sentences.

HOW DO YOU WRITE A THESIS STATEMENT?

The kind of thesis statement you write will depend on the type of paper you are writing. For Essay 2, you will be writing an argumentative thesis.

An argumentative thesis states the topic of your paper, your position on the topic, and the reasons you have for taking that position.

MORE TIPS:

• Your thesis statement should be one to two sentences.
• Your thesis statement should clearly present the main idea of your essay and make some kind of assertion. The thesis should be a debatable claim.
• Your thesis should not make an “announcement” about what your essay will cover. Instead, it should just present your assertion.
  • For example, a thesis like this makes an announcement: In this paper, I will persuade you to vote for candidates who support education reform.

• • Instead you might write: Because our education system is in need of reform to better serve students of color, we should vote for candidates who are willing to make the necessary changes.
• If you are struggling with putting your thesis together, check out this Thesis Generation.

Directions:

For this assignment, you will write a sample working thesis for Essay 2. A working thesis is just that, working! You don’t have to stick to the thesis you write here for your final draft of the essay, but it gives you a chance to work on it. It is extremely common that your final thesis will differ a little bit from your original working thesis.

Note: For this assignment, I am looking for a submission of one to two sentences, only a thesis! You should not submit an entire paragraph or essay here.

GRADING:

You will receive a “Complete” on this assignment as long as you submit a thesis statement. However, I will provide you with feedback about how you might revise the thesis for your essay moving forward so make sure to look at my comment as well as the grade.