The Thesis Statement

1
The Thesis Statement
2
What is a thesis statement?

• A thesis statement is the most important sentence
  in your paper.
• A thesis statement tells your readers what your
  essay will be about.
• In other words, a thesis statement provides a
  forecast for the entire essay.
• Usually, in college writing the thesis statement
  comes at the end of your introduction.

3
One way to think about it

• The thesis statement gives your reader the topic
  of your paper and what you will say about that
  topic.
• If something is in your thesis, it must be
  illustrated and explained somewhere in your essay.

4
One kind of thesis

• Is the analytical thesis. An analytical thesis
  statement usually answers the questions
• How?
• and
• Why?

5
What does this mean?

• The How question refers to how the author of a
  text goes about presenting information or
  stylistic choices to his readers.
• S/he specifically makes these decisions in order
  to fulfill the purpose of the essay.
• When you analyze your text, you choose one aspect
  of the text to write about.

6
This aspect is the how part of your thesis.

• Your author might fulfill his purpose by using
  one or more of these aspects
• Using a specific tone or style
• Using specific vocabulary choices
• Organizing or structuring the text in a certain
  way
• Orchestrating a connection between the beginning
  and ending
• Using figurative language

7
Look at an example from the text

• He George Orwell artfully employs simile and
  metaphor, personification, and dialogue to
  indicate peoples humanity toward other people
  regardless of nationality and to prompt readers
  sympathy and self-examination.
• What aspects will this paper analyze?

8
Aspects to be analyzed

• He George Orwell artfully employs simile and
  metaphor, personification, and dialogue
• Simile
• Metaphor
• Personification
• Dialogue

9
Examples from our essays might be

• In Simplicity, William Zinsser employs a very
  specific structure .
• Or
• In On Being 17, Bright, and Unable to Read
  David Raymonds tone of sincerity

10

• Each of the previous examples is an acceptable
  beginning of a thesis statement because each
  names an author, a text, and what your paper will
  discuss.
• They tell your readers which aspect you will be
  writing about.

11
But theres more

• You still need to tell your readers why

• Why, according to the student in the model essay,
  does Orwell use these aspects?

12
Look at the rest of the thesis

• to indicate peoples humanity toward other
  people regardless of nationality and to prompt
  readers sympathy and self-examination.

• Three reasons!

13
Thinking about our assignment

• Why, according to your interpretation, does
  Zinsser use this structure?

14
So, you add another part to the thesis statement

• In Simplicity, William Zinsser employs a very
  specific structure so that the readers first and
  final impressions are about the art of writing.

15
Another example

• Why does Raymond want to convey sincerity?
• In On Being 17, Bright, and Unable to Read,
  David Raymonds tone of sincerity serves to
  lessen the audiences potential fears of those
  who are disabled.

16
For this essay you also need

• Evaluation

• How well did the author meet his goal?
• Was the author successful in fulfilling her
  purpose?

17
so you add one more piece to the thesis.

• Because the thesis is pretty long, you could do
  this simply try for an adverb.
• In Simplicity, William Zinsser successfully
  employs a very specific structure so that the
  readers first and final impressions are about
  the art of writing.

18
or

• you might need to make some changes
• In On Being 17, Bright, and Unable to Read,
  David Raymonds tone of sincerity fulfills his
  purpose of lessening the audiences potential
  fears of those who are disabled.
• (Changed from serves to lessen)

19
Additionally, your thesis statement should meet
the following requirements

• 1. It should be interesting to your readers. Your
  brain works differently than anyone elses in
  this room. Show us a point of view or a
  perspective we might not have considered before.

20
and

• 2. It should have precise and specific wording.
  Try not to use the same words everyone else will
  use (good, well, bad, etc.).

21
and

• 3. It should be manageable. Dont try to cover
  every bit of your paper. Make it broad enough
  that it covers the whole paper! Simplify!
• Note If youve mentioned the authors full name
  in the introduction, you can use her/his last
  name only in the thesis statement. This might
  help you simplify.

22
Last but not least

• Understand that your thesis statement might, and
  probably will, change as you draft and revise.
  Oftentimes when we are writing, our ideas becomes
  clearer or sometimes even shift to a slightly
  different interpretation. THIS IS OKAY.

23
The Working Thesis

• Sometimes writers wait until they have drafted an
  entire paper before truly shaping their thesis
  statement.
• They begin with a rough statement, almost a
  sketch, of what they want their thesis to be,
  then they write the essay, then they go back and
  refine the thesis. The rough draft of a thesis
  statement is called a working thesis.

24
Start here

• The necessary ingredients to your thesis for this
  paper
• Title
• Author
• How?
• Why?