thesis statements, topic sentences, and transitions

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thesis statements, topic sentences, and
transitions

• Amanda Karim
• Writing Lab TA

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Thesis Statements

• A thesis statement is one sentence that briefly
  states your main point.
• A thesis statement must answer two questions for
  the reader
• What is your topic?
• What is your opinion, or how do you feel about
  your topic?

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Thesis Statements

• Your thesis statement cannot be an announcement.
• In this paper, I will discuss whether murderers
  should go to jail.
• Your thesis statement cannot be a fact.
• Murderers are people who kill other people.
• Your thesis statement must be something you have
  an opinion about and can argue.
• All murderers should go to jail.

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Working Thesis Statements

• Your thesis statement does not need to be perfect
  before you write your paper.
• Instead, write a working thesis statement for two
  reasons.
• Working thesis statements help you organize your
  thoughts.
• Once you organize your thoughts, you may want to
  change your thesis statement to make it more
  specific.

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Specific Thesis Statements

• Using specific information in your thesis
  statement helps the reader understand exactly
  what you will write about.
• Not specific All murderers should go to jail.
• Specific All murderers should go to jail because
  the law needs to be equal, they need to learn a
  lesson, and it will prevent them from murdering
  again.
• The specific thesis statement tells the reader
  that you will write about three reasons why
  murderers should go to jail.

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Topic Sentences

• All body paragraphs need a topic sentence.
• The topic sentence is like a thesis statement for
  a paragraph.
• It tells the reader what you will talk about in
  that paragraph.
• A topic sentence is usually the first sentence of
  your body paragraph.

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Topic Sentences

• A topic sentence cannot be an announcement.
• This paragraph will tell you why the law needs to
  be equal.
• A topic sentence cannot be a fact.
• The law allows a jury to send murderers to jail.
• Instead, your topic sentence needs to present an
  argument that supports your thesis statement.
• If only some people who commit murder go to jail,
  then society will not trust the government to
  administer the law fairly.

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Transitions

• Transitions guide the reader through your essay
  from one idea to another.
• You can transition from one idea to the next
  using transition words, i.e. first, second, then,
  after that, etc.
• A good list of transition words can be found on
  page 216 of The DK Handbook by Anne Frances
  Wysocki and Dennis A. Lynch.

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Transitions

• You should not use transition words to start
  every paragraph because this is boring for the
  reader.
• Instead, use synonyms or repeat crucial words,
  phrases, or concepts in the last sentence of one
  paragraph and the topic sentence of the next
  paragraph (Wysocki and Lynch 296).
• This allows the reader to understand the
  connection because you have made the words in
  your sentences connect.

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Transition Example

• Murderers cannot kill other people and expect
  to continue their lives as if nothing happened.
  It is important that murderers go to jail so that
  they will learn the seriousness of taking a
  persons life.
• To prevent people from committing crime,
  society needs to send all murderers to jail so
  that everyone will understand the serious
  consequences of murder.

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Transition Example

• The words highlighted in blue are an example of
  repeating words to connect ideas.
• The phrases highlighted in orange show how you
  can use synonyms to connect ideas.