Thesis Statement

1
Thesis Statement

• Role
• Characteristics

2
Role of Thesis Statement

• States IN A SINGLE SENTENCE what the argument of
  the essay will be
• Every paragraph must support some aspect of it
  (it defines the structure to follow)
• Therefore, Provides STRUCTURE for the Essay
• Helps the Writer and Helps the reader

3
A Good Thesis Statement must be

• UNIFIED since the thesis statement provides the
  structure and argument for the essay, it must
  have only one main clause, or you will have a
  divided paper

• FOCUSED the thesis statement must provide a
  focus for the analysis that will follow since
  all analysis will point back to some aspect of
  it.
• ASSERTIVE must provide a point for the essay

4
AVOID

• Use of to be verbs in thesis statement
  especially if the predicate merely renames the
  subject (Predicate Nominative or Predicate
  Adjective)
• e/.g. Okonkwo is an ideal Ibo warrior.

• Vague predicates
• Interesting
• Great
• Important
• Really good

5
Sample problems

• Okonkwo is an ideal warrior among the Ibo.
• Okonkwo exhibits many Ibo ideals, but the Ibo
  have an imbalanced view of gender, like Creon.
• Okonkwo fails to grow.

6
Does this Work?

• Although Okonkwo exhibits many masculine ideals
  of the Ibo people,
• he fails to learn the deeper foundation of these
  values in the feminine
• because fear and rigidity prevent him from fully
  growing up.

7
Does this Work?

• Okonkwos rigidity, motivated by a fear of being
  like his father, helps him achieve great things,
  but
• ironically leads to his downfall, due to his
  inability to adapt to change.