3-1 Lecture
THESIS STATEMENTS & INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPHS
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Page updated:
08-Sep-2009 05:18 PM |
By the end of this week, you should comprehend what a
thesis statement is, how to identify a thesis, and how to write one.
Likewise, you should be fluent in the following writing vocabulary terms:
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- establishing a subject
- generalized thesis
- mapped thesis
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The Thesis Statement
The fundamental question you must ask yourself is "how does a thesis statement
differ from a 'normal' sentence?" Thesis statements by their very nature
are unique sentences because the bear the job of tying together the whole essay.
If it were not for the thesis, the essay would not have any direction, it would
not have any focus, and readers would not know the purpose of the essay.
Needless to say, the thesis is the single-most important, necessary set of words
in any given essay. It is so important that without a thesis, I could not
give your essay a passing grade, for it is the fundamental building block of a
piece of prose.
Thesis statements don't just jump out at us and advertise
themselves, but they are pretty easy to locate if you keep a few things in mind.
First, remember that a thesis expresses an opinion or claim, or main point about
the essay as a whole. Think of the thesis as the brain of the essay, the
central nervous system. This claim or assertion that the thesis makes is
not a small one. No. It actually states a claim that is broad enough
to cover all the material you mention in the essay. If you prefer to think
imagistically, picture the tentacles of an octopus reaching out from the center
of the body. No matter what that octopus does, those tentacles always lead
back to the brain of the sea creature. Likewise every word in your essay
must have some direct or indirect connection to the claim in the thesis.
If you can't demonstrate how the sentences relate back to the thesis, then the
essay probably has digressed somewhere and that's why the sentences don't have
any connection to the thesis.
Sample Introduction with Thesis Statement
You will want to start off every essay with a well developed
introductory paragraph. Remember the criteria we discussed a couple
classes ago on the structure of a well-written essay. To achieve it's
function, the introductory paragraph must hook the reader (or engage her in some
way); it must establish the subject matter; it should convey the purpose of the
essay; and it should introduce the thesis statement in the very last sentence of
the paragraph. For the essay assignment you will be writing, you will need
to write a declarative thesis. This is a thesis that you can prove or
support with clear, concrete examples. Unlike the "soft" controlling ideas
that you might have been taught to use in a narrative/description essay, this
exemplification essay will contain a thesis statement that asserts a main claim
that you'll need to develop or prove with multiple paragraphs throughout your
essay. Consider the following introductory paragraph example that contains
the thesis statement in red:
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Though it is a sad truth, most people in the U.S. willingly spend their
hard-earned cash by investing in retarded technology. In Robert
Samuelson's essay, "Technology in Reverse", he claims that certain inventions in
our modern world are "retarded." They are not retarded in the
conventional sense we think of to describe humans who are genetically
challenged, like people with Downs Syndrome. Instead, Samuelson uses the
term "retarded" in a more literal sense to mean that an invention has not
evolved beyond the one it is replacing. He claims that "retarded
technology creates new and expensive ways of doing things that were once done
simply and inexpensively" (124). Samuelson is correct in his observation
that our world is inundated with retarded technology. In
addition to the examples he points out in his 1992 essay, other examples of
"technology racing backwards" (125) have been invented in the last 10 years. |
Let's break down what is going on in this paragraph. In
the first sentence of the paragraph, examine how the word "retarded" is used.
The sentence makes somewhat of a startling statement. Technology and
"retarded" seem to be opposites, right? Hopefully, a careful reader will
notice the unconventional arrangement of these words and be curious enough to
read on. Now, not every reader will be hooked, but what you are
aiming for are the reasonable readers in your audience, the ones who can
recognize the hook you are trying to use whether they are drawn in by it or not.
The next several sentences work to establish the subject of the essay.
Presuming that most readers will not know what "retarded technology" means, the
paragraph proceeds to define the term. It even pulls in a quotation from a
source that is used: an essay by Robert Samuelson called "Technology in
Reverse". The purpose of the essay is not really to persuade
readers that "retarded technology" exists, but rather to illustrate additional
forms of retarded technology that have appeared in our world since Samuelson's
essay was published in 1992, ten years ago. As you may have guessed, the
essay's purpose can sometimes be communicated in the thesis. When we get
to the thesis statement, notice that it makes an assertion that
can be proven. Once the reader finds out what exactly those examples are,
he can agree or disagree with whether they are indeed retarded forms of
technology. What you don't see are the other paragraphs in the main body.
But each paragraph takes a different form of technology and explains why and
exactly how it is "racing backwards" to use Samuelson's words.
You might be wondering what makes a good thesis statement.
First it must be very precise. Words are carefully chosen (this is called
diction) to convey the essay's main point clearly. Because the thesis is
the most important sentence in the entire essay, you want to spend some time on
it, honing it, carving it out so that its diction is sharp, piercing. The one above
is a generalized thesis because it does not map out the 4 forms of retarded
technology (remember the class lecture about mapped versus generalized thesis
statements). You can use either a mapped thesis or a generalized thesis in
your exemplification essay.
Bad thesis statements will be vague and not express an
assertion or a claim. Bad thesis statement will also announce the essay.
Never write a thesis that announces an essay. That's one of the
differences between high school essays and college essays. Consider these
thesis statements that announce the essay:
- In my essay, I will give 4 kinds of
retarded technology.
- In this essay, we will discuss retarded
technology that is worthless.
- I agree with Samuelson that there are
other kinds of technology that are retarded and my essay will talk about 4 more
kinds.
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As you can see, all of these "thesis statements"
announce what the essay will be about. This method creates a very
casual, informal tone in the essay. While you don't want your writing to
sound stuffy, you do want your language to speak with authority, and you want it
to sound professional. When you compare these 3 examples with to the one
above, you can see the obvious contrast between them and the one listed in the
thesis statement in the indented paragraph above.
Overall, carving out a well crafted, carefully constructed
thesis is well worth your time invested. Though you always should think of
it as a tentative thesis or claim because you want to allow yourself the freedom
to adjust it throughout the writing process as your draft develops and evolves.
It's okay to tweak your words in the thesis to fit new thoughts or directions
your main body paragraphs are taking you. Keeping your thesis in focus
this way can only help you write a better essay.
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