Thursday, October 18, 2012

Thesis Statements


         I believe that thesis statements are the hardest part of any essay. I'm not good at introducing a topic and then summarizing the entire essay in one sentence. It scares me knowing that this sentence is the basis of my entire paper and the idea that I must support throughout each paragraph. This sentence helps structure the rest of the essay, giving the reader an idea of what argument is going to be answered and how each paragraph will be structured. When there is more than one idea in the thesis then it is safe to assume that I’ll be dividing the paragraphs by each idea.
         If I'm given a prompt then I don't want to copy it completely for my thesis, but at the same time I want my thesis to relate back to the question being asked. It is so important to be original, especially on the AP test where everyone is given the same prompts to answer. If the reader reads a thesis that is relatively the same multiples times then they are probably going to be bored once they reach your essay. However, figuring out a balance between copying and being off topic is hard for me to do most of the time. If my thesis ends up being off topic then my entire essay is ruined and won't address any part of the prompt. So much rides on one small grouping of words. 

I found this link helpful in explaining how thesis statements should be written:
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/thesis_statement.shtml 


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