Formulating Thesis Statements Patterns of College Writing by: Kirszner and Mandell

Thesis Defined Main Idea or Central Point Your essay should be the support for your thesis statement Your thesis should depend on the scope and difficulty of your assignment, your knowledge, and your method of writing. Your thesis should always enlighten Many thesis statements should be able to be argued. Your writing thesis may and will most likely be tentative.

3 Characteristics of a thesis 1. An effective thesis statement clearly expresses your essay’s main idea. –It signals how you will approach your topic 2. An effective thesis statement communicates your essay’s purpose. –To express feelings (expresive) –To inform (informative) –To persuade (persuasive) 3. An effective thesis statement is clearly worded.

Subject to Topic Start your essay with a general subject –A general theme in a fictional work: Teen Angst –A Wikipedia Entry Web 2.0 Move to specific topics –Gene’s inability follow his own interests causes him to kill Phineas. –The use of Web 2.0 materials in an English classroom increases student interaction with texts.

Finding your Thesis Title: George Orwell’s “A Hanging” Announcement: This paper will discuss George Orwell’s attitude toward the death penalty in his essay “A Hanging” Statement of Fact: In his essay, Orwell describes a hanging that he witnessed in Burma Thesis: In “A Hanging,” George Orwell shows that capital punishment is not only brutal but also immoral.

Exercises Page 34 – Exercise 8 &9