1. Reflecting on Dante’s “Inferno” Thesis Statements
2016 Examples and
Opportunities for Growth

3. Exemplar Thesis Statement
Dante uses Italian vernacular in the “Inferno” to highlight that there was not one standard language shared between the top and the bottom of the social hierarchy, which illustrates that unification was not considered significant to the people of his era.

4. Exemplar Thesis Statement
In Datne’s “Inferno,” Dante-the-writer uses terza rima to allude to Christianity’s Holy Trinity, making his piece of fiction seem like official belief during the time of prime church veneration.

5. Exemplar Thesis Statement
In the “Inferno” by Dante, the author uses violent animals symbolically to portray sin, leading readers to convert or return to Christianity through fear.

6. Improving Thesis Writing
Write about fiction in the present tense
Avoid examples and definitions in thesis statements
Be specific
Brevity as a guiding principle
Avoid unnecessary prepositional phrases
Hyphenate when necessary
Avoid “us,” “me,” “we,” and “the reader”

7. Improving Thesis Writing
Write about fiction in the present tense
YES: “Dante uses animal symbolism…”
NO: “Dante used animal symbolism…”

8. Improving Thesis Writing
Hyphenate compound adjective phrases
Write out #s under ten in letters
“Dante uses three-line stanzas to allude to the Holy Trinity, …”

9. Improving Thesis Writing
Avoid evidence/examples in thesis statements
Avoid “us,” “you,” “me,” “we,” and “the reader”
“Throughout the 34 cantos of the “Inferno” irony is utilized to express the contrapasso of various sins, such as fighting in life leads to external fighting in death, to give us a an idea of what hell might be.

10. Improving Thesis Writing
Avoid definitions in thesis statements
Avoid “us,” “you,” “me,” “we,” and “the reader”
“In the epic poem The Divine Comedy, Dante-the-author uses irony in his contrapasso, which is a punishment for sinners, depicting that if you fail in life, you will fail in hell.

11. Improving Thesis Writing
Be specific
“Dante, in the “Inferno”, uses his idol’s, Virgil’s, expertise in writing to convey his own thoughts about the Christian afterlife to change what most people thought hell to be.

12. Improving Thesis Writing
Use brevity as a guiding principle
“Use” rather than “utilize”
Avoid unnecessary prepositional phrases.

13. Improving Thesis Writing
Avoid unnecessary prepositional phrases
“Use” rather than “utilize”
In Dante’s Inferno, the author utilizes irony in his writing as a way to depict the contrapasso for every sinner of every kind…