What does this image mean? It means that a Thesis Statement is the equivalent of the “spine” of an essay. If it’s well-constructed, strong, and persuasive, the essay itself has a much greater chance of being strong and persuasive. If it’s weak, then the entire essay will most likely be weak.
Where is the Thesis Statement located? It’s one sentence that’s located near the end of the essay’s first (Introductory) paragraph. You’ll learn more about that later.
The chart below teaches you how to create a fabulous and strong Persuasive Essay Thesis Statement.
| 🎯Purpose of the thesis statement: to persuade your audience (the reader) to believe your point of view about your chosen Persuasive Essay topic. |
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SECTION 1: 👍🏼Make sure your thesis conveys a debatable point of view and is not only common knowledge that most people would easily agree or disagree with. 🚫For example, this is ineffective: Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease. (No one would disagree with that!) 👍🏼This is much better: Alzheimer’s is the worst disease that we can be diagnosed with. (This is definitely open for debate, so it’s a great thesis.) ☝🏼Here’s a great tip: Ask yourself these questions: “Can people agree or disagree with my thesis, and can it lead to a debate?” If your answer is to both is “Yes,” you’re good to go. If not, you need to make your thesis more persuasive and debatable. |
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SECTION 2: 🚫Terms to avoid: ‘In my opinion / I think / I feel / I believe / can / may / could / might.’ Those phrases make you sound uncertain. 👍🏼Terms to use instead: ‘Must / must not / should / should not / will / will not / have to / the most…. / the least…. / the best…. / the worst’….and so on. These make you sound convincing. 💪🏼Feel free to use strong descriptive words like ‘terrific’ or ‘outstanding’ or ‘extremely’ or ‘awful’ or ‘terrible’ or any others. |
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SECTION 3: 🚫Don’t write your thesis statement as a question. 👍🏼Make it a statement. |
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SECTION 4: 🚫Stay away from the word ‘good.’ For example, “Swimming is a good exercise.” 👍🏼Use something like ‘the best’ instead. |
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SECTION 5: 🚫 Avoid 1st and 2nd-person pronouns: I / me / my / mine / myself — and — you / your / yours / yourself / yourselves. 👍🏼 Use these instead: We / us / our / ours / ourselves — or — people / they / them / their / themselves. |
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SECTION 6: 👍🏼Keep your thesis statement specific in scope. 🚫For example, this is much, much too broad: “We should exercise because it keeps us healthy.” How many types of exercises exist on planet Earth? Hundreds, if not thousands! 👍🏼So, the thesis should be narrowed down to something like this: “We should do Pilates because it keeps us healthy.” Now, the author can focus on the benefits of Pilates instead of writing about all forms of exercise. 🚫Here’s another that’s too broad: “Smoking should not be allowed in public places.” “Public places” is too broad because there are so many different kinds of public places! 👍🏼Keep it narrow: “Smoking should not be allowed in parks.” 🚫Here’s another example of one that’s too broad: “Sex education should not be taught in schools.” How many types of schools are there? There are nursery schools, graduate schools, elementary schools, and so on. 👍🏼 Again, narrow it down: “Sex education should not be taught in elementary schools.” |
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SECTION 7: 🚫Never announce your thesis. 🚫For example, this is ineffective: “This essay will talk about….” or “My thesis states that….” or “My essay will teach you about….” 👍🏼We should just ‘jump right in’ with announcing our thesis.
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❤️ PURPOSE: Learning how to construct a well-written and persuasive Thesis Statement is a crucial academic skill. An essay’s Thesis Statement is one sentence located near the end of the first paragraph, and its purpose is to state the point of view that will be developed in the essay. Since you’re on the path towards creating a Persuasive Research Essay, you will eventually have to create your own Thesis Statement based on the topic that you’ve been developing over the last few weeks. However, you’re not quite there yet. This Assignment sets the foundation for your upcoming Persuasive Research Essay by teaching you how to construct strong and persuasive Thesis Statements.
🎯 YOUR AIM: Your goal is to learn what constitutes both excellent and poorly written Thesis Statements and then demonstrate mastery of that knowledge.
⬇️ INSTRUCTIONS:
For this assignment, you will first read a chart that teaches you how to construct great Thesis Statements. Then, you’ll fill out and upload a worksheet that demonstrates mastery of the concepts that the chart taught you.
Get Started: First, read the information in this chart: Week 10’s How-to-Create-Fantastic-Thesis-Statements Chart. Then, download this worksheet, fill it out, and upload it here: Week 10’s Thesis Statement Correct / Incorrect Worksheet
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