nerate a topic sentence for every paragraph I intend to write.
One of the most dreaded parts of writing an essay is the thesis statement. While I still take an abnormal amount of time to decide on a thesis statement I like, I have gained quite a lot of knowledge in how to form one and where to place it. Writing Writing will become so much less dreadful once you understand the structure of a thesis statement. Though simple, the best way I came to understand a thesis is this: it should answer a question. Learning to develop an argument with a thesis is important; learning how to present that argument throughout a paper was so much more so.
This writing class better helped me understand the intrinsic rules of structuring arguments, which went
In high school, I struggled to make a developed thesis. I am argumentative by nature and that helped me when coming up with research questions and the foundation for a thesis. However, I had trouble asking the next set of questions to really show the depth in my arguments, which is necessary in college. While at Mason I have progressed with my thesis’, which can be seen when I wrote:
Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings. 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2012. Print.
The basic properties of a thesis statement is the subject, focus, claim, and the "So What?" factor. While I could pinpoint my subject and claim, I had a hard time with making my focus clear and understandable. In Paper 1, my starting thesis statement was "In Battle Royal, the narrator's status as an educated black man serves as a form of wealth; as a result, his wealth is sparking a need for more segregation and silence of the black man in an unequal and racist economy." This thesis statement was not a strong statement because it did not explain and elaborate why the narrator was truly "wealthy", which makes my focus unclear. To address this issue, I had to ask myself why my thesis sentence important to begin with and what did I want my thesis sentence to argue. To improve my thesis, I explained why his wealth was significant and added why my thesis statement was important to the audience. My final thesis statement was, "In Battle Royal, the narrator's status as an educated black man serves as a form of wealth because his education is an advantage he can use to advance in an unjust society; as a result, his wealth is sparking a need for more segregation and silence of the black man in an unequal and racist economy". This thesis statement is better because it pinpoints clearly why his wealth is even significant. Also, the second independent clause made my "So What?" claim clear because I could further elaborate on the broader significance of the
This course and writing these essays has drastically improved my writing capabilities. Before this course I could not write an enthymeme or effectively write an argumentative paper. Establishing a clear and strong enthymeme to a question at issues helps me organize my ideas within the body paragraphs and keeps me from becoming repetitive. I understand now that addressing a counter argument strengthens my paper and helps tell the reader that you know your topic and have strong reasons. I look forward to using the writing skills I learned in this class towards future writing opportunities either with my studies or outside of school. I will continue to use enthymemes to effectively state my claim and reason and to strengthen my argument.
Organization – From there, outline each part of your essay into sections that go to build and support the argument. Ask yourself, “What does my reader need to know in order to understand the topic? What do I need to prove FIRST in order to get to what I want to discuss LATER?
On the “Benchmark - Rhetorical Analysis of a Public Document Final Draft” essay I got a valuable advice from the tutor. The introduction paragraph was weak and the lack of thesis statement was obvious to the reader. As far as I can see this is my weak point. Same advice I got from my classmates on the “The “Unsung Heroes” about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” and “Misdiagnose and Overuse of drugs for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD)” essays. The comments gave me an opportunity to fix my mistakes and use the formula for thesis statement from “Writing
Muller, G.H. and Wiener, H.S. (2009). To the point: Reading and writing short arguments. New York: Pearson Education, Inc
...which is why I put so much pressure on myself to get it right. My biggest downfall is I put my writing down and just feel it’s never good enough. I think since I am a math person, my writing can’t be as good as it would be, if I could just follow a formula, I think the solution to this would be an outline. I feel having these key features fixed, and not being so hard on my work can boost a “C” essay up to a “B” essay. In all my English classes, they’ve told me how influential your thesis and hook can be, to the reader and to your essay. I just feel mine needs a bunch of work, but I will need to take a different look at how my writing comes out to really get better. I think if I took steps like going to a tutor, asking questions to help fix up my paragraphs, consulting others, or putting extra time into my essays would help match my writing up with my high standards.
Students struggle to understand writing prompts. Instead of starting with a strong topic and thesis statement they are frustrated and confused by what is expected of them. They are unable to begin the process and cannot organize their thoughts into a written response.
The two most important things I learned during this module include knowing how to make a viable argument and how to provide evidence to back up my thesis. For example, I made an argument about the representation of posthumans and its challenges to the ideas of community in Project Two on the movie, “Captain America: The First Avenger.” I did so by researching the topics on the topic list, making a list of ideas I could write about on each, choosing the option I could best write on, and then choosing a side and determining an argument. Also, in Project Two, I backed my thesis statement with evidence relating to my argument. I researched the topic thoroughly and then provided background on the subject, quotes, examples that supported my evidence, and even opposing views.
The most troublesome part of witting an essay is to generate a thesis statement which is clear and specific to a certain
subject) and gradually narrows to a specific thesis. The thesis, or thesis statement, tells the reader what you
Being taught the importance of outlining ideas and getting all thoughts together first. This classes how shows the proper way to structure an essay by starting with the thesis statement. Next completing the 3 body paragraphs to correspond with the thesis statement, and how to use transition words to go from one paragraph to the next. Then completing the conclusion, and lastly writing the introduction paragraph. Before this class I dreaded writing essays, but knowing how to properly write them has made it so much easier. This class also has helpful tools, for example Connect to help with the proper use of punctuation like commas and semicolons. Using proper punctuation had been difficult for me in the past. Students are taught how to properly combine sentences, and how to determine if sentences are able to stand alone. Along with learning the importance of prewriting and editing. Since taking this class I am begun to enjoy
Writing a strong thesis will set the tone for the overall of your paper and serves a guideline on how it will be written. Many writers have different styles that are used for research papers. Based on the direction that the writer is heading with the introduction of the paper, the main objective is to capture the audience interest.
3. Work on developing your introductory paragraph. A good introduction should be at least four sentences including the thesis statement. The thesis, itself, should be the last sentence in the introduction.