Thesis Statement . Attributes & Characteristics

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The term, thesis statement, is frightening to many students but it does not have to be. The thesis statement describes what the topic of the resume is. Most essays, term papers, books, or journal articles can be stated in one or two sentences. This is what a thesis statement does. It simply describes the essay in a sentence. Thesis statements usually do three things: They test the ideas of the writer. They help the writer organize and develop their essay. They provide a statement that informs the reader what the essay is about. It guides the reader as he reads the essay. Most essays can be designed in a question and the answer will be in the body of the essay. Most thesis statements express one central idea.

Thesis statements help the writer to stay organized without running off into different areas other than the one the writer proposes. Often a writer researches so much information that he cannot simply write about everything he has read. The thesis statement is used to guide the writer to stay focused on the specific topic. Many writers do not create the thesis statement until they are make an outline so they can tell how they are going to write the topic, but many writers create the thesis statement first and then the outline.

Most thesis statements are found in the first paragraph. The thesis statement usually gives the topic and describes the body of the essay. It answers some of the following questions: What is the topic? What do you want to say about the topic? Why is it important to you? Most thesis statements describe one main idea with the body of the essay answering or describing the topic.

A strong thesis will take one side of the issue with the body of the essay showing evidence as to why the writer took that side. Consider this example:

One out of five women have eating disorders caused by stress.

This is a simple fact about women but does not show where or how the writer plans to go with the topic. Consider this thesis statement:

While one out of three women have eating disorders, most of these women began to have the eating disorder due to stress, depression, and anger.

This is a strong thesis statement because it gives facts but it also shows that the writer intends to give evidence proving stress, depression, and anger are related to eating disorders. The writer plans to show how stress leads to eating disorders. A thesis statement is more than facts. A thesis statement should guide the reader into the body of the essay.

A thesis statement consists of two different parts of the topic and the analysis or argument. In the above example the reader can identify the topic as eating disorders and the argument is that stress, depression, and anger causes eating disorders. The body of the essay would produce facts supporting the thesis statement. The thesis statement should be a specific statement showing the reader what the topic will be and how the writer feels about the topic.

A thesis statement makes a claim about the topic and why the writer believes this is true. For instance, the writer in the example thesis statement shows that she believes that stress, depression and anger may lead to eating disorders. It gives an argument about eating disorders and the reader will know exactly what the writer is planning to prove. However, some people may not agree with the writer. Some people may believe that stress is not related to eating disorders. Some people might believe that depression or anger has nothing to do with eating disorders. A good thesis statement allows the reader to disagree with it but it encourages the reader to read to find out more about the topic.

A thesis statement should make a claim that will be supported with evidence and present the reasons why the writer believes the way he/she does. It is like a road map in which the topic is stated with the suggestion of where the writer is leading the reader.

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