dr. johnson's class, aamu

1. Thesis Statements
and
Introductions
Dr. C
English 1030-Composition II

2. The Thesis Statement
• Should be as specific as possible
• Should be as forceful as possible
• Should avoid sounding wishy-washy
• Should be clear and concise
• Should contain 3 or 4 main points of
your paper
• Should be the last sentence of your
introduction

3. Example Thesis
Statements
• Topic: education, research and virtual
environments
• Thesis Statement: Real education, in
disciplines such as medicine, science
and astronomy, can take place within
virtual environments.

4. Another Example Thesis
Statement
• Topic: Social Interaction
• Thesis Statement: Social interaction
within a virtual world, like partying,
listening to live music and even watching
movies, can be more enjoyable than one
might initially believe.

5. Yet Another Example
Thesis Statement
• Topic: Role Playing
• Thesis Statement: Role playing is a
very popular activity in Second Life,
involving choosing a role-play group,
selecting a role within that group and
looking the part.
5

6. One More Thesis
Statement Example
• Topic: Machinima
• Thesis Statement: Machinima is an
innovative form of film making enabling
machinimators to create music videos,
public service announcements and
even training videos.
6

7. Thesis Rules
• A thesis statement should:
– Never be an open-ended question
– Be limited to mentioning only those points
you plan to discuss in your essay
– Never be so broad that it’s difficult to
discuss all relevant information
– Only present one specific topic/idea
– Never contain two conflicting ideas
– For this class, focus on Second Life, not a
comparison between SL and the real world

8. Introductions
• Must make a good first impression - you
only get one chance to grab your
reader’s attention
• Is part of the road map for the rest of
your paper
• Will make your reader want to read
more

9. Effective Introductions
• Consider your topic carefully
• Personalize your introduction...consider
telling the reader a story
• Draft introductions are ok to begin with
• Open with an attention grabber
• Be straightforward and confident (Never
use statements like: “In this paper…”, or
“This paper is about…”.

10. Less Effective
Introductions
• Webster’s dictionary introduction
• Dawn of man introduction (broad
sweeping statements… “since the
beginning of time…”
• Place holder introduction (not really
saying much but filling space) e.g. “I do
not really understand the topic but
thought I would write about.....”