Presentation delivered to the English 104 class at Victor Valley College.

1. English 104
Thesis Statements

2. Thesis Statements
• What is a thesis statement?
▫ A summary of your argument in 1-3 sentences
▫ The main idea that you will explore in-depth
within the body of your essay
▫ Your debatable opinion

3. Placement
• Your thesis statement should come early in your
paper, so the reader immediately knows the
direction and purpose of your essay
▫ Ideally at the end of your introductory paragraph
▫ Note: When reading longer texts, particularly
book-length works, the thesis can come after
several introductory paragraphs

4. Tone
• Write in third person
▫ Eliminate statements such as “I think,” “In my
opinion,” “In this essay, I will show…”
▫ It is already understood that the essay is your
opinion, so there is no need to state it
▫ Writing in third person will give your essay a
stronger factual voice, making it more emphatic

5. Why avoid first person?
• To avoid sounding like you’re writing in your diary.
▫This should be a formal essay, not a reflective journal
• To avoid using your own personal experiences as
evidence
▫Academic essays rely on verifiable documented
evidence
▫Your own personal experiences have not been
professionally recorded and documented
▫Personal experience is considered anecdotal evidence
and is not scientifically valid due to small sample size

6. Thesis Statements
• What makes a good thesis statement?
▫ Focused, specific, clear, debatable
• Avoid writing a thesis that is:
▫ Too general
▫ Too broad to be covered in the space/time
provided
▫ Simply a compare and contrast

7. Example #1
• “Language is important to humanity”
▫ This thesis statement is too general and too broad.
▫ It is also not very debatable. Few would disagree
and say that language is unimportant.
▫ If your thesis is already a generally accepted
opinion, then there is no need to write an
argumentative paper defending the claim.

8. Example #2
• “Chinese is spoken by the largest number of
people, while English is spoken by the world’s
leading superpower, so both languages are
important.”
▫ A mediocre thesis statement that is mostly
compare & contrast, largely observational, and
vague in terms of what is ‘important’

9. Be specific
• Refine your thesis by asking yourself “So what?”
 “Language is important to humanity.” That’s great,
but so what?
 How is it important to humanity? What has it allowed
us to achieve? What do you mean by ‘language’?
• A better thesis statement: “Written communication
was the essential element that allowed humans to
evolve into a technologically advanced species.”
 Much more specific, narrow, and focused
 Improved diction and vocabulary

10. Be clear
• Remember your reader
▫ Don’t assume that your reader will automatically
know what you mean when you use general terms
(like ‘language’)
▫ Clarify, demonstrate, define
 With your thesis statement, as well as throughout
the body of your essay