The document discusses writing a thesis statement for an academic essay. It states that the thesis statement should be placed in the introductory paragraph and act as a "roadmap" for the rest of the essay by telling the reader what the essay will be about. A good thesis statement makes an argument or interpretation, is specific and focused, and indicates how that position will be supported. It should fit at the end of the introductory paragraph and fulfill the purpose of answering the essay question and making a claim.

1. Elements of an Academic
Essay: Writing the thesis
statement

2. ESSAY STRUCTURE

3. INTRODUCTION
BODY
CONCLUSION

4. INTRODUCTION
 Immediately captures the interest of your reader
 Gives appropriate background information,
 Thesis statement.

5. THE THESIS STATEMENT

6. Where does a thesis statement belong?
 A thesis statement goes in the introduction.
 Because the role of a good introduction is to act as a kind of
“road map” to the remainder of an essay, the best place for
your position is in the introductory paragraph.

7.  The thesis statement is that sentence or two in your text that
contains the focus of your essay and tells your reader what the
essay is going to be about.
 Although it is certainly possible to write a good essay without a
thesis statement- many narrative essays, for example, contain
only an implied thesis statement, the lack of a thesis statement
may well be a symptom of an essay beset by a lack of focus.

8.  Many writers think of a thesis statement as an umbrella,
 Everything that you carry along in your essay has to fit
under this umbrella, and if you try to take on packages
that do not fit, you will either have to get a bigger umbrella
or something is going to get wet,
 The thesis statement is typically located at the end of your
introductory paragraph.

9.  The thesis statement serves the following purposes:
 It tells the reader how you will interpret the subject matter under discussion.
 It is a road map for the paper; it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper.
 It directly answers the question asked of you: A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject.
The subject, or topic, of an essay might be “World War II” or “Moby Dick”; a thesis must then offer
a way to understand the war or the novel.
 It makes a claim.
 It is usually a single sentence at the end of your first paragraph that presents your argument to the
reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will
persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.
 It should be contestable, proposing an arguable point with which people could reasonably
disagree.
 A strong thesis is provocative; it takes a stand and justifies the discussion you will present.
 It is specific and focused.

10. Characteristics of Strong Thesis Statements
 A thesis is :
 clear
 specific
 concise (only uses necessary words)
 arguable,
 Indicates the method of development,
 takes some sort of stand: Remember that your thesis needs to answer
the question.
 worthy of discussion because it addresses something significant
instead of a observation made in passing.
 expresses one main idea.

11. Are you aware that 20 million people in Mexico live on less than two dollars a day? Sixty million people, half the
Mexican population, live in poverty, and 20 million of them live in extreme poverty. Most of the time, garbage is their food,
and some days, they do not even eat anything. This critical situation in Mexico is caused by individual, geographic and
political factors. The purpose of this essay is to analyze these three main causes of poverty in Mexico.
How many times have you heard about the consequences of alcoholism? Have you taken them into account?
Alcoholism is one of the major problems in society. The effects of this disease are really serious. Many people get used to
drink alcohol, and they can easily abuse; that is the problem. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the physical,
psychological, and economic effects of alcoholism.
Since the middle of this century, women around the world have been seeking greater independence and recognition.
No longer content with their traditional role as housewives and mothers, women have joined together to create the so-
called “women’ liberation movement.” While the forces behind this international movement vary from culture to culture and
from individual to individual, the basic causes in the United States can be traced to three events: the development of
effective birth control methods, the invention of labor-saving devices for the home, and the advent of World War II.
Americans are unique. There is no other nation on earth so peculiar as ours. Our tastes, our hobbies, our very
natures make us unique. Our uniqueness is caused by the different types of people that make up the American
population. Basically, there are three types of Americans: the sports-oriented, the violence-oriented, and the sex-oriented.
The digestive process is important in maintaining the lives of living organisms and in providing them with needed
energy. Groups of organs, such as the mouth, esophagus, stomach, and intestines, work together to perform this complex
task. Digestion is the process of breaking down food from large molecules into small ones to make it easier for absorption.
The three major steps involved in the digestive process are ingestion, digestion, and absorption.

12. The catalyst that led to the outbreak of the First World War was the assassination of Archduke Fran
Ferdinand, heir apparent to the Austrian- Hungarian Empire, by a Serbian nationalist on June 24, 1914. A month
later hostilities broke out, but Europe had been lurching towards a major war for a considerable time before that.
The shooting of an obscure member of the Austrian aristocracy was merely the starting-gun for the war, not the
central cause. The basic cause of the conflict was the rivalry between the major powers, Germany and its ally,
Austria and its Austrian-Hungarian Empire, (known as the Central Powers) on the one side, and Britain, France
and Russia (known as the Entente) on the other. The issues that divided these two power blocs were the balance
of power in Europe as a whole, the search for colonial territories and the expansion of wealth and influence.
Before I came to college, I was told not to expect my professors to care much about me or my work; indeed, I
was told that I would be lucky if any of them even knew my name! But when I came to university, I soon learned
that these generalizations were too broad. Not all the teachers are the same. In fact, I have found that most of the
professors here at State fall into three categories: the positive teachers, the neutral teachers, and the negative
teachers.
Watching movies and series on TV is a staple diet to everyone. There is a huge fan of movies that are
fictional stories and TV series. People often enjoy the adventure movies where things happen that really do not
and probably could not happen in real life. So, many people enjoy them. However, choosing what to watch
depends on personal preferences. Among the famous movies and TV series that gained people’s attention and
much celebrity are Rambo movies and 24 series. They have been famous of the main actors of Sylvester Stallone
and Kiefer Sutherland who took part in actions’ filming as John Rambo and Jack Bauer. Although it may not seem
fair to compare between both of them, John Rambo and Jack Bauer have remarkable differences.

13. What is the purpose of a thesis statement?
 The thesis statement exists for the benefit of the reader and to hold
you, as the writer of the paper, accountable for proving something.
 When you present a thesis statement in the introduction, it lets the
reader how you have come to interpret the evidence you are
presenting in the paper. In other words, it helps the reader know
what to expect from your essay.

14. Developing a Thesis Statement If You Are to Choose the Topic
 Even if you are not given a specific question or topic to address, your thesis
statement needs to answer a question you explore in the paper.
 Choose a topic appropriate to the scale and length of the paper
requirements.
 Allow your reading and preparation to write the paper generate questions
within you, and choose the most interesting question as the one to address in
your paper. The thesis statement is your “answer” to the question, and it
serves as the springboard by which you will explain to your audience of
readers how you have come to know what you know.

15. What if you are assigned a topic to consider?
 Develop a question that comes out of the
assignment sheet you were given concerning the
topic.
 Your “answer” to that question is your thesis
statement.

16. Going from a Topic to a Thesis
 I’m interested in writing about Emily Dickinson.
Emily Dickinson is my topic, not my thesis.
 I’m interested in the way Dickinson’s biography
informs her poetry.
 A thesis statement for such a paper might be:
 Emily Dickinson’s biography plays a role in her
poetry.

17.  “Emily Dickinson’s biography plays a role in her
poetry.”
 While this statement is clear, it’s not the best hinge
for a 3-5 page essay. This thesis needs to be
narrowed.
 Which words in the sample thesis statement
above could be more specific?

18.  “Biography” and “poetry” are the more general parts
of the sentence. If we were to “hone” this thesis, we
would want to turn the general concepts into
specific ones.
 Emily Dickinson’s use of the personal pronoun “I”
evokes tension in poem #277.
 This thesis statement sets up an argument that has
to do with the difference between poet and speaker
in a specific poem, poem

19. The 3 Avoids
 Announcements (The essay discusses/ will focus
on …),
 Vague language (like "it seems"),
 The first person ("I believe," "In my opinion").

20. Thank you