Writing Effective Thesis
Statements
Find the Thesis
Writing Prompt
Choose an event in your American History textbook
that you think may be misleading in some way or
possibly part of the truth has been omitted. Research
the same event through databases, books, and
reliable internet sites. Compare the history book
version to what you learned in your research. Write a
paper explaining the differences and why you think
the textbooks do not tell the event accurately. Be
sure to cite all sources using parenthetical
documentation.
Identify the Thesis Statement
Joseph McCarthy was a man who
ruined peoples’ lives with the consent
of the U.S. Government. What was his
agenda, what did he do, and what were
his results? Are these questions true to
what the history books say? These are
the questions to be answered in this
document.
Find the Thesis Statement
The Bay of Pigs was a poorly planned
incident that lead to nothing more than the loss
of life and an embarrassed C.I.A. But most
importantly it showed that even though America
strongly stood for Democracy, she was unwilling
to put forth any sort of effort on a large scale to
help put it into effect. America did provide
support for the Cuban exiles that invaded Cuba
but didn’t give their full commitment to the
situation. And because of this, it hurt both the
Cubans who fought and Americans.
Find the Thesis Statement
On the cold morning of December 29, 1890
on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Southwestern
South Dakota an event took place that all Native
Americans find hard to forget. On that fateful
morning, approximately 300 unarmed men,
women, and children were massacred. The
events that took place at the Battle of Wounded
Knee are not recorded correctly in American
History textbooks because the truth is an
embarrassment to the white man (O’Neill 9).
• They lack focus!
Why would having a
thesis statement help
these two paragraphs?
• Focus is achieved by
having an essential
question.
What is an Essential Question?
• An open-ended question that does not have a
right or wrong answer
• Causes one to develop alternatives, weigh
evidence, and justify answers
• Provokes deep thought, lively discussion, and
new understandings as well as possible new
questions
Essential Questions
Require one of the following thought
processes:
– Requires you to develop a plan or a course of
action
– Requires you to make a decision
Essential Questions
• Focus your research (you should be looking
for the answer to this question)
• Cause you to inquire into your topic
• Ultimately, the answer will require that you
craft a response to the question that involves
construction of knowledge.
• The answer to your essential question
becomes your thesis statement.
Writing Essential Questions
about Cancer
• Avoid the simple question
– What is cancer?
• Avoid questions that are answered with a yes or no.
• Essential Question (better but not great)
– What plan could I develop that would reduce my
likelihood of developing cancer?
– At this point visualize your answer to make it more
powerful.
Writing Essential Questions
• Stronger Essential Question (Great)
– What plan could I develop that would reduce my
chances of developing cancer? What two strategies
would be most beneficial and why?
– What do you notice about this question?
• This type of question causes you to defend your choices
– Think of some of the cancer defense strategies you
have heard about.
– Now, jot down an answer to the question in the form
of a statement.
Share your thesis statements
with your elbow partner.
Choose the best to share with the
class.
Thesis Statements
• Substantial
– Answer your readers’ question of “So What”
• Supportable
– Must be a claim that you can support with
evidence
• How could an essential question help with this?
• Precise
– Be sure to narrow your focus
• Cancer is very broad
Thesis Statements
• Arguable
– Don’t write something that everyone is going to
agree with; you should HAVE to convince your
reader that you have a valid point
• Relevant
– If you are responding to a prompt, be sure to
answer the prompt
Thesis statements not only keep the writer on
task…
they guide the reader through the paper and
create a reason to keep reading ( to find the
support behind the thesis).