THESIS STATEMENT WITH BLUEPRINT (TWB)
The thesis statement of the five paragraph essay (or multi-paragraph essay), or theme, is the single
sentence statement that you intend the entire essay to support. The thesis statement has a
____________ subject with a ___________ opinion about that subject.
Does all this sound familiar? Like the topic sentence, the thesis statement of the multi-paragraph
essay is the thought at the head of the body; it is the opinion that you will persuade your reader to
accept.
RELATIONSHIP OF THESIS STATEMENT TO TOPIC SENTENCE
Stated simply, the thesis statement is to the multi-paragraph essay as the topic sentence is to the
paragraph. The thesis statement does not necessarily state a more general (or “larger”) opinion than
a topic sentence does. Instead, the thesis statement is an opinion that has more support: it is
supported by several paragraphs rather than by one.
To form your thesis statement, you need only approach your material as you would to form a topic
sentence: you must __________ the subject and then form a ___________ opinion about that
subject. No matter how you word the thesis statement, you may always reduce it to the basic
sentence form of “limited subject is precise opinion.”
BLUEPRINT
As the name suggests, the blueprint is like an architect’s ___________ for the structure that he plans
to build—only you are the architect and the structure you intend to build is your essay.
Your blueprint “summarizes the topic sentences that will begin each of the central paragraphs” of the
essay. Thus, your blueprint tells the readers ____________ how you plan to develop your argument.
The topic sentence—“Highly competitive team sports can be psychologically damaging to young
children”—could be supported by three subtopic or support ideas: “They can damage a child’s view of
himself,” “They can damage a child’s view of his peers,” and “They can damage a child’s view of
adults.” If we ___________ the support for the topic sentence, the length of the argument will require
a five-paragraph essay. In this case, each of the “supported ideas” will become a
_______________________ of a central paragraph and the topic sentence will become the thesis
statement. Now, to form a blueprint we combine the basic ideas from the central paragraphs in the
order they will appear in our essay:
Because they can damage a child’s view of himself, his peers, and adults…
Combining this blueprint with the thesis, we produce a thesis statement with blueprint:
Because they can damage a child’s view of himself, his, peers, and adults, highly competitive
team sports can be psychologically damaging to young children.
But why use a blueprint? Quite frankly, the blueprint is a mechanical aid to your reader and to you.
And equally frankly, the blueprint is not always necessary. Still, it is an excellent aid at this stage of
your writing, helping you understand the basic organization of the five-paragraph essay. You should
use it in your first few long papers.
MECHANICS OF THE BLUEPRINT
Since the blueprint is a summary of the ideas of the central paragraphs of the multi-paragraph essay,
the mechanics of the blueprint come from the relationship of support ideas to the thesis statement.
You’ve learned that each subtopic sentence of a paragraph answers a “Why?,” “How?,” or “When?”
question about the topic sentence. Central paragraph topic sentences have the same relationship to
their thesis statement. Thus, since the blueprint outlines the ideas of the central paragraphs, each
item of the blueprint will answer a “Why?,” “How?,” or “When?” question.
“Why?” Blueprint: If we ask “Why?” about the thesis statement, the answer will be “because.”
Therefore, the “Why?” blueprint can always begin with because. Why can highly competitive team
sports be psychologically damaging to young children? “Because they damage a child’s view of
himself, his peers, and adults,…”
“How?” Blueprint: Phrases beginning with by, with, and through may answer “How?” questions. In
addition, since “How?” questions are sometimes similar to “Why?” questions, because may also begin
the “How?” blueprint. For example, how does Wendy distract you?
With her singing, her eating, and her talking…
OR
Because of her singing, her eating, and her talking…
OR
By singing, eating, and talking as I try to study…
OR
Through her singing, her eating, and her talking…
“When?” Blueprint: Finally, if we somehow stretch the idea of the sleepy brother into a fiveparagraph essay, we would ask “Why?” about the thesis “My brother is always sleepy.” “When?”
would be answered by “when” as follows:
When he gets up in the morning, sits in class, or studies in the evening…
THESIS WITH BLUEPRINT
You will sometimes see multi-paragraph essays without blueprints, but don’t do it yourself unless a
teacher explicitly says you can. Such a combination of thesis statement and blueprint may take one of
two forms:
(1)
(2)
Because
With
By
Through
When
Limited subject
Precise opinion
item, item, and item,
is
because
with
by
through
when
limited subject
precise opintion
item, item, item.
Thus, sample blueprints you just saw could combine with thesis statements as follows:
Because they can damage a child’s view of himself, his peers, and adults, highly competitive
team sports can be psychologically damaging to young children. OR
Highly competitive team sports can be psychologically damaging to young children because
they can damage a child’s view of himself, his peers, and adults.
No matter which form you choose, the combination of thesis statement and blueprint will tell your
readers what you want them to believe and how you are going to persuade them.