WHAT IS A
THESIS STATEMENT
URGH…A THESIS
How many times have you been
asked to write a thesis statement
and have had no clue how to do
A thesis statement is actually very simple,
Yet extremely beneficial when writing an essay.
A thesis statement - It is usually a sentence
(maybe 2) located in the 1st paragraph and it is a
road map for the paper. In other words, it tells
the reader what to expect from the rest of the
paper. Everything else in the paper should be
able to relate to and support in detail the thesis
A THESIS INCLUDES…
-Attitude: how do you feel about your
subject?
Think of your issue/subject matter you are
to write an essay on and determine your
point of view
- Positive (yes/I’m for it!) OR Negative
(no/I’m against this!)
WRITING YOUR THESIS STATEMENT
- After you’ve gathered your thoughts using prior
knowledge, light research, and/or selected textual
evidence, determine what you want to argue based
on your attitude towards a topic.
Topic- Write an argument for or against the use of
cigarettes.
- Let’s think in terms of 2-3 arguments you will
write about -an example might be:
• Smoking is bad (your attitude) and can
hurt your health by
destroying your breathing capability
(argument 1), causing
A thesis statement doesn’t seem so bad after
all now does it?
Be careful that your thesis statements are not too
broad OR too narrow.
broad- covering a large scope/number of subject
matter
narrow – limited in scope/number – very
restricted subject matter
If a thesis statement is too broad OR too narrow,
Too broad vs. Too Narrow thesis statements
Topic- Write an argument for or against the
use of cigarettes.
EXAMPLES: (write them in your notebookoptional)
Too broad – Cigarettes are extremely
and cause all types of problems.
Too narrow – Cigarettes are bad and
people should not use them.