THESIS REVIEW

Did you know that there are two different ways that you can write

your thesis sentence?

Any thesis!

• Any thesis should adhere to the following guidelines:– Should cover what will be in the paper– Should appear as the last sentence of the

introduction– Should NOT start with, “In this paper I will

show you” or “tell you about”– Should be the guiding force for your paper– Should be brought back in the conclusion in a

restated form

Thesis Type 1: The Table of Contents

• The table of contents thesis is a point-by-point list of the topics that you will cover in your paper.– Ex: A charismatic person knows how to win the affection of

others, believes in his own self worth and advances because of his skills.

– If this sentence were the last in your introduction, you could see that the order of your body paragraphs would be: 1. knows how to win the affection of others, 2. believes in his own self worth and 3. advances because of his skills.

– Once you have engaged your reader, set up any pertinent background information and written your table of contents thesis, your reader should be able to follow exactly from this thesis what will be in your paper.

– Just as a table of contents in a book tells you what will be in the book chapter by chapter, the table of contents thesis tells you what will be in your paper paragraph by paragraph.

– This sentence should still be your last one in your introduction.

General Thesis

• The general thesis is a thesis that does basically what its title describes—generally tells what the topic of the paper will be.– A general thesis does not necessarily list your topics

in order; it is not a list.– Ex: One can find numerous reasons for how World

War I had a negative impact on German soldiers.– Notice how the “reasons” would be the topic of the

paper, but the order of paragraphs is not pre-determined.

– The general thesis tells what the reader can expect but in a general sense.

So which thesis should you write?

• The thesis you chose depends on a number of factors. Consider these elements when deciding:

1. What type of thesis does your instructor prefer? 2. What is the length of the paper that you are writing?

– The general thesis is better for longer papers because it doesn’t list topic for topic what will be in the paper; the table-of-contents thesis is better for shorter papers.

3. How effective are you with organization?--The general thesis is better for those who are better with organization; if you have trouble or have had trouble in the past with keeping a paper organized, the table-of-contents thesis will allow you to map out an exact order for your body paragraphs as you follow the thesis topic by topic until the conclusion.

Get ready!

• Return to your Blackboard where you will find an assignment that asks you to write both your introduction and thesis as part of that introduction.

• You will need to choose which type of thesis you want to put at the end of your introduction.

• Think about putting the entire point of your paper in that one sentence.