THESIS-CENTERED ESSAYS and VISUAL STRUCTURES OF
ESSAYS
• WHAT IS A THESIS STATEMENT?
• WHAT IS A THESIS-CENTERED ESSAY?
• HOW CAN ESSAYS BE STRUCTURED OR ORGANIZED (AS EXPRESSED IN A
VISUAL WAY)?
• WHAT IS A THESIS STATEMENT?
One of the most important parts of writing an essay is choosing a thesis statement.
To do so, you must have a very strong internal sense of your topic (subject) and what you would like to say about it in your writing. You must know how much information you know and have access to to support your idea. You must know how firmly convinced you are of the correctness of your thesis or the stance you plan to take on your subject.
Limit the topic. While you may have broad interests, an essay needs to be focused and limited in order to do justice to the topic.
Thesis statements are myriad. For example, for the topic COMPUTERS, you may have many different approaches or perspectives on them. Some of the following are valid thesis statements on that broad topic:
• Computers have revolutionized the business world in places like the stock market, publishing, grocery stores, restaurants, and banks.
• Security networks would be powerless without computer applications.
• Computers have affected modern warfare in totally unexpected ways.
• Computers are too expensive for the common middle class household.
• Car safety has been enhanced with the use of computers in steering systems, safety belt use and others.
• E-mail will boom into a billion dollar industry in a few years because....
• Software manufacturers will likely develop a video and audio simultaneous interactive Internet in the future.
Your thesis statement is the basic stand you take, the opinion you express, the point you make about your topic. It's the controlling idea (a kind of value judgment) that ties together your facts and paragraphs, and gives direction to the essay. An essay should have only one such unifying main idea.
You are trying to persuade the reader that your thesis is a valid one by using persuasion, logic, facts and details, and first-hand observations.
A thesis is NOT a whole essay. A thesis is your main idea, often expressed in a single sentence. Don't confuse the term "thesis statement" with a book-length "thesis" or "dissertation" which is usually required for candidates for advanced degrees (masters and doctorates) in graduate schools.
WHAT A THESIS ISN'T:
1. A thesis is not a title or name. It is not a topic or subject.
NOT: Children's Books
IS: The reading of children's books to children from birth through age 16 seems to be helpful in promoting lifelong education and literacy.
NOT: Zoo Animals
IS: Zoo administrators have begun implementing policies which make animal habitats more natural.
NOT: Environmentalism
IS: Today's generation needs to be knowledgeable about environmental issues and active in preserving natural resources in order to make for a more stable future.
2. A thesis is not an announcement.
NOT: My subject is the illogic and impracticability of proposed Initiative 1.
IS: Initiative 1 is illogical and impracticable.
NOT: This essay will attempt to describe the challenges of living in a small African village for two years.
IS: Living in a small African village for two years was challenging beyond belief.
3. A thesis statement is not a statement of
absolute proven fact. It is something
which you'll go forward to assert, support, and hopefully to prove.
NOT: Xenophobia is the fear of all things which are foreign.
Suicide rates have gone up 6% in Oregon's youth.
The weather tomorrow will be cloudy, rainy and wet, with a temperature of 40 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
The earth rotates around the sun.
IS: A national birth control policy would be helpful to the U.S.
Education must be revamped with a student-focus in order for it to be more effective for elementary school students.
WHAT A GOOD THESIS IS:
1. A good thesis is limited, restricted,
focused and specific; it is NOT general, vague, or unclear.
NOT: The world is in a terrible political mess.
IS: After the end of the Cold War, nations find themselves realigned to different allies and working with unclear agendas both ideological and economic.
NOT: Birth control is important for the world.
IS: The world should heed the United Nations' call for birth control with the implementation of improved health, education, social welfare, and birth control measures by the nations' governments--in order to promote "sustainable" growth for the world's peoples.
NOT: Drug addiction causes a lot of problems for young people.
IS: Drug addiction in youth has caused a documented rise in suicide rates, violent crimes, broken families, and health problems, especially among the American teen population.
2. A good thesis is unified and coherent;
it is not scattered,
incoherent, or contradictory:
NOT: Detective stories are not a high form of literature, but people have always been fascinated by them, and many fine writers have experimented with them.
IS: Detective stories appeal to the basic human desire for suspense and thrills.
NOT: The new health program is great, but it has some drawbacks, and it should run only on an experimental basis for two or three years.
IS: The new health program should be run only on an experimental basis for two or three years.
NOT: Layoffs of the nursing staff will devastate the hospital, and the morale will be low, and some patients will have poorer care, and more health care mistakes may be made.
IS: Impending layoffs may well cause lower morale in remaining nursing staff, fatigue in over-worked staff and a resulting decline in the quality of health care.
3. A good thesis is specific;
it is not
broad and general:
NOT: My parents are selfish people.
IS: Time and time again, my parents made choices which suited their own purposes--like taking month-long vacations during the summer, spending money on luxury boats and fancy cars than investing in our education, and indulging themselves on alcohol and drugs in our presence--over the concerns of their children.
NOT: Financial problems often cause difficulties in marital relationships.
IS: Spouses tend to place a great strain on their marriage with fights over how much money each one of the couple earns, how much is spent by whom and on what, and fiscal investments.
4. An extended specific thesis may include the
major points you will discuss in the body of the paper, which helps readers
prepare for what lies ahead and better understand the essay structure and
approach.
NOT: China Wakes is an intriguing book.
IS: China Wakes strives to give readers a perspective on this complicated country by investigating various aspects of the political system, society, changing morality, health concerns, employment statistics, environmental concerns, and international relations.
NOT: Raising a child requires a lot of parental responsibility.
IS: Raising a child demands a lot from parents: financial stability, constant emotional support, in-home supplementary education on academics and morals, and unremitting love.
• WHAT IS A THESIS-CENTERED ESSAY?
What does a thesis-centered essay look like? Structurally, the "thesis statement" provides the "roof" of the essay. The roof is supported or held up by columns, the main ideas or topic sentences of the paragraphs. The foundation consists of concrete "proof" -- details, facts, quotations, expert testimony, descriptions, examples, reasons, and so on.
• HOW CAN ESSAYS BE STRUCTURED OR ORGANIZED (AS EXPRESSED IN A
VISUAL WAY)?
VISUAL STRUCTURES OF ESSAYS WITH LINKS
BETWEEN GENERAL AND SPECIFIC:
In many other essays, the writer directly asserts one or more ideas. To support those ideas, the writer uses details--brief stories or examples, observations, facts, statistics--in other words, evidence to back up the assertions. If you think of the main point as being level 1, a diagram for an essay defending a single idea might look like this:
LEVEL 1: MAIN POINT POINT POINT
RESTATED RESTATED
(GENERAL)
LEVEL 2:
(MORE SPECIFIC)
LEVEL 3: 1ST SUPPORTING 2ND SUPPORTING
(VERY SPECIFIC) EVIDENCE EVIDENCE
An essay developing the main point by using several related supporting points would look like this:
LEVEL 1: MAIN POINT
(GENERAL) MAIN ASSERTION
LEVEL 2: 1ST SUPPORTING/ 2ND SUPPORTING/ 3RD SUPPORTING
POINT POINT POINT
(MORE SPECIFIC)
LEVEL 3: DETAILED DETAILED DETAILED
SUPPORT SUPPORT SUPPORT
(HIGHLY SPECIFIC)
ILLUSTRATION ILLUSTRATION ILLUSTRATION
EXAMPLES EXAMPLES EXAMPLES
DETAILS DETAILS DETAILS
Perceiving how the illustrations, examples and details relate to the main points is a valuable skill for both reading and taking notes on what you hear. If you can see how an essay is put together, you can see the "blueprint" for that piece of work.
A point statement may be repeated, perhaps in different words, in the closing paragraphs--as emphasis.
POINT STATEMENT
(GENERAL)
SUPPORT 1 SUPPORT 2 SUPPORT 3
(HIGHLY SPECIFIC)
POINT RESTATED
(GENERAL)
Sometimes, the point is not clearly stated at the end of the introduction. Perhaps the writer wants to maintain a bit of suspense, or to lead readers gradually to accept a position they could be expected to oppose at first.
In such a case, at the end of the introduction, the writer names the issue that will be discussed, poses a question that will be answered, or mentions the territory that will be explored. But the writer waits until the closing paragraphs to take a position on the issue, answer the question, or announce the discovery. An essay organized this way may seem to proceed one step at a time.
ISSUE
QUESTION
TERRITORY
STAGE 1
STAGE 2
STAGE 3
POSITION or ANSWER
or DISCOVERY
AN EXCEPTION TO THE THESIS-CENTERED ESSAY STRUCTURE: A NARRATIVE ESSAY STRUCTURE:
An essay that tells a story, like a narrative, moves between the second and third level of detail, slowing down at the crucial turning points. The main implication of the story may or may not ever be directly stated. In other words, such a structure may not be centered around a thesis.
LEVEL 1:
(GENERAL)
LEVEL 2: BACKGROUND TIME PASSES
(MORE SPECIFIC)
LEVEL 3: MAJOR EVENT MAJOR EVENT
(HIGHLY SPECIFIC)
(Revised 1998)