Writing Minute: Thesis Statements

Writing Minute: Thesis Statements

Purpose

This Writing Minute is not going to include paragraphs. Instead it’s going to focus on thesis statements, or the message/claim a piece of writing is making. Every piece of writing has a thesis. It doesn’t matter if it’s an essay, a presentation, or a T.V. ad. Having a clear thesis statement gives your reader a roadmap to follow.

Thesis statements for formal essays have more rules about their construction than theses for less formal forms of writing, but they are also not set in stone. Revising an essay almost always includes revising the thesis statement.

Related Course Objective

Demonstrate writing as a recursive process. (CO2)

Recognize the grammar, mechanics, punctuation, vocabulary, and formatting considerations appropriate to genre or assignment (CO 5)

Task

Watch the Thesis Statement videos in this module and read “Thesis Statements” from the UNC Writing Center. (link at the top)

Using the hints in parentheses, revise the following thesis statements. They are for essays that are encouraging the reader to follow a certain method for finding happiness.

Submit your revised thesis statements to the assignment folder.

In this essay, I am going to write about how yoga leads to happiness. (This is an announcement of the writer’s intentions, NOT a thesis statement. Which part of this is actually making a claim the reader can agree or disagree with?)

Maintaining one’s health is the first step towards your happiness in college. (Who is “one”? Who is the audience of this essay? And don’t forget to fix the pronoun error.)

Everyone defines happiness differently. (Duh. And? You will need to give this writer an argument to defend.)

Everyone wants to be happy, but happiness is hard to find, so it is important for all of us to find our bliss. What do I mean by that? Finding bliss means finding the activity that a person loves to do and wants to do all the time. (Is this a thesis paragraph? No more than 2 sentences please. And “us” who? Everyone on the planet? Americans? Kids under 5?)

We will explore how meditation can be done anywhere, takes very little time, and combats stress. (“We” who? Isn’t this an essay about finding happiness?)

Specifications

Assignment is grammatically correct and only uses 3rd person point of view.

Assignment contains no announcements of an author’s intentions.

Thesis statements contains no uses of first or second person point-of-view.