College writing requires the persuasion skill to prove to the reader that you have a logical and exciting point of view on the topic you're talking about. Persuasion is a critical skill that most individuals practice in their daily lives. For instance, you persuade your parent to allow you to use their car to run a few personal errands in town or your roommate to do your laundry as you go to town for some shopping.
Most college course prompts will direct you to present a persuasive writing case. Academic arguments follow a predictable pattern, and you need to convince your reader to reason with your point of view. You'll write a brief introduction followed by the thesis statement, which often presents your point of view.
A thesis statement refers to the last sentence in your introduction, which sums up your paper's central point of view. It forms the basis of your essay as everything you talk about has to refer back to the thesis statement.
A thesis statement is an integral part of academic writing because of the following reasons;
- It gives the reader prior insights into your interpretation of the significance of the topic under discussion
- It informs the reader of what to expect when reading your essay
- It offers an interpretation of the topic and how you understood it; for instance, a thesis statement about WWI will offer insights into the cause or impacts of the war depending on the topic
- It allows you to make an open claim that other scholars might refute or dispute using given evidence
It's advisable to write a working thesis in the early stages of the writing process after choosing the topic. Choose what you'd like to tell about the topic and use a thesis to set a clear direction for your essay. Follow these steps to write a good thesis statement;
Most assignments will often ask a question about the topic, and they require your answer to take sides. However, if no question has been asked, it’s good to come up with a question on what you’d like to explore about the topic. For instance, if the assignment requires you to talk about the impacts of social media among the youths, you’ll have a question like;
- “How has social media impacted the youths?” For an expository essay or
- “Has social media impacted the youths positively or negatively?” for an argumentative essay
After coming up with a question, conduct quick research to enable you to formulate a tentative response to your question about the topic. It should be a simple response to form the basis of your writing. For instance, in the questions above,
- For an expository essay, you might say, "Social media has impacted the youths in ways that the world has not witnessed in the past"
- For an argumentative essay you can say, “Social media has had more negative than positive impacts on the youth”
Intensive research about the topic will give you a clearer picture of the subject matter, making your answer more detailed. For example, you’ll have the following to tell about the two presented examples.
Technological innovations and the increase in the widespread and use of social media platforms have opened numerous avenues that have impacted the lives of the contemporary youth in multiple ways.
The negatives of social media platforms among the youths have outweighed the positive impacts in the contemporary world because of several reasons such as increasing laziness, widespread criminal activities, cultural erosion, and lowering of self-esteem among the youths.
- Does the thesis answer the question?
- Your thesis will be correct if it only answers the question.
!Does the thesis take a specific position that other scholars might challenge?
Academic writing is wide, and other scholars might challenge your stand. A thesis that doesn’t offer a stand that someone can oppose or support is a mere summary.
!Is the thesis specific?
A correct thesis statement doesn’t wander off the topic to irrelevant issues. If your thesis and essay body are not in tandem, you need to change one of them.
Othello is a tragic character whose weaknesses, including impatience, haste judgments, and pride, directly contributed to his downfall; Shakespeare used Othello to emphasize the importance of wisdom and critical thinking over physical strength when handling a crisis. (Othello, by William Shakespeare)
All children, including the healthy ones, should be vaccinated to prevent the vulnerabilities of children suffering from Polio in the future.
A good thesis statement should be concise, coherent, and contentious and support the ideas in your essay. Ensure that your essay has a thesis statement.
