Your Thesis Statement:

Your Thesis Statement: The Only Sentence Worth More Than A Thousand Words {Click Mouse to Continue}

How to Navigate Through a PowerPoint Workshop • This PowerPoint Presentation is designed to be experienced as a workshop. • To ensure that you do not miss important information, only use your mouse at this prompt: {Click mouse to continue} {Click Mouse to Continue}

Setting the Tone-Your Introduction Paragraph Think of your introduction paragraph like a funnel. First, grab you readers attention with a general statement about your topic . Then, give your reader a brief explanation (2-5 sentences) of what you will be explaining about your topic. End your introduction with a strong statement/claim that tells your reader what you intend to prove to them about your topic. Attention Grabbing Opening Today’s Focus-YourTHESIS Brief Explanation of topic Thesis {Click Mouse to Continue}

Thesis Statements Are Not As Hard As You May Think… First, let’s look at what a Thesis Statement is NOT! {Click Mouse to Continue}

What a Thesis Statement is Not: Your Thesis Statement is NOT Your Topic! • Your topic tells your reader what you are talking about. For Example: • I will explain fishing, bullfighting, and boxing as symbols of manhood in Hemingway’s The Son Also Rises. This is not a thesis, it is only A Topic. • Your thesis tells your reader your position on your topic. For Example: • Fishing, bullfighting, and boxing give Hemingway’s characters in The Son Also Rises a physical skill with which to measure their manhood. • This is a Successful Thesis Statement {Click Mouse to Continue}

What a Thesis Statement is Not: You Thesis Statement is NOT AFact About Your Topic! • Surprisingly, your thesis should be an arguable OPINION - NOT A FACT! • WHY? • Because that is what makes your paper interesting to your reader! • Your thesis should always be a statement that demands PROOF! • If not, what will you do for the next 2-10 pages??? • You spend the rest of your paper CONVINCING your reader of why YOUR OPINION is TRUE! • Your thesis prepares your reader for the facts that will prove your opinion about your topic to be true-it can not be a fact itself. Your Thesis Should Take A STAND! {Click Mouse to Continue}

What a Thesis Statement is Not: You Thesis Statement is NOT AFact About Your Topic! Arthur Miller uses Elizabeth Proctor's character to show the devastating effects of unjustly judging others while being blind to one's own faults and imperfections Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play about innocent people who are unjustly accused and convicted of witchcraft. Let’s Look At An Example Now, that is a strong thesis! That is a fact, not a strong thesis! {Click Mouse to Continue}

What a Thesis Statement is… What on Earth Is Your Point? It is the sentence that answers your readers biggest question: By telling your reader your point in the first paragraph, you set the tone and make sure they are not frustrated and confused for the rest of your essay. {Click Mouse to Continue}

What a Thesis Statement is… So Which of the following is TRUE about your THESIS STATEMENT? It Tells your Reader Your Topic It Tells the Reader a Fact About Your Topic It Tells the reader your Point Now That You Know What A Thesis Statement Is, Let’s Look At What Makes A Strong Thesis Statement… {Click Mouse to Continue}

Requirements For a Strong Thesis: There Are Three (3) Requirements For A Strong Thesis Statement. Let’s look at each of these requirements a bit closer… • It should not be TOO BROAD! • It should not be TOO NARROW! • It should not be TOO VAGUE! {Click Mouse to Continue}

Requirements For a Strong Thesis: A Strong Thesis Should Not Be Too Broad! If your point is too wide or too deep for you... You may find yourself drowning in information, unable to prove your point! {Click Mouse to Continue}

Requirements For a Strong Thesis: A Strong Thesis Should Not Be Too Broad! Arthur Miller suggests that true goodness and virtue are often distorted by appearance and deceit. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses John Proctor’s character to show that true goodness is often distorted by societal expectations that do not allow for human frailties. Let’s Look At An Example That would definitely leave you drowning: TOO BROAD! Much Better! That definitely is an opinion narrow enough to be proven in a research paper! {Click Mouse to Continue}

Requirements For a Strong Thesis: A Strong Thesis Should Not Be Too Narrow Either! If your thesis is too specific for you... You may find yourself Trying to stretch the small amount of information that you find to fit your essay! {Click Mouse to Continue}

Requirements For a Strong Thesis: A Strong Thesis Should Not Be Too Narrow! In Lord of the Rings, the author carefully chose a weapon for each character that was symbolic, and revealed something about them to the reader. Though this may be interesting, it would take some tugging to stretch it into an entire essay! In Lord of The Rings, the sward given to Frodo by his uncle represents the passing down of a legacy. Let’s Look At An Example That looks like a thesis statement we wouldn’t have to stretch for! {Click Mouse to Continue}

Requirements For a Strong Thesis: A Strong Thesis Should Not Be Vague! If your claim is not specific or clear enough You may find your reader Dazed and Confused! {Click Mouse to Continue}

Requirements For a Strong Thesis: A Strong Thesis Should Not Be Vague To Fix It Define the term “horrible idea” for your reader. Outlining the major points of your essay would also help. The word HORRIBLE is hard to define! It makes this thesis Too VAGUE! Let’s Look At An Example If the United States were to get rid of welfare, it would aggravate an already severe homeless problem, cause a rise in crime, and remove the only safety net that our country has in place. Getting rid of welfare in the United States is a horrible idea. {Click Mouse to Continue}

Where To Start Start Off With Your Topic! -It may be a general topic such as teenage suicide. • Or something more specific like • The role that biological age played in Romeo and Juliet or • How Hemingway’s life influenced his writing {Click Mouse to Continue}

Make a list of potential topics. • After reading your novel, a topic may just jump out at you, or you may have recognized a pattern or identified a problem that you’d like to think about in more detail.

A Pattern • A pattern can be the recurrence of certain kinds of imagery or events. Usually, repetitions of particular aspects of a story (similar events in the plot, similar description, even repetitions in particular words) tend to make those elements more conspicuous.

For example • Let’s say I’m writing a paper on Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. While reading the book, I kept noticing the author’s use of Biblical imagery: Victor Frankenstein anticipates that “a new species would bless me as its creator and source” (52) while the monster is not sure whether to consider himself as an Adam or a Satan. These details might help me interpret the way characters think about themselves and about each other, as well as allow me to infer what the author might have wanted her reader to think by using the Bible as a frame of reference. • On another subject, I notice that the book repeatedly makes reference to types of education. The book routinely makes reference to books that its characters read and the different contexts in which learning takes place. I have to wonder what the author is trying to say about the importance of education or about the influence of reading on education.

A Problem • A problem is something in the story that bugs you or that doesn’t seem to add up. A character might act in some way that’s unaccountable, a narrator may leave out what we think is important information (or may focus on something that seems trivial), or a narrator or character offer an explanation for something that doesn’t seem to make sense to us. Not all problems that we have with a story lead in interesting directions, but some definitely do and even seem to be important parts of the story.

For example • In Frankenstein, Victor works day and night to achieve his goal of bringing life to the dead, but once he realizes his goal, he is immediately repulsed by his creation and runs away. Why? Is there something wrong with his creation, something wrong with his goal in the first place, or something wrong with Victor himself? The novel doesn’t give us a clear answer, but seems to invite us to interpret this problem.

Where To Start Before trying to decide on a thesis, gather all of the information available on your topic! Why? • How can you have an educated opinion about something that you know little about? • The more that you know about your topic, the easier it will be to form a provable opinion (thesis) about it. • It is easier to write a thesis statement that explains what you have found in your research, than to find research that explains what you have written in your thesis! • You want the opinion that your thesis states to be provable by facts that you have gathered. If you gather the facts first, you KNOW that it can be proven! REMEMBER: Your Thesis and Your Topic are NOT the same. You must choose your topic before beginning your research. {Click Mouse to Continue}

Where To Start Types of Research... Depending on your topic, the research that you do will be different. {Click Mouse to Continue}

Where To Start Once you have gathered your information, Ask Yourself a Few Questions: What would my reader want to know about my topic? What will be the point of my paper? What is the most important thought that I have about my topic? What has my research shown me about my topic? {Click Mouse to Continue}

Before You Write Your Thesis… STOP! First Write AWORKING THESIS {Click Mouse to Continue}

A Working Thesis A Working Thesis is Made Up of Two Parts: AND Your Provable Opinion Your Topic For Example: A faulty Education fueled Victor Frankenstein’s tragic ambition to play God with human life. {Click Mouse to Continue}

Refining Your Working Thesis To turn your Working Thesis into a Final Thesis Statement, compare it to the requirements for a strong thesis statement: • Is it TOO NARROW? • Is it TOO VAGUE? • Is it TOO BROAD? This Working Thesis needs to be made more specific. It is too BROAD! A faulty education fueled Victor Frankenstein’s tragic ambition to play God with human life. {Click Mouse to Continue}

Refining Your Working Thesis The desire for knowledge fueled Victor Frankenstein’s tragic ambition to play God with human life. • Possible Revisions To Make The Broad Statement More Specific: • The pursuit of knowledge beyond accepted human limits fueled Victor Frankenstein’s tragic ambition to play God with human life. • This is more manageable because it has been narrowed to knowledge beyond accepted human limits—knowing how to do something (create life) that humans reserve for a supreme being and is, therefore, unacceptable behavior for the ordinary person. • B. The pursuit of knowledge beyond accepted human limits destroys Victor Frankenstein by alienating him from the very humans he seeks to create. • This is even better because his tragedy is spelled out. Alienation from human contact destroys him. This can be more easily proven in a high school research paper. {Click Mouse to Continue}

So…How Do You Write A Thesis Statement? • Start off with your TOPIC! • Before trying to decide on a thesis, gather all of the information available on your topic! • Once you have gathered your information, Ask Yourself a Few Questions: • What is the most important thought that I have about my topic? • What has my research shown me about my topic? • What would my reader want to know about my topic? • What will be the POINT of my paper? • Use your answers to write a Working Thesis. • Turn your Working Thesis into a Final Thesis Statement by comparing it to the requirements for a strong thesis statement: Is it too broad? Is it too narrow? Is it too vague? {Click Mouse to Continue}

Your Thesis Statement: