Throughout the course of the year in Lit/Writing I have grown as a writer as I have learned how to write clear and concise thesis statements and select relevant evidence. One way in which my writing has improved is through the conciseness and clearness of my thesis statements, as I now incorporate more detail into my thesis, while keeping it unambiguous. In the short story summative assessment for “The Scarlet Ibis,” my thesis statement lacks a lot of information. It goes as follows, “In the short story ‘The Scarlet Ibis,’ James Hurst uses indirect characterization through the narrator to show that pride can override and take over one’s conscience.”
It contains the introduction paragraph, that must include a hook that grabs the attention of the readers, a thesis statement and a preview of the three arguments that you will be discussing in the body paragraphs, the three body paragraphs, containing the topic sentence that states the argument for each paragraph, the supporting points or examples and an explanation as to how this example supports your thesis statement, and the concluding paragraph which includes a restatement of the thesis, a summary of the main topic and arguments (1). The five-paragraph essay was designed for an experiment at an open junior college in Georgia, for inexperienced writers. At first the students who used this format of essay writing excelled on their SATs. But as the years went on, other students and institutions caught on to this format and began to use this it as well. This caused the inexperienced writers who were excelling to drop back down to their original position (2).
As our final assignment for cornerstone we were tasked with revising our rhetorical analysis. I received a B, 81%, and by the end of my revisions have “A” quality work. During recent assignments and papers for other classes I realized the thesis was one of the first few sentences in the paper. As I was reading my paper I noticed that the purpose of the author writing this wasn 't until almost halfway into the first paragraph.
I have revised my thesis statement to two sentences, rather than one. This is so that my point can be understood in a more effective way. My thesis statement is as follows. “There should be more stringent screening processes for individuals wanting to own guns in the United States because the current laws and regulations do not require mental health background checks and evaluations. Too many people with mental health issues are slipping through the cracks and obtaining weapons and then using them on innocent people.”
Thesis Statement (Main Argument/Preview of Points): Outlines your argument/theme. Law should usually be followed, but there are certain circumstances such as if you love someone, a law crosses your morals and if the law is unfair or unequal. BODY PARAGRAPH #1: This first paragraph should focus on how conflicts support theme. I. Topic Sentence: States the literary element and introduces how it supports your theme.
• Effectively use paragraphing to indicate a change in subject. • Give specific textual evidence to support your thesis statement.
Throughout this semester, I have had many struggle when it came down to doing an assignment for ENC1102. When it comes down to my growth, I have noticed throughout my papers that various struggle I had in the past, are now not as difficult for me. One of the main examples of this is being able to clearly state my thesis. The thesis statement has always been an issue for me because I never really knew how to get my point across clearly through a thesis statement. When doing the proposal, I had to figure out how to properly state my thesis and have it linked into the rest of the paper.
The authors of the textbook, The Norton Field Guide to Writing, and Readings and Handbook, address the area of guiding your reader on pages 344-349.The text goes over how to develop a title, thesis statement, topic sentences and transitions. Writing the title consist of hinting about the text and to make it provoking to the reader. The thesis statement is especially important because it summarizes the main point or ideas of the text. The topic sentence is very similar to the thesis statement. The difference is that the topic sentence summarizes the paragraph that it is in.
The short story, “There will come soft rains,” by Ray Bradbury, tells the story of a futuristic house that was not destroyed in a nuclear fallout. The house, being completely automated, continues doing it’s everyday tasks, including cooking meals, cleaning dishes, or setting up a bath. But there is nobody there. The house, being unaware of this, continues doing it’s duties until it eventually is destroyed when a tree crashes into the kitchen and starts a fire. Bradbury uses symbols, irony, and repetition to show the houses desire to stay alive.
Secondly, a thesis statement’s topic of choice must be narrowed down. If a thesis statement is too broad it leaves more room for an argument to be rejected by the reader or even make the reader only have questions instead of the answers you want to give; not to mention the essay would have to cover multiple different topics, making it that more difficult to write. For an example, if I were to write, “Racism brings down societies as a whole” the thesis statement would be too broad. A broad thesis statement such as that leaves readers wondering “how?” and “what is considered as racism” according to the paper.
A full thesis statement should stand as guidelines. For some reason if you think of a better point to write about, you should always write about it. Never hold back just as long as it helps your original argument. Chapter 4 1. What is the function of the introductory paragraph?
The thesis makes sense and has continuity. o I’ll read the essay aloud checking for any grammar or punctuation errors. Spell check will help with this process. o Identify my audience. Know exactly who it is I’m targeting.
There are four essential steps I must follow to prepare an effective essay. To accomplish this I must start with a thesis or main point (Bethel University, 2014). “This central idea is usually presented as a thesis statement in an essay’s introductory paragraph” (Bethel University, 2014, p. 13). I need to make a statement that focuses on one topic and ensure the statement is not too wide-ranging or limited in scope (Bethel University, 2014). Something else I learned is that a high-quality thesis will let my readers better know how I feel about the topic (Bethel University, 2014).
In other word, it is just wasting the space of the paper or simply write something to elaborate the theme if the thematic statement does not have the power of shape the topic and can let the audience get the gut. Hence, a focused, narrow, and crisp statement is needed to grab the concern of the audience and attached here with the examples (Altikriti, 2016): - Too
This time I have connected the paragraphs together. I had a better thesis statement. I had good topic sentences in each paragraph. The topic sentences were connected to the thesis. I had also used quotes better after using quotes I have cited them properly and explained the quote better.
