AP ENGLISH 12

ADAPTED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL H ILL WRIT ING CENTER

Writing a Thesis Statement

A thesis statement should :

Hint: Take notes!Tell the reader how you will interpret the significance of the

subject matter.Tell the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper, not

just from the paragraph.Directly answer the question asked of you. A thesis is an

interpretation of a question or subject. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II or Moby Dick; a thesis must offer a way to understand the war or the novel.

Make a claim that others might dispute.Be a a single sentence somewhere in your first paragraph that

presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.

Do you have a strong statement? Ask yourself:

Do I answer the question? Re-reading the question prompt after constructing a working thesis can help you fix an argument that misses the focus of the question.

Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? If your thesis simply states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it’s possible that you are simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument.

Is my thesis statement specific enough? Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like “good” or “successful,” see if you could be more specific: why is something “good”; what specifically makes something “successful”?

Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? If a reader’s first response is, “So what?” then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue.

Does my essay support my thesis specifically and without wandering? If your thesis and the body of your essay do not seem to go together, one of them has to change. It’s okay to change your working thesis to reflect things you have figured out in the course of writing your paper. Remember, always reassess and revise your writing as necessary.

Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? If a reader’s first response is “how?” or “why?” your thesis may be too open-ended and lack guidance for the reader. See what you can add to give the reader a better take on your position right from the beginning.

Practice

Read the following passagesIdentify one sentence from the passage that

can serve as a thesis statementWrite a new, relevant thesis statement for the

passage

Practice

The Iraq that was born as a consequence of the 2003 American invasion has failed. To save it, we must draw lessons from the first Iraqi state, midwifed by the British in 1921 out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. That state was also born amid violence and discord, with a fraction of the resources available to today’s Iraq. But it had one precious quality that allowed it to survive and even thrive as a model for the region. It was led by one of the greatest Arab statesmen of the past century: King Faisal I.

If Iraq is ever to be reconstructed as a functioning unitary state that serves its people, then our leaders must look to Faisal’s model. Faisal’s moderate Arab patriotism was accommodating of various religions, sects, tribes and ethnicities and respectful to all of them. He practiced the politics of inclusiveness; his entourage included Arabs and Kurds, Muslims and Christians, Sunnis and Shiites, tribesmen and effendis. He also recognized the relative disadvantage of the majority Shiite community after centuries of marginalization and sought to redress this imbalance. The king was a Sunni but he was a frequent visitor to Shiite shrines, and his public utterances were always deferential to Shiite leaders, symbols and rituals. He also reached out to Iraq’s myriad minorities, including Christians and Jews.

Practice

A few weeks ago, some 300 miles off the coast of New Zealand, scientists aboard the research vessel Tangaroa gently lowered two funky-looking orange orbs into the sea. Soon they disappeared, plunging of their own accord toward the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

They were prototypes, specialized robots designed to record temperature and other conditions all the way to the sea bottom, more than three miles down. Every few days since that June voyage, they have been surfacing, beaming their data to a satellite, then diving again.

With luck, a fleet of hundreds like them will be prowling the ocean in a few years, and the great veil of human ignorance will lift a bit further.

Paragraph Topic Sentence (PTS)

Different from thesis statement (TS)TS covers entire essayPTS refers only to paragraphPTS should support TS

TS

PTS

Evidence from

text

Evidence from

text

PTS

Evidence from

text

Evidence from

text

PTS continued

PTS is short and simpleTo the pointReadily recognizable key ideaSummarizes the paragraph

Thesis of “Iraq” article In order to appease each if Iraq’s religious factions, the

country should implement a monarchy.Paragraph 1

Iraq has a history of success implementing a monarchy.Paragraph 2

A secular ruler will be objective in such a religious country.

Partner Practice

Read the following passage.On a piece of paper, write:1. The overall thesis of the “essay”2. The PTS for each paragraph

Then, pair and compare. Are your ideas different? Discuss why you

wrote what you did.

Let’s face it: just writing something, anything, and showing it to the world, is to risk ridicule and

shame. What if it is bad? What if no one wants to read it, publish it? What if I can’t even finish the thing?

Every time I begin a book, a story, even a fresh page, I have a sense that it might go horribly wrong. And

for a professional writer, working on multiyear projects, that would be more than an emotional

humiliation. It would involve awkward letters from the student loan people and the credit card company.

I could never live like that, you might be thinking. But of course you could, and do. You think you

know what is going to happen today, after you read this article, finish your bagel and coffee and head out

the door, but you don’t. There might be a flood, a fire, a terrorist attack. Or you might fall in love in the

elevator. Or meet a long-lost friend on the train. Or break a tooth on something in your dreary sandwich

at lunch and find a diamond.

Life, in other words, is unpredictable, sometimes even risky. And inner life — the realm of

emotions, memories, dreams and unconscious urges — is not much better. But if we were totally aware

of this, then going to the grocery store would be impossible, so we keep that stuff out of mind while we

go about our days. Writing involves thinking all the unthinkable stuff while still taking care of business.