Friday, October 26, 2012

Writing Thesis Statements

Writing thesis statements strikes fear into many students' hearts. I have developed a way of getting from a broad topic to a thesis statement that makes it much easier.

First, they think of a broad topic they would like to use and write it down. Then, I ask them to come up with as many questions about the topic as they can think of. When that's done, they do some preliminary research or freewriting to come up with an answer to that question. That answer then becomes the controlling idea, and the thesis comes from that.

For example, if my topic is texting and driving, one of my questions is "Is it really that dangerous?" I find out from research that reaction times are similar to drinking and driving. So my thesis statement is my topic, plus my controlling idea and opinion: Texting and driving is as dangerous as drinking and driving, so the penalties should be the same.

I put this idea with a worksheet, along with everything else I use for helping students write good thesis statements (handouts and worksheets, plus a power point) in this new packet. It's in my teacherspayteachers store for only $3.00. Happy writing!

7 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. really interesting topic Thesis Writing i love to know about this topic thanks for shearing

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  3. I can't tell you how useful this is! Thanks so much for posting thesis proposal .It's now time for me to do this review!

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  4. I totally agree with you that some students are having a hard time when it comes to writing their thesis statement. They have problem supporting their ideas with information that sometimes are hard to find because of the topic. It would be a good idea to have thesis help from other people’s idea so that you can find the right thesis statement for the paper. Anyway, this would certainly help people how to have a good thesis statement.

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  5. This are very great content that are very useful for us in making our writing thesis to be more descriptive on its content by simply using the tips being provided here. Also with the used of the different hand outs and worksheets will also be the number one materials that are really needed to accomplish the writing very well.

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  6. Thank you for share this informative post.

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  7. It is a true that they do some preliminary research or free writing to come up with an answer to that question. That answer then becomes the controlling idea, and the thesis comes from that.
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