Thesis Statements
Positives: A thesis statement…
1. presents the main idea of an essay (Matthew)
2. keeps your essay organized; every paragraph relates to the thesis statement (Matthew)
3. is helpful to the reader in allowing him/her to understand what the writer is writing about (Daytona)
4. acts as a guide to the essay/article (Barry)
5. is concise and gets to the point (Douglas?/Eddie?/Someone else?)
Negatives: A thesis statement…
1. ruins the suspense of reading an essay by telling the reader what the essay is about at the beginning (Melanie)
2. can be repetitive or redundant because it restates the contents of the paper (Melanie)
3. is a pain to write because it requires a writer to compact everything the essay is about into one or two sentences (Cordelia)
4. is artificial because it ruins the fluidity of the essay and makes it less human, at least in part because it can disrupt the communicative connection established between a writer and his/her audience (Douglas)
EXTRA: Some excellent guidance for reading Carr’s essay from Epiphany:
Read the essay 1x quickly, then one time slowly as you take notes. Take a break. Read the essay slowly a third time.
