What is a thesis statement? A thesis statement clearly identifies the topic being discussed, includes the points discussed in the paper, and is written for a specific audience. Your thesis statement belongs at the end of your first paragraph, also known as your introduction. Use it to generate interest in your topic and encourage your audience to continue reading. You can read chapter four of Schaum's Quick Guide to Writing Great Research Papers an eBook in our online collection, click the title to open: "How Do I Write a Thesis Statement?". Another option is to think of a thesis statement as one complete sentence that expresses your position.
A thesis statement is not a statement of fact. Your readers—especially your instructors—want to read writing that engages them. Consequently, you must write thesis statements that are arguable, not factual. Statements of fact seem easy to write about because, well, they are easy to prove. After all, they’re facts. The problem is that you cannot write engaging papers around statements of fact. Such theses prevent you from demonstrating critical thinking and analytical skills, which you want to show your instructor. If you were to write a paper around the next two statements, your writing would probably be quite dull because you would be restating facts that the general public already knows. Thesis Statements always take a stand and justify further discussion. In order to make your writing interesting, you should develop a thesis statement that is arguable. Sometimes you will be writing to persuade others to see things your way and other times you will simply be giving your strong opinion and laying out your case for it. Take a look at the following examples: Statement of fact: Small cars get better fuel mileage than 4x4 pickup trucks. Arguable thesis statement: The government should ban 4x4 pickup trucks except for work-related use. Statement of fact: Foul language is common in movies. Arguable thesis statement: The amount of foul language in movies is disproportionate to the amount of foul language in real life. Statement of fact: Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease. Arguable thesis statement/opening paragraph: Researchers think the incidence of celiac disease is increasing in the USA not only because of an increase in the ability and awareness to diagnose it, but also because of changes in the agricultural system. In particular, they are looking at the increased use of pesticides, insecticides, and genetically modified wheat as culprits. Some of these theories are more likely to be valid than others.
Academic writing in English has a distinctive style – it is formal and uses particular language norms that you need to learn. Academic style is more than just a writing convention; it can also help you to think more logically and clearly as you work on an assignment.
Below are some tips on how to incorporate four key features of academic style into your writing: objectivity, formality, precision and hedging ObjectivityAcademic writing presents and evaluates issues and arrives at an objective position; a position that focuses on and is informed by research and reasoning rather than personal feelings and opinions. Personal pronouns, especially ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘we’ are usually avoided, as these are often associated with subjective views that are influenced by personal preferences or biases.
This statement sounds a bit like a personal opinion: You can demonstrate that climate change is a real phenomenon by studying alterations in Antarctic ice layers. To help establish an objective distance from the topic, instead of using a personal pronoun, you could try:
Avoiding ‘I’ does not mean you cannot express your own opinion. Your own evaluation of the material is still extremely important; however, you can communicate this by using evidence or logical argumentation. FormalityAcademic writing is very explicit and provides the reader with all the information they need to understand your meaning. This is in contrast to written or spoken English in less formal contexts, which often relies on readers or listeners to supply extra information that completes the message. To make your writing more formal, try to:
For example, this passage contains some informal words (going, good, tell, though, really), a rhetorical question (How good…?), a contraction (can’t), a vague category (etc.) and a colloquialism (first-class, top notch, check out):
Using the tips above, you could improve this passage by using more formal vocabulary, removing the rhetorical question, writing words in full, elaborating on the vague category and removing the colloquialism as seen below:
Online learner’s dictionaries that provide examples of how words are used in context can help you determine the formality of specific words. If a word has many possible meanings, or appears in many idioms, it is more likely to be informal.
To communicate your meaning precisely, you should try to: Include a sufficient high level of detail and specificityThe amount of detail you provide depends on the purpose of your work, but you should always try to avoid ambiguity.
The following sentence is very broad and general, which makes it sound like a personal opinion.
How many people are ‘most’? How strong is their dislike of changing trains? In what way are trains better than buses? To make it more precise, the writer could specify exactly which group of people they are referring to, what their preferences were, and the degree of strength of those preferences.
The additional detail in the sentence above clearly makes the message more precise.
Certain verbs are considered too imprecise for academic writing, in that they do not provide detailed, exact meaning we require. These include verbs that are commonly used in less formal contexts, particularly those with many possible meanings and multi-word verbs. Verbs with many possible meanings include ‘do’, ‘make’, ‘put’, ‘keep’, ‘have’ and ‘get’. For example, some of the many possible meanings of ‘get’ are:
If you use the single verb that expresses exactly what you mean by ‘get’, your writing will be more precise.
The researchers got results from a large participant group Vs. The researchers obtained results from a large participant group
Multi-word verbs are verbs that require more than one word to create meaning, including phrasal and prepositional verbs, for example: Cut off, find out, give up, hand out, let down, pick out. Again, try to use a single verb with the same meaning instead, such as: Discontinue, discover, quit, distribute, disappoint, select. Use a dictionary and/or a thesaurus to find suitable alternatives for imprecise or multi-word verbs. HedgingHedging language in academic writing is used to express caution and avoid strong, unqualified statements that may be easily disproven. To avoid generalisations, you can:
The following claim is quite strong: Leading a sedentary lifestyle causes chronic health conditions. You could avoid overstating the relationship using the hedging tips above as follows: Extended physical inactivity can contribute to a range of chronic health conditions and may have a negative effect on mental health.
Cautious but inclusive statements, like the one above, may be challenged but not easily dismissed.
This page outlines some tips to help you incorporate four key features of academic style into your writing. Another way to become familiar with these features is to look for them in the academic texts you are reading in your studies.
The more you look for these aspects of writing in academic texts you are reading, the more easily you will be able to incorporate those features into your own writing.
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