The thesis statement
All types of essays (not just the argument, but expository, narrative, descriptive, and literary) benefit from a good thesis statement. While the topic is your subject, the thesis defines your position on that subject. To support this position, it's necessary to display convincing evidence and research. It is important to develop a working thesis early because it will help direct your thoughts and research; of course, your thesis may change as your reading and writing progress and you begin to incorporate new information.
Once you have chosen your topic, you can begin to formulate your thesis by thinking closely about it, doing some exploratory reading, listening to lectures, or talking with your peers. One way to develop a thesis is to ask yourself questions about the topic and to focus on a central issue or problem the topic raises. Your answer to this question will be your thesis. With a good thesis and an outline, you know what you want to say and how you want to say it.
Now your essay needs the weight of evidence to support your thesis and convince your reader.
Supporting your thesis
A good thesis must be well-supported. If the essay is to be effective—if it is to persuade readers of your thesis, or at least of your credibility—you must provide cogent arguments that are numerous enough to satisfy the critical reader, and you must support these arguments with facts and examples. That is, evidence.
Evidence consists of specific examples or the opinions of others that support and illustrate your thesis. Try to give several examples rather than just one. Include sufficient evidence to make a strong point; the evidence must also be relevant, reliable, and representative.
Evidence comes from either primary or secondary sources. The primary source is the text on which you are commenting, or documents dealing directly with your topic. Secondary sources are opinions or interpretations of others on the topic (your essay itself will become a secondary source, should anyone wish to quote it).
In literary essays, especially, it is important that you have a good grasp of your primary source and have formed your own opinion about it before you turn to secondary sources. Although secondary sources can help support an argument, it is important to express what you think about the work.
Click on the following web sites to review and to connect with other resources on the development and support of the thesis statement.
Explore links to drafting and formatting statements, with specific examples and more, here.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/thesis.htm
Find a tip sheet on writing a thesis statement here.
http://www.crlsresearchguide.org/13_Thesis_Statement.asp
More Practice
This activity is optional. Please view the hyperlinks for more information if needed. Click on the hyperlink to view a web site on each of the four modes.
Narrative Writing
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
composition/narrative.htm
Descriptive Writing
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
composition/process.htm
Expository Writing
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
composition/comparison.htm
Persuasive or Argumentative Writing
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
composition/argument.htm
NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing
The Research Process
Previously discussed basics come together in the research paper: writing with a purpose, organizing ideas, and developing a thesis statement. These basics provide a foundation for the additional skills required for research papers, skills such as gathering relevant facts, synthesizing that information, making direct quotations, paraphrasing text, and citing information. In addition, students new to the research process must learn to avoid unintentional plagiarism and produce a work that is entirely their own. Even for experienced student writers, developing a research paper can be challenging. The following link offers a good introduction to the transition from writing basic essays to writing the full-fledged research paper.
https://education.seattlepi.com/teach-middle-school-students-write-research-papers-3925.html
Gathering information: reading and note-taking
In the research process, note-taking and reading go hand in hand. Note-taking helps the note-taker in processing ideas and facts gathered from reading; as such, it is an important skill. There are several ways of taking notes. The traditional method is to take notes on 3x5" notecards or in a notebook, for those who find notecards too small. The Cornell note-taking system offers a way to see source and summary as well as delineate major ideas and detailed points on a single sheet of note paper. Read the below for useful note-taking tips and further methods of note-taking.
https://www.oxfordlearning.com/5-effective-note-taking-methods/
The art of paraphrasing, synthesizing, and summarizing
Paraphrasing
Paraphrase is putting text from other sources in your own words. Reasons for paraphrasing may include reaching a particular audience (i.e., to clarify language in the original material for better understanding), organizing and ordering information, and tone or other stylistic considerations.
According to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Writing Center, a good paraphrase entails the following characteristics.
It includes only the author's ideas.
It is accurate and fair.
It is entirely in your own words.
It is properly cited (Writing paraphrases, 2019).
Again (this can't be stressed enough to students), it is crucial to note that every time paraphrase is used, a citation is required.
Synthesizing
Synthesis is a way of blending ideas from various sources in a logical and strongly connected way, while at the same time making it clear to a reader where those ideas have originated. A research paper will necessarily involve synthesis of ideas. To get a better idea of what synthesizing is, start reading the link below ("Help...I've Been Asked to Synthesize!") beginning at the second paragraph: "If you are breathing, you are synthesizing. It's simply a matter of making connections or putting things together...."
Citation
Everyone likes to get credit for their work. When writing is based on research, the way to give authors credit for their original thought is through citation. In writing research papers, citation is not just a good idea--it's the law (so to speak). The information at the link below explains what citation is and the reasons for doing it.
https://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-citation
An in-text citation is probably the first place a reader will notice a writer giving credit to the author whose work he or she is drawing upon. In-text citations appear at the end of short or partial quotations, paraphrases, or summaries. They look like this: (Hope, 2019). Or like this, if no author is listed: (In-text citations, 2019). Here, the information comes from a website, with no author listed. There are other permutations of in-text citations. Find out what these are at the link below.
For global look at other citation rules, including references and full citations, consult the following link.
https://library.purdueglobal.edu/writingcenter/basiccitationguidelines
Plagiarism: don't do it!
Plagiarism is the act, whether intentional or unintentional, of passing off the work of another writer as one's own. In academic settings, it is considered a form of cheating; practically speaking, it is a form of theft. Because translating research to original writing is a complex process, it is not always easy to tell what constitutes plagiarism, but understanding what it is and following the rules for citation, above, will help student writers avoid it. The link below stresses correct use of paraphrase and quotation, proper use of citation, and checking papers for plagiarism as best practice for avoiding this serious writing offense.
https://writingcenter.ashford.edu/steps-avoiding-plagiarism
The "Did I Plagiarize?" flow chart offers a simple 'if/then' method to help students to understand plagiarism.
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