topic sentence and thesis statement

29/12/2010

wednesday

topic sentence -The topic sentence is the main sentence of a paragraph, which describes its content and direction. It details the main controlling idea of the paragraph. It also sets the tone for the organization of the supporting sentences that further explain the concept established by the topic sentence.

Read the following topic sentences. They all contain a topic (in red) and a controlling idea (in green). When your introduction contains a clearly stated topic sentence such as one of the following, your reader will know what to expect and, therefore, understand your ideas better.

topic sentence example :

1. People can avoid burglaries by taking certain precautions.

(The precautions for…)

2. There are several advantages to growing up in a small town.
(The advantages of…)

3. Most US universities require a 550 point TOEFL score for a number of reasons.
(The reasons for…)

4. Air pollution in Mexico City is the worst in the world for a number of reasons.
(The causes of…) or (The effects of…)

thesis statement :

• tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.
• is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper.
• directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II or Moby Dick; a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war or the novel.
• makes a claim that others might dispute.
• is usually 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.

thesis statement example :

• Suppose you are taking a course on 19th-century America, and the instructor hands out the following essay assignment: Compare and contrast the reasons why the North and South fought the Civil War.

The North and South fought the Civil War for many reasons, some of which were the same and some different.

• This weak thesis restates the question without providing any additional information. You will expand on this new information in the body of the essay, but it is important that the reader know where you are heading. A reader of this weak thesis might think, "What reasons? How are they the same? How are they different?" Ask yourself these same questions and begin to compare Northern and Southern attitudes (perhaps you first think, "The South believed slavery was right, and the North thought slavery was wrong").