Tackling the Dreaded Thesis Statement

One of the most common questions that I get as a Writing Consultant at Defiance College is: What is a thesis statement? Here is the answer that I have come up with...

The thesis statement of your paper is the one sentence that tells the audience EXACTLY what your paper is going to be about. It sums up the entire point of the paper. The rest of the paper should contain evidence (and summary) that supports the claim that you are making in the thesis statement.

The advice that I give to those who are really struggling with developing a concrete thesis statement is to write an "I believe that..." statement and then delete the words "I," "believe" and "that," leaving the rest of the sentence. In my experience, I have seen this piece of advice work about 98% of the time. The directions are easy to follow and can be used for any type of essay. The only problem that I have experienced with this strategy is needing to alter the beginning of the sentence after taking away the "I believe that" in order to have the sentence make sense.

Let me give you an example:

Prompt- Write a critique essay on one of the characters in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

Steps to follow:

1. Pick a character to focus on. 
• Kate
2. Take your stance on that character. 
• Kate is fake because she is only pretending to be tamed at the end of the play
3. Develop your "I believe that" statement. 
• I believe that Kate is only pretending to be tamed at the end of William Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew, which causes her character to come across as insincere.
4. Now, take away the "I believe that" and see what you have left.
• Kate is only pretending to be tamed at the end of William Shakespeare's play The Taming of the Shrew, which makes her character to come across as insincere.

Looks good! The order of the sentence can be changed around but all of the pieces are there. You do not necessarily need to mention the title and author of whatever you are writing about in your thesis statement but it should be mentioned somewhere in the introduction of your essay in order to make sure that the audience knows who and what you are talking about. (If you are having trouble with keeping your audience in mind, keep your eye out for my audience awareness post!)

Writers Block?

                                           (Photo: Morgue File)

Have you ever been given a homework assignment asking you to write an essay over a particular topic and you realize that you have absolutely nothing to say on the subject? That type of thing tends to happen to me all of the time. To be honest, the first thing to cross my mind when I was asked to start up this blog for class was, "what could I possibly blog about that will allow me to make a difference but also get me an 'A'?" 

Writers block is not a very fun state to be in because you are experiencing one of two things:

1.  You have too many thoughts running through your mind and you are not sure where to begin
2. You are drawing a blank and need ideas fast!

Don't get too anxious or stressed, fellow writers! I am here to try to put an end to your writers block for good, no matter which category you fit into. The following are strategies that I have found that work very well for myself as well as the students that I have tutored, so I hope you can find at least one tip to help break through whatever may be blocking your thoughts.

Strategies for those of you with too many thoughts in your head:

• Option 1: Grab a piece of paper and start jotting down anything and everything that comes to mind when thinking about the prompt that you are given. Once you have all of your thoughts on paper, go through and cross off the ideas that you are not very fond of and circle those that you think you could work with. After the list has been narrowed down, re-read the prompt and try to pick the topic that best fits the assignment. If that doesn't work, pick out the ideas that seem to logically fit together. The more ideas you can connect together, the better because you will end up with more to write about once you decide on the specific point of your essay.
• Option 2: Hopefully you are not in a time crunch, because my next suggestion is to literally get up from your desk and just walk away from the assignment for about an hour. Now, this doesn't mean go out and do something crazy with your friends and completely forget about the assignment at hand, but go and do something that clears your mind for awhile. Activities that tend to help me include: baking or cooking, cleaning my room, drawing, anything that will allow for your mind to go blank. When you go back to your prompt, read over it carefully and see if you have a better handle on how to go about writing your paper. If you are still having difficulty, see the step above.
• If you did procrastinate, however, try connecting all of your ideas like suggested in option 1. Hopefully the ideas will start to flow and next time you will realize that waiting until the last minute is a bad idea.

Strategies for those of you with no idea how to start:

• Option 1: In this case, Google and Wikipedia are going to be your best friends! While you never want to cite any sources like Wikipedia, it doesn't hurt to search around and get a feel for what the assignment is asking. I Google everything. Google is a great resource for generating ideas. Once you have an idea that you can run with, go to an academic database to find scholarly articles to help you write your essay. Google and Wikipedia are good starting points.
• Option 2: If you don't feel comfortable using Google or you are not finding anything, try asking your classmates about the main topics of their papers. Now, don't go taking their ideas or anything because that could lead to trouble; such as both of you failing the assignment. You could benefit from hearing the ideas of your classmates because they have the potential of sparking an idea in your mind or at least helping you come up with something to Google and search.
• Option 3: If all else fails, don't be afraid to approach your teacher to see if he/she can point you in the right direction. If you are asking the day before the assignment is due, however, your teacher may be a little hostile, so don't procrastinate!

I hope these strategies help any of you, who may be struggling with your writing. I have had a lot of success using these tips with my students but feel free to alter them to fit your writing style and let me know how they work for you! 

Welcome!

                                                                            (Photo: MorgueFile)
Hello everyone! Jordan from Goshen, Indiana here to share some tips and strategies in order to help you improve your academic writing. As an English major a Defiance College, I love writing and have grown to be quite good at it. I have worked in the tutoring center on campus for two years, helping other college students develop their own writing styles and strategies to help them overcome disabilities and/or combat their hate for the writing process in general. Being a Consultant Assistant, an Assistant Professor of sorts, I have worked with individual and groups of students on comprehension and writing skills which has allowed me to try out several different strategies to reach a variety of different learners.

I will be posting writing strategies and tips as often as they pop into my head about several types of academic essays and how to power through learning difficulties to make the reading and writing process more enjoyable. So, whether you are struggling with writing or just want to get a few ideas for your next paper, you are at the right place. Feel free to take a look around!