tailieunhanh - Writing great essays part 6

McGraw-Hill and its licensors do not warrant or guarantee that the functions contained in the work will meet your requirements or thut its operation will be uninterrupted or error free. Neither McGraw-Hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or anyone else for any inaccuracy, error or omission, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting therefore. | Chapter 3 How to Write a Thesis Statement Before you can formulate a thesis statement you must start with a topic question. You cannot skip this essential step. If your instructor has assigned you an essay question we call it a topic question then you are ready to write a thesis statement. If you are writing a research paper we suggest that you review Chapter 2 How to Identify a Topic Question. Next you must find the courage to form an opinion and to state it clearly and unequivocally. You might be wrong. But no one will fault you if you back up your opinion with authoritative evidence and logical reasoning. Finally you must a be sure that you have approached your evidence in an unbiased manner and b be sure that you consider both sides of a controversial question before making up your mind. These steps are very important. The point of writing an essay is to convince readers that your opinion or judgment on an issue is sound. You cannot do that if your readers distrust your handling of evidence or if they think that you have ignored opposing points of view. Once you have established your topic question courage and objectivity you are ready to write a thesis statement. I. What Is a Thesis Statement A. A THESIS STATEMENT IS THE ANSWER TO YOUR TOPIC QUESTION. The thesis statement presents your judgment or opinion about an issue. You cannot write an essay without one. 25 Copyright 1999 The McGraw-Hill Companies. Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use Tip When you formulate your thesis statement use the words I believe . or In my opinion . This ensures that you are making a personal judgment. You can eliminate these phrases later when you are almost finished writing your essay. EXAMPLE Subject Alexis de Tocqueville s Democracy in America 1835 Topic question Why did Tocqueville think that American democracy was unique Thesis statement 1 In my opinion Tocqueville thought that American democracy was unique because it had been born without violent revolution unlike democracy in .