Writing the Thesis Statement Part 1

Hai! Hai! hai!....(^_^)

Nice to see you again. If you have followed my " Write it Right " from the first entry until now, I can say that you are already learned basics of writing paragraph. If you are not following me, it's ok, you still can learn from the first step with go through one by one of my entries. Let's move on to our next lesson. With hope, you gain something from this entry.

From Paragraph to Essay

What is a paragraph ?

• It is a group of sentences that develops one main idea.
• It contains about 5 to 8 sentences.
• The first sentence is usually the topic sentence that states the main idea.
• The first sentence of a paragraph is intended - this means it starts away from the margin.
• The last sentence is the concluding sentence.

What is an essay ?

• It is a group of paragraphs that develops one main idea.
• At elementary level, you will write a two-paragraph essay- an introductory paragraph and a body paragraph.
• The introductory paragraph contains 3 or 4 sentences. One sentence is the thesis statement the sentence that gives the main idea of the essay.
• The body paragraph contains about 8-10 sentences. It develops the main idea.
• The concluding sentence is the last sentence of the body paragraph. 

The Introduction

The introduction has 2 purposes :- 

• It must tell the reader what the main idea of your essay in a thesis statement.
• It must be interesting so that the reader wants to continue reading your essay.

The thesis statement

It is a good idea to place the thesis statement at or near the end of the introductory paragraph. Why ?

• It gives you a chance to write something interesting at the beginning to attract the reader's attention.
• The reader must continue reading to find out your topic and opinion about the topic.

What is a thesis statement ?

• It is the sentence which expresses the writer's attitude, opinion, or idea about a topic.
• It is broader than a topic sentence because it expresses the main or controlling idea of the whole essay.

That's all for today, we will see again in the following entry. Make sure "Write it Right".