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Brief overview in powerpoint form.

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Use this information to help conduct your own introductions and conclusions.

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A visual/interactive look at how to write an essay (ELL & SPED component)

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Use these notes to guide your writing process.

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How to build a solid thesis.

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A thesis statement provides the foundation for your entire research paper or essay. This statement is the central assertion that you want to express in your essay. A successful thesis statement is one that is made up of one or two sentences clearly laying out your central idea and expressing an informed, reasoned answer to your research question.

Usually, the thesis statement will appear at the end of the first paragraph of your paper. There are a few different types, and the content of your thesis statement will depend upon the type of paper you're writing.

Key Takeaways: Writing a Thesis Statement

Expository Essay Thesis Statement Examples

An expository essay "exposes" the reader to a new topic; it informs the reader with details, descriptions, or explanations of a subject. If you are writing an expository essay, your thesis statement should explain to the reader what she will learn in your essay. For example:

The United States spends more money on its military budget than all the industrialized nations combined.

Gun-related homicides and suicides are increasing after years of decline.

Hate crimes have increased three years in a row, according to the FBI.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) increases the risk of stroke and arterial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat).

These statements provide a statement of fact about the topic (not just opinion) but leave the door open for you to elaborate with plenty of details. In an expository essay, you don't need to develop an argument or prove anything; you only need to understand your topic and present it in a logical manner. A good thesis statement in an expository essay always leaves the reader wanting more details.

Types of Thesis Statements

Before creating a thesis statement, it's important to ask a few basic questions, which will help you determine the kind of essay or paper you plan to create:

Are you defending a stance in a controversial essay?

Are you simply giving an overview or describing an event, object, or process?

Are you conducting an analysis of an event, object, or process?

In every thesis statement, you will give the reader a preview of your paper's content, but the message will differ a little depending on the essay type.

Argument Thesis Statement Examples

If you have been instructed to take a stance on one side of a controversial issue, you will need to write an argument essay. Your thesis statement should express the stance you are taking and may give the reader a preview or a hint of your evidence. The thesis of an argument essay could look something like the following:

Self-driving cars are too dangerous and should be banned from the roadways.

The exploration of outer space is a waste of money; instead, funds should go toward solving issues on Earth, such as poverty, hunger, global warming, and traffic congestion.

The U.S. must crack down on illegal immigration.

Street cameras and street-view maps have led to a total loss of privacy in the United States and elsewhere.

These thesis statements are effective because they offer opinions that can be supported by evidence. If you are writing an argument essay, you can craft your own thesis around the structure of the statements above.

Analytical Essay Thesis Statement Examples

In an analytical essay assignment, you will be expected to break down a topic, process, or object in order to observe and analyze your subject piece by piece. Examples of a thesis statement for an analytical essay include:

The criminal justice reform bill passed by the U.S. Senate in late 2018 ("The First Step Act") aims to reduce prison sentences that disproportionately fall on nonwhite criminal defendants.

The rise in populism and nationalism in the U.S. and European democracies has coincided with the decline of moderate and centrist parties that have dominated since WWII.

Later-start school days increase student success for a variety of reasons.

Because the role of the thesis statement is to state the central message of your entire paper, it is important to revisit (and maybe rewrite) your thesis statement after the paper is written. In fact, it is quite normal for your message to change as you construct your paper.

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Inspiration for the Perfect Thesis Statement

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A thesis statement provides the foundation for your entire research paper or essay. This statement is the central assertion that you want to express in your essay. A successful thesis statement is one that is made up of one or two sentences clearly laying out your central idea and expressing an informed, reasoned answer to your research question.

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Learn how to develop a strong expository paragraph.

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When you read a textbook, the news, magazine articles, or any other types of publications, you are reading expository writing. When you write answers for an essay test, you use the expository form.

In an expository paragraph, you give information. You explain a subject, give directions, or show how something happens. In expository writing, linking words like first, second, then, and finally are usually used to help readers follow the ideas.

This paragraph, like any other, organizes itself around three parts. A topic sentence allows the reader to understand what you are writing about. The middle part of the paragraph contains supporting sentences that follow one another in a logical sequence of steps. The concluding sentence closes your subject with an emphasis on the final product or process desired by the topic.

Remember that all paragraphs should contain a topic sentence. It may be even more important in the expository paragraph because this is where the main idea of the paragraph is expressed. This topic sentence lets the reader know what the rest of the paragraph will discuss.
Example:
Going to college can be expensive. First, college tuition and room and board can cost anywhere from $2,000 to more than $10,000 per semester. Other expenses make going to college even more expensive. For example, books typically cost between $100 and $500 each term. Second, materials are also very expensive. Paper, notebooks, writing utensils, and other supplies required often cost more at the college bookstore than at any local discount department store. For instance, a package of notepaper costing $2 at a discount store might cost $5 at a college bookstore. Finally, there are all kinds of special fees added onto the bill at registration time. A college student might have to pay a $50 insurance fee, a $20 activity fee, a $15 fee to the student government association and anywhere from $500 to $100 for parking. There is another fee if a student decides to add or drop classes after registration. The fees required to attend college never seem to end.

The topic sentence in the example lets the reader know that the paragraph will talk about the expenses of going to college. Immediately following the topic sentence is the first supporting sentence (underlined) and two detail/example sentences. Each support sentence and its two detail/example sentences are shown in different colors so you can see where one ends and the next begins. Finally, the closing sentence neatly ties back to the topic sentence by rephrasing it.

Notice the use of transitional words to help the reader follow the ideas. Also, notice the use of third person point of view in this paragraph. The third person point of view (he, she, one) is most commonly used for expository writing, technical writing, and any other sort of writing that has a business-minded or persuasive intention or purpose. For our purposes in this class, you will always use third person point of view when writing expository paragraphs, unless otherwise directed. This means there should be no "I" or "you" words anywhere in the paragraph.

Time4Writing provides practice in this area. Browse our full course catalog to find a course that's right for you.

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Learning to write expository paragraphs.

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When you read a textbook, the news, magazine articles, or any other types of publications, you are reading expository writing. When you write answers for an essay test, you use the expository form. In an expository paragraph, you give information. You explain a subject, give directions, or show how something happens.

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Good writing habits to learn from.

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This outline will be used to get started on your own expository essay.

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Use this explanation to help with day 1 lesson of analyzing texts.

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Just as a bridge over a river needs girders, columns and sound footing for maximum support of the bridge deck, an essay needs solid structure in order to efficiently support the message intended in the writing. Whether the essay consists of four, five or more paragraphs, every essay requires several essential components -- the introduction, the body and the conclusion -- in order to be considered structurally sound and for which an analysis must account.

Essay Structure

In "Poetics," the Greek philosopher Aristotle remarked that in writing "a whole is that which has a beginning, a middle, and an end." This rather simplistic view of structure in essence provides a basis for all written communication. In the case of the essay, the beginning, middle and end become the introduction, the body and the conclusion. The three components must be composed correctly and integrate properly for the essay to achieve structural integrity.

The Introduction

The beginning, as the footing of the essay, rests with the introduction. While presenting the overall topic of the essay, the introduction must also indicate the parameters, or the commentary ideas, to which the writer will adhere when discussing the topic. In many cases, the writer will propose a position and will argue a defense of that position. If the reader has any doubt about the thrust of the essay after finishing the introduction, then the introduction has not served its purpose.

The Body

The body of an essay contains the critical evidence, or the columns, that defend the position the writer has taken in the introduction. Sometimes referred to as "concrete details," the evidence can consist of specific facts, examples, quotations, paraphrasing of materials, plot references or descriptions and must relate directly to one of the commentary ideas proposed by the writer. The body may consist of as many paragraphs as necessary to completely elucidate the overall subject of the essay.

The Conclusion

Rather than merely restate the essay subject or summarize the information presented in the body, the conclusion acts as the girders that give final support to the essay topic, asserting the significance of the writer's position. The finale of the essay must convince the reader that the essay contains merit and establishes a well-constructed argument. A broad, philosophical reflection on the topic aligned with a statement enticing further exploration of the subject ensures that the reader will continue to ponder the essay topic, proof that the essay has accomplished its goal through structural integrity.

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What Does It Mean to Analyze an Essay for Structure?

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Just as a bridge over a river needs girders, columns and sound footing for maximum support of the bridge deck, an essay needs solid structure in order to efficiently support the message intended in the writing. Whether the essay consists of four, five or more paragraphs, every essay requires several essential ...

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Developing Strong Body Paragraphs (VIDEO)

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Developing Strong Body Paragraphs (VIDEO)

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Visual representation of writing body paragraphs (ELL & SPED component).

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Writing a Strong Essay Body

Have you ever had one of those bad dreams in which everything is fuzzy, nothing makes sense and random people and things pop up for no discernible reason? For example, maybe you dream that you're trying to get to your math test, but the directions are really vague and you can't figure out where you're going or where to turn to get to the right place. Suddenly, you're being chased through the woods by the checkout guy from the grocery store, and then you're saved by your third grade math teacher, who insists that you look at photos from her trip to Mexico.

We often wake up from dreams like that that don't make sense, asking what they meant and where all of those random ideas came from. Unfortunately, some teachers ask those same questions when they read student essays that aren't well developed, unified or coherent. In this lesson, we'll discuss how you can develop your argument and write coherent and unified body paragraphs so that your essay score won't be a nightmare.

Generally speaking, if something isn't well-developed, it means that it's missing something. It's not as complete as it could be, like a fuzzy picture that wasn't developed all the way. With the body of an essay - in other words, the middle paragraphs that don't include the introduction and conclusion - it's important to think about paragraph development.

In your writing, the key to developing your body paragraphs is to use supporting details and examples as you discuss your main points. In other words, you need to be specific in your explanations of your points so that you're not feeding your reader vague, fuzzy ideas, but rather, clear, well-supported points.

For example, let's say that you're writing an essay arguing that parents should give their young children regular allowances to teach them important lessons about money. It would be easy to scribble down a few sentences making really broad points in one of your body paragraphs like:

Money is important, and children should know that.

Children must learn about saving money.

Children should learn not to spend too much in one place.

These points may be good basic ideas, but to develop your paragraph effectively, you would need to include specific examples and details. So, rather than packing one body paragraph with several broad, vague ideas, you could use each of our three earlier ideas as the main idea in three separate body paragraphs and develop each of those paragraphs fully with specific details and examples.

In order to write a well-developed body paragraph on the topic of our first idea - money is important, and children should know that - brainstorm specific details to support your point. For example, you might explain that children who learn to manage money well when they're young tend to be better with money as adults; children might benefit from earning money for doing chores so that they develop a good work ethic early; and when children learn about money, they tend to become more appreciative for what they have, and they may learn the importance of charitable giving at a young age.

Achieving Unity in Body Paragraphs

We know that the word unity has to do with things being joined together, and that meaning applies to essay writing, too. For a body paragraph to be unified, all of the sentences in that paragraph should stick to the main idea expressed in the topic sentence. Just like a couple won't be very happy or successful if each of them has very different ideas about the nature of the relationship, your body paragraphs won't succeed if they feature a lot of ideas that don't go together.

To achieve unity, you want to avoid any random, off-point ideas. Even an idea that seems to be sort of connected to the main idea of your body paragraph may be taking you off track if it doesn't directly support or relate to your topic sentence. For example, if you're writing a body paragraph with the main idea that children must learn about saving money, then each of your sentences in that paragraph must support that main idea. So, you can explain that children can benefit from contributing money to their own college funds early on and children can learn that it's good to save up for one really nice thing rather than frittering away their money on meaningless things. However, your body paragraph won't be unified - and you'll lose points - if you mention that many families choose to rent homes rather than buy so that they don't have to save up for a large down payment.

Sure, this last point is sort of related to our main idea, in a roundabout way. We're still talking about the issue of saving money, and young kids are part of families. But it's too big of a stretch, and if you include it in your body paragraph about the importance of kids learning about saving money, your paragraph will stay unified for just about as long as that couple from earlier.

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how to write a strong essay body - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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How to Write a Strong Essay Body - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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Have you ever had one of those bad dreams in which everything is fuzzy, nothing makes sense and random people and things pop up for no discernible reason? For example, maybe you dream that you're trying to get to your math test, but the directions are really vague and you can't figure out where you're going or where to turn to get to the right place.

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Effective dialogue for story writing (VIDEO)

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Effective dialogue for story writing (VIDEO)

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Visual representation of using everyday skills to write (ELL & SPED component).

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Nadia Kalman: Three anti-social skills to improve your writing

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You need social skills to have a conversation in real life -- but they're quite different from the skills you need to write good dialogue. Educator Nadia Kalman suggests a few "anti-social skills," like eavesdropping and muttering to yourself, that can help you write an effective dialogue for your next story.

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Visual representation of an organized essay (ELL & SPED component).

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Use these examples to help build your own essay.