Archive for July, 2016

Tips for Writing a Strong Thesis Statement

Jul. 22nd 2016

What is a Thesis Statement?

A thesis statement suggests the main idea of the assignment. It helps to control the arguments and ideas within the paper. A thesis statement is not just a topic. However, it often reflects an opinion and judgment that a writer makes about an experience or topic.

A strong statement includes the following:

  • It gives direction to your paper and creates limitations regarding what you need to write. The thesis statement is a way of telling the readers about what will be
    discussed in the paper. All the paragraphs in the thesis are written in such a way that they support and argue with the thesis.
  • A strong thesis statement is not based on facts. However, you need proof in order to make it strong. The statement should be supported with evidence that interests the reader and encourage them to continue reading the paper.
  • It is often useful to mention the supporting points in your thesis. You can add a paragraph supporting the two ideas. It will help to keep all the ideas in control.

Defining your Thesis Statement

Every paper must have a central idea or a message. The argument that you make in the paper should reflect the major idea. A focused sentence that captures the position of the main idea is a thesis statement.

Length of a Thesis Statement

A well formulated thesis statement tells the main idea in one to two sentences. It reflects the topic of your paper and makes a strong comment in relation to that particular topic. The statement must tell the reader what the research paper is all about. It also helps to keep the argument focused.

Ask Question while Formulating aThesis Statement

Position of the Thesis Statement

Ideally a thesis statement must be provided in the beginning of the essay. It is given in the introduction section. However, in long essays a thesis statement in mentioned in the second paragraph. It helps to give a sense of direction to your thesis.

  • Don’t write a thesis statement late in the paper or in the middle of a certain paragraph
  • Don’t use vague words. Try to be as specific as possible
  • Avoid weird sentence structures such as “The point of this is…

Don’t make the Thesis Statement too specific

The quality of the thesis will be continuously revised as you revise the argument. It will help to put some sense into your thesis statement and you will know the direction of your argument. Thus, the thesis statement must be clear and to the point.

Don’t make the statement too General

Your thesis should be covered within the specified number of pages. Shape your topic to get to the point. Don’t just fill the pages with information. Being specific to your topic is better than writing general information. Add valuable and relatable information only that relates to your topic.

A Clear Thesis Statement

The thesis statement must be concise and it does not get any immunity because of your writing. It will help you and the readers understand exactly what they need to understand.

The Thesis Should Make a Comment about the Issue

The thesis statement is not only used to announce the topic. It is also used to reveal the position of your statement in the issue being discussed. It should also tell what position you will take to evaluate the subject.

Do not expect that you will be able to derive the final thesis statement before the completion of your paper. It will change as you develop more ideas and revise your thesis.

It is always a good idea to start with a tentative thesis and revise it over time.

Do you have an Original Thesis Statement?

Do not ever use formula statements or any generic arguments. This will make your checker or any other reader bored out of their minds. Keep revising it until the thesis begins to
reflect your real ideas.

Do not include your own words in the statement and don’t overuse quotes. Creating an original and insightful thesis will create a lasting impression. Don’t copy anything from previous work. This will make you lose your credibility.

A well-written thesis statement reflects original and creative ideas. It is a signal that the writer is committed to his work.

Posted by Janele Frederick | in College Education, College Papers, Dissertations, Education, Essays, Study Tips, Term Paper | Comments Off on Tips for Writing a Strong Thesis Statement

Make Your Academic Writing Clean

Jul. 12th 2016

Academic Writing scares a lot of students and people even if they have good ideas to share. Others are told that they just have to write better without any help. Academic writing is not rocket science. It requires a set of skills and you can learn them easily to make your writing clean. Here are a few things that will help you aim for writing better papers and essays in the future.

Panic and Procrastinate If you are in a state of panic or procrastinate from fear then there is no point to continue writing. Sit back, take a break. It doesn’t have to be a long break; a short break would also suffice. Another 30 minutes of panic won’t help you get a better grade.  Make coffee, take a walk and deep breaths is far better option in such a situation.

Spine of the Essay Make a proper plan to write your essay. It should be a route through the topic. Thus, it is the spine of your essay. Make sure you do this step early, as it will help you decide what papers and books you must read and what you can ignore. A safe and simple spine is to focus on one thing at a time. It can be any of the main topics of your essay. Take that one idea or theory at a time and write everything that needs to be shared. The best option will be to take out topics, structure your arguments, and discuss all the material heading by heading. A spine of topics and ideas helps more than just describing the particular idea. It also highlights a lot of other important points as well. This can also help you explore through your content and analyze all the topics and measure their differences.

First Draft

Write the first draft of your essay for yourself to work out what you think is right. Make a second draft for the reader who has no clue what you want to share. Here are a few tips to make this process easy:

  • Make a list of everyday tasks for writing your essay. Don’t go to other section or topics in between. If you are worried about missing an important point, make a note of it.
  • Put the first draft away for a few days, change the font or swap it with a friend to get away from it.
  • Write the second draft on the sense of distancing yourself from the first draft. Write it in such a way that a person who doesn’t know about this essay understands. The reader must stay with you throughout the spine.
  • Finish it by going through slips and typos. Check all the references correctly and tidy up all the loose ends.

Read Aloud

Read your essay out loud to see if your brain understands the sense of your writing and ideas. Shape up its rhythm and sentences in a flow. You mind or tongue will trip if any sentence does not make sense. Reading aloud is your friends because you can catch typos, punctuation and gaps.
Writing your Conclusion

The conclusion is the general idea or the big idea of the entire essay. Write it in such a way that it emerges through different stages, but make sure that all the questions are answered. Don’t add a new idea in your conclusion even if you really want to do it. If you think it is absolutely necessary to add that idea, go to the body and fit it there.

Forming sentences

  • Keep all the main phrases towards the beginning of each sentence. Don’t make the reader wait too long to figure out who did what.
  • Don’t construct your sentences in passive voice even when you leave out “I”.
  • Don’t use hidden metaphors. In some sentences, metaphors are hidden and they don’t make sense at all. They may be figurative words which are not metaphors completely but such words confuse the reader. Thus, it is better to avoid using hidden metaphors.
Posted by Janele Frederick | in Dissertations, Education, Essays, Research Papers, Study Tips, Term Papers, Writing Styles, Writing Tips | Comments Off on Make Your Academic Writing Clean

Critical Thinking in Academic Writing

Jul. 11th 2016


Here are a few ways to help your figure out a strategic approach and techniques for your own academic work. You can execute and develop these strategies. The activities covered in this blog will serve as a writing prompt that gets a student think and write critically. As you are done with the writing activity, the questions in the argument can be used for classroom discussions. It further forces a student to articulate the ideas in the best possible manner.

Drawing Information from different Sources

Think of a common condition or a practice such as college student voting. Do some research and see what others have to say about this. You should look for some true thoughts of scholars and average people from various cultural disciplines.

Apply the trend in your essay by drawing information from a vital source. Develop a thesis that takes various view points and opinions.  Go back to your sources and form an argument about each new idea you have. Apply insights to your sources and apply in the form of paraphrase, quotation or a summary.

Apply Your Concepts

Take one of the concepts that you believe in or live by in your everyday life. It is like living in a society adopting various concepts of responsibility, freedom, terrorism, adulthood, nature and much more. Think critically on any of the above mentioned concepts and discuss how it affects your life directly and indirectly.

Understand your Argument

Inspect all the details in your concept and look for a pattern that suggests an argument. You will see that the details will add up to form arguments on concepts that we believe in our everyday lie. Think of a context and see how the concept relates to the context.  Find out the relationship between the subject and the surroundings.  See if the concept and context oppose each other or complement each other. Try to express all these arguments in your essay.

Compare and Analyze your Idea

Examine how the key components of your argument to see if they fit together and how the points relate to each other.  Also, find the similarities and differences between the ideas that you are reading

 

Synthesize

Make logical connections by bringing together different sources of information. They will help to shape up your ideas.

Justify Everything

Use the critical thinking approach to develop the best arguments and draw conclusions from those arguments.

 

 

Posted by Janele Frederick | in College Education, College Papers, Education, Essays, Writing Tips | Comments Off on Critical Thinking in Academic Writing