Thesis Statements and Topic Sentences

o (^_^o)Thesis Statements and Topic Sentences(o^_^)o

The thesis statement (TS) is the most important sentence in the entire essay. A topic sentence (ts) is the most important sentence of a paragraph. Both of these sentences have the same characteristics. There are 5 characteristics of a good TS or ts.

A good thesis statement or topic sentence …..

1.)Is an opinion, not a fact.

2.)Is Specific, not general.

3.)Has a topic and a controlling idea.

4.)Uses an action verb, not the be verb.

5.)Doesn’t use “I”

1)Opinion, not fact.

a). My brother is 23 years old.

b) People love my brother because he has great character.

In statement (a) we see a fact. It needs no further explanation. And so it is not a good subject to write about.

In statement (b) we see a more interesting idea. It contains an opinion about why people like the author’s brother. You can argue about this opinion, or discuss it, but you cannot argue about or discuss the fact in (a).

2)Specific, not general.

Dogs are nice.

This is too general. It is also boring. (＞o ＜)

If you want a pet, you should choose a dog.

This is better, but it is still general. (T＿T)

Three things make dogs the best pets.

This is very specific. We know that the content of the paper will explain three reasons to support the author’s opinion that dogs are the best pets. \(^o^)/

3)Topic and controlling Idea.

(a) This paper is about manzai groups in Osaka.

What is the main idea of this sentence?

This statement has a topic but no controlling idea. It does not tell us the author’s perspective on manzai groups in Osaka.

(b) Manzai groups in Osaka produce the best comedians in Japan.

This statement has the same topic, but it also includes a controlling idea. So this statement is better because it describes the content o the paper more effectively.

4)Action verb, not the “be” verb

The 100 yen shop is very convenient for many reasons.

Look at the “be” verb in this sentence. It is not very helpful and it is dull. ESL students love the “be” verb (and so does your teacher). It is very useful. But it also limits expression. We use it so much that we choke our vocabulary. （；＿；）

The English language, and Western civilization in general, loves action. So it loves strong verbs.(^_~)

The 100 yen shop makes our lives easier in many ways.

This sentence is better, and more interesting. The strong verb makes it better. In fact, the strong verb forces the author to write a better sentence. (^o^)V

5)Doesn’t use “I”

I am going to write about academic discrimination against young girls in elementary schools.

What is the topic in this sentence? Does this sentence have a controlling idea?

“I am going to talk about …..” is a phrase that is used too much. It is not effective in writing. It is very useful in a beginning level presentation, but it is not effective in an essay. In fact, if you take out that phrase, you will see the important information in this sentence. (-_^)

*Forbidden words*

Here is a list of words that cause problems in thesis statements and topic sentences. Don’t use them!

Nouns and pronouns:

People/I/you/we

Adjectives:

Nicegoodpopularusefulconvenient

Verbs:

Makeshould

Giveought to

Lethad better

Bring