Research Papers Simplified - Laramie County Community College

This thesis statement is definitely an opinion because the reader can eit her
agree or disagree with the thesis statement.
Rule 2: Your thesis statement should be focused.
Have you ever heard the expression, ―Don’t bite off more than you can
chew‖ The same is true with essay writing: do not take on more than you can
fully and adequately cover in the space of a few pages when you’re writing a
short essay. Generally speaking, it’s better to cover less ground using more
detail than it is to cover more ground superficially.
Let’s use the river running thesis as an example. Rather than trying to cover
multiple aspects of river running (e.g., trip planning, safety, and the technical
aspects of running a rapid), the thesis focuses on one aspect of river running
(life-long lessons).
Rule 3: Your thesis statement should be located in the introductory
paragraph after the lead-in but before the essay map.
We’ll talk about the essay map next, but think first about sandwiching your
thesis (the meat) between two slices of bread (the lead -in is the top slice and
the essay map is the bottom slice). Remember that your thesis statement is
the most-important part of the essay, so it should stand out clearly.
Here are three links that give you additional information about the thesis
statement:
Writing Center, UNC, Chapel Hill
Purdue University, OWL
The Essay Map
Let’s cover the essay map. The essay map is the last part of the
introductory paragraph, and its purpose i s to preview the points that
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