How to Effectively Support Your Essay Thesis with the Help of Sample College Admission Essays
Writing is an inevitable part of life. Writing usually becomes persuasive, convincing others that you have a valid, logical point of view on a particular subject. Like in college, students are often asked to present an academic argument, or a persuasive case done in writing, with the objective of convincing your reader of your viewpoint. After a short introduction of your topic, you state your points of view, also known as the “thesis statement,” which is usually in a single sentence. It serves as the road map of the argument you’ll be making till the end of your paper.
How strong is your thesis statement?
When you are aked to write about something requiring your analysis, interpretation, demonstration of cause and effect, or merely to take a position on an issue, you are being asked for an essay thesis statement. The very first thing you should do is gather all evidence related to your topic, then start formulating a working thesis, based on the relevance and interrelationships of the evidence you gathered. Then, analyze how strong your thesis is, since you’re also the one who is going to argue for it later on in your paper.
Evaluating your thesis
Review your first set of drafts and answer the question as to whether you have taken a position that your reader might be antagonistic about, or whether you simply stated facts or gathered other people’s opinions, putting you in a safe place of no arguments. Sometimes, you unconsciously forget to make an argument; you just merely provide a summary.
Supporting your thesis
Check if all your arguments are relevant to the thesis statement, because even if you plenty of arguments but they are not relevant to your thesis statement, they don’t make sense at all. They are just a waste of time, not only for you, but for the reader as well. Make sure you incorporate adequate strong evidence at all times, also providing sufficient main ideas to fully support the statement. One tip to really make your essay thesis heavily supported is to be specific in explaining each main topic or argument. You can add on some specific examples and accurate explanations to effectively support your essay thesis. Also, identify what needs further clarifications and support, so you can revise and bring more impact to them.
If you feel that your main thesis has vague points and lacks backbone, then, support it with stronger and more relevant pieces of evidence. You can do this by gathering some more relevant information about your thesis. Furthermore, before you wrap up on your essay thesis, put yourself in your readers’ shoes. Ask, “If I were the one reading this, would I be convinced? or at least raise relevant questions about the topics?” Also, check if there is coherence between your thesis statement and your arguments.
Finally, check for overall unity. Do all pertinent information relate to the thesis statement? Make sure you presented an argument not mere facts. If not, then that calls for you to change your working thesis, based on the evidence and pieces of information you’ve previously gathered. Remember, a good writer always reevaluates and revises his or her writing as necessary.
Photo Credit : Jacob Botter
