Guadalupe Terrazas

Ms. Dominika Szybisty

English lab

03 November 2017

My Issues in Writing

Thesis Statements:

One of the categories that I scored myself low on is writing a thesis. I have always

struggled with writing a thesis in my papers. The source of this issue stems from my

unfamiliarity with cohesion and coherence before college. I think that I put too much information

in my thesis which makes it clustered and difficult to follow.

According to University of Illinois Center for Writing Studies the definition of a thesis statement

is: The sentence that captures your position on a main idea.

The thesis statement should:

Tell the reader what the paper is about.

Establish an argument

Guide your writing

In order for a thesis to be more effective it must be as clear and specific as possible while also

avoiding sentences like The point of my paper is (Center for Writing Studies).

Exigence is important in the thesis statement! This means that the thesis statement must answer

the age old question So What? If this question is not answered, the whole paper becomes

irrelevant to the reader causing disinterest.

 Original thesis:

There are advantages and disadvantages to using statistics.

Revised theses:

Careful manipulation of data allows a researcher to use statistics

to support any claim she desires.

In order to ensure accurate reporting, journalists must understand

the real significance of the statistics they report.

Because advertisers consciously and unconsciously manipulate

data, every consumer should learn how to evaluate statistical

claims.

A thesis statement is never a question.

Purdue Owl

According to Purdue Owl, in order to write an effective thesis statement one must first identify

what type of paper one is writing.

An analytical paper breaks down an issue or an idea into its component parts, evaluates

the issue or idea, and presents this breakdown and evaluation to the audience.

An expository (explanatory) paper explains something to the audience.

An argumentative paper makes a claim about a topic and justifies this claim with

specific evidence. The claim could be an opinion, a policy proposal, an evaluation, a

 cause-and-effect statement, or an interpretation. The goal of the argumentative paper is to

convince the audience that the claim is true based on the evidence provided.

*** The papers that I will mostly be writing throughout college are the argumentative papers***

Organization

Another struggle that I have in writing is organization. Sometimes I tend to put relevant

information in the wrong place. Other times I may put two paragraphs about the same topic in

different places in the paper.

In order to fix this issue I must determine what type of paper I am writing. According to

wikihow:

A creative nonfiction essay might wait to present the thesis till the very end of the essay

and build up to it.

A compare-and-contrast essay can be organized so that you compare two things in a

single paragraph and then have a contrasting paragraph, or you can organize it so that you

compare and contrast a single thing in the same paragraph.

You can also choose to organize your essay chronologically, starting at the beginning of

the work or historical period youre discussing and going through to the end. This can be

helpful for essays where chronology is important to your argument (like a history paper

or lab report), or if youre telling a story in your essay.

After recognizing what type of essay you are writing, you must think about the audience.

Group similar supporting statements together