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A work in progress

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Suit your purpose (to inform or persuade)

Specify your topic

Make a defensible claim or assertion

Engage your reader

As you develop your ideas in the prewriting stage, and

beyond, your thesis will evolve. As you explore your topic,

draft, and revise, your thesis may change several times,becoming stronger each time.

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As you read, look for ideas that go together, or for

different articles that express similar ideas. Highlight or

note those in some way.

Look at the details you have highlighted and try to group

them into subtopics. Then write a word or phrase that

describes each group.

Evaluate your groups and decide which one or ones

should be the focus of your paper. At this point, you may

decide you need to do more research or even find adifferent topic.

Use the subgroups to answer a question, either from the

assignment, or one developed from your research.

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An example:

Used with supervision, social media canoffer adolescents many benefits.

Although this is a good start, it is not as effective as it could

be. Lets work on it.

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Does it suit the purpose of persuading or

informing?

Does it specify the topic?

Does it make a defensible claim?

Does it engage the reader?

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So what can be done to improve out statement?

We should make it more specific. This will ensure that we

explore our subject in depth, rather than just scratching thesurface of a topic that is too broad. It will also help in the

organization of the rest of the paper.

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What kinds of benefits?

Some may include:

Building social ties

Strengthening existing friendships

Maintaining long distance relationships

Extending social network

Working with classmates

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Spelling out two or three of these specific benefits in the

thesis will give readers an idea of what is to follow and set

up the organization.

For example:

Used with supervision, social media can offer

adolescents the benefits of building social ties,extending their social network, and even working

with classmates.

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Your thesis should change what readers know, think, or

believe.

Although a thesis statement may sometimes be longerthan one sentence, many instructors prefer you limit it to

one. It is best to ask.

In academic writing, a thesis statement is usually notimplied.

It is expected that you will state your main idea clearly

and

directly in the first paragraph.

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Make sure your assertion is one that can be

disputed.

Avoid making an announcement such as

This paper will discuss or The subject ofmy essay is

Write in third person.