#thesis statements

[sunflowermp4]

I think oil executives should be tried and forced to bodily fight fires for the rest of their natural-born lives.

[frerarddivorce]

“It’s fictitious, it’s cautionary. it’s all in there and it’s for us. And whether people see that side of the story or know about it or not, it doesn’t actually matter.”

[bettercostume]

i've said it before and i will say it again but our princess diana deserves someone fucking insane about him and both neymar and kun have sipped that koolaid made with water from a spring on mt olympus that make them shield maidens for lionel messi in a way that is probably etched on a vase somewhere and that is why i love them and will always believe deep in my heart they've touched tips

[writing-with-olive]

How to write essays: updated

So! You may have noticed that I've been less active on tumblr lately. This is due to a bunch of things, school being one of them. And given that, I've been focusing on writing more essays. I have also been realizing that my previous How To Write Essays post (linked) has some details that I no longer stand by.

Hence - an assorted list of essay tips in direct response to that!

1) Starting with the biggest one: In the original post, I said to open the essay with some big lofty statement so that you can narrow down from there. I'm not saying don't start big and narrow down, but I am saying you gotta be a lot more careful with it than I originally said.

Everything in your essay needs to have some kind of backing or else you ruin its credibility. If you start with statements like "Since the dawn of time..." or "Humanity has always..." or "Everyone knows that..." you gotta be prepared to solidly support these claims (which is damn near impossible and you will be writing a book on the thing). Since I don't have that kind of time and neither do you, go with something smaller.

For example, "Many people find sitcoms funny." In this case, you really only need one source - you find a survey or poll that shows lots of people find sitcoms funny and boom you're set. It's still broad enough that you can narrow down to a specific topic, but now you're not undercutting your own credibility from the get-go.

2) You can get into more detail with your analysis by mixing up the structure. I gave a structure of

give evidence

analyze it specifically

connect it to the main point

This can work, especially if you are getting stuck, but in some cases, you can also get deeper by following a structure like

give evidence

connect it to another piece of evidence

analyze the relationship between the two

connect the evidence and that found relationship to the main point

Basically, they're very similar, but recognizing you can adapt structure to better fit your needs can help you achieve more advanced essay writing.

3) This last point is not so much a direct contradiction to the original post, but more of an addition regarding the thesis.

You have to be decisive with your wording.

What do I mean by this? Basically, there's a difference between writing "the nearly simultaneous discovery of quantum magic in Argentina, Cameroon, and Thailand proves there will be a revolutionary technological advancement in under 30 years" and "many people say the nearly simultaneous discovery of quantum magic in Argentina, Cameroon, and Thailand proves there will be a revolutionary technological advancement in under 30 years."

In the first example, you're arguing the connection between quantum magic and tech advancements. In the second example however, you've set up the sentence so you have to argue that a lot of people are saying it's happening.

This means that if you set up a thesis all wishy-washy like the second example, but then use your essay to talk about the connection, rather than the people who are saying it's happening, you're not actually arguing your thesis. This often comes off as bad essay-writing, which is not the situation we want on our hands.

Anyway, I've got to get back to writing essays of my own, hopefully this will be helpful to you :D

[aeide-thea]

tous les hommes se ressemblent. je m’ennuie donc un peu

i mean no criticism of anyone who’s made comments in this vein, truly, but—i’m having such stupidly enormous trouble with the thing where a bunch of people have taken to playfully(?) insulting joey batey in an effort to, i guess, be Humorously Self-Deprecating about their own taste, because the sneer of choice is generally something about how he’s nothing special, boys like him are a dime a dozen, and i just… of course on some level that’s true, of course there are people more remarkable than he on any axis you choose; but on another level isn’t the whole point of loving someone, even in this pale parasocial fashion, that they do become special to you, that the petit garçon tout semblable à cent mille petits garçons becomes pour toi unique au monde, and your whole life is lit up by that, comme ensoleillée?

and i know that’s, like, hideously painful sincerity, i too can’t believe i’m drawing on le petit goddamn prince in a plea for us all to be more unashamedly tender in our discussion of this, like, C-list celeb, but—ultimately really this is a plea for us all to be more unashamedly tender with our own hearts: to choose and cultivate the soil of vulnerability, which is our common ground and the only place anything real can grow from. (and of course the parasocial isn’t precisely real, but we can let it teach us to soften, and that softening can be; or we can let it teach us to sneer, and that sneering can be.)

because really, it seems to me, what’s happening with this ‘nothing special’ angle of attack is that we can’t bear the vulnerability in ourselves of open fondness, and so we turn preemptively to sneering: ‘what if people judge my taste? i’d better make it painfully clear that i know better, i’m just momentarily slumming.’ but what is it that we’re so eager to show we know? that we’re not too foolishly generous; that we can flatten people into types, and cut them down to size; that a sweet storyteller with a smile like sunshine isn’t enough for us, because we know all the ways society and our own history of disappointment say he can’t be: aren’t we clever?

but actually i don’t think it’s clever at all, i think it’s terribly sad. i want to be foolishly generous with my heart; i want to rise above my conditioning; i want to cup images of joey batey’s little face in my tender palms and say, on purpose i am going to care about you, i am going to deliberately cultivate appreciation in the garden of my heart and think of each life as a flower, as common / as a field daisy and as singular, and i will be the richer for it in the end, à cause de couleur du blé; i want that color in my life, the sun-kissed honeyed warmth of it, even the long shadows like bruises after the sun goes down. hold hard then, heart. this way at least you live.

[intellectuls]

How I Write My Essays

1. Know Your Topic

If it is an essay that required prior reading, I would get that done first. While reading, I usually annotate and leave sticky flags on quotes that I that I think I can use in my essay. After finishing the book, I usually do some research on the Internet or on databases about my book, and see if there are any links relating to what I may want my essay to focus on. I always find it important to read about the author’s backstory, because it usually helps me figure out why the author wrote the book and its purpose. Next, just to brainstorm, I write out all my ideas for my essay. Even if they don’t originally connect, they usually do once you begin writing.

2. Outline

After knowing my topic, I begin to write out what I want each of my paragraphs to focus on. Then, I expand upon those ideas and outline my essay. This is also where I find all of my evidence and write it in my outline, so that it’ll be easier for me to easily look back in this doc, instead of in the book again. If you are using research from a site, I usually leave a Google comment or hyperlink the source to the quote, just in case you need to refer back to it.

3. Thesis Statements and Topic Sentences

This step I dread the most, but I’ve gotten better at writing these sentences over the years. You can do this step before you outline as well, but I prefer to do it afterwards so that I am exactly sure of what I want my essay to consist of.

For writing a thesis statement, it’s important to include why you think the author wrote the book and the ideas that you will include in your essay. For example, for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, my thesis focused about the author’s importance towards being yourself and that I was going to prove this point using symbolism and analogies. It’s okay if your thesis isn’t that great originally, but try to keep improving it. And once you begin writing your essay and really understanding your topic, you can edit it more easily then.  

Next, I write my topic sentences for each paragraph. These don’t have to be as complex, but be sure to give an overview of what your paragraph will consist of.

4. Start Writing!

After planning your essay out, you can begin writing it. For my introductions, I love beginning with an anecdote, or to relate back to a scene from the book. But, you can use varieties of hooks, like a rhetorical question, quote or even a statistic. Next, I include a sentence that kind of previews/expands my thesis, before I write my actual statement in as the last sentence.

For writing bodies, I follow the steps:

 Topic sentence

Claim

Evidence

Relate back to the claim with a new idea

Repeat steps 3-5 as needed

Your last sentence should relate back to your topic sentence, as well as briefly introduce your next body paragraph idea

Lastly, conclusions have always seemed simple to me. I simply restate my thesis (phrased differently), the ideas listed in my bodies and then a sentence to explain the purpose of my essay/to leave the audience with something to remember.

5. Congrats You’ve Written an Essay!

Those were the steps to how I write my essays. Obviously, I’m no expert, but I’ve found that having a method can really help ease the stress that comes to writing. Be sure to continue editing your essay until you're completely satisfied with it, and cite your sources correctly. I suggest Owl Purdue for tips on citation.

Kudos to all of those who’ve read this! Feel free to leave my ask box with any questions, or just a hello! I’d love to talk to all of you!

Check out my other posts:

My Goals for the School Year

All of My Originals

[collegestudentstuff-blog]

Write a Better Thesis Statement

We all know how writing a paper starts- you end up holed up in your student apartment banging your head against your desk and staring at a black page.  No worries- we’ve all been there. Here are some tips on getting started on your thesis statement and how to make it stronger. 

Avoid burying it in the paragraph. Declare it as soon as you can- just make sure it makes the most sense

Be as clear and specific as you can. Avoid vague declarations that look like you’re trying to know what you’re talking about.

Tell people what your point is, but don’t say, “The point of my thesis is…” This will make your teacher’s skin crawl.

Avoid abstract words like “culture” and “society.”

Does your thesis have a comment about your position in the argument? If the reader doesn’t know where you stand on it, there’s really no point in reading the rest.

Avoid generic arguments.

Make sure your statement is original. Think about this long and hard

Use your own words, not something you read in a scholarly article.

[sunflowermp4]

Network Effect, Martha Wells