Writing is a tremendously valuable skill and a major focus in high school and beyond. To do it well, you must be able to clearly present and defend an idea.  This requires you to differentiate between evidence and ideas, as well as explain how the evidence supports or refutes the larger concept.  

Ask yourself:

What is the purpose of the writing in terms of subject, topic, and/or audience?

How can I best present and defend my idea(s)?

How can I break down this writing assignment into manageable tasks?

Consider:

What larger idea am I presenting?  (Thesis, Claim, Argument, or Hypothesis)

What evidence do I need to support my idea? (Facts, Data, or Details)

Why does this evidence support my idea?  (Relevance or Analysis)

Thesis or introductory paragraphs present the argument of the essay and explain how that argument will be defended.   To accomplish this, the paragraph must contain the following elements:

• Contextualization or hook:  You should have one or two sentences that give the essay context.  For a History paper, this can involve historical context.  For an English paper, this can be a hook designed to grab the reader’s interest. 

  • This should be very short, one or two sentences at most.  The point of the paragraph is to present your idea, not distract the reader with unnecessary facts or concepts.

• Essay map:  Essay maps tell the reader how you will defend the thesis (without actually doing the defense in the intro paragraph).  Essentially, the map breaks the thesis into logical sub-parts. Each sub-part will then have its own body paragraph.  Unlike the thesis sentence, the essay map may contain a list, but the separate items in the list must be connected in some way.

  • The essay map will likely be more than one sentence.  Usually, an essay map will have one sentence per body paragraph.

  • Read each part of your essay map separately, followed by your thesis.  Make sure that each part of your essay map connects to your thesis.

• Thesis statement:  Your paragraph must include a statement that addresses the question asked.   Answering the question is not the same as restating the question; the key is to demonstrate understanding of the big picture by connecting ideas in interesting and sophisticated ways.  Put simply, your thesis should do more than simply make an observation or list possible explanations; you must make an argument.

  • This is the hardest and also most important part of your paper.  Because everything else flows from your central thesis, most of your time and energy should be spent here. 

  • When first learning how to develop a thesis statement, limit the statement to one sentence. Occasionally, the thesis can be developed over the course of 2 or 3 sentences. This is only necessary when the idea is particularly nuanced.

  • The thesis should NOT be a list, and it should NOT re-state your essay map.  Instead, it should be the overarching idea that ties the parts of your essay map together.

While there is much to do in this paragraph, it should be done relatively quickly and efficiently.  Thesis paragraphs should be between five and seven sentences.  If you exceed seven sentences, you should spend time thinking about cutting unnecessary information.   While many students are reluctant to cut content, it is an important skill to develop.  Remember, the point of this paragraph is to present your idea and explain how you will defend them.  The point of the body paragraphs is to defend your ideas.

1.  Think first.  Formulating a thesis or introductory statement is not the first thing that you do.  You can only develop your ideas after you understand the question, review what you know and organize your thoughts.

2. Understand the question.    Since the purpose of your essay is to answer a question, you must understand the prompt before you do anything else.  To help you understand what you are being asked to do, refer to the chart.

3. Review.  Once you have a general idea of what you are trying to accomplish, review your notes, readings, etc..   As you review, look for significant patterns that will help you answer the question asked.

4.  Organize your thoughts.  After looking over all of your material and identifying potential patterns or sub-topics, consider your options and narrow your thoughts onto a manageable amount of material.

5. Develop your thesis.  Once you have organized your thoughts; turn your idea into a sentence.  You should then critically review your sentence and test its strength.  Some good questions for you to consider as you review your thesis are:

   • Do I answer the question?  Re-reading the question after constructing a working thesis can help you fix an argument that misses the focus of the question.

   • Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose?  If your thesis simply states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it’s possible that you are simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument.

   • Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test?  If a reader’s first response is, “So what?” then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue.

   • Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test?  If a reader’s first response is “how?” or “why?” your thesis may be too open-ended and lack guidance for the reader. See what you can add to give the reader a better take on your position right from the beginning.

EXAMPLES

Check out these examples and explanations from the UNC Writing Center

According to William Strunk and E.B. White: "The paragraph is a convenient unit; it serves all forms of literary work.  As long as it holds together, a paragraph may be of any length—a single, short sentence or a passage of great duration."

The paragraph, essentially, is a unit which conveys an idea.  The secret to constructing strong paragraphs lies in recognizing that each paragraph must perform a specific function. Determine through brainstorming and outlining your central ideas.  Then decide which ideas deserve their own paragraphs.

In general, paragraph structure is as follows:

1.  Intro Sentence: You must communicate the central idea of the paragraph.  If the assignment is for a single paragraph this will be your thesis statement.  If the paragraph is part of a larger essay, the intro sentence should introduce the idea of the paragraph while also connecting to the thesis.

• • The topic sentence must be broad enough to cover all the material in the paragraph, but specific enough to present an idea.

  • Avoid beginning paragraphs with context or evidence.  First, establishing the purpose of the paragraph.

Too Broad: The Silk Road was an important historical trade route.

Too Narrow: The Silk Road, created during the Han Dynasty, allowed for the trade of silk between China and Europe, brought Christianity and Buddhism to new parts of the world, and allowed for new types of dance, dress, and art to spread.

Just Right: The Silk Road not only connected different regions of the world, but also helped to spread people, goods, and ideas.

2.  Presentation of Evidence: Introduce the evidence (details, quotations, facts, and data) you have selected that best supports or informs your central idea.  After you clearly present the purpose of the paragraph, introduce the evidence.

• • Supporting evidence is not the same as supporting ideas.  Evidence cannot be refuted, while ideas are conclusions drawn from evidence.

  • There is no set requirement for how many pieces of evidence per paragraph. Two to four pieces of evidence is a good starting point. Remember the point of the paragraph is to present a strong argument.  

  • Just because you know a fact does not mean that you should use it. Do not list everything that you know on the topic. Teachers are not impressed by students who fact-dump, and fact-dumping will lower your grade. It shows that you have not thought deeply about the topic and identified which pieces of evidence are the best to use for the point you are making.

  • For English, always refer to the prompt or your teacher for guidance as to how many text quotations you should include and how long they should be. Don’t forget to integrate your quotation properly.

3.  Analysis/Explanation of Evidence: Explain what your evidence shows and how this evidence relates to your central idea (topic sentence for the paragraph and thesis for the entire essay).

• • The discussion of evidence usually takes up at least as much space as the evidence itself.  A common error is to assume your reader will understand the significance of the evidence.  Always take care to explain exactly what you think the evidence shows, its significance in proving your idea.

  • Re-read your paragraph’s intro sentence, as well as your essay’s thesis, after each piece of evidence, and ask yourself if that fact actually proves your ideas/argument.  If it doesn’t, remove it.

4. A summation OR a transition:  Know if you intend for the paragraph to stand alone or if you intend to incorporate the paragraph in a larger piece.  This will dictate how you end the paragraph.

• • If the paragraph is part of a larger piece, consider using transition phrases to frame the function of the following paragraph.

  • If this paragraph is the final piece, consider ending with a statement which shows deep reflection of the idea you’ve just discussed in detail (what is the greater significance of your main idea) or with an image or metaphor for your reader to consider.   

This arrangement may alter slightly depending on the function of the paragraph. What matters most is that each idea you present is directly related to the topic of the paragraph, and that each sentence builds into the subsequent sentence.

Use Key Phrases to help you highlight important ideas, make comparisons clear, and transition between ideas.  These transitions may occur both within a paragraph and between paragraphs.

Before you use a key phrase, ask yourself about the nature of the relationship you are trying to describe.  Are you showing similarities?  Are you showing differences?  Are you changing subjects?  Are you about to present your first example to support your claim, or are you presenting an additional example to support your claim? 

Here are some useful key phrases to get you started:

• To show addition: and, also, besides, further, furthermore, in addition, moreover, too

• To give examples: for example, for instance, to illustrate, specifically, in fact, to enumerate…

• To compare: also, similarly, likewise, in the same way, in the same fashion, analogous to...

• To contrast: but, however, in contrast, nevertheless, still, even though, on the contrary, yet, although, conversely 

• To summarize or conclude: in other words, in short, therefore

• To show time: after, as, before, next, during, later, finally, meanwhile, since, then, when, while, immediately

• To show place or direction: above, below, beyond, farther on, nearby, opposite, close, to the left

• To indicate logical relationship: if, so, therefore, consequently, thus, as a result, for this reason, because, since, moreover, above all, certainly…

Having just explained and defended individual parts of your thesis, the conclusion paragraph refocuses the reader’s attention on the paper’s central idea.  It should therefore restate the thesis or main topic (but not verbatim), as well as how the idea was defended.  Strong conclusion paragraphs will also include two to three sentence that synthesize – that is, they try to connect the point you made in the essay into something broader or make a wider application.  Essentially, you should answer the question “So What?”

• • Often times, students will not start the writing process with a clear focus, but will develop it as they write their essay.  Since your goal is to write a thesis or idea-driven essay, failing to clearly present your thesis/idea until the final paragraph of your paper will negatively impact your grade.  To avoid this, always reread your thesis after completing your essay and edit if necessary.

  • When possible, make a reference back to your attention grabber in the introduction.  This ties up an essay nicely.

  • Conclusions should rarely be longer than four to five sentences.