Across the last fortnight as I have been working with a number of students, I have noticed a general area where students seem to have trouble.
This area relates to essay writing, and specifically, the development of a thesis.
An essay is essentially a persuasive argument in response to a question. It is designed, through the use of points, and evidence to successfully persuade the reader to the composer’s point of view.
While this sounds fairly simple and straightforward, it is absolutely vital, never to forget this when constructing an essay. A number of essays I have read, while brilliant in the information they provided have failed to satisfy the very basic requirement of actually providing a persuasive argument.
The key problem in most essays lies in the development of the thesis, or lack thereof of one. What is a thesis?
A thesis is your direct answer to the question, succinctly stated. It is the very core idea that your essay will be arguing through the development of points, and provision of evidence.
Without a thesis, your essay has no real direction. It fails to be an argument, and instead becomes a narrative.
A thesis is the foundation of your essay, as it is the guiding vision of where your essay will travel. The point of your essay is to successfully prove the veracity of your thesis, and consequently convince the reader to your point of view. An essay without a thesis is therefore, no essay at all.
Simply having any thesis however, will be insufficient if you really desire to lift your marks for any essay writing subject.
Why?
Most students who understand the basic necessities of essay writing will be able to construct a basic thesis, that more often than not simply agrees with the question. While such a thesis is better than no thesis at all, they key to really standing out, and generating top marks, it to develop a unique thesis.
What is a unique thesis?
A unique thesis is one that develops a sophisticated response to the question. This involved often either disagreeing with the question, or where possible, to agree, but to qualify the agreement, by placing certain restrictions and limitations. In other words, 98+ UAI students would often attempt to find the grey space, between the black and white answers, when constructing a thesis.
This would involve them reading widely, across many resources and commentaries with the aim of finding limitations and weaknesses in the mainstream arguments.
Students recounted that they would also attempt to play-off commentaries against each other.
A great way therefore to begin your introduction, and move towards the creation of a strong sophisticated thesis is to begin with a discussion of the mainstream commentary, which agrees with the question, and then undermine it, by highlighting its weaknesses.
All the best,
Rowan
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