thesis statement and critical thinking

Developing a Thesis Statement

Many papers you write require developing a thesis statement. In this section you’ll learn what a thesis statement is and how to write one.

Keep in mind that not all papers require thesis statements . If in doubt, please consult your instructor for assistance.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement . . .

• Makes an argumentative assertion about a topic; it states the conclusions that you have reached about your topic.
• Makes a promise to the reader about the scope, purpose, and direction of your paper.
• Is focused and specific enough to be “proven” within the boundaries of your paper.
• Is generally located near the end of the introduction ; sometimes, in a long paper, the thesis will be expressed in several sentences or in an entire paragraph.
• Identifies the relationships between the pieces of evidence that you are using to support your argument.

Not all papers require thesis statements! Ask your instructor if you’re in doubt whether you need one.

Identify a topic

Your topic is the subject about which you will write. Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic; or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper.

Consider what your assignment asks you to do

Inform yourself about your topic, focus on one aspect of your topic, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts, generate a topic from an assignment.

Below are some possible topics based on sample assignments.

Sample assignment 1

Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II.

Identified topic

Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis

This topic avoids generalities such as “Spain” and “World War II,” addressing instead on Franco’s role (a specific aspect of “Spain”) and the diplomatic relations between the Allies and Axis (a specific aspect of World War II).

Sample assignment 2

Analyze one of Homer’s epic similes in the Iliad.

The relationship between the portrayal of warfare and the epic simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64.

This topic focuses on a single simile and relates it to a single aspect of the Iliad ( warfare being a major theme in that work).

Developing a Thesis Statement–Additional information

Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic, or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper. You’ll want to read your assignment carefully, looking for key terms that you can use to focus your topic.

Sample assignment: Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II Key terms: analyze, Spain’s neutrality, World War II

After you’ve identified the key words in your topic, the next step is to read about them in several sources, or generate as much information as possible through an analysis of your topic. Obviously, the more material or knowledge you have, the more possibilities will be available for a strong argument. For the sample assignment above, you’ll want to look at books and articles on World War II in general, and Spain’s neutrality in particular.

As you consider your options, you must decide to focus on one aspect of your topic. This means that you cannot include everything you’ve learned about your topic, nor should you go off in several directions. If you end up covering too many different aspects of a topic, your paper will sprawl and be unconvincing in its argument, and it most likely will not fulfull the assignment requirements.

For the sample assignment above, both Spain’s neutrality and World War II are topics far too broad to explore in a paper. You may instead decide to focus on Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis , which narrows down what aspects of Spain’s neutrality and World War II you want to discuss, as well as establishes a specific link between those two aspects.

Before you go too far, however, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts. Try to avoid topics that already have too much written about them (i.e., “eating disorders and body image among adolescent women”) or that simply are not important (i.e. “why I like ice cream”). These topics may lead to a thesis that is either dry fact or a weird claim that cannot be supported. A good thesis falls somewhere between the two extremes. To arrive at this point, ask yourself what is new, interesting, contestable, or controversial about your topic.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times . Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Derive a main point from topic

Once you have a topic, you will have to decide what the main point of your paper will be. This point, the “controlling idea,” becomes the core of your argument (thesis statement) and it is the unifying idea to which you will relate all your sub-theses. You can then turn this “controlling idea” into a purpose statement about what you intend to do in your paper.

Look for patterns in your evidence

Compose a purpose statement.

Consult the examples below for suggestions on how to look for patterns in your evidence and construct a purpose statement.

• Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis
• Franco turned to the Allies when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from the Axis

Possible conclusion:

Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: Franco’s desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power.

Purpose statement

This paper will analyze Franco’s diplomacy during World War II to see how it contributed to Spain’s neutrality.

• The simile compares Simoisius to a tree, which is a peaceful, natural image.
• The tree in the simile is chopped down to make wheels for a chariot, which is an object used in warfare.

At first, the simile seems to take the reader away from the world of warfare, but we end up back in that world by the end.

This paper will analyze the way the simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64 moves in and out of the world of warfare.

Derive purpose statement from topic

To find out what your “controlling idea” is, you have to examine and evaluate your evidence . As you consider your evidence, you may notice patterns emerging, data repeated in more than one source, or facts that favor one view more than another. These patterns or data may then lead you to some conclusions about your topic and suggest that you can successfully argue for one idea better than another.

For instance, you might find out that Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis, but when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from them, he turned to the Allies. As you read more about Franco’s decisions, you may conclude that Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: his desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power. Based on this conclusion, you can then write a trial thesis statement to help you decide what material belongs in your paper.

Sometimes you won’t be able to find a focus or identify your “spin” or specific argument immediately. Like some writers, you might begin with a purpose statement just to get yourself going. A purpose statement is one or more sentences that announce your topic and indicate the structure of the paper but do not state the conclusions you have drawn . Thus, you might begin with something like this:

• This paper will look at modern language to see if it reflects male dominance or female oppression.
• I plan to analyze anger and derision in offensive language to see if they represent a challenge of society’s authority.

At some point, you can turn a purpose statement into a thesis statement. As you think and write about your topic, you can restrict, clarify, and refine your argument, crafting your thesis statement to reflect your thinking.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Compose a draft thesis statement

If you are writing a paper that will have an argumentative thesis and are having trouble getting started, the techniques in the table below may help you develop a temporary or “working” thesis statement.

Begin with a purpose statement that you will later turn into a thesis statement.

Assignment: Discuss the history of the Reform Party and explain its influence on the 1990 presidential and Congressional election.

Purpose Statement: This paper briefly sketches the history of the grassroots, conservative, Perot-led Reform Party and analyzes how it influenced the economic and social ideologies of the two mainstream parties.

Question-to-Assertion

If your assignment asks a specific question(s), turn the question(s) into an assertion and give reasons why it is true or reasons for your opinion.

Assignment : What do Aylmer and Rappaccini have to be proud of? Why aren’t they satisfied with these things? How does pride, as demonstrated in “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” lead to unexpected problems?

Beginning thesis statement: Alymer and Rappaccinni are proud of their great knowledge; however, they are also very greedy and are driven to use their knowledge to alter some aspect of nature as a test of their ability. Evil results when they try to “play God.”

Write a sentence that summarizes the main idea of the essay you plan to write.

Main idea: The reason some toys succeed in the market is that they appeal to the consumers’ sense of the ridiculous and their basic desire to laugh at themselves.

Make a list of the ideas that you want to include; consider the ideas and try to group them.

• nature = peaceful
• war matériel = violent (competes with 1?)
• need for time and space to mourn the dead
• war is inescapable (competes with 3?)

Use a formula to arrive at a working thesis statement (you will revise this later).

• although most readers of _______ have argued that _______, closer examination shows that _______.
• _______ uses _______ and _____ to prove that ________.
• phenomenon x is a result of the combination of __________, __________, and _________.

What to keep in mind as you draft an initial thesis statement

Beginning statements obtained through the methods illustrated above can serve as a framework for planning or drafting your paper, but remember they’re not yet the specific, argumentative thesis you want for the final version of your paper. In fact, in its first stages, a thesis statement usually is ill-formed or rough and serves only as a planning tool.

As you write, you may discover evidence that does not fit your temporary or “working” thesis. Or you may reach deeper insights about your topic as you do more research, and you will find that your thesis statement has to be more complicated to match the evidence that you want to use.

You must be willing to reject or omit some evidence in order to keep your paper cohesive and your reader focused. Or you may have to revise your thesis to match the evidence and insights that you want to discuss. Read your draft carefully, noting the conclusions you have drawn and the major ideas which support or prove those conclusions. These will be the elements of your final thesis statement.

Sometimes you will not be able to identify these elements in your early drafts, but as you consider how your argument is developing and how your evidence supports your main idea, ask yourself, “ What is the main point that I want to prove/discuss? ” and “ How will I convince the reader that this is true? ” When you can answer these questions, then you can begin to refine the thesis statement.

Refine and polish the thesis statement

To get to your final thesis, you’ll need to refine your draft thesis so that it’s specific and arguable.

• Ask if your draft thesis addresses the assignment
• Question each part of your draft thesis
• Clarify vague phrases and assertions
• Investigate alternatives to your draft thesis

Consult the example below for suggestions on how to refine your draft thesis statement.

Sample Assignment

Choose an activity and define it as a symbol of American culture. Your essay should cause the reader to think critically about the society which produces and enjoys that activity.

• Ask The phenomenon of drive-in facilities is an interesting symbol of american culture, and these facilities demonstrate significant characteristics of our society.This statement does not fulfill the assignment because it does not require the reader to think critically about society.

Drive-ins are an interesting symbol of American culture because they represent Americans’ significant creativity and business ingenuity.

Among the types of drive-in facilities familiar during the twentieth century, drive-in movie theaters best represent American creativity, not merely because they were the forerunner of later drive-ins and drive-throughs, but because of their impact on our culture: they changed our relationship to the automobile, changed the way people experienced movies, and changed movie-going into a family activity.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast-food establishments, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize America’s economic ingenuity, they also have affected our personal standards.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast- food restaurants, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize (1) Americans’ business ingenuity, they also have contributed (2) to an increasing homogenization of our culture, (3) a willingness to depersonalize relationships with others, and (4) a tendency to sacrifice quality for convenience.

This statement is now specific and fulfills all parts of the assignment. This version, like any good thesis, is not self-evident; its points, 1-4, will have to be proven with evidence in the body of the paper. The numbers in this statement indicate the order in which the points will be presented. Depending on the length of the paper, there could be one paragraph for each numbered item or there could be blocks of paragraph for even pages for each one.

Complete the final thesis statement

The bottom line.

As you move through the process of crafting a thesis, you’ll need to remember four things:

• Context matters! Think about your course materials and lectures. Try to relate your thesis to the ideas your instructor is discussing.
• As you go through the process described in this section, always keep your assignment in mind . You will be more successful when your thesis (and paper) responds to the assignment than if it argues a semi-related idea.
• Your thesis statement should be precise, focused, and contestable ; it should predict the sub-theses or blocks of information that you will use to prove your argument.
• Make sure that you keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Change your thesis as your paper evolves, because you do not want your thesis to promise more than your paper actually delivers.

In the beginning, the thesis statement was a tool to help you sharpen your focus, limit material and establish the paper’s purpose. When your paper is finished, however, the thesis statement becomes a tool for your reader. It tells the reader what you have learned about your topic and what evidence led you to your conclusion. It keeps the reader on track–well able to understand and appreciate your argument.

Writing Process and Structure

This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.

Getting Started with Your Paper

Interpreting Writing Assignments from Your Courses

Generating Ideas for

Creating an Argument

Thesis vs. Purpose Statements

Architecture of Arguments

Working with Sources

Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources

Using Literary Quotations

Citing Sources in Your Paper

Drafting Your Paper

Generating Ideas for Your Paper

Introductions

Paragraphing

Developing Strategic Transitions

Conclusions

Revising Your Paper

Peer Reviews

Reverse Outlines

Revising an Argumentative Paper

Revision Strategies for Longer Projects

Finishing Your Paper

Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist

How to Proofread your Paper

Writing Collaboratively

Collaborative and Group Writing

Thesis Statements

What this handout is about.

This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, and how you can craft or refine one for your draft.

Introduction

Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion—convincing others that you have an interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill you practice regularly in your daily life. You persuade your roommate to clean up, your parents to let you borrow the car, your friend to vote for your favorite candidate or policy. In college, course assignments often ask you to make a persuasive case in writing. You are asked to convince your reader of your point of view. This form of persuasion, often called academic argument, follows a predictable pattern in writing. After a brief introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it serves as a summary of the argument you’ll make in the rest of your paper.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement:

• tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.
• is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper.
• directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II or Moby Dick; a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war or the novel.
• makes a claim that others might dispute.
• is usually a single sentence near the beginning of your paper (most often, at the end of the first paragraph) that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.

If your assignment asks you to take a position or develop a claim about a subject, you may need to convey that position or claim in a thesis statement near the beginning of your draft. The assignment may not explicitly state that you need a thesis statement because your instructor may assume you will include one. When in doubt, ask your instructor if the assignment requires a thesis statement. When an assignment asks you to analyze, to interpret, to compare and contrast, to demonstrate cause and effect, or to take a stand on an issue, it is likely that you are being asked to develop a thesis and to support it persuasively. (Check out our handout on understanding assignments for more information.)

How do I create a thesis?

A thesis is the result of a lengthy thinking process. Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do after reading an essay assignment. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts (such as surprising contrasts or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you do this thinking, you will probably have a “working thesis” that presents a basic or main idea and an argument that you think you can support with evidence. Both the argument and your thesis are likely to need adjustment along the way.

Writers use all kinds of techniques to stimulate their thinking and to help them clarify relationships or comprehend the broader significance of a topic and arrive at a thesis statement. For more ideas on how to get started, see our handout on brainstorming .

How do I know if my thesis is strong?

If there’s time, run it by your instructor or make an appointment at the Writing Center to get some feedback. Even if you do not have time to get advice elsewhere, you can do some thesis evaluation of your own. When reviewing your first draft and its working thesis, ask yourself the following :

• Do I answer the question? Re-reading the question prompt after constructing a working thesis can help you fix an argument that misses the focus of the question. If the prompt isn’t phrased as a question, try to rephrase it. For example, “Discuss the effect of X on Y” can be rephrased as “What is the effect of X on Y?”
• 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.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like “good” or “successful,” see if you could be more specific: why is something “good”; what specifically makes something “successful”?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? If a reader’s first response is likely to  be “So what?” then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue.
• Does my essay support my thesis specifically and without wandering? If your thesis and the body of your essay do not seem to go together, one of them has to change. It’s okay to change your working thesis to reflect things you have figured out in the course of writing your paper. Remember, always reassess and revise your writing as necessary.
• 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.

Suppose you are taking a course on contemporary communication, and the instructor hands out the following essay assignment: “Discuss the impact of social media on public awareness.” Looking back at your notes, you might start with this working thesis:

Social media impacts public awareness in both positive and negative ways.

You can use the questions above to help you revise this general statement into a stronger thesis.

• Do I answer the question? You can analyze this if you rephrase “discuss the impact” as “what is the impact?” This way, you can see that you’ve answered the question only very generally with the vague “positive and negative ways.”
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not likely. Only people who maintain that social media has a solely positive or solely negative impact could disagree.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? No. What are the positive effects? What are the negative effects?
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? No. Why are they positive? How are they positive? What are their causes? Why are they negative? How are they negative? What are their causes?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? No. Why should anyone care about the positive and/or negative impact of social media?

After thinking about your answers to these questions, you decide to focus on the one impact you feel strongly about and have strong evidence for:

Because not every voice on social media is reliable, people have become much more critical consumers of information, and thus, more informed voters.

This version is a much stronger thesis! It answers the question, takes a specific position that others can challenge, and it gives a sense of why it matters.

Let’s try another. Suppose your literature professor hands out the following assignment in a class on the American novel: Write an analysis of some aspect of Mark Twain’s novel Huckleberry Finn. “This will be easy,” you think. “I loved Huckleberry Finn!” You grab a pad of paper and write:

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.

You begin to analyze your thesis:

• Do I answer the question? No. The prompt asks you to analyze some aspect of the novel. Your working thesis is a statement of general appreciation for the entire novel.

Think about aspects of the novel that are important to its structure or meaning—for example, the role of storytelling, the contrasting scenes between the shore and the river, or the relationships between adults and children. Now you write:

In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and life on the shore.

• Do I answer the question? Yes!
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not really. This contrast is well-known and accepted.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? It’s getting there–you have highlighted an important aspect of the novel for investigation. However, it’s still not clear what your analysis will reveal.
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? Not yet. Compare scenes from the book and see what you discover. Free write, make lists, jot down Huck’s actions and reactions and anything else that seems interesting.
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? What’s the point of this contrast? What does it signify?”

After examining the evidence and considering your own insights, you write:

Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must leave “civilized” society and go back to nature.

This final thesis statement presents an interpretation of a literary work based on an analysis of its content. Of course, for the essay itself to be successful, you must now present evidence from the novel that will convince the reader of your interpretation.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. 2010. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers , 6th ed. New York: Longman.

Lunsford, Andrea A. 2015. The St. Martin’s Handbook , 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 2018. The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing , 8th ed. New York: Pearson.

Ruszkiewicz, John J., Christy Friend, Daniel Seward, and Maxine Hairston. 2010. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers , 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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9.1 Developing a Strong, Clear Thesis Statement

Learning objectives.

• Develop a strong, clear thesis statement with the proper elements.
• Revise your thesis statement.

Have you ever known a person who was not very good at telling stories? You probably had trouble following his train of thought as he jumped around from point to point, either being too brief in places that needed further explanation or providing too many details on a meaningless element. Maybe he told the end of the story first, then moved to the beginning and later added details to the middle. His ideas were probably scattered, and the story did not flow very well. When the story was over, you probably had many questions.

Just as a personal anecdote can be a disorganized mess, an essay can fall into the same trap of being out of order and confusing. That is why writers need a thesis statement to provide a specific focus for their essay and to organize what they are about to discuss in the body.

Just like a topic sentence summarizes a single paragraph, the thesis statement summarizes an entire essay. It tells the reader the point you want to make in your essay, while the essay itself supports that point. It is like a signpost that signals the essay’s destination. You should form your thesis before you begin to organize an essay, but you may find that it needs revision as the essay develops.

Elements of a Thesis Statement

For every essay you write, you must focus on a central idea. This idea stems from a topic you have chosen or been assigned or from a question your teacher has asked. It is not enough merely to discuss a general topic or simply answer a question with a yes or no. You have to form a specific opinion, and then articulate that into a controlling idea —the main idea upon which you build your thesis.

Remember that a thesis is not the topic itself, but rather your interpretation of the question or subject. For whatever topic your professor gives you, you must ask yourself, “What do I want to say about it?” Asking and then answering this question is vital to forming a thesis that is precise, forceful and confident.

A thesis is one sentence long and appears toward the end of your introduction. It is specific and focuses on one to three points of a single idea—points that are able to be demonstrated in the body. It forecasts the content of the essay and suggests how you will organize your information. Remember that a thesis statement does not summarize an issue but rather dissects it.

A Strong Thesis Statement

A strong thesis statement contains the following qualities.

Specificity. A thesis statement must concentrate on a specific area of a general topic. As you may recall, the creation of a thesis statement begins when you choose a broad subject and then narrow down its parts until you pinpoint a specific aspect of that topic. For example, health care is a broad topic, but a proper thesis statement would focus on a specific area of that topic, such as options for individuals without health care coverage.

Precision. A strong thesis statement must be precise enough to allow for a coherent argument and to remain focused on the topic. If the specific topic is options for individuals without health care coverage, then your precise thesis statement must make an exact claim about it, such as that limited options exist for those who are uninsured by their employers. You must further pinpoint what you are going to discuss regarding these limited effects, such as whom they affect and what the cause is.

Ability to be argued. A thesis statement must present a relevant and specific argument. A factual statement often is not considered arguable. Be sure your thesis statement contains a point of view that can be supported with evidence.

Ability to be demonstrated. For any claim you make in your thesis, you must be able to provide reasons and examples for your opinion. You can rely on personal observations in order to do this, or you can consult outside sources to demonstrate that what you assert is valid. A worthy argument is backed by examples and details.

Forcefulness. A thesis statement that is forceful shows readers that you are, in fact, making an argument. The tone is assertive and takes a stance that others might oppose.

Confidence. In addition to using force in your thesis statement, you must also use confidence in your claim. Phrases such as I feel or I believe actually weaken the readers’ sense of your confidence because these phrases imply that you are the only person who feels the way you do. In other words, your stance has insufficient backing. Taking an authoritative stance on the matter persuades your readers to have faith in your argument and open their minds to what you have to say.

Even in a personal essay that allows the use of first person, your thesis should not contain phrases such as in my opinion or I believe . These statements reduce your credibility and weaken your argument. Your opinion is more convincing when you use a firm attitude.

On a separate sheet of paper, write a thesis statement for each of the following topics. Remember to make each statement specific, precise, demonstrable, forceful and confident.

• Texting while driving
• The legal drinking age in the United States
• Steroid use among professional athletes

Examples of Appropriate Thesis Statements

Each of the following thesis statements meets several of the following requirements:

• Specificity
• Ability to be argued
• Ability to be demonstrated
• Forcefulness
• The societal and personal struggles of Troy Maxon in the play Fences symbolize the challenge of black males who lived through segregation and integration in the United States.
• Closing all American borders for a period of five years is one solution that will tackle illegal immigration.
• Shakespeare’s use of dramatic irony in Romeo and Juliet spoils the outcome for the audience and weakens the plot.
• J. D. Salinger’s character in Catcher in the Rye , Holden Caulfield, is a confused rebel who voices his disgust with phonies, yet in an effort to protect himself, he acts like a phony on many occasions.
• Compared to an absolute divorce, no-fault divorce is less expensive, promotes fairer settlements, and reflects a more realistic view of the causes for marital breakdown.
• Exposing children from an early age to the dangers of drug abuse is a sure method of preventing future drug addicts.
• In today’s crumbling job market, a high school diploma is not significant enough education to land a stable, lucrative job.

You can find thesis statements in many places, such as in the news; in the opinions of friends, coworkers or teachers; and even in songs you hear on the radio. Become aware of thesis statements in everyday life by paying attention to people’s opinions and their reasons for those opinions. Pay attention to your own everyday thesis statements as well, as these can become material for future essays.

Now that you have read about the contents of a good thesis statement and have seen examples, take a look at the pitfalls to avoid when composing your own thesis:

A thesis is weak when it is simply a declaration of your subject or a description of what you will discuss in your essay.

Weak thesis statement: My paper will explain why imagination is more important than knowledge.

A thesis is weak when it makes an unreasonable or outrageous claim or insults the opposing side.

Weak thesis statement: Religious radicals across America are trying to legislate their Puritanical beliefs by banning required high school books.

A thesis is weak when it contains an obvious fact or something that no one can disagree with or provides a dead end.

Weak thesis statement: Advertising companies use sex to sell their products.

A thesis is weak when the statement is too broad.

Weak thesis statement: The life of Abraham Lincoln was long and challenging.

Read the following thesis statements. On a separate piece of paper, identify each as weak or strong. For those that are weak, list the reasons why. Then revise the weak statements so that they conform to the requirements of a strong thesis.

• The subject of this paper is my experience with ferrets as pets.
• The government must expand its funding for research on renewable energy resources in order to prepare for the impending end of oil.
• Edgar Allan Poe was a poet who lived in Baltimore during the nineteenth century.
• In this essay, I will give you lots of reasons why slot machines should not be legalized in Baltimore.
• Despite his promises during his campaign, President Kennedy took few executive measures to support civil rights legislation.
• Because many children’s toys have potential safety hazards that could lead to injury, it is clear that not all children’s toys are safe.
• My experience with young children has taught me that I want to be a disciplinary parent because I believe that a child without discipline can be a parent’s worst nightmare.

Writing at Work

Often in your career, you will need to ask your boss for something through an e-mail. Just as a thesis statement organizes an essay, it can also organize your e-mail request. While your e-mail will be shorter than an essay, using a thesis statement in your first paragraph quickly lets your boss know what you are asking for, why it is necessary, and what the benefits are. In short body paragraphs, you can provide the essential information needed to expand upon your request.

Thesis Statement Revision

Your thesis will probably change as you write, so you will need to modify it to reflect exactly what you have discussed in your essay. Remember from Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” that your thesis statement begins as a working thesis statement , an indefinite statement that you make about your topic early in the writing process for the purpose of planning and guiding your writing.

Working thesis statements often become stronger as you gather information and form new opinions and reasons for those opinions. Revision helps you strengthen your thesis so that it matches what you have expressed in the body of the paper.

The best way to revise your thesis statement is to ask questions about it and then examine the answers to those questions. By challenging your own ideas and forming definite reasons for those ideas, you grow closer to a more precise point of view, which you can then incorporate into your thesis statement.

Ways to Revise Your Thesis

You can cut down on irrelevant aspects and revise your thesis by taking the following steps:

1. Pinpoint and replace all nonspecific words, such as people , everything , society , or life , with more precise words in order to reduce any vagueness.

Working thesis: Young people have to work hard to succeed in life.

Revised thesis: Recent college graduates must have discipline and persistence in order to find and maintain a stable job in which they can use and be appreciated for their talents.

The revised thesis makes a more specific statement about success and what it means to work hard. The original includes too broad a range of people and does not define exactly what success entails. By replacing those general words like people and work hard , the writer can better focus his or her research and gain more direction in his or her writing.

2. Clarify ideas that need explanation by asking yourself questions that narrow your thesis.

Working thesis: The welfare system is a joke.

Revised thesis: The welfare system keeps a socioeconomic class from gaining employment by alluring members of that class with unearned income, instead of programs to improve their education and skill sets.

A joke means many things to many people. Readers bring all sorts of backgrounds and perspectives to the reading process and would need clarification for a word so vague. This expression may also be too informal for the selected audience. By asking questions, the writer can devise a more precise and appropriate explanation for joke . The writer should ask himself or herself questions similar to the 5WH questions. (See Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” for more information on the 5WH questions.) By incorporating the answers to these questions into a thesis statement, the writer more accurately defines his or her stance, which will better guide the writing of the essay.

3. Replace any linking verbs with action verbs. Linking verbs are forms of the verb to be , a verb that simply states that a situation exists.

Working thesis: Kansas City schoolteachers are not paid enough.

Revised thesis: The Kansas City legislature cannot afford to pay its educators, resulting in job cuts and resignations in a district that sorely needs highly qualified and dedicated teachers.

The linking verb in this working thesis statement is the word are . Linking verbs often make thesis statements weak because they do not express action. Rather, they connect words and phrases to the second half of the sentence. Readers might wonder, “Why are they not paid enough?” But this statement does not compel them to ask many more questions. The writer should ask himself or herself questions in order to replace the linking verb with an action verb, thus forming a stronger thesis statement, one that takes a more definitive stance on the issue:

• Who is not paying the teachers enough?
• What is considered “enough”?
• What is the problem?
• What are the results

4. Omit any general claims that are hard to support.

Working thesis: Today’s teenage girls are too sexualized.

Revised thesis: Teenage girls who are captivated by the sexual images on MTV are conditioned to believe that a woman’s worth depends on her sensuality, a feeling that harms their self-esteem and behavior.

It is true that some young women in today’s society are more sexualized than in the past, but that is not true for all girls. Many girls have strict parents, dress appropriately, and do not engage in sexual activity while in middle school and high school. The writer of this thesis should ask the following questions:

• Which teenage girls?
• What constitutes “too” sexualized?
• Why are they behaving that way?
• Where does this behavior show up?
• What are the repercussions?

In the first section of Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” , you determined your purpose for writing and your audience. You then completed a freewriting exercise about an event you recently experienced and chose a general topic to write about. Using that general topic, you then narrowed it down by answering the 5WH questions. After you answered these questions, you chose one of the three methods of prewriting and gathered possible supporting points for your working thesis statement.

Now, on a separate sheet of paper, write down your working thesis statement. Identify any weaknesses in this sentence and revise the statement to reflect the elements of a strong thesis statement. Make sure it is specific, precise, arguable, demonstrable, forceful, and confident.

Collaboration

Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.

In your career you may have to write a project proposal that focuses on a particular problem in your company, such as reinforcing the tardiness policy. The proposal would aim to fix the problem; using a thesis statement would clearly state the boundaries of the problem and tell the goals of the project. After writing the proposal, you may find that the thesis needs revision to reflect exactly what is expressed in the body. Using the techniques from this chapter would apply to revising that thesis.

Key Takeaways

• Proper essays require a thesis statement to provide a specific focus and suggest how the essay will be organized.
• A thesis statement is your interpretation of the subject, not the topic itself.
• A strong thesis is specific, precise, forceful, confident, and is able to be demonstrated.
• A strong thesis challenges readers with a point of view that can be debated and can be supported with evidence.
• A weak thesis is simply a declaration of your topic or contains an obvious fact that cannot be argued.
• Depending on your topic, it may or may not be appropriate to use first person point of view.
• Revise your thesis by ensuring all words are specific, all ideas are exact, and all verbs express action.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

UNI 110/ASU 120 Critical Reading & Thinking

• Finding Topics

Creating a Thesis Statement

Writing centers at asu, additional resources.

• Finding Sources: Research Databases
• Evaluating Your Sources
• Citing Your Sources

What is a Thesis Statement?

A thesis statement expresses the conclusion you have reached on an issue or topic. It is what you plan to prove with the evidence and reasoning presented. A good initial thesis helps focus your information search. The initial thesis can be posed in the form of a question that will guide your research; your final thesis should be a statement indicating your position.

A Good Thesis :

• Clearly takes a stand or position on a topic
• Justifies the position or opinion with reasons
• Expresses one idea
• Serves as a roadmap or structure for the paper

Before writing a thesis statement, you must do some initial research and reading to familiarize yourself with the topic.  This will help you identify the controversies surrounding the topic and assist you in formulating your position or opinion.

Sample Thesis Statement :

Your Stand : Plagiarism policies at Arizona State University must be more consistently defined, applied, and publicized across departments.....   Supporting Reasons for This Position: .....in order to avoid potential legal conflict, and augment the quality of scholarship at the university level.  

According to this thesis, the main body of the paper will have two major sections---avoiding legal conflict, and augmenting the quality of scholarship---containing three sub-sections each---defining, applying, and publicizing plagiarism policies.

Student Success Center

Academic Support Network

Writing Center

• Creating a Thesis Statement        This resource from the OWL at Purdue provides tips for creating a thesis statement and examples of different types of thesis statements.
• Developing a Thesis Statement         Information from the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
• << Previous: Finding Topics
• Next: Finding Sources: Research Databases >>
• Last updated: Jan 29, 2024 11:26 AM
• URL: https://libguides.asu.edu/ASU120

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Library Guides

Essay writing: argument and criticality.

• Argument and criticality

What is an argument?

Essays are generally structured as arguments . 

After you analyse the essay question, you read (or re-read) texts from your reading list and texts found through your own research. On the basis of your reading, you develop a general view, or answer, to the essay question, which you then defend with the evidence found in your reading. 

The view that you defend in your essay is called a thesis statement . 

Thesis statements

What is a thesis statement ?

Your thesis statement states your position on the essay question, which you will defend with one or more arguments in the body of the essay. Your thesis statement is essentially your answer to the essay question, expressed in a single sentence, and will be based on your reading.

Your thesis statement is:

• Is developed through reading. What does the literature say about the issue referred to in the essay question?
• Provided in the introduction 
• Usually follows a brief outline of the problem, or issue, addressed by the essay question 
• Is specific and relevant to the essay question

Examples of thesis statements

Essay question:  ‘Discuss the claim that mass public schooling provides equal access to high quality education.’

Thesis:   This essay will argue  that  while the introduction of mass public schooling was a great advancement in ensuring equal access to education, the influence of socio-economic status on educational attainment has not yet been overcome.  

"This essay will argue"  → Signposting phrase to introduce your argument             

 "while mass public schooling was a great advancement in ensuring equal access to education, the influence of socio-economic status on educational attainment has not yet been overcome"  → Clearly indicates your position on the issue   

Example 2: 

Essay question:  To what extent is there a 'participation crisis' in UK politics?

Thesis:  If we define 'participation' as xyz, it can be argued that there is not in fact a participation crisis in UK politics. 

A note on thesis statements : 

It can feel scary to commit yourself to a thesis statement because thesis statements seem to speak with tremendous certainty! But..."The influence of socio-economic status on educational attainment has not yet been overcome" simply indicates the general destination that the essay will be moving toward. It does not have to be a highly developed statement of how things are. Try to develop a general, 'working' thesis to give your writing direction. You can make it more precise and nuanced as you work through various drafts of your essay. 

Additional help with thesis statements

Effective argumentation

To write an effective argument, you will need to provide the following:

• Thesis statement
• Evidence in the form of literature, data, research findings etc.
• Logic: the thesis statement must be supported logically by the evidence.
• Consideration of counter-arguments
• You can present concessions to counter-arguments, but should reject their key points with your evidence/reasoning.
• Confident whenever possible
• Cautious, qualifying, hedging, when there are uncertainties and limitations

Writing effective arguments

In defending your thesis statement, you will likely have to break it down into separate issues, or aspects, which are dealt with separately.

In discussing these separate aspects, you might develop smaller thesis statements, which are related to your larger thesis statement . 

This means that your essay will have a "tree structure". 

Essay tree structure

An example of a more developed tree structure:

Thesis: Digital technology will lead to greater social mistrust and dysfunctionality rather than greater social cohesion

The handout below looks at the difference between everyday arguments and arguments in academic writing:

• Academic vs. Everyday Arguments An analysis of the similarities and differences between academic arguments and everyday arguments

Argument structure

• The order and structure of an argument can vary

Claim: We should go to the cinema today.

Argument structure A:

1. Counter arguments/concessions:

It is true that…

Cinema is costly (topic 1)

It is hard to agree on a movie (topic 2)

Tomorrow we have lectures in the morning (topic 3)

2. Rebuttals with evidence:

              But

                             We have saved money by working… (topic 1)

There is a new sci-fi movie that you should like and I’m finding quite intriguing... (topic 2) 

                             We haven’t been out in a while and I need some

                              inspiration to study more efficiently... (topic 3) 

Argument structure B:

1. Counterargument/concession plus rebuttal of topic 1

Cinema is costly, at £10 per ticket, but we have saved money by working…

2. Counterargument/concession plus rebuttal of t opic 2 

It is hard to agree on a movie, but there is a new sci-fi movie that you should like and I’m finding quite intriguing..

3. Counterargument/concession plus rebuttal of t opic 3

Tomorrow we have lectures in the morning, but we haven’t been out in a while and I need some inspiration to study more efficiently

Obviously your academic writing will be more complex, will deal with more serious questions, will use evidence and will refer to the relevant academic literature!

Critical thinking and writing

Your essay needs to demonstrate some degree of analysis and critical thinking. The more you progress in higher education, the more you are expected to  use  and  apply  knowledge. This is reflected  in critical writing , whereby  you move from mere description to analysis and evaluation .

Critical thinking entails:

• Being objective
• Looking for weaknesses in arguments
• Checking arguments are logical
• Checking arguments are accurate
• Looking at an idea or data from different perspectives

It also involves asking questions about your own work as well as the work of others such as:

• Is this true?
• How reliable is this information?
• Can I support the arguments and claims I am making?

If you have ever been told that your writing is ‘too descriptive’ and not ‘critical’ enough then consider the differences between analytical writing and descriptive writing:

• Descriptive writing summarises, reports, lists and outlines information, theories and sources.
• Critical writing looks for links between sources, identifies issues, challenges established ideas and considers alternatives.

Check the guide on  Critical Thinking and Writing  for more information on writing critically. 

• << Previous: Research
• Next: Structure >>
• Last Updated: Dec 12, 2023 2:36 PM
• URL: https://libguides.westminster.ac.uk/essaywriting

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Writing to Think: Critical Thinking and the Writing Process

“Writing is thinking on paper.” (Zinsser, 1976, p. vii)

Google the term “critical thinking.” How many hits are there? On the day this tutorial was completed, Google found about 65,100,000 results in 0.56 seconds. That’s an impressive number, and it grows more impressively large every day. That’s because the nation’s educators, business leaders, and political representatives worry about the level of critical thinking skills among today’s students and workers.

What is Critical Thinking?

Simply put, critical thinking is sound thinking. Critical thinkers work to delve beneath the surface of sweeping generalizations, biases, clichés, and other quick observations that characterize ineffective thinking. They are willing to consider points of view different from their own, seek and study evidence and examples, root out sloppy and illogical argument, discern fact from opinion, embrace reason over emotion or preference, and change their minds when confronted with compelling reasons to do so. In sum, critical thinkers are flexible thinkers equipped to become active and effective spouses, parents, friends, consumers, employees, citizens, and leaders. Every area of life, in other words, can be positively affected by strong critical thinking.

Released in January 2011, an important study of college students over four years concluded that by graduation “large numbers [of American undergraduates] didn’t learn the critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication skills that are widely assumed to be at the core of a college education” (Rimer, 2011, para. 1). The University designs curriculum, creates support programs, and hires faculty to help ensure you won’t be one of the students “[showing]no significant gains in . . . ‘higher order’ thinking skills” (Rimer, 2011, para. 4). One way the University works to help you build those skills is through writing projects.

Writing and Critical Thinking

Say the word “writing” and most people think of a completed publication. But say the word “writing” to writers, and they will likely think of the process of composing. Most writers would agree with novelist E. M. Forster, who wrote, “How can I know what I think until I see what I say?” (Forster, 1927, p. 99). Experienced writers know that the act of writing stimulates thinking.

Inexperienced and experienced writers have very different understandings of composition. Novice writers often make the mistake of believing they have to know what they’re going to write before they can begin writing. They often compose a thesis statement before asking questions or conducting research. In the course of their reading, they might even disregard material that counters their pre-formed ideas. This is not writing; it is recording.

In contrast, experienced writers begin with questions and work to discover many different answers before settling on those that are most convincing. They know that the act of putting words on paper or a computer screen helps them invent thought and content. Rather than trying to express what they already think, they express what the act of writing leads them to think as they put down words. More often than not, in other words, experienced writers write their way into ideas, which they then develop, revise, and refine as they go.

What has this notion of writing to do with critical thinking? Everything.

Consider the steps of the writing process: prewriting, outlining, drafting, revising, editing, seeking feedback, and publishing. These steps are not followed in a determined or strict order; instead, the effective writer knows that as they write, it may be necessary to return to an earlier step. In other words, in the process of revision, a writer may realize that the order of ideas is unclear. A new outline may help that writer re-order details. As they write, the writer considers and reconsiders the effectiveness of the work.

The writing process, then, is not just a mirror image of the thinking process: it is the thinking process. Confronted with a topic, an effective critical thinker/writer

• asks questions
• seeks answers
• evaluates evidence
• questions assumptions
• tests hypotheses
• makes inferences
• employs logic
• draws conclusions
• predicts readers’ responses
• creates order
• drafts content
• seeks others’ responses
• weighs feedback
• criticizes their own work
• revises content and structure
• seeks clarity and coherence

Example of Composition as Critical Thinking

“Good writing is fueled by unanswerable questions” (Lane, 1993, p. 15).

Imagine that you have been asked to write about a hero or heroine from history. You must explain what challenges that individual faced and how they conquered them. Now imagine that you decide to write about Rosa Parks and her role in the modern Civil Rights movement. Take a moment and survey what you already know. She refused to get up out of her seat on a bus so a White man could sit in it. She was arrested. As a result, Blacks in Montgomery protested, influencing the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Martin Luther King, Jr. took up leadership of the cause, and ultimately a movement was born.

Is that really all there is to Rosa Parks’s story? What questions might a thoughtful writer ask? Here a few:

• Why did Rosa Parks refuse to get up on that particular day?
• Was hers a spontaneous or planned act of defiance?
• Did she work? Where? Doing what?
• Had any other Black person refused to get up for a White person?
• What happened to that individual or those individuals?
• Why hadn’t that person or those persons received the publicity Parks did?
• Was Parks active in Civil Rights before that day?
• How did she learn about civil disobedience?

Even just these few questions could lead to potentially rich information.

Factual information would not be enough, however, to satisfy an assignment that asks for an interpretation of that information. The writer’s job for the assignment is to convince the reader that Parks was a heroine; in this way the writer must make an argument and support it. The writer must establish standards of heroic behavior. More questions arise:

• What is heroic action?
• What are the characteristics of someone who is heroic?
• What do heroes value and believe?
• What are the consequences of a hero’s actions?
• Why do they matter?

Now the writer has even more research and more thinking to do.

By the time they have raised questions and answered them, raised more questions and answered them, and so on, they are ready to begin writing. But even then, new ideas will arise in the course of planning and drafting, inevitably leading the writer to more research and thought, to more composition and refinement.

Ultimately, every step of the way over the course of composing a project, the writer is engaged in critical thinking because the effective writer examines the work as they develop it.

Why Writing to Think Matters

Writing practice builds critical thinking, which empowers people to “take charge of [their] own minds” so they “can take charge of [their] own lives . . . and improve them, bringing them under [their] self command and direction” (Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2020, para. 12). Writing is a way of coming to know and understand the self and the changing world, enabling individuals to make decisions that benefit themselves, others, and society at large. Your knowledge alone – of law, medicine, business, or education, for example – will not be enough to meet future challenges. You will be tested by new unexpected circumstances, and when they arise, the open-mindedness, flexibility, reasoning, discipline, and discernment you have learned through writing practice will help you meet those challenges successfully.

Forster, E.M. (1927).  Aspects of the novel . Harcourt, Brace & Company.

The Foundation for Critical Thinking. (2020, June 17).  Our concept and definition of critical thinking . https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/our-concept-of-critical-thinking/411

Lane, B. (1993).  After the end: Teaching and learning creative revision . Heinemann.

Rimer, S. (2011, January 18).  Study: Many college students not learning to think critically . The Hechinger Report. https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article24608056.html

Zinsser, W. (1976).  On writing well: The classic guide to writing nonfiction . HarperCollins.

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Webinar Transcripts: Demonstrating Critical Thinking in Writing Assignments

Demonstrating critical thinking in writing assignments.

Presented June 27, 2017

View the webinar recording

Last updated 7/19/2017

Visual: The webinar begins with a PowerPoint title slide in the large central panel. A captioning pod, Q&A pod, and files pod are stacked on the right side.

The slide says “Housekeeping” and the following:

• Will be available online a day or two from now.
• Polls, files, and links are interactive.
• Use the Q&A box to ask questions.
• Send to [email protected]
• Choose “Help” in the upper right hand corner of the webinar room.

Audio: Beth: Hello everyone and thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Beth Nastachowski, and I'm going to get us started by going over a couple of quick housekeeping notes before I hand the session over to our presenter today, Melissa. So, a couple of quick things here, everyone. The first is that you may have noticed that I've started the recording for this webinar and I'll be posting the recording in full in our webinar archive probably by this evening if not a little bit sooner, and so if you have to leave for any reason or if you'd like to come back and review the session, you're more than welcome to do so. And you can find that recording in our webinar archives. And I also like to note here that we do record all of the webinars in the Writing Center so you're more than welcome to access those webinars at any time if you ever see a session that’s being presented live that you can't attend, you can always find the recording. Additionally, we have those recordings available any time so if you're looking for help on a particular topic you can always find a recording in the webinar archive as well.

There are lots of ways for you to interact with us, and with our presenter Melissa, today. So, I do encourage you to do that. I know Melissa has a poll and a couple chats put together throughout the session here, but also note that you can download her slides in the files pod at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. There are lots of links to additional information and resources in this webinar so you can access those links. You can click on them as Melissa is going through them in the webinar itself, but you can also save them by downloading those slides in the PowerPoint files pod on the bottom right-hand corner. So, feel free to do so. You can just click on the slides file and then click download files and it will save it to your computer.

The other way that you can kind of interact with us today is through the Q and A box. So, I will be monitoring that Q and A box throughout the session today. And I’m happy to respond to any questions or comments that you have throughout this session. So, do let me know how I can help, what information I can get you, what questions I can help you in that Q and A box, and then I also like to note that if you do have a question and maybe it's at the very end of the session and we just aren't able to get to it or if you come up with a question after the webinar, you think of it later, do make sure to e-mail us at [email protected]. We are happy to help and respond via e-mail as well, so do let us know.

And then finally, if you have any technical issues I am happy to help. I have a couple of tips I can give you if you're having technical issues, so do let me know if that Q and A box, but I also like to note there's the help button in the top right-hand corner of the screen and that's Adobe Connect's help option and that's really the best place to go if you're having significant technical issues. Alright, and so, with that, Melissa, I will hand it over to you.

Visual: Slide changes to the title of the webinar, “Demonstrating Critical Thinking in Writing Assignments” and the speaker’s name and information: Melissa Sharpe, Writing Instructor, Walden Writing Center

Audio: Melissa: Great. Thank you, Beth. Hi everybody. My name is Melissa Sharpe and I'm a writing instructor here at the Walden Writing Center and thank you for joining us today where we're going to be looking at what critical thinking is, as well as how to demonstrate it in our course work and academic writing. So, let's begin.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Agenda

Critical Thinking:

• Thesis Development
• Paraphrasing

Audio: This is our agenda for today and we will return to it throughout the webinar to help stay on track just to remember where we've been and what's coming up next. The purpose for this webinar is to define critical thinking and then look at how we make it obvious that we're thinking critically in our writing. We hear the word "critical thinking" a lot but we may wonder, okay, how do I think critically in writing or how do I make it clear that I have used critical thinking skills. So today in this webinar we will look at the definition of critical thinking and then we'll see how we demonstrate that thinking in our thesis statement, in our paraphrases, in analysis and synthesis. And these are things that we include in our writing and when they are done strong, they provide the evidence that we have put critical thinking into our writing so we'll get to look at that relationship today. You may find yourself realizing throughout this webinar that you're already demonstrating critical thinking in your work.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Critical Thinking

• An original and informed assessment of an idea, theory, or phenomenon.
• Original : Not just a paraphrase/quote
• Informed :   Backed up by scholarly research
• Assessment : Takes a stand on an issue

Audio: So, we'll start off with that definition of critical thinking and the definition of critical thinking that we will use throughout this presentation, and it's a widely accepted definition, and that is critical thinking is an original and informed assessment of an idea, theory, or phenomenon. And really the keywords here are first original, and that means critical thinking isn't just repeating what someone else said. Critical thinking contains some amount, maybe a touch or a whole bunch of your original thought.

The next keyword is "informed," and that means your original ideas and thought don't come, you know, out of nowhere. Instead they are informed through the research, and that means high quality scholarly research and that becomes the foundation for critical thinking. If you aren't rooting your thought in those things, it's really easy to discredit your ideas.

Last, we have the keyword "assessment" and in this context, the word doesn't mean text or quiz. Instead, it means a position, a stance, a position. And that ties right back to it being an original idea, an original thought. When we put all of this together we can see that critical thinking means using research to say something new. It's really that thought process that you go through after reading the research. We could all read the same three articles on a topic, but as we think about it ourselves and apply our own background knowledge and experiences and opinions, what we have to say about it would be different if we were to sit and talk about those articles, and that's what critical thinking is, and so that process that we go through when we're thinking or talking about these things with people, what we're going to look at today is how that becomes evident in our writing.

Demonstrate that you can develop new ideas, perspectives, or research.

• Exploring the similarity or differences between ideas
• Showing how a theory can be applied in a new setting
• Making practical suggestions for change in processes
• Discovering new connections
• Arguing the importance or need for something

Audio: So critical thinking is especially important in graduate level writing because you use it to show that you have something to add to the conversation, and as you near your capstone document, whatever that may be, for many degrees you have to propose or complete original research or forward some sort of new, original thought, idea, theory on a topic, and critical thinking shows that you're able to do that because it is an original and informed assessment, and outside of those major documents I'm sure you'll recognize that all regular course work needs critical thinking as well. You may see it appear in some of these tasks that are on the screen. Maybe you're asked to look at the similarities or differences between ideas or you read about a theory and apply it in a new setting. Maybe you read about a theory and you apply it in your daily work life. Maybe you're asked to create a suggestion for change. That would be something new that is based on existing research. Sometimes we discover new connections or argue the importance or need for something. And these are the types of tasks that appear in a lot of writing prompts, and all of them by nature require critical thinking.

Bad Example:

• Æ A discussion post defining two educational philosophies. Æ

Good Example:

• A discussion post comparing two educational philosophies and reflecting on the ways those philosophies could (or could not) be used to inform the teaching in a classroom environment you observed.

Audio: So, here's what critical thinking may look like in a discussion post. And a bad example would be if you were to write a discussion post that just defines two educational philosophies. That's definitely going to be based on research but there isn't anything new. There's none of us, the writer, the thinker in there. So as a discussion post that one does not require any critical thinking. A discussion post that does demonstrate and show critical thinking would be a post where you are comparing two educational philosophies and reflecting on the way that those philosophies could or could not be used to inform teaching in your classroom or a classroom you observed, and this discussion post we still have that research comparing and contrasting the two philosophies but we have that new idea, that new perspective, that new application and that is tying those philosophies into a classroom environment, so in that bad example we see a discussion post where critical thinking is not evident but in this better example the critical thinking is clear. There's that new application.

• Æ A short essay detailing the steps taken during admissions in an inpatient facility. Æ
• A short essay recommending a change in the steps taken during admissions in an inpatient facility, where the changes are based on current research.

Audio: And in a short essay we may also see critical thinking in the following ways. First, we'll take a look at the bad example. If a person were to write a short essay detailing the steps taken during admissions in an inpatient facility, that’s just research. It's just repeating something that was looked up. There really isn't any critical thinking going on there because there aren't new ideas, perspectives or a proposal of new research. Here we have a better example, and this example shows critical thinking. So, if somebody were to write a short essay where they recommend changing the steps during the admissions process and those steps are based on current research, this does demonstrate critical thinking because there's that new idea, that new perspective. Once again, it's based on research, but it is a presentation of some sort of new idea or thought. So, critical thinking sometimes appears in the subject matter or prompts that we're given, and when those are completed following directions you're kind of as a writer forced to critically think, but we're still going to look at all the ways that we can pull it into our writing.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Critical Thinking Red Flags

• Ideas supported with a single source
• Extensive quotes
• Use of sources of questionable credibility
• Just a restatement of what a source said

Audio: And sometimes it helps to know how to do something by looking at what not to do. So, if you see any of these four things in your writing, it's a little red flag that there just isn't enough critical thinking, yet. So, if in an essay that you see yourself supporting an idea using a single source over and over again, that might be a sign that the writing could be more informed. There's strength in numbers, I guess, if you are writing on a topic and you have a lot of sources that you've used to inform yourself and your opinion, it's just going to be stronger than if you were relying on a single piece of research because if you rely on a single piece of research even if it's really, really good, it helps to have that validated or backed up in other places as well.

Also, any time there's an essay that has extensive quoting if there's quote after quote all over the place, that also is a red flag that there isn't quite enough critical thinking yet and this is for a couple reasons. First having a lot of quotes means they're just taking up a lot of space. You're letting other writers do the talking for you, and it is just -- it's costing you time and space on the page. As the writer, you want to be in control of that and so instead of relying on other sources even if they happen to be amazing sources, it helps to paraphrase and that's one of the things we'll look at today. Also, if there's a lot of quotes, it means you haven't -- you've lost that space of where you're going to comment and explain what they mean and connect it to other ideas. Quotes just -- they cost you space.

So, the next one to look at would be having sources that have questionable credibility so if you look at your reference list and there's some kind of iffy sources, not a lot of named authors could be a red flag. A lot of sources that come from general websites, not websites of academic journals or other reliable sources. If you have something that's particularly tough to put on your reference list, sometimes even that can be a red flag because a journal article has a really straightforward pattern of what to include to put on the reference list and it's relatively easy to plug those in providing can you find them all on your page of course but some of our, like, website resources can be a little trickier to cite and if you notice that you have some sources with questionable credibility that means what you're basing your ideas on is a shaky foundation. You want to have a little bit more solid research.

And then the last red flag, is if you find yourself just restating what sources said over and over again, it means we're missing that new original thought, your argument, your assessment. So, if any of these four things you notice when you're revising your work or reading through a draft you can say okay, I think I need to add a little bit more critical thinking. And so, today we're going to look at four of the things that we include in our writing that are great places to show and demonstrate that we are critically thinking.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Chat:

What parts of critical thinking do you struggle with the most?

[The webinar layout changes to open a chat box for students to type into in response to the chat question.]

Audio: So, as we're getting ready to look at those, how we demonstrate critical thinking in our thesis, our paraphrase, our analysis, our synthesis. Before we start that I want you to tell me in the chat box, which of these four you struggle with the most and, if you wish, why you feel you struggle with them most.

[Pause as students type.]

Right away I see a lot of thesis coming in, and I think one of the reasons why we sometimes think the thesis statements are difficult is because they have a really big job to do. They have to kind of preview the main idea and argument of the entire piece of writing, and unlike a paraphrase, analysis, and synthesis the thesis appears really in this one spot. We may repeat it or reflect on it throughout but a thesis statement sort of happens just once, and maybe that makes it feel higher stakes. We have a lot of great resources for thesis statements and some of these, I'll share links with you at the end of this presentation.

I also see a lot of paraphrasing coming through. Actually, it looks like we are touching on all of them, which is great because we will look at all four of these things, today. And throughout this webinar even though we touch on all four of these we're going to look at how doing them well demonstrates critical thinking. We won't be going into detail about how to do all four of these, at least not into great detail. However, in our Writing Center both on the website and in other webinars, we have some tools that will help you go into detail if you need help like, how do I even start to write a thesis? We have a webinar about that. So, if you need any of those resources, you could even send us a question in the Q and A box and I'm sure Beth could get those links for you. All right.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Thesis Statement:

A sentence that states your main argument ; must be:

• Argumentative
• Capable of advancement

The purpose of my paper is to discuss dark chocolate.

My paper will explore dark chocolate.

Audio: So, the first part of writing a text and that could be an essay, a major assessment, a discussion post but the very first thing we're going to look at is the thesis statement, and here you can see in this checklist the things that make for a good and a strong thesis. A thesis states the main argument of an essay, that main idea, the purpose, what's going to happen in the writing. And so, it should be argumentative and what that means is, it doesn't have to be combative in nature, but it should state an opinion, it should state the opinion that you are going to present and forward and develop throughout the writing. And that means the thesis also has to be capable of advancement and what that means is, your thesis has to be something you can continue to write about over the length of an essay. If a thesis is something that you can't expand on, if you could say everything you have to say about it in a paragraph but your essay is supposed to be five pages long, that thesis isn't as strong as it could be.

Next a thesis should be concise. And that means not too long or wordy. Yes, we want to preview what the work is going to do, the ideas that are coming forth in the writing, but it has to be digestible. A reader should be able to read that thesis, beginning to end, and understand it. We don’t want anybody to get lost along the way. And a thesis should also be supported and much like being capable of advancement that means your thesis has to be supported with research, proof, and evidence. Otherwise that writing and the ideas in it are going to be a little bit faulty.

 These four things are what we use to make sure a thesis statement is sound. If you take a look at that red box on the bottom of the slide we'll see two thesis statements that, they just are not quite good enough, yet. And so, let's take a look at the first one. “The purpose of my paper is to discuss dark chocolate.” Well, that is great. We definitely know your topic. But I don't see an argument or an opinion. I don't also have like a direction. As a reader, I'm not sure where this is going to go. Like, what are we going to discuss about dark chocolate? If it's everything about dark chocolate that could be an entire book, that could be a series of books. So, this… Although there's a lot that could be said, it's not really capable of advancement because it's too broad. Sure, it is nice and short, but this doesn't have enough of a focus for us and it doesn't help us to present an opinion.

Same thing with the second one. “My paper will explore dark chocolate.” Well… Again, we're going to wonder what? Where is this going to go? And so, these two thesis statements do not demonstrate critical thinking because we cannot see any thought process. It's just a statement of topic. We're missing that originality that critical thinking is based on.

In this paper I argue that dark chocolate has more positive benefits than other types of chocolate.

My discussion shows that dark chocolate contributes to people’s happiness and satisfaction.

Audio: So here are the revised thesis statements. These are better because they meet the four criteria and therefore they're going to demonstrate some critical thinking. In that first example thesis, it says, “in this paper I argue dark chocolate has more positive benefits than other types of chocolate.” Here we have an argument and that is that dark chocolate has positive benefits, that are lacking in other chocolate. Great. We have an opinion. That means we have this original thought that's going to be supported throughout the writing. I would personally prefer to see this thesis statement stated without “in this paper I argue.” I think we can do away with that stylistically, but we're here just to take a look at the critical thinking and not the wording.

The second thesis statement for a discussion post also has that original thought because there is an argument here. “My discussion shows that dark chocolate contributes to people's happiness and satisfaction.” As a reader, I know after reading that thesis that I'm going to read a discussion post that's going to tell me how dark chocolate makes people happy, might have a paragraph or two about that, and I'm going to read about how dark chocolate makes people satisfied. We'll have a paragraph or two about that. This thesis statement presents an opinion that's argumentative. It can be advanced because we can use research to support those two points and it's short enough that when I read it I get the idea. So, here we have a thesis statement that's strong and that is showing critically thinking because I can tell there's gonna be research, yet the writer is sharing their thoughts. The writer has decided that dark chocolate contributes to these two things and there is that newness that we're looking for.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Thesis

Poll Practice:

Which thesis statement is argumentative ?

[The webinar layout changes to open a poll for the students to respond to the question.]

Audio: So, we're going to practice to try to find a thesis statement that shares an argument, a thesis statement that has that new and original thought. So, here there should be a poll on your screen and I want you to use that poll to choose which of these three thesis statements presents an argument.

[Pause for students to participate in the poll.]

Sometimes it helps us to find the one that is, by first finding the ones that are not. And so, we want to find a thesis statement that presents an opinion. Our thesis should not just repeat existing research. Remember if something repeats existing research alone, it's informed, but in critical thinking it also needs to be original. So, definitely a thesis statement that just repeats existing research is not going to be argumentative, so -- and I'm assuming, and I apologize if I'm wrong, but these are appearing in the same order on your screen as they are in mine but this first thesis statement, the on “in his article Jefferson insisted,” that one is just repeating what an article said. If that's a thesis the entire post or essay would be a summary of an article and that's not an argument so we do not want to identify that as being the argumentative one.

The next thesis statement here says that “social media can create distractions for high school students as they focus on talking with their friends rather than their studies.” Now, this is an argument. It is I believe pretty narrow in focus, so perhaps it is more appropriate for a discussion post or a short essay rather than something long because it is very narrow in focus but it does present an opinion because you could disagree with it. I could say social media does not create a distraction or I could say it creates a distraction but not because high school students are talking with their friends, but for some other reason. So, this is argumentative. This is a thesis statement that shows critical thinking provided that the writer has drawn this conclusion his or herself. If this had a citation at the end showing that this also came from the Jefferson article, then it becomes just another paraphrase or a summary, and as a thesis statement that would mean the entire essay would also be a summary and that's not what we're looking for.

In our last example thesis statement, which is “the purpose of this paper is to consider positive and negative ways that social media affects high school students.” This is kind of an in-between thesis statement. It could maybe be an argument. It also could maybe not be one. For me as a reader, I'm not exactly sure where this essay is going to go. I think it's a great topic but there's so many different ways it could affect high school students. Perhaps that could be narrowed a little bit. There's just some ways to make this more specific so there's probably an argument brewing underneath in this thesis. It's just not as obvious as that option in the middle. And I'm pleased to see that the majority went with that option in the middle, which is an argumentative thesis.

Visual: Slide changes to the following:  Thesis Statement:

A statement of the main idea of the text, which is argumentative, capable of advancement, concise, and able to be supported.

Social media can create distractions for high school students in schools as they focus on talking with their friends rather than their studies.

Audio: All right. Now we know what a good thesis is and we know what critical thinking is, so how does a good thesis demonstrate critical thinking? Remember our keywords for the definition of critical thinking are original and informed assessment. A good thesis is argumentative. That means it is a new and original argument. Argument is assessment as we talked about earlier today. A good thesis is also able to be supported. That means it is informed by the research. Here is that sample thesis that we said was argumentative, and when we look at it we can see that original idea which is that it creates a distraction in these ways, and we can tell that it's going to be informed at least ideally unless this particular writer gets sidetracked. It's going to be backed by research showing that social -- that students focus on talking with their friends and that perhaps they're spending less time studying and paying attention to school work. All of that research has informed the argument that social media is a distraction. Before we -- well -- oh, here are my arrows. I apologize. Look at this. I have connected these two thing for you. So, we can see how the keywords are repeated in the definition of critical thinking and in the definition of thesis.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Questions?

[Slide includes an image of a question mark.]

Audio: I'm going to stop here before we move on and just see if any questions came into the Q and A box that I haven’t touched on yet or that we should look at before moving forward.

Beth: Yeah. Thanks so much, Melissa. We had a great question where a student was asking, you know, whether you had any suggestions or strategies for how to come up with a thesis topic. Anything, if students are kind of struggling with that. Things to keep in mind or things to do to help with that.

Melissa: Yeah, I think that sometimes it helps to keep your thesis statement alive as you're writing. So, what that means is just because you've written a thesis statement doesn't mean it's going to stay that way forever, so when I'm writing I will look at my prompt, or my directions, my purpose first and after doing all the reading and research and I'll say, okay, what am I going to do, and it can help to start off by saying in this paper I will, and start listing what you're going to do. That is not my favorite type of thesis to see in a final draft but it is the -- it is a good way to stay focused on that idea as you're writing. Now, you can write your whole draft, come back and make sure that the paragraphs that you create still match the thesis statement, and if they do, then it's time to try rewriting that thesis statement in a few different ways trying to really nail it down into a sentence or two and then going back and applying that checklist. Okay, is this an argument. If you are doing this after you've written the essay you can probably say, yes, I have been able to advance it, and then if you continue to struggle with the thesis or wonder if it is as good as it can be, this is where you might want to make an appointment in the Writing Center and in that appointment form say, you know, I need some help with my thesis statement, or you might want to go and watch the recording of our thesis webinars but just know that that thesis statement is going to change and grow and shift with the writing.

Beth: Fantastic. Do you mind if I note a couple of other things that I mentioned in my response?

Melissa: Oh. Please do.

Beth: I love what you were saying about shifting and sort of working with the thesis as you're writing. But a couple other things I also said was go ahead and take a look at your notes again, once you’ve taken a look at your assignment prompt. Maybe you have some ideas in your notes where you say wow I was really interested in this part of this topic and maybe that's where I can focus my paper this week but also, we presented on sort of using your discussion posts as a basis for a paper a couple weeks ago. That was a webinar we did and that might be another idea is to take a look at your discussion post and the discussion forum for the week and see if there's anything that catches your eye and that might help you kind of come up with some ideas to focus your paper too.

Melissa: Yeah, that's a great idea because if we're looking for that original thought in the presentation of our own argument, we have to go digging back through our ideas.

Beth: Sure. Yeah, I think that's all we have for now, Melissa.

Audio: Melissa: Okay. Great. That means we can move on to the next part of our writing that we can use to demonstrate critical thinking and that would be paraphrasing.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Paraphrasing

Placing ideas or information from a source in your own words

• Preferable to direct quotes.
• Citing page/paragraph number is optional.
• Usually shorter than the original.
• Condense, reframe, and restructure the author’s idea.
• Relate author’s ideas to your own ideas, perspective, and argument.

Audio: So first we're going to define a paraphrase, and a paraphrase is when you take source material and we take that source material and put it in our own words. For example, if I read an article about a health care bill and I repeat the key points in my own words, as soon as I do that I have paraphrased, so some additional details about paraphrasing is that it's preferable to direct quotes and that's because it allows us to maintain our role as the writer. There's nothing wrong with including quotes especially when the writer has said it in a way that you just can't duplicate, but as we are the writer of our own work we want to keep as much of it in our own words as possible, so paraphrasing is preferable because of that. Know when that when you paraphrase you also have to cite the paraphrase but including the page or paragraph number is optional and that's because unlike a quote which definitely exists on a page or a specific paragraph, a paraphrase could include information that's not all on one page or all in one paragraph. A paraphrase is also usually shorter than the original, although it can be of a similar length. You could take two sentences and paraphrase it and that paraphrase will still be two sentences long.

In a paraphrase our purpose, of course, is to condensed, reframe, restructure, restate the author's idea in our own words, but we don't want to change the idea itself. We want to maintain what the original point of information or expert opinion is. And then the purpose of a paraphrase is not just to repeat that information, but it gives us a point to relate the author's ideas to what we are writing about. A paraphrase is that first step. If writing does nothing but paraphrase, it's kind of like piecing together, you know, like cutting up a bunch of articles and gluing them on a piece of paper. We still need our own ideas in there, and a paraphrase helps us to connect what we are saying to the larger conversation.

Read passage until you understand its meaning

Consider context of assignment: What will you do with this evidence?

Look away from passage to write main points of what you read

Cite source in your paraphrase

• Rework, revise, and rephrase as needed.
• Imagine you are explaining that information to a colleague or classmate.

Audio: And it's important to look at how we paraphrase. It sounds easy, just put it in my own words. But really this is something academic writers struggle with because it often ends up not being in our own words enough, and then it would be an issue with academic integrity or plagiarism or maybe the paraphrase feels like it just isn't saying the right thing or, sure, I can paraphrase the article but where am I actually going to put it in my own essay. So, these are some things that can make paraphrasing difficult.

So when you paraphrase the first step we start at the very top of this circle you’ll see how we move through a paraphrase. The first step is to read that passage until you understand its meeting. Read it over and over again, take some notes. In order to repeat the ideas, we have to know what the ideas are. So, start by reading that passage until you really get the meaning. Then we want to consider our assignment. What are we doing? What is the purpose of this discussion post? Why am I writing this essay? And once you know that, you can try to figure out where this paraphrase will fit in. Does it support one specific idea that you know you’re going to say? How can I use this? Knowing how you can use the paraphrase before you're drafting or how you can use your sources before you draft, maybe if you're a person who creates detailed outlines it just helps you prepare to insert that research in a way that makes sense.

And then when you're actually writing that draft, look away from that original article, look away from the passage when you're writing your main points and you’re repeating it. If you have your article next to you as you're typing that paraphrase it becomes easy to start borrowing some of the words and phrases and at that point it's not really a paraphrase and needs to be quoted. And when you're working on that you want to kind of stop and you can revise your paraphrase, you can rework it a bit. Okay? If you are really struggling with how to put this in my own words just imagine you're explaining it or telling it to someone else and see how it comes out. And if you don't like that version, like I said, just revise, rework and go ahead and what you need to.

Now, once the paraphrase is complete remember the citation. It's a really good habit to get into to cite as soon as you write the paraphrase because it becomes very difficult to try to figure out where the citations go after the fact. And sometimes students will put “citation needed” as a reminder to themselves to add that citation, but if you're working with 7 sources you might forget what source it is. So, citing as soon as you're done with the paraphrase is a really good habit to get into.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Paraphrasing: Example

“The most significant contribution of this work is the explicit focus on the informational resources available via social media and their role in the process of applying for, planning to attend, and feeling confident about succeeding at college. Importantly, and perhaps not surprisingly, social media does not play a major role for non first-generation students but does for first-generation students. This may be due  to the fact that first-generation students are less likely to have these instrumental and informational resources available in their immediate household, as they do not have parents who have experienced successfully graduating from college”

(Wohn, Ellison, Khan, Fewins-Bliss, & Gray, 2013, p. 27).

Wohn, Ellison, Khan, Fewins-Bliss, and Gray (2013) discussed the role social media plays for students’ actions and feelings about college. First-generation students are more affected by social media’s in their decisions related to college. First-generation students sometimes don’t have the experience of people around them to use as they make decisions regarding college, one reason social media might have more of an impact for them.

Audio: And so, here's an example of how to paraphrase. You're going to see this rather long paragraph from an article. As an academic writer, it's my job to read this as an academic writer over and over until I know what the main idea is. I'm going to look away from it when I write my paraphrase, and when I do that my paraphrase may look something like this.

Right away you can see that this is shorter than the original. And that's a good sign. If we compare the wording of the two, there's no -- there isn't a point at which I've used more than two words in the same word order as the original source. And that means this wording is totally new, the wording is all my own. Also, I have cited it. Note that this citation comes at the beginning of the sentence and what matters is that I have the names of the writers and the year of publication. I could have cited it at the end if I wanted to and then I would have a parenthetical citation where the name and year was all in. That stylistically is up to you as long as it is cited.

While social media can be a distraction to high school students during school hours, Wohn, Ellison, Khan, Fewins-Bliss, and Gray (2013) found that social media can help first-generation students successfully apply and be accepted to college.

Audio: Here is another example of what a paraphrase could look like and this is what I think is my better one, I apologize, that is short and has a clear citation. In this previous example I had too much going on. There we go, there's my good one. Okay. So, this is the one that's nice and short and I have a citation. The citation you can see appears at the beginning but not the total beginning of the paraphrase and that's okay because the work is still cited and once again I can cite at the beginning, I can cite at the end. As a writer, I get to choose stylistically what works best for me.

Paraphrase:

• An original restatement of information from research.

Audio: And so now the big question. How does paraphrasing actually demonstrate that I'm critically thinking. We know that a paraphrase is repeating existing information. So where is the originality coming from? Well, a paraphrase is your original restatement, so the connection here is that you have put that information or research in your own words. Remember critical thinking is creating something original and new out of the existing research. So, remember it doesn't take any critical thinking to copy a quote, but it does take critical thinking to create and craft a paraphrase.

Audio: Again, I'm going to pause to make sure I haven't left anything out or there's any lingering questions so let me know, Beth.

Beth: Yeah, thanks so much, Melissa. We did have a student asking sort of about quoting and asking whether they should never quote or it there is a certain number of quotes they can use, that kind of thing. Do you have any suggestions or guidance on that since we're talking about paraphrasing and kind of comparing the two?

Melissa: Yeah, you know, each assignment is going to be different when it comes to when, where, how often to quote. I think that if you're able to paraphrase, it's usually the better choice. Occasionally, there are sentences or phrases that you can't state any better, maybe their research dense or the phrasing is beautiful, maybe somebody was a great writer when they presented some information or fact and you want to keep that original phrasing, or you're quoting an expert in the field, and it just supports your research, and you really want to give that expert credit for saying it, just because they carry so much weight. All of those are cases where quoting is fine. I think if you have back-to-back quotes or quotes that appear very close together, then that's a sign that the number should be reduced, either it would help to say more in between them or to turn one into a paraphrase. It’s really… You have to look at each specific assignment to see if there are too many quotes and I think if you look at your page, like if you have a whole page pulled up on the screen and you kind of step back, you can see the quotes and I think really what's most important is that space between them.

Beth: Awesome. Thanks so much, Melissa. So, we had another question come in, so do you have another minute for another question?

Melissa: Yes, of course.

Beth: Okay. Awesome. So, when you are paraphrasing and sort of thinking about the process of paraphrasing we had I student ask about synonyms and asking whether synonyms are acceptable for paraphrasing and king of how those work into the process of paraphrasing. Could you talk about that a little bit?

Melissa: Yeah, so there's, well, there’s kind of a bigger idea that is lingering under that question of using synonyms and that is if you're going to take a sentence and just hit up every other word and change it to a synonym, that's not going to be the strongest paraphrase and it might come out sounding a little awkward. So, in a paraphrase, it's both about kind of shuffling the order of words in addition to changing some of them. In some research, there may be words or phrases that are technical or specific and in which case we wouldn't want to rephrase them. I'm thinking like “differentiated instruction” in the world of education. Calling that something else might be a little clumsy. So, we would want to maintain that word. But a paraphrase is both about changing the order of words as well as what they actually are.

Beth: Perfect. Thanks so much, Melissa. I think that's it for now.

Audio: Melissa: Okay. Great. So, taking a look at our agenda today we just finished talking about paraphrasing and that means we are ready to move on to analysis.

Visual : Slide changes to the following: Analysis

• Your own interpretation of other authors’ ideas
• Shows that you’re not just summarizing your research, but using it to support your argument
• How you’ll support your thesis statement throughout your paper
• Important to include in every paragraph

Audio: And analysis is one of the words that I think we hear a lot. It appears -- I know we talk about it a lot in the Writing Center. I see it in assignment prompts but it may not be something that's easy to have a solid definition of. We have a lot of great resources related to analysis spread throughout the Writing Center including the website and other webinars and I think these are four things that really help to define analysis in as brief of a way as we can get through here in this webinar.

So first an analysis is your own interpretation of other authors', writers' ideas. It's what you think, what you get out of it, what occurs to you after reading that source. And analysis shows that you are not just summarizing the research you completed but that you're using it to support your argument. You have read research on a topic and now here's what you think. The analysis is where we kind of present that “here is what I think.” So, there's a lot of weight and importance to including an analysis. The analysis is that actual support. If you have facts and statistics and all this research based on a topic and you just present it on the page, the reader could draw their own conclusions. The analysis is the conclusions you have drawn, and that's really how you support the thesis or how you support your argument. The sources give you what you need to make those claims and to share those ideas, but you have to yourself as the writer make the claim and share the idea. And the analysis is where all of that happens, and it's important to include in every paragraph. Now I'm going to say every paragraph but of course each assignment may have different purposes and goals so occasionally there are types of paragraphs where we don't have analysis but I think if this is something you're worried about not including just try to get it in there in every paragraph. The short of all of this is analysis adds you to the writing. Analysis is where you happen.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Analysis: MEAL Plan

M ain idea: Topic sentence—what subject will the paragraph be about?

E vidence: Research, data, and sources

Analysis: Interpretation of research, data, sources for your reader

L ead out: Emphasize main point, reiterate a conclusion, explain significance of           information

Audio: One place where you may have heard the word analysis is the MEAL plan and the MEAL plan is a paragraphing plan we refer to a lot here in the Writing Center. It's featured on our website, all throughout the blog. Maybe Beth could put a link or two in the Q and A box if you want to learn more. Or if this is something you just aren’t’ familiar with yet. But the shortest explanation of the MEAL plan is that it helps you write a paragraph so long as you include the four parts, and the four parts are the main idea. The main idea is the topic sentence or the first sentence or two of the paragraph and that's where we state what the subject of the paragraph is, what the paragraph is all about. Next an MEAL plan paragraph includes evidence, and that evidence is all of our research, our statistics, data, other sources. It's everything we've looked up. After evidence, we have analysis and the analysis is that interpretation, what it means, exactly what we just looked at on the previous slide. It's you, your thoughts, what you have to say about it. And then an MEAL plan paragraph ends with some sort of lead-out where you can repeat the main idea of the paragraph. Reiterate your conclusion, explain the significance. There are a lot of strategies you can do at the end of the paragraph.

When we look at this MEAL plan one thing to note is that the paragraph could have a topic sentence, two sentences of evidence, three sentences of analysis and a lead-out and that could be it, but an MEAL plan paragraph could also open with a topic sentence, have some evidence followed by analysis, a little bit more evidence and more analysis and then lead out. So, it's not an exact template that you can just drop one sentence into for each. There's flexibility with this, how long each of those four things are, and if your evidence and analysis repeats or not. But the MEAL plan can be very, very useful.

Visual: Slide change to the following: Handout:

Including Analysis and Explanation in Your Writing

Audio: Now, before we take a look at examples of adding analysis, I do want to point out that we have a handout that is down in that files pod near the bottom of your screen, and in this handout, it will explain how you can include analysis and explanation in your writing. And this is useful if that's something that you feel stuck on or right now you're sitting here thinking you need a little bit more information about that. So, you'll see this handout and even though we're looking at examples of what analysis looks like, if you want those specific steps or information about doing it yourself, you're going to find it here, and I just wanted to draw your attention to that before we check out the following example.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Analysis

According to recent data, 88% of patients in the United States needing to see a health care specialist are able to do so within a month (Roland, Guthrie, & Thome, 2012).

According to recent data, 88% of patients in the United States needing to see a specialist are able to do so within a month (Roland, Guthrie, & Thome, 2012). This statistic shows that more than 10% of the population needs to wait to receive what might be urgent medical care.

According to recent data, 88% of patients in the United States needing to see a specialist are able to do so within a month (Roland, Guthrie, & Thome, 2012). In other words, in terms of seeing a specialist, the U.S. health care system is meeting the needs of the majority of patients.

Audio: And so, one trick to doing analysis is to include a quote or paraphrase and then just follow it up with what you think. This way it forces you to include that analysis right away, and because we know analysis is how we add more of ourselves to the topic, more of ourselves to the research, we want to say this, we want it to be something new and from our own brains and responding immediately to a paraphrase helps us with that. It's a good habit to get into.

First here I have a paraphrase which is awesome because I'm presenting the facts in my own words, but I add even more critical thinking by analyzing or saying something new about it right after.  So here I have my paraphrase. “According to recent data 88% of patients in the United States needing to see a health care specialist are able to do so within a month.” There's my paraphrase, so here's one example of analysis. Immediately after I could say “this statistic shows that more than 10% of the population needs to wait to receive what might be urgent medical care.” So, as a writer I read that article. I paraphrased it and I thought that is not good. That means there's a lot people who are not getting the help they need, so I had that idea and I put it into writing and that becomes my analysis.

But because analysis involves adding my own thoughts, it can look different in each paper. So, here's another example. I read that same article, and my analysis is, “in other words, in terms of seeing a specialist the U.S. health care system is meeting the needs of the majority of patients.” So, in this case I'm a writer who read that article and said 88%, that's amazing and I’ve included that in my analysis. So, see how the one paraphrase could be used to support two totally different ideas? That's because analysis is coming from me as the academic writer. It's me. I'm not just repeating what I read in the article, I’m adding my thoughts. So, on the one case, I'm a student who thinks this article shows the health care system is great and on the other hand, I'm a student who read the article and thought it showed that health care system needs to be improved. Two totally different ideas. Both are good. Neither is better than the other. The point is that analysis is going to come from you, so you could read the research and have one idea. Someone could read it and have a different idea, but both are correct.

Provide analysis of my paraphrase

Audio: And just to demonstrate how people can read the same bit of research and draw their own conclusions, I want you to write an analysis of this paraphrase, what this -- what I'm asking you to do is to read through the paraphrase and then share a follow-up conclusion, observation, thought, something new. What does this make you realize? I'm going to give you a couple minutes to complete this task, and as you work or after you're done, take a look at the variety of responses.

So, when I take a look at some of the analysis that's coming in I see some people are using this research to focus on communication. Some people are going to use this to help forward an opinion about students going on to further their education. Some people are focusing on how social media becomes a learning tool. So, this one paraphrase could be used to support four different essays, no problem. And that's because the analysis is coming from us. And you may notice that sometimes people will use the same sources for totally different papers, totally different purposes and that's because that analysis is all about how you have chosen to use it. So, I hope you what can see here is that in the analysis we have a demonstration of critical thinking, it's what we think about that topic. Thank you so much for participating in this chat. This one requires a lot of -- well, no surprise, critical thinking, so thank you.

Critical Thinking

• An original and informed assessment of an idea, theory, or phenomenon

Audio: And so, we can solidify how including analysis demonstrates critical thinking and we'll return to that definition, critical thinking is an original and a form of assessment and an analysis we provide our own ideas, our own interpretation. Our ideas and interpretations are original, so we have that match up well and because those ideas are based on other authors' ideas and work it is informed. So, see if you include analysis you're demonstrating critical thinking.

Audio: Once again, I'll pause just to see if there's anything I should address before we move on.

Beth: Yeah, I don't really think so, Melissa. I think we're pretty good.

Audio: Melissa: Oh, great. Okay. So here we are. The final way to show critical thinking in our writing which is synthesis.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Synthesis

Combining independent elements to form a cohesive whole

• Critical analysis of sources
• Comparing and contrasting what the authors have to say
• Evaluating and interpreting that information

Audio: And synthesis I think you may feel that these are getting a little bit more complex concepts as we move along, but synthesis is when we take a whole bunch of stuff, independent elements and we take all of those things and pull them together into something new into a cohesive whole. So really those independent elements that could be a whole bunch of research like five different articles. So, for example I synthesize when I read those five articles about school reform and then I create my own plan or I plan new school reform. I've taken a lot of independent elements, those five articles, and I've used them to create a cohesive whole and that would be my plan. Originally those five ideas had nothing to do with each other, maybe the two authors had dinner once or something, but the articles all existed totally separate. It was me and my brain that pulled them together to create something new. I did the synthesizing. And, so, in order to synthesize we use a lot of brain power because we have to analyze the sources. We have to compare and contrast what they say. We have to evaluate and interpret the information and then we still have to use it to create something new.

• Expert advice
• Statistics                 
• Research study

è Your recommendation of how to combat the negative effects of social media on high school students.

[Slide shows the three bullet points as balls put into a funnel, with the recommendation coming out as the result.]

Audio: So, here's a visual I like to share whenever I talk about synthesis. Imagine putting all these things into a funnel or a bowl or something and you mix them up and squeeze it out through your brain and there it is, something new that you created. So, for example, I could take statistics about high schoolers' use of social media, I could read a bunch of articles about what experts advise when it comes to social media and high school students. I could see what they say, what's the same, different, what's valid, what is flawed. I could also read a research longitudinal research study on the topic and I would think, think, think about all of these things. I would draw conclusions. I would compare and contrast and then I would present my synthesis. And that's my recommendation how to combat the negative effects of social media on high school students. Nobody else wrote that recommendation. That's all me. So, synthesis is taking a whole bunch of pieces and using them to make them new whole thing.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Synthesis: Not Quite

According to Peterson (2008), 83% of teenagers claimed that social media had no impact on their academic performance. Carol (2010) noted that teenagers who used social media reported a higher dissatisfaction with their academics than did teenagers who use little or no social media.

Audio: And here’s an example of synthesis that isn’t quite there.  Let’s take a look. Here I have “according to Peterson 83% of teenagers claimed that social media had no impact on their academic performance. Carol noted that teenagers who used social media reported a higher dissatisfaction with their academics.” And so, what I have here is actually just two paraphrases back to back. I have my independent elements, or the whole bunch of pieces, all the stuff we just talked about, but I haven't done anything with them. I haven't made anything new.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Synthesis: With the MEAL Plan

Research on social media’s effect on high school students is far from reaching consensus.

While Peterson (2008) noted that 83% of teenagers claimed that social media had no impact on their academic performance, Carol (2010) found teenagers who used social media reported a higher dissatisfaction with their academics than did teenagers who use little or no social media.

However, both authors neglect the possibility that high school students are simply not aware of the negative influences of social media.

Future research, therefore, should closely examine this level of awareness and whether it can predetermine particular adolescent behavior.

Audio: So, here's how I could do that using the MEAL plan. And first here is my M, my topic sentence, that is going to present the main of idea of the paragraph. And then now I'm going to have my evidence, and so that evidence is those two paraphrases we just looked at. I'm going to use these as my independent elements based on my synthesis. And now here's my analysis. Yes, analysis, analyzing is necessary for a synthesis. We can't create something new, whole without analyzing or responding to the research. And analysis and synthesis are closely related because of this. Here's my comparison. And then I'm going to end with a lead-out phrase that's going to wrap it all up and when I wrap it up here what I’m doing is I'm creating this new idea. It's a recommendation of what we should do. The proposal is a new whole thing. This taken together this paragraph is me synthesizing.

So, synthesis can happen in the paragraph level like this. Here we see independent elements and what I've done with them but it can also be an end result of an entire essay. It's just that on this slide I can't walk us through an essay easily so we're looking at it on the paragraph level. I noted there's a public health or something like that assignment out there where students are asked to create a policy to address a health issue. That assignment requires heavy duty synthesizing. The policy that students are proposing is a new original plan that is a result of looking at a lot research and other existing plans.

Critical thinking : An original and informed assessment of an idea, theory, or phenomenon

Synthesis: Combining independent elements to form a cohesive whole

Audio: So, as you can expect synthesis helps us demonstrate critical thinking. Remember critical thinking is an original and informed assessment. We see the idea of original in the definition of synthesis because you're creating a totally new thing, brand-new, and we see the idea of informed up here in the definition of synthesis because synthesis is based on research or those independent elements. It's helpful to see how the definition of thesis, paraphrasing, analysis and synthesis all overlap and so having strong -- a strong thesis, a strong paraphrase and analysis and synthesis will all demonstrate the strength of your own critical thinking.

Audio: And I don't know if we want to stop questions before we recap and share resources. Did anything come through?

Beth: It didn't, no. So maybe just talk about those resources, and yeah, wrap us up here.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Recap

• Relate source to your own ideas
• Use own words and phrasing
• Interpret sources
• Compare, contrast, and analyze sources

Audio: Melissa: Okay. Sounds great. So, just to recap critical thinking is something we're asked to do as academic writers, and if you're wondering how do I show I've thought critically? I mean, I'm sure when a student is preparing an assignment, or even a discussion post, a lot of thought goes into it. How do we make that thought visible? We can make it visible in your thesis, in your paraphrasing, in the inclusion of analysis and in the syntheses as you pull together multiple sources to create something new. In these four ways, your critical thinking becomes visible and it becomes something that you can say okay, my critical thinking, people will know that I've used resources. I have an informed assessment because I've created this new idea based on research.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Critical Thinking Toolbox

Thesis statements:

• Thesis Statement page
• “Practical Skills: Thesis Statements”

Paraphrasing:

• Paraphrasing page
• “Practical Skills: Paraphrasing”
• Using Evidence page
• Paragraph page
• “Topic Sentences and Paragraph Development”
• Synthesis page
• “Synthesis and Thesis Development”

Audio: And now, here is a page that has links to more details about the four things we looked at. And I have to apologize because it looks like these links are not clickable here in this presentation today so if you go to the files pod you'll be able to download the slides and when you download the slides, these will be completely accessible so that you can take a look at some of these that will help you if you wanted more information about how to write a thesis, how to paraphrase.

Visual: Slide changes to the following: Questions:

Anytime: [email protected]

Continue the conversation on Twitter with #WaldenU

Develop your Critical Thinking Skills:

Check out the recorded webinars “Adding Analysis and Synthesis to your Writing” and “Writing Effective Academic Paragraphs”

Audio: And that brings me to the end of my presentation and I will hand it back to Beth to wrap things up for us.

Beth: Thanks so much, Melissa. We didn't get any other questions that came in and I know we're here the top of the hour so I wondered if you just have any sort of final tips or strategies, for students. I know this is a lot that you went over. So, I wondered if you had any tips for students who might be feeling a little overwhelmed for trying to incorporate all of this into their writing.

Melissa: Oh definitely. And in this webinar because we talked about four really important things rather quickly, the big take away here is just to know that when we include these things in our writing we are demonstrating our critical thinking skills. If you're feeling like you need more support in one of those areas, first download the slides and access those links but also feel free to make an appointment with us in the Writing Center and just mention where you want the instructor to focus. You know, can you focus on my analysis. I'm not sure if I have enough synthesis. I'm worrying about the amount of critical thinking and you can get that one-on-one help that way with whatever you think you will need the most help with.

Beth: I love that. Fantastic. Thanks so much, Melissa. This is a great sort of really in-depth I feel like but broad overview of all these different elements so thank you. And thank you everyone for coming. I know we're at the top of the hour so we're going to go ahead and close out but do let us know if you have any lingering questions at that e-mail writing support and check out those other webinars and resources Melissa mentioned and we hope to see you at another webinar coming up. Thanks everyone. Have a great night.

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Developing Strong Thesis Statements

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The thesis statement or main claim must be debatable

An argumentative or persuasive piece of writing must begin with a debatable thesis or claim. In other words, the thesis must be something that people could reasonably have differing opinions on. If your thesis is something that is generally agreed upon or accepted as fact then there is no reason to try to persuade people.

Example of a non-debatable thesis statement:

This thesis statement is not debatable. First, the word pollution implies that something is bad or negative in some way. Furthermore, all studies agree that pollution is a problem; they simply disagree on the impact it will have or the scope of the problem. No one could reasonably argue that pollution is unambiguously good.

Example of a debatable thesis statement:

This is an example of a debatable thesis because reasonable people could disagree with it. Some people might think that this is how we should spend the nation's money. Others might feel that we should be spending more money on education. Still others could argue that corporations, not the government, should be paying to limit pollution.

Another example of a debatable thesis statement:

In this example there is also room for disagreement between rational individuals. Some citizens might think focusing on recycling programs rather than private automobiles is the most effective strategy.

The thesis needs to be narrow

Although the scope of your paper might seem overwhelming at the start, generally the narrower the thesis the more effective your argument will be. Your thesis or claim must be supported by evidence. The broader your claim is, the more evidence you will need to convince readers that your position is right.

Example of a thesis that is too broad:

There are several reasons this statement is too broad to argue. First, what is included in the category "drugs"? Is the author talking about illegal drug use, recreational drug use (which might include alcohol and cigarettes), or all uses of medication in general? Second, in what ways are drugs detrimental? Is drug use causing deaths (and is the author equating deaths from overdoses and deaths from drug related violence)? Is drug use changing the moral climate or causing the economy to decline? Finally, what does the author mean by "society"? Is the author referring only to America or to the global population? Does the author make any distinction between the effects on children and adults? There are just too many questions that the claim leaves open. The author could not cover all of the topics listed above, yet the generality of the claim leaves all of these possibilities open to debate.

Example of a narrow or focused thesis:

In this example the topic of drugs has been narrowed down to illegal drugs and the detriment has been narrowed down to gang violence. This is a much more manageable topic.

We could narrow each debatable thesis from the previous examples in the following way:

Narrowed debatable thesis 1:

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just the amount of money used but also how the money could actually help to control pollution.

Narrowed debatable thesis 2:

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just what the focus of a national anti-pollution campaign should be but also why this is the appropriate focus.

Qualifiers such as " typically ," " generally ," " usually ," or " on average " also help to limit the scope of your claim by allowing for the almost inevitable exception to the rule.

Types of claims

Claims typically fall into one of four categories. Thinking about how you want to approach your topic, or, in other words, what type of claim you want to make, is one way to focus your thesis on one particular aspect of your broader topic.

Claims of fact or definition: These claims argue about what the definition of something is or whether something is a settled fact. Example:

Claims of cause and effect: These claims argue that one person, thing, or event caused another thing or event to occur. Example:

Claims about value: These are claims made of what something is worth, whether we value it or not, how we would rate or categorize something. Example:

Claims about solutions or policies: These are claims that argue for or against a certain solution or policy approach to a problem. Example:

Which type of claim is right for your argument? Which type of thesis or claim you use for your argument will depend on your position and knowledge of the topic, your audience, and the context of your paper. You might want to think about where you imagine your audience to be on this topic and pinpoint where you think the biggest difference in viewpoints might be. Even if you start with one type of claim you probably will be using several within the paper. Regardless of the type of claim you choose to utilize it is key to identify the controversy or debate you are addressing and to define your position early on in the paper.

Pasco-Hernando State College

Proving the Thesis/Critical Thinking

• The Writing Process
• Paragraphs and Essays
• Unity and Coherence in Essays
• Proving the Thesis - General Principles
• Proving the Thesis - Logic
• Proving the Thesis - Logical Fallacies and Appeals
• Proving the Thesis - Rhetorical Mode
• Appropriate Language

Good writing is not just about presenting information in an organized way such as an essay or research paper with an introduction, body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph.  It is about persuading your reader that you are right.  In the case of an academic paper, the body paragraphs each must have a proof point (a topic sentence), and the content of each of the body paragraphs must include information that shows that the proof point is accurate.  There are a number of ways to achieve this goal.

This section covers how to critically evaluate your writing with some general information in Proving the Thesis - General Principles and then goes on to explain logical thinking in Proving the Thesis - Logic and problems with logic in Proving the Thesis - Logical Fallacies and Appeals.  Rhetorical modes such as description, definition, cause and/or effect, and compare/contract can be used to help prove the thesis.

The same principles are applied when you are evaluating someone else's presentation whether it is a potential source for a paper or simply reading a news article.  Even what is called a documentary - which presumably is the truth - should be critically evaluated.

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2.1: Critical Thinking Essay

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• Page ID 94303

• Andrew Gurevich
• Mt Hood Community College via MHCC Library Press

In the first few weeks, we will watch several TED Talks about the nature of the brain, the complex relationship between critical and creative thinking, and how emerging research in hemispheric science sheds some light on how we think about the world. We will also read several articles on the same (or similar) topics. After watching these talks, we will also review some of the basic material on how arguments are evaluated in academic contexts (by exploring the Greek model of Logos, Pathos & Ethos). Then in your essay, please address the following:

• What is the importance of developing a proper understanding of the nature of critical and creative thinking and how the two must be used in relationship to one another? With quotes and references to the TED Talks , class readings, and your own research and experience, please discuss what we are learning about the nature of critical and creative thinking and how we must use the two in conjunction to help us generate ideas for collaborative design and problem solving.(HINT: This should be the lens through which you generate your primary thesis statement which will, in turn, direct the ways you develop and discuss the rest of the elements you have been asked to explore. In other words, use this as the frame by which you choose what you will focus on with regard to the nature of the brain, critical thinking and argument.)
• If appropriate to your thesis, discuss how the emerging research in brain hemispheric science influences our understanding of the critical and creative thinking processes.
• If appropriate to your thesis, discuss how evidence-based approaches to argument (Logos) are central to properly developing, analyzing and understanding the arguments we encounter in the world.
• If appropriate to your thesis, what is the importance of cultivating “intellectual humility” and avoiding the panic often associated with “being wrong” in the process of becoming strong critical and creative thinkers?

Remember, an essay is an “attempt” to interact meaningfully with concepts that require careful, thoughtful reflection and exploration. Think of this assignment as a conversation between yourself and the speakers about the substantive issues the TED Talks address.

Assignment Details:

• 3-5 sources consulted in the essay and listed on a Works Cited page.
• 3-4 pages, double-spaced, 12.pt font. MLA format.
• Present your main idea in a clear thesis statement in the Introduction.
• Support your claim or focus with evidence and examples from the TED Talks and some more external research.
• Present one major point (in a topic sentence) per paragraph and explain it fully, with detailed support and examples, before you move on to your next point/paragraph.
• Wrap up your essay with a conclusion that revisits your overall topic and thesis.
• Remember to include an “in-text” citation following each source you quote, summarize or paraphrase.
• We have several pages posted here in The Writing Process page that deal with proper MLA documentation. Please refer to them.
• Consult the MHCC databases for relevant articles related to your research.
• Submit your essay by the due date on the schedule in the appropriate place in the week’s lesson module.
• Follow the submission instructions there for uploading your essay.

Things to Consider:

• You may write an essay that is more personal but based in the relevant research. Or you may write an essay that is more clinical and objective in scope that looks at the issue from a societal and/or cultural perspective. Either way, pick something that is interesting to you and to your own life, career path, goals, etc. and make it relevant to the material we have been covering so far.
• Remember, also, that a thesis statement may begin (in a draft form) as a question but by the time you turn your essay in, it has to be stated as an assertion.
• Develop your thesis through a primary pattern of development: (personal narrative, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, etc.) These can be explored in “The Writing Process” section of our BlackBoard page.

Sample Topics:

These are listed in rough form. You may pick from these or develop your own:

• Intellectual humility, grounding critical thinking in sound reasoning and authoritative, relevant support, and being curious and asking the right questions.
• Importance of being wrong, withholding judgment until enough evidence is gathered, and considering multiple perspectives.
• Being “critical” of something is not the same as attacking or dismissing it. Critical and Creative Thinking. What each is and how they work together.
• Left and Right Hemispheres. What the new research shows and how this influences our understanding of the critical and creative thinking processes.
• Memory and the pitfalls and opportunities it presents when engaged in critical and creative thinking processes.

Sample Outline:

Topic choice (converted to a workable thesis statement):

Strong critical and creative thinking skills include the abilities to: recognize the importance of being wrong, withhold judgment until enough evidence is gathered, and consider multiple perspectives.

• General Introduction and a developed Thesis based on the above topics.
• Importance of being wrong. Support paragraphs that use proper references to the TED Talks, your own experience and external research.
• Withholding judgment until enough evidence is gathered. Support paragraphs that use proper references to the TED Talks, your own experience and external research.
• Considering multiple perspectives. Support paragraphs that use proper references to the TED Talks, your own experience and external research.
• Conclusion that revisits main Thesis and provides a sense of closure.

How to Write a Critical Thinking Essay: Examples & Outline

Critical thinking is the process of evaluating and analyzing information. People who use it in everyday life are open to different opinions. They rely on reason and logic when making conclusions about certain issues.

Our specialists will write a custom essay specially for you!

A critical thinking essay shows how your thoughts change as you research your topic. This type of assignment encourages you to learn rather than prove what you already know. In this article, our custom writing team will:

• explain how to write an excellent critical essay;
• introduce 30 great essay topics;
• provide a critical thinking essay example in MLA format.
• 🤔 Critical Thinking Essay Definition
• 💡 Topics & Questions
• ✅ Step-by-Step Guide
• 📑 Essay Example & Formatting Tips
• ✍️ Bonus Tips

🔍 References

🤔 what is a critical thinking essay.

A critical thinking essay is a paper that analyses an issue and reflects on it in order to develop an action plan. Unlike other essay types, it starts with a question instead of a thesis. It helps you develop a broader perspective on a specific issue. Critical writing aims at improving your analytical skills and encourages asking questions.

Critical Thinking in Writing: Importance

When we talk about critical thinking and writing, the word “critical” doesn’t have any negative connotation. It simply implies thorough investigation, evaluation, and analysis of information. Critical thinking allows students to make objective conclusions and present their ideas logically. It also helps them avoid errors in reasoning.

The Basics: 8 Steps of Critical Thinking Psychology

Did you know that the critical thinking process consists of 8 steps? We’ve listed them below. You can try to implement them in your everyday life:

It’s possible that fallacies will occur during the process of critical thinking. Fallacies are errors in reasoning that fail to provide a reasonable conclusion. Here are some common types of fallacies:

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• Generalization . It happens when you apply generally factual statements to a specific case.
• Ambiguity . It occurs when the arguments are not clear and are not supported by evidence.
• Appeal to authority . This mistake happens when you claim the statement is valid only because a respected person made it.
• Appeal to emotion . It occurs when you use highly emotive language to convince the audience. Try to stay sensible and rely on the evidence.
• Bifurcation . This mistake occurs when you choose only between two alternatives when more than two exist.
• False analogy . It happens when the examples are poorly connected.

If you want to avoid these mistakes, do the following:

• try not to draw conclusions too quickly,
• be attentive,
• carefully read through all the sources,
• avoid generalizations.

How to Demonstrate Your Critical Thinking in Writing

Critical thinking encourages you to go beyond what you know and study new perspectives. When it comes to demonstrating your critical thinking skills in writing, you can try these strategies:

• Read . Before you start writing an essay, read everything you can find on the subject you are about to cover. Focus on the critical points of your assignment.
• Research . Look up several scholarly sources and study the information in-depth.
• Evaluate . Analyze the sources and the information you’ve gathered. See whether you can disagree with the authors.
• Prove . Explain why you agree or disagree with the authors’ conclusions. Back it up with evidence.

According to Purdue University, logical essay writing is essential when you deal with academic essays. It helps you demonstrate and prove the arguments. Make sure that your paper reaches a logical conclusion.

There are several main concepts related to logic:

If you want your essay to be logical, it’s better to avoid syllogistic fallacies, which happen with certain invalid deductions. If syllogisms are used carelessly, they can lead to false statements and ruin the credibility of your paper.

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💡 Critical Thinking Topics & Questions

An excellent critical thinking essay starts with a question. But how do you formulate it properly? Keep reading to find out.

How to Write Critical Thinking Questions: Examples with Answers

Asking the right questions is at the core of critical thinking. They challenge our beliefs and encourage our interest to learn more.

Here are some examples of model questions that prompt critical thinking:

• What does… mean?
• What would happen if…?
• What are the principles of…?
• Why is… important?
• How does… affect…?
• What do you think causes…?
• How are… and… similar/different?
• How do you explain….?
• What are the implications of…?
• What do we already know about…?

Now, let’s look at some critical thinking questions with the answers. You can use these as a model for your own questions:

Question: What would happen if people with higher income paid more taxes?

• Answer: It would help society to prosper and function better. It would also help people out of poverty. This way, everyone can contribute to the economy.

Question: How does eating healthy benefit you?

• Answer: Healthy eating affects people’s lives in many positive ways. It reduces cancer risk, improves your mood and memory, helps with weight loss and diabetes management, and improves your night sleep.

Critical Thinking Essay Topics

Have you already decided what your essay will be about? If not, feel free to use these essay topic examples as titles for your paper or as inspiration. Make sure to choose a theme that interests you personally:

Get an originally-written paper according to your instructions!

• What are the reasons for racism in healthcare ?
• Why is accepting your appearance important?
• Concepts of critical thinking and logical reasoning .
• Nature and spirit in Ralf Waldo Emerson ’s poetry.
• How does technological development affect communication in the modern world?
• Social media effect on adolescents.
• Is the representation of children in popular fiction accurate?
• Domestic violence and its consequences.
• Why is mutual aid important in society?
• How do stereotypes affect the way people think?
• The concept of happiness in different cultures.
• The purpose of environmental art .
• Why do people have the need to be praised ?
• How did antibiotics change medicine and its development?
• Is there a way to combat inequality in sports ?
• Is gun control an effective way of crime prevention?
• How our understanding of love changes through time.
• The use of social media by the older generation.
• Graffiti as a form of modern art .
• Negative health effects of high sugar consumption.
• Why are reality TV shows so popular?
• Why should we eat healthily ?
• How effective and fair is the US judicial system ?
• Reasons of Cirque du Soleil phenomenon.
• How can police brutality be stopped?
• Freedom of speech : does it exist?
• The effects of vaccination misconceptions .
• How to eliminate New Brunswick’s demographic deficit: action plan .
• What makes a good movie ?
• Critical analysis of your favorite book.
• The connection between fashion and identity .
• Taboo topics and how they are discussed in gothic literature .
• Critical thinking essay on the problem of overpopulation .
• Does our lifestyle affect our mental health ?
• The role of self-esteem in preventing eating disorders in children .
• Drug abuse among teenagers.
• Rhetoric on assisted suicide .
• Effects of violent video games on children’s mental health.
• Analyze the effect stress has on the productivity of a team member.
• Discuss the importance of the environmental studies .
• Critical thinking and ethics of happy life.
• The effects of human dignity on the promotion of justice.
• Examine the ethics of advertising the tobacco industry.
• Reasons and possible solutions of research misconduct.
• Implication of parental deployment for children.
• Cultural impact of superheroes on the US culture.
• Examine the positive and negative impact of technology on modern society.
• Critical thinking in literature: examples.
• Analyze the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on economic transformation.
• Benefits and drawbacks of mandatory vaccination .

Haven’t found a suitable essay idea? Try using our topic generator !

✅ How to Write a Critical Thinking Essay Step by Step

Now, let’s focus on planning and writing your critical thinking essay. In this section, you will find an essay outline, examples of thesis statements, and a brief overview of each essay part.

Critical Thinking Essay Outline

In a critical thinking essay, there are two main things to consider: a premise and a conclusion :

• A premise is a statement in the argument that explains the reason or supports a conclusion.
• A conclusion indicates what the argument is trying to prove. Each argument can have only one conclusion.

When it comes to structuring, a critical thinking essay is very similar to any other type of essay. Before you start writing it, make sure you know what to include in it. An outline is very helpful when it comes to structuring a paper.

How to Start a Critical Essay Introduction

An introduction gives readers a general idea of an essay’s contents. When you work on the introduction, imagine that you are drawing a map for the reader. It not only marks the final destination but also explains the route.

An introduction usually has 4 functions:

• It catches the reader’s attention;
• It states the essay’s main argument;
• It provides some general information about the topic;
• It shows the importance of the issue in question.

Here are some strategies that can make the introduction writing easier:

• Give an overview of the essay’s topic.
• Express the main idea.
• Define the main terms.
• Outline the issues that you are going to explore or argue about.
• Explain the methodology and why you used it.
• Write a hook to attract the reader’s attention.

Critical Analysis Thesis Statement & Examples

A thesis statement is an integral part of every essay. It keeps the paper organized and guides both the reader and the writer. A good thesis:

• expresses the conclusion or position on a topic;
• justifies your position or opinion with reasoning;
• conveys one idea;
• serves as the essay’s map.

To have a clearer understanding of what a good thesis is, let’s have a look at these examples.

The statement on the left is too general and doesn’t provide any reasoning. The one on the right narrows down the group of people to office workers and specifies the benefits of exercising.

Critical Thinking Essay Body Paragraphs: How to Write

Body paragraphs are the part of the essay where you discuss all the ideas and arguments. In a critical thinking essay, arguments are especially important. When you develop them, make sure that they:

• reflect the key theme;
• are supported by the sources/citations/examples.

Using counter-arguments is also effective. It shows that you acknowledge different points of view and are not easily persuaded.

In addition to your arguments, it’s essential to present the evidence . Demonstrate your critical thinking skills by analyzing each source and stating whether the author’s position is valid.

To make your essay logically flow, you may use transitions such as:

• Accordingly,
• For instance,
• On the contrary,
• In conclusion,
• Not only… but also,
• Undoubtedly.

How to Write a Critical Thinking Conclusion

In a critical thinking essay, the notion of “conclusion” is tightly connected to the one used in logic. A logical conclusion is a statement that specifies the author’s point of view or what the essay argues about. Each argument can have only one logical conclusion.

Sometimes they can be confused with premises. Remember that premises serve as a support for the conclusion. Unlike the conclusion, there can be several premises in a single argument. You can learn more about these concepts from the article on a logical consequence by Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Keeping this in mind, have a look at these tips for finishing your essay:

• Briefly sum up the main points.
• Provide a final thought on the issue.
• Suggest some results or consequences.
• Finish up with a call for action.

📑 Critical Thinking Essays Examples & Formatting Tips

Formatting is another crucial aspect of every formal paper. MLA and APA are two popular formats when it comes to academic writing. They share some similarities but overall are still two different styles. Here are critical essay format guidelines that you can use as a reference:

Finally, you’re welcome to check out a full critical essay sample in MLA format. Download the PDF file below:

Currently, the importance of critical thinking has grown rapidly because technological progress has led to expanded access to various content-making platforms: websites, online news agencies, and podcasts with, often, low-quality information. Fake news is used to achieve political and financial aims, targeting people with low news literacy. However, individuals can stop spreading fallacies by detecting false agendas with the help of a skeptical attitude.

✍️ Bonus Tips: Critical Thinking and Writing Exercises

Critical thinking is a process different from our regular thinking. When we think in everyday life, we do it automatically. However, when we’re thinking critically, we do it deliberately.

So how do we get better at this type of thinking and make it a habit? These useful tips will help you do it:

• Ask basic questions. Sometimes, while we are doing research, the explanation becomes too complicated. To avoid it, always go back to your topic.
• Question basic assumptions. When thinking through a problem, ask yourself whether your beliefs can be wrong. Keep an open mind while researching your question.
• Think for yourself. Avoid getting carried away in the research and buying into other people’s opinions.
• Reverse things. Sometimes it seems obvious that one thing causes another, but what if it’s the other way around?
• Evaluate existing evidence. If you work with sources, it’s crucial to evaluate and question them.

Another way to improve your reasoning skills is to do critical thinking exercises. Here are some of them:

Thanks for reading through our article! We hope that you found it helpful and learned some new information. If you liked it, feel free to share it with your friends.

Further reading:

• Critical Writing: Examples & Brilliant Tips [2024]
• How to Write a Rhetorical Analysis Essay: Outline, Steps, & Examples
• How to Write an Analysis Essay: Examples + Writing Guide
• How to Write a Critique Paper: Tips + Critique Essay Examples
• How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay Step by Step
• Critical Thinking and Writing: University of Kent
• Steps to Critical Thinking: Rasmussen University
• 3 Simple Habits to Improve Your Critical Thinking: Harvard Business Review
• In-Class Writing Exercises: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Demonstrating Critical Thinking in Writing: University of South Australia
• 15 Questions that Teachers and Parents Can Ask Kids to Encourage Critical Thinking: The Hun School
• Questions to Provoke Critical Thinking: Brown University
• How to Write a College Critical Thinking Essay: Seattle PI
• Introductions: What They Do: Royal Literary Fund
• Thesis Statements: Arizona State University
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25 Thesis Statement Examples

A thesis statement is needed in an essay or dissertation . There are multiple types of thesis statements – but generally we can divide them into expository and argumentative. An expository statement is a statement of fact (common in expository essays and process essays) while an argumentative statement is a statement of opinion (common in argumentative essays and dissertations). Below are examples of each.

Strong Thesis Statement Examples

1. School Uniforms

“Mandatory school uniforms should be implemented in educational institutions as they promote a sense of equality, reduce distractions, and foster a focused and professional learning environment.”

Best For: Argumentative Essay or Debate

Read More: School Uniforms Pros and Cons

2. Nature vs Nurture

“This essay will explore how both genetic inheritance and environmental factors equally contribute to shaping human behavior and personality.”

Best For: Compare and Contrast Essay

Read More: Nature vs Nurture Debate

3. American Dream

“The American Dream, a symbol of opportunity and success, is increasingly elusive in today’s socio-economic landscape, revealing deeper inequalities in society.”

Best For: Persuasive Essay

Read More: What is the American Dream?

4. Social Media

“Social media has revolutionized communication and societal interactions, but it also presents significant challenges related to privacy, mental health, and misinformation.”

Best For: Expository Essay

Read More: The Pros and Cons of Social Media

5. Globalization

“Globalization has created a world more interconnected than ever before, yet it also amplifies economic disparities and cultural homogenization.”

Read More: Globalization Pros and Cons

6. Urbanization

“Urbanization drives economic growth and social development, but it also poses unique challenges in sustainability and quality of life.”

Read More: Learn about Urbanization

7. Immigration

“Immigration enriches receiving countries culturally and economically, outweighing any perceived social or economic burdens.”

Read More: Immigration Pros and Cons

8. Cultural Identity

“In a globalized world, maintaining distinct cultural identities is crucial for preserving cultural diversity and fostering global understanding, despite the challenges of assimilation and homogenization.”

Best For: Argumentative Essay

Read More: Learn about Cultural Identity

9. Technology

“Medical technologies in care institutions in Toronto has increased subjcetive outcomes for patients with chronic pain.”

Best For: Research Paper

10. Capitalism vs Socialism

“The debate between capitalism and socialism centers on balancing economic freedom and inequality, each presenting distinct approaches to resource distribution and social welfare.”

11. Cultural Heritage

“The preservation of cultural heritage is essential, not only for cultural identity but also for educating future generations, outweighing the arguments for modernization and commercialization.”

12. Pseudoscience

“Pseudoscience, characterized by a lack of empirical support, continues to influence public perception and decision-making, often at the expense of scientific credibility.”

Read More: Examples of Pseudoscience

13. Free Will

“The concept of free will is largely an illusion, with human behavior and decisions predominantly determined by biological and environmental factors.”

Read More: Do we have Free Will?

14. Gender Roles

“Traditional gender roles are outdated and harmful, restricting individual freedoms and perpetuating gender inequalities in modern society.”

Read More: What are Traditional Gender Roles?

15. Work-Life Ballance

“The trend to online and distance work in the 2020s led to improved subjective feelings of work-life balance but simultaneously increased self-reported loneliness.”

Read More: Work-Life Balance Examples

16. Universal Healthcare

“Universal healthcare is a fundamental human right and the most effective system for ensuring health equity and societal well-being, outweighing concerns about government involvement and costs.”

Read More: The Pros and Cons of Universal Healthcare

17. Minimum Wage

“The implementation of a fair minimum wage is vital for reducing economic inequality, yet it is often contentious due to its potential impact on businesses and employment rates.”

Read More: The Pros and Cons of Raising the Minimum Wage

18. Homework

“The homework provided throughout this semester has enabled me to achieve greater self-reflection, identify gaps in my knowledge, and reinforce those gaps through spaced repetition.”

Best For: Reflective Essay

Read More: Reasons Homework Should be Banned

19. Charter Schools

“Charter schools offer alternatives to traditional public education, promising innovation and choice but also raising questions about accountability and educational equity.”

Read More: The Pros and Cons of Charter Schools

20. Effects of the Internet

“The Internet has drastically reshaped human communication, access to information, and societal dynamics, generally with a net positive effect on society.”

Read More: The Pros and Cons of the Internet

21. Affirmative Action

“Affirmative action is essential for rectifying historical injustices and achieving true meritocracy in education and employment, contrary to claims of reverse discrimination.”

Best For: Essay

Read More: Affirmative Action Pros and Cons

22. Soft Skills

“Soft skills, such as communication and empathy, are increasingly recognized as essential for success in the modern workforce, and therefore should be a strong focus at school and university level.”

Read More: Soft Skills Examples

23. Moral Panic

“Moral panic, often fueled by media and cultural anxieties, can lead to exaggerated societal responses that sometimes overlook rational analysis and evidence.”

Read More: Moral Panic Examples

24. Freedom of the Press

“Freedom of the press is critical for democracy and informed citizenship, yet it faces challenges from censorship, media bias, and the proliferation of misinformation.”

Read More: Freedom of the Press Examples

25. Mass Media

“Mass media shapes public opinion and cultural norms, but its concentration of ownership and commercial interests raise concerns about bias and the quality of information.”

Best For: Critical Analysis

Read More: Mass Media Examples

Checklist: How to use your Thesis Statement

✅ Position: If your statement is for an argumentative or persuasive essay, or a dissertation, ensure it takes a clear stance on the topic. ✅ Specificity: It addresses a specific aspect of the topic, providing focus for the essay. ✅ Conciseness: Typically, a thesis statement is one to two sentences long. It should be concise, clear, and easily identifiable. ✅ Direction: The thesis statement guides the direction of the essay, providing a roadmap for the argument, narrative, or explanation. ✅ Evidence-based: While the thesis statement itself doesn’t include evidence, it sets up an argument that can be supported with evidence in the body of the essay. ✅ Placement: Generally, the thesis statement is placed at the end of the introduction of an essay.

Try These AI Prompts – Thesis Statement Generator!

One way to brainstorm thesis statements is to get AI to brainstorm some for you! Try this AI prompt:

💡 AI PROMPT FOR EXPOSITORY THESIS STATEMENT I am writing an essay on [TOPIC] and these are the instructions my teacher gave me: [INSTUCTIONS]. I want you to create an expository thesis statement that doesn’t argue a position, but demonstrates depth of knowledge about the topic.

💡 AI PROMPT FOR ARGUMENTATIVE THESIS STATEMENT I am writing an essay on [TOPIC] and these are the instructions my teacher gave me: [INSTRUCTIONS]. I want you to create an argumentative thesis statement that clearly takes a position on this issue.

💡 AI PROMPT FOR COMPARE AND CONTRAST THESIS STATEMENT I am writing a compare and contrast essay that compares [Concept 1] and [Concept2]. Give me 5 potential single-sentence thesis statements that remain objective.

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 5 Top Tips for Succeeding at University
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 50 Durable Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 100 Consumer Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 30 Globalization Pros and Cons

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