Where does a thesis sentence go??

Question

I have to write a paragraph on what techniques authors use and give examples of them.
What I'm wondering though is where does the thesis go when I'm writing only one paragraph?
Is it the first sentence?
The second?
The second to last?
Last??
PLEASE HELP ASAP, I NEED TO START WRITING THE PARAGRAPH!!!

Answer 1

It does not have to be in any particular order, but it usually helps clarify the paragraph if it goes at the beginning.



EDIT: I was editor of a newspaper and of my law review. I don't like to pull credentials out usually, but if you are getting confused, you can rely on this.



A thesis explains what the paragraph is trying to say. If that goes up front, the reader will have this in mind while reading the paragraph. That just makes it clearer and easier to read. There's no set rule about it, it's just some understanding.



You're writing for a purpose. The normal purpose is to convey information to the reader. If you organize and convey information in a way that makes it easy for the reader to understand, you are normally doing what you set out to do.



So unless you have a strong reason to do otherwise, put your thesis up front where the reader can keep it in mind while reading the remainder of the paragraph.



The "rule" about it having to go first or last is nonsense. It sounds like something an insecure English teacher made up.

Answer 2

The thesis statement is the last sentence of your first paragraph. You wrap everything up in that sentence and everything before that helps build the arguement you make with it.

Answer 3

First or last. Nowhere else.

Answer 4

Thesis statements are allowed to be longer than one sentence, I'm in university, I know this. It would work much more effectively if you broke it in half: The children in “The Glass Castle” struggle with two dysfunctional parents, Rex and Rose Mary. In this paper I want to show that although both parents have their bad qualities, Rex is the better parent of the two.

Answer 5

A topic sentence is the first sentence in a paragraph and is what the paragraph will be about. A thesis statement usually belongs to a formal academic essay and is usually the last (couple of) sentence(s) of your introduction.

Answer 6

My god! English is way too complicated!

Answer 7

It can go anywhere, but it is usually simpler and clearer to make it the first sentence.

Answer 8

Introduce the topic with first sentence, connect with the second. Thesis is third.

Answer 9

It really is a thesis statement. Based on the following, I would say in a document only one paragraph long, it would be the first or second sentence, or a couple of sentence early in the paragraph.



A thesis statement is a focused selection of text that can be anywhere from just one sentence to a few pages in size that clearly delineates the argument that will be taken in a proposed paper to be written. A thesis statement should be prepared in advance for all types of scientific writing, in order to give the paper a good structure.



It is a useful instrument for investigating the scope of the proposed paper in order to determine if it is too broad or too narrow. It is not intended to remain fixed, but can be adapted throughout the process of writing the paper as new arguments are discovered or old arguments are deemed to be irrelevant.



The thesis statement is often used in an adapted form at the beginning of the finished paper. It is considered to be better writing to not introduce the thesis statement with the words "The purpose of this paper is to..." but to reword it to make clear what will be following, and thus it is often found after a brief motivation for writing the paper.



In general, a thesis statement is a selection that explains what your document is going to be about, it also contains brief reasons why you chose this subject. For example, if you were to be doing a paper about bringing someone from the past to the present, you would most likely look like this.... "The person I chose, if I could bring someone back from the past to the present would be...". You would also add the reasons which might look like this.... "The reason I chose (persons name) was because...." You would add multiple reasons to your thesis statement.