Stepwise approach of how to write a thesis statement for a persuasive essay
A persuasive essay is slightly different from normal essays. When writing a persuasive essay, you take a debatable position and support it throughout your paper using well-researched evidence. To achieve this, you need an arguable claim to give you a sense of direction from your introduction to the conclusion. This is called a thesis statement. Ideally, your thesis statement should evoke different opinions from your target audience. It has to arouse a debate. You do not need to write that paper if your thesis is flat and makes no argument. Do you need some tricks to do this? Here is how to write a thesis statement for a persuasive essay:
This handout at a glance:
- Understanding percussive essay thesis
- Developing percussive essay thesis
- Examples of percussive essay thesis
- Percussive essay thesis solutions
This writing toolkit is designed for you. It offers suggestions to help you overcome writing persuasive writing challenges. It is flexible to allow you make adjustments, depending on your tutor’s instructions. Read on and become a better writer…
How to write a thesis statement for a persuasive essay in easy to master steps
A thesis or thesis statement is a sentence that declares your claim or position about your topic of research. It also explains how you intend to support your stance using facts from credible sources.
A good thesis statement orients your reader about what you are arguing in your essay. When it comes to the length, your thesis should one or a few sentences long. However, your thesis statement should not go beyond a paragraph. Spare the details and examples for the body of your paper.
What your thesis statement does to you and your readers
As you figure out how to write a thesis statement for a persuasive essay, have in mind that your claim performs the following tasks:
Determines your focus – A thesis statement serves as your compass. It determines your scope and clarity of ideas.
Your initial writing block – A good thesis provides you with a hook to link all your topic sentences throughout the paper. In other words, every idea you develop in your argument must support your thesis statement.
Gives structure to your paper – An excellent thesis statement provides a unified structure and point to your paper.
Directs your reader – The person reading your persuasive essay will find a thesis statement to be a very helpful map to follow.
The reader remains focused – Just like you in your writing, a thesis ensures that the reader focuses on the main argument of the essay without going off the tangent.
Signals your reader – A thesis statement will always alert your reader when you are moving to another idea as you develop your argument.
With these introductory remarks on how to write a thesis statement for a persuasive essay, let us now examine steps that will guarantee a strong thesis.
Steps to follow when writing a thesis statement for a persuasive essay
The success of a persuasive essay largely depends on your thesis statement. As simple as it may appear, a thesis states your topic to the audience, gives your opinion, and summarizes your argument. These three elements play a major role in determining your final copy.
Unless advised by your lecturer, a thesis statement should come at the end of your introduction. The following steps will definitely help you develop a strong thesis statement for your persuasive essay.
STEP 1: Know your opinion and express it. Before you sit down to embark on writing your essay, make sure that you have a clear conscience about what you want you want to pursue as your argument. This is necessary because you need a contestable claim, which other people will refute by presenting a counterargument.
Ask yourself if your reader is likely to agree or differ with you on the topic. If your thesis does not present an arguable claim, then you are likely to be summarizing the issue and not stating your clear stance.
STEP 2: Be specific in your thoughts. As you, take time thinking about your thesis statement, narrow down to particular aspects of your topic. Remember that you cannot argue on everything in your persuasive essay.
Help the reader know what you are about to argue by being clear and concise. Do not beat around the bush; just nail it and get down on your paper.
STEP 3: Have your evidence. The third thing that will help you master how to write a thesis statement for a persuasive essay is getting your evidence right. Unlike any other essay, persuasive writing requires you to present evidence and examples to support your position.
Include some of the evidence in your thesis statement to assure your readers that you did research and understand the topic well. This will further earn you credibility as a writer and someone will have interest to read on and delve into the flesh of your paper.
Example: Thesis Statement
Consider this essay Legalization of Marijuana:
This is a debatable topic, which readers are likely to take positions before getting to your thesis statement. Why should they support your position? The answer is in how you draft your thesis statement to pique their interest. Here is the thesis to this essay:
“The government should legalize marijuana because of its medicinal value, as it is known to treat cancer and other health complications the drain our resources.”
From this thesis statement, the writer states his position, on why the state should lift a ban on marijuana usage. The statement gives a brief insight into the evidence that the writer is about to present in his argument. You can read the rest of the paper here and see how this statement shapes the argument of the writer.
STEP 4: Give answers to why and how. A strong thesis should give answers to ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions. The reader should extract these answers with a lot of ease. For example in the above example: Why should the government legalize marijuana? It has medicinal value.
These four steps should give enough hints on how to write a thesis statement for a persuasive essay. Think of persuasive essay topics and practice writing strong thesis statements using the four steps. It should be as easy as jotting down your name…
Attributes of a strong thesis statement that should stick in your mind
Knowing what you want will make the process of reaching your ultimate goal much easier. How then does a good thesis look like? Here are the traits:
- Contestable – a good thesis statement for a persuasive essay provokes the reader since they will either agree or disagree with your position reasonably. It must take a stance and support your argument.
- It must be specific. Narrow down to a specific issue of the topic. This is necessary in determining the scope of your essay. Remember that if you settle on a topic that is too broad, you will run out time. It is also easy to lose track, go off the tangent and lose your readers as you meander in a broad topic.
- Your thesis should assert your conclusion. From your main idea, the reader should see your conclusion. However, be flexible as your evidence may lead you to a different direction, calling for the adjustment of your topic. Feel free to revise your thesis to match with your argument.
- Avoids vague language – Your thesis should be concise. Do not use phrases like ‘it seems’. This triggers doubt in the mind of the reader.
As you digest the above attributes, let us look at another example, which will give you more tips on how to write a thesis statement for a persuasive essay.
Example #2: Thesis Statement
Should Handguns be banned? The issue of gun control is controversial. The writer of this essay goes ahead to weave her thesis as follows.
“Handguns should be banned to save thousands of lives lost annually because many guns are in the wrong hands; the government should take full responsibility of securing citizens and not individuals moving with guns, fearing for their security.”
In this statement, the writer supports a ban on handguns, gives the reason and the way forward. In other words, if the government bans handguns, shootings will reduce. However, this can only happen if the state guarantees security for every citizen.
With these examples and detailed discussion on how to write a thesis statement for a persuasive essay, you have no reason to struggle with your next assignment. Hope this helps!
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15 Thesis Statement Examples to Inspire Your Next Argumentative Essay
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https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/01/
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/thesis-statements/
clas.uiowa.edu/history/teaching-and-writing-center/guides/argumentation
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