Thesis Writing Fundamentals Everyone Should Know
Even if you never pursue an advanced degree that requires you to write a thesis or dissertation, some fundamentals are used in this documents that you can apply to any research paper or essay that you need to do for school. If you know these writing basics, than you write any document in a well organized manner and write it so that it intrigues the reader enough to read your work.
The Introduction
The beginning of your paper should introduce the topic of your subject and sets up the argument you plan to discuss within your work. The opening sentences of your paper should grab the reader's attention and give a brief description of the essay or research paper's topic.
The Thesis Statement
A thesis statement is one or two sentences in your introduction that explains the focus of your paper. This statement presents your position on the topic and gives a brief overview of the argument or problem that your research helps to solve.
References to Support Your Assertions
In the body of your paper, you will make several assertions that will back up your argument in order to help show that your resolution is correct. When you make these assertions, you should have evidence to help back up your claims and use references in your paper. You may write these as quotes and use statistics that you've found in your research. When you do use this information, you need to credit the source of the information and add citations to show where you got the information.
Use Transitional Words or Sentences
To help the reader move along through your work, you need to use words or sentences that smoothly transition the reader from one thought to another. Some of the transitional words you use may be "however," "therefore," or "in addition." These words connect sentences, your thoughts, together within the paragraph.
Transitional sentences are usually placed at the beginning of a paragraph and it they are used to connect the main idea from the previous paragraph to the main idea or thought in the upcoming paragraph. Without these transitions, the thoughts included in your work may seem disjointed and the reader may have a hard time understanding the information they are reading.
The Basics
It is vital that your work contains correctly spelled words and proper grammar. Always proofread your work in order to catch mistakes so you can correct them.
