Download How to Create a Thesis

Student Name______________________________________________Date_____________Period_____
Making Elaborate Sentences
Be sure to underline each step as you go through the thesis writing process.
Step 1: Simple Sentence
Step 2: Add an adjective and adverb
Step 3: Add a prepositional phrase
Step 4: Add an appositive phrase
Step 5: Add a subordinate clause
Step 6: Add a triad of absolute phrases
TEKS 13AD, 15Aiii & vii, 15Ci, 16A, 23B
1
Completing a Thesis
Look at what the question is asking.
Look for an article in the question, the subject and the verb or helping/linking verb in the question.
1. Find an article, subject and verb from your prompt.
The argument made.
2. Next, add adjectives and adverbs.
The central argument poignantly made.
3. Next, add prepositional phrases.
In “The Allegory of the Cave,” the central argument is poignantly made throughout the passage.
4. Add an appositive clause.
Appositive clause.
In “The Allegory of the Cave,” the central argument, man has always lived in a cave, is poignantly made
throughout the passage.
5. Add a subordinate clause.
Subordinate clause.
In “The Allegory of the Cave,” the central argument, man has always lived in a cave, is poignantly made
throughout the passage as a statement that man has been limited in his way of being educated.
6. Add a triad of absolute phrases (this is your basic analysis or elaboration) In “The Allegory of the Cave, the central argument, man has always lived in a cave, is poignantly made
throughout the passage when Socrates states “human beings living in an underground den . . . from their
childhood, and have their legs and necks chained” learning from puppets displayed on a wall makes the
point that men are taught to be ignorant and when man breaks free from his chains; he escapes his cave
and enters into the outside world into the “sunlight” only then can he understand his gain of a new found
understanding and perspective of learning, tearing away from the shadow of ignorance.
TEKS 13AD, 15Aiii & vii, 15Ci, 16A, 23B
2
Guidelines for understanding each step to writing a thesis.
STEP 1
Article
The
a/an
Subject
The subject of the sentence is that part about which something is being said.
Examples:
Faculty and students planned a new class schedule.
At the end of the day comes our activity period.
These two main parts may consist of single words or many words.
Verb
A verb is a word that expresses action or otherwise helps to make a statement.
All verbs help to make a statement. Some help to make a statement by expressing an action.
STEP 2
Adjectives
An adjective is a word used to modify a noun or a pronoun. To modify means “to limit,” or to make more
definite the meaning of a word. Adjectives may modify nouns or pronouns in any one of three different
ways.
Examples:
By telling, what kind:
Blue eyes, large city, strong wind
By point out which one:
This man, that suggestion
By telling how many:
Several reasons, ten players
Adverbs
An adverb is a word used to modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. The adverb is used most
commonly as the modifier of a verb. It may tell how, when, where, or to what exent (how often or how
much) the action of the verb is done.
Examples:
He is an unusually good driver. [Unusually modifies the adjective good, telling
how good or to what exent he is good at driving.
TEKS 13AD, 15Aiii & vii, 15Ci, 16A, 23B
3
STEP 3
The Prepositional Phrase
A prepositional phrase is a group of words usually beginning with a preposition and usually ending with a
noun or a pronoun.
For Peg and you
in the classroom
After the exam
to bed
about
above
across
after
against
along
amid
among
around
at
before
behind
below
beneath
beside
besides
Commonly Used Prepositions
between
beyond
but (meaning “except”)
by
concerning
down
during
except
for
from
in
into
like
of
off
on
over
past
since
through
throughout
to
toward
under
underneath
until
unto
up
upon
with
within
without
A group of words may act as a prepositional:
 on account of
 in spite of
STEP 4
Appositive Phrases
An appositive is a word placed after another word to explain or identify it. The appositive always
appears after the word it explains or identifies. It is always a noun or a pronoun, and the word it
explains is also a noun or pronoun.
Examples:
My uncle, a lawyer, is visiting us.
My teacher, Miss Marshall, is very strict.
Our house, a brick bungalow, is on Oak Street.
An appositive phrase consists of the appositive and its modifiers which may themselves be phrases.
Examples:
My radio, an old portable, is in the repair shop.
The boys climbed the mountain, one of the highest in the West.
TEKS 13AD, 15Aiii & vii, 15Ci, 16A, 23B
4
STEP 5
Subordinate Clauses
Subordinate clauses, which cannot stand alone as sentences, are used as nouns or modifiers in the
same way as single words and phrases. A subordinate clause is always combined in some way with
an independent clause.
Subordinate clauses are sometimes are called dependent clauses.
Common subordinating conjunctions
After
If
Although
In order that
As
Provided that
As if
Since
As long as
So that
As though
Than
Because
Though
Before
Unless
Until
When
Whenever
Where
Wherever
Whether
While
*many of these words may also be used as other parts of speech.
STEP 6
Triad of Absolute Phrases
An absolute phrase is composed of a noun plus an adjective or a participle, plus any modifiers that
describe the noun or adjective. An absolute phrase is really a tool of concision, allowing the writer to
embed full thought into a phrase that is almost a clause. Basically, to make the absolute phrase, the
writer just removes a “to be” verb from the clause.
Absolute phrases expand the meaning of a noun or a noun phrase.
Absolute phrases provide descriptive details or express causes or conditions.
Examples:
The baby duck ran toward its mother, its tiny wings outstretched, its little voice
peeping urgently, its orange feet pattering through the muddy grass.
The baby duck, its tiny wings outstretched, its little voice peeping urgently, its orange
feet pattering through the muddy grass, ran toward its mother.
Note: a subordinate clause is a group of words that has both a subject and a verb, but it begins
with a subordinating conjunction like “because,” “although,” or “since,” and so it cannot stand
alone as a sentence.



Because Alex is a good writer, he writes vividly about his experiences.
Although Poindexter broke his glasses, he was still able to complete the test.
Although the elephant had lost its tooth, it still ate Albert.
Insert a comma after two or more consecutive prepositional phrases.
TEKS 13AD, 15Aiii & vii, 15Ci, 16A, 23B
5
In the castle of the monster with the enormous shoes, a beautiful goldfish wept bitterly.
Insert a comma after an introductory participial phrase.
Shivering with anticipation, Poindexter entered the palace of video games.
Insert a comma after a long introductory element of any kind!
Bibliography
http://www.sinclair.edu/centers/tlc/pub/handouts_worksheets/grammar_punctuation_writing/phrase_
appositive.pdf
The Hodges Harbrace Handbook: Seventeenth Edition, 2010.
Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition: Completed Course: Revised Edition. 1965.
TEKS 13AD, 15Aiii & vii, 15Ci, 16A, 23B
6