Download Essay Parts Essay Parts - Sample Thesis Statements

Thesis Statements
The thesis statement is the most important sentence in an essay. It appears in the first paragraph
and tells the reader both the topic of the essay and what the essay is going to say about the topic.
It answers the question: What is the point of this essay?
A good thesis statement may list the major topics covered in the essay. This gives the reader a
brief road map to the essay and helps the writer to organize the essay. Here is an example of a
thesis statement in an argument essay:
Placing a traffic light at the intersection of Steven Street and Dolly Drive would improve traffic
flow, decrease the number of accidents, and encourage more pedestrian traffic.
Each body paragraph could then give details on each of the topics mentioned in the thesis
statement.
Body Paragraphs
Each body paragraph in an essay has a topic sentence indicating what the paragraph is about. The
other sentences in the paragraph give details to support both the topic sentence of the paragraph
and the thesis statement of the entire essay.
Let’s use the thesis statement above. The first body paragraph of this essay would give details
about how the light would improve traffic flow at the intersection. It should not include
information about how the light would decrease the number of accidents or how it would
encourage more pedestrian traffic. These topics will be discussed in other paragraphs.
This organization makes it easier for the reader to understand the argument of the essay. Readers
can be confused if different topics and details are jumbled together in the same paragraph. This
makes it difficult for the reader to absorb the points the essay is trying to make.
Conclusions
The conclusion paragraph of an essay summarizes the topics covered in the essay and restates the
thesis in different words. This helps the reader to remember the main points.
The thesis statement could be restated this way:
Better traffic flow, fewer accidents, and more people on foot would be three advantages of
placing a traffic light at the intersection of Steven Street and Dolly Drive.
A good conclusion prevents readers from wondering what they should take away from the essay.
RHET_Essay Parts_09-10-13.docx
The Three Africas
When many people hear the word Africa, they picture steaming jungles and gorillas.
Hollywood films have shrunk the public image of this immense, varied continent into a small
segment of its actual diversity. To have a more accurate picture of the whole continent, however,
one should remember that there are, roughly, three Africas, each with its distinct climate and
terrain and with a style of life suited to the environment. The continent can be divided into the
northern desert areas, the southeastern grasslands, and the tropical jungles to the southwest.
The northern regions have the environment and living patterns of the desert. Egypt,
Libya, Algeria, and Morocco have hot, dry climates with very little land suited to farming.
Therefore, the population tends to be clustered into cities along rivers or the seacoast or into
smaller settlements near oases. For thousands of years, people have lived in this vast region,
subsisting partly on what crops and animals they could raise and partly on trade with Europe.
The southeastern grasslands provide a better environment for animal life and for some
kinds of crops. Many wild animals inhabit the plains in this region—elephants, giraffes,
rhinoceros, antelopes, zebras, and lions. The people in this area have long been expert cattle
raisers and hunters. Tea, coffee, cotton, cashew nuts, and tobacco are some of the main products
grown in this region. Fishing also provides some food and income for people along the coast.
The population here is less concentrated in cities and towns than in the north, but tends to be
denser in areas where adequate rainfall and fertile soil make farming possible.
West Africa is the region closest to the Hollywood image of mysterious jungles. As in
the other two regions, the way people subsist depends upon their environment. This does not
mean that most of the people live in grass huts in the jungle. Such nations as Nigeria have
become highly modernized by income from oil, timber, and minerals. Most of the western
countries have some farming that provides food and income; sugar cane, coffee, and tobacco are
the important cash crops, while bananas, rice, and corn are raised for food. Fishing in the rivers
and along the coast also accounts for food and income, and precious stones, especially diamonds,
enhance the economy of Angola and the Ivory Coast.
Even a superficial look at the major regions of Africa shows that it is a varied continent
with several environments. Although most of the continent is tropical in its range of temperature,
the climate ranges from deserts to rain forests. Similarly, human life-styles vary from the
simplest rural villages to industrial cities, both new and ancient. Contrary to the myth, however,
jungle life makes up only a very small portion of the whole of Africa.
Source: “Sample Five Paragraph Essay: The Three Africas.” Taft College Online Writing Lab.
Taft College. Web. 17 June 2013.