Reading


Imagine your favourite sandwich: what ingredients is it composed of? Some bread, mayonnaise, perhaps; meat, lettuce, and tomato. The works! Now imagine that very sandwich being your essay - the more you have in it, the better, right? What if your sandwich had mayonnaise, peanut butter, lettuce, and cheese? All of those ingredients can be made into a sandwich, but they probably won't taste too good when they're all together on the same sandwich. The same is true with an essay - you can have a lot of information, but is it always connected to the same idea or topic?

The key to any great essay is to develop a thesis that will pull and hold everything together. Thesis statements are the foundation to the kind of sandwich you want to build. The slices of bread are your introduction and conclusion. Meat, cheese, lettuce: those represent the body paragraphs.

Time to Read


Step 1: Review p. 157 of your Reading and Writing for Success for more information on thesis statements.


Step 2: Review and make notes on these videos on How to Create a Strong Thesis Statement and How to Write a Thesis Statement.