Hello freshman! I bet that you are really excited to start your life as college student, but I also know that it can be a bit overwhelming. Trust me when I say that in college you will do a ton of writing. You will have some sort of writing in every class you take, and every assignment will be asking for different things. I know that writing at the college level can seem a bit intimidating, but it only will be if you let it be. The one thing that will always help you become a better writer in all of your classes is having a strong clear thesis statement. Thesis statements are there in your paper to help not only the reader, but they are also there to help you out as a writer.
Thesis statements are really important in the structure of your paper. Thesis statements are like the foundation of a building. If you have a shaky foundation then your building will not be structurally correct, and having a shaky building is quite horrific! The same goes with thesis statements. If you have a terrible thesis statement then your paper will be unstable and this will probably lead to a bad grade. So it is really important to have a good thesis statement that is really structurally firm.
Thesis statements are also there to help you out as a writer. Having a structurally sound thesis statement will help you organize your paper better. Thesis statement will help you plan out the rest your paper and it will help you stay on topic. In college you will be required to write really long papers. (Ugh!) If you’re like me then it is really easy to get off track while writing these long papers. Your thesis statement is a tool that is there to help you stay on track while reading these papers. As a writer you should often go and reread it so that you know that you are staying on track. So it is really important to have a clear strong thesis statement so that you can successfully structure your paper.
Another important thing that thesis statements do is that they make is easier for the reader to understand your paper. In college you will have to read some really confusing articles assigned by professors that you have no idea what they are about. (Trust me; I’ve had to do that many times) A really good thing to do is to find the thesis statement of the article before you read the rest of the paper so you can get some idea of what the writer is trying to argue. The same rule goes for your own papers so if you don’t want to confuse the readers it a good idea to make a strong and clear thesis statement. This is important so that the readers can go back and read the thesis statement so that they can understand what your paper is about.
Writing in college is not as scary as you think. Just remember to make solid thesis statement and then you’ve already laid down the foundation for your paper. I hope you enjoy college life. Good luck!