When reading a piece of writing, one of the components of the piece that helps to guide you through the piece is the thesis statement. This is the main idea of the entire piece, or the point that the author is
trying to prove. (You typically only find these in non-fiction pieces, but they may occasionally show up in
fictional pieces.) In order to write strong thesis statements, you have to practice. The two main
components for a good thesis statement are the subject (what you are talking about) and your opinion
(how you feel about it). Of course, we have to do this in a professional way, so you can't just write
something like, "Dogs are cool." Let's imagine that you are writing a research essay about how the brain
works. (That's a hint, by the way!) What type of thesis statement could you write? Here is one example.
"The brain is amazing because of its capacity to remember things." or "Our psychological processes are
incredibly complicated." Each of these has a subject (brain remembering things, or psychological
processes) and an opinion (amazing or incredibly complicated). Now, your task today is to create 5 thesis
statements. I'd suggest that you write them about the brain to get a head start on your big project, or you
can pick any subject you know something about. The most important thing is that they have a subject and
an opinion! Write these 5 thesis statements and submit them to your instructor.