Study Hall with Vanessa » All Things Writing (2024)

What is a thesis? How do you structure an essay? This page is dedicated to answering those questions and more. Read on and learn more about the various aspects of writing!

*Note: This page, along with my other resources pages are a work in progress. As I continue my education, I will be updating these pages to add in even more helpful information. Stay tuned and learn with me! 🙂

The Enthymeme/Thesis:

What is a Thesis? What is an Enthymeme?

A thesis is the part of your essay that tells the audience what the paper is about; it tells the audience your plan, stance and beliefs, why you believe it, and what evidence you have to support it.

But this is where it gets confusing, so stay with me.

An Enthymeme is basically a thesis, but with a different structure and process to follow. Not every school will use the term “enthymeme” but essentially, it provides a bridge between the process of thinking about your argument and the process of translating its components into parts of an essay. It represents the whole argument of an essay – a conclusion (claim) and the major reason that argues for it (reason). It ensures that the reasoning is adequate (which we will get into). Lastly, it provides the structural possibility for the essay.

Stay with me.

Here’s an example of a Thesis: By closely examining two frames within the film, this essay not only examines the differences between both groups but analyzes the oppositional spaces that are depicted in the background, lighting, and placements of characters in the two frames.

Here’s an Example of an Enthymeme: “Americans are scaling back their dreams because they are struggling to succeed in a system characterized by inequality of opportunity.”

With these examples, you can see the differences in structure and language. With the help of my mentor, Dr. Kate Myers, I was able to combine her resources and the things I have learned along the way to compile information that explains how an enthymeme works and why it is a little different than a thesis.

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An enthymeme is a rhetorical tool that helps writers identify and develop the logic of our arguments. An enthymeme makes a single claim on a question at issue and supports this claim with a single reason. As a sentence, the enthymeme takes the form of two independent clauses with a shared subject, separated by the word because:

CLAIM because REASON

AC because AB

The REASON clause explains why the CLAIM is reasonable. The REASON is NOT an example that supports your CLAIM; it is one of the premises that makes your CLAIM possible.

The enthymeme reveals the possibilities for developing and supporting your argument by:

1. Representing the entire argument of the essay, a conclusion (your claim) and the main reason that argues for it (your reason)
2. Providing a bridge between your thought process of the argument and the process of getting that message across to your audience
3. Making sure that your reason is adequate
4. Having a structure that sets the tone for the essay.

The main task of an Enthymematic essay is to develop the reason as the rational for arriving at the claim. This still needs to be done with a thesis, however, it is a little more direct and follows a pattern.

The Enthymeme structure:

• Question at Issue – beginning of your essay or introduction
• Reason – body paragraphs
• Claim – the end or conclusion `

* Please note: These shouldn’t be the only attributes in your essay, there should be other things such as definition of terms, additional resources/data/examples, counterarguments, transitional words and phrases. But in order for it to be classified as an enthymematic essay, the bulleted points must be present.

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Want to test out an enthymeme to see if it’s correct?

1. Make sure that your CLAIM and REASON share the same subject.
2. Generalize the subject/A-Term
3. Reverse the order of CLAIM and REASON to find the WARRANT:
   1. If B, then C
   2. Anyone/anything that (verb) B (verb) C

Example of how to test the logic in your enthymeme:

I received this example while in my undergraduate studies from a high respectable instructor and it was the best way to help me understand how this works.

Socrates is mortal because he is human.

1. Shared Subject: Socrates/he
2. Someone is mortal because that someone is human
3. If someone is human, then that someone is mortal.

Thus, anyone who is human is mortal.

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How to start writing an enthymematic essay:

1. Start by writing out the question at issue, enthymeme, and warrant

Example:

Question at Issue: What can help us understand the social roles of women in history? OR What can studying myth help us understand?

*A question at issue is valid so long as the community cares about answering them and there is more than one answer and the community can disagree about the answers. It can’t be something like, “are pugs the best dogs to ever exist?” While I might agree, there isn’t an urgency or a concern for the community to decipher this.

Enthymeme: The study of myths helps us to understand the social roles of women in history because it reveals how the myths of the past have molded the attitudes of successive generations to preserve social order.

*Shared subject: The study of myths AND it

Warrant: Intuitive version: The study of something that has molded the attitude of successive generations to preserve social order will help us understand the socials roles of women in history.

Formula: (If B, then C): If studying something reveals how something else has molded the attitudes of successive generations to preserve social order, then studying it will help us understand the social roles of people in history.

List of tasks for responsibly developing the argument generated from key concepts:

• Show some myths
• Show how those myths molded the attitudes of successive generations
• Show how those myths preserved the social order
• Connect those attitudes to the social roles of women in history
• Show that those attitudes are preserved as a part of the social order

Practice working through your own enthymeme with this template!

1. Write your enthymeme divided into its logical structure:

CLAIM:

Term A:

Term C:

REASON:

Term A:

Term B:

2. Verify that your reason (AB) answers the questions, what is it about A that makes it C?
3. Find your enthymeme’s warrant:

• If something is B, then it is C

• Anything that is B is C

• Something is (or should be) C if it is B

How to Brainstorm:

What is brainstorming?

• “To try to solve a problem or come up with new ideas by having a discussion that includes all members of a group: to discuss a problem or issue and suggest solutions and ideas,” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brainstorm)

So, how do you do it?

• There are many different approaches to brainstorming and it just depend on your own style and process of writing. While these may not work for everyone, here are some tips and tricks to brainstorming, that have helped me:
  • Just write: Writing down your thoughts, ideas, and questions can really help get your wheels turning, without the pressure! Sometimes staring at a blank screen or paper with the prompt spinning in your mind can cause frustration and blocks, so just write!
  • Outline: If you already have ideas for your paper, and even if you don’t, creating an outline can be very helpful when thinking of ideas and setting up the structure of your essay. Outlining is a way to layout your essay, visually. Trying to figure out how to structure your essay as you go can easily allow you to get off track and lose focus of your main topic and topic sentences.
  • Chat with peers: Sometimes bouncing ideas off people who are in similar classes or have similar thoughts as you can really open up your mind. Try talking with some of the people who are in your class. Even bouncing ideas off your instructor can help.
  • Chat with other people (who aren’t familiar with your topic): Sometimes talking to people who aren’t familiar with your essay topic can help you figure out what to write and how to write it. Often, we learn things by teaching. If you can teach or talk to someone about your topic, you might be able to find other subtopics, angles, ideas, or arguments for your paper. It’s all about getting the ideas flowing!
  • Try to think outside the box: Maybe writing down words just doesn’t work for you. How about taking a different approach? Maybe draw out your ideas, put them in the form of a comic strip, use different colors to group up different ideas, use stickers to indicate which ideas you want to use. Do or try something that will make the process a little more fun for you. Writing isn’t just about getting it done, it is about trying to exercise your mind, your thoughts, your opinions. Tt’s about taking those things and being able to synthesize it into a cohesive and efficient essay. Don’t think about it as a boring task. Use it as an opportunity to expand your mind, challenge yourself, teach others and learn.
  • Take a break: I know this one seems a little strange, and maybe not so helpful. BUT. Taking a break is important! Sometimes taking a few minutes away from you writing and thoughts on that writing can help more ideas come. I’m not saying ignore it for five hours or take a break when you haven’t even started (because I know it happens, I do it, too.) Try taking a quick walk, eat a snack, listen to some music. Do something small that will give your mind a rest, but that won’t completely sucking you into the activity (yes, I know this happens, too.

How to Structure an Essay:

When it comes to structing your essay, just like brainstorming, it all comes down to your personal preferences, but sometimes it is nice to have a guide and some ideas. So here it goes:

• Structuring your essay can be challenging if you don’t already have an idea for what you want to write about. So, make sure that is taken care of, first!

• Usually, when thinking of how to organize my essay, I always try to prioritize the issues that I think are most important, first. Depending on the type of essay you’re going to be writing, will depend on how your structure it.

For an argumentative essay:

You should of course make your stance known. That is the first thing.

You then have to make sure you have a handful of topic sentence/claims for your stance/argument. (Note: you don’t always have to stick to the five paragraph essay.)

Let’s say you have an argumentative essay to write and you have four points that support your claim, you could do something like this (Of course, these are just example and ideas. Feel free to change things, add things, or do it a completely different way).

• Introduction (this is also where your thesis/enthymeme will be)
• First claim
• Supporting evidence
• Second claim
• Supporting evidence
• Third Claim
• Supporting Evidence
• Fourth Claim
• Supporting evidence
• Counter-argument
• Response to the counter argument
• Conclusion .

For a compare and contrast essay:

• Introduction
• Comparison #1
  • Analysis
• Comparison #2
  • Analysis
• Contrast #1
  • Analysis
• Contrast #2
  • Analysis
• Synthesis of what these comparisons and differences do for the text
• Conclusion

These are just a few examples to maybe get some ideas on how to structure some of your essays. Focus on grouping ideas together and being able to explain what they do for the text at hand. ( I will keep this section updated as I come up with more ideas for structure).

Incorporating Quotes:

Quotes can be tricky. They hold a lot of information, and with that, a lot of power. It can be easy to be influenced by the words of others to shape your thoughts, especially if you are not sure what to write about! But hopefully some of my tips and tricks can help you figure out how to incorporate quotes without losing your voice or style!

Usually, I start with writing down my prompt or essay direction so I can keep that in mind.

Then it can go one of two ways, depending on the type of essay you are writing.

If you have to write an essay siding with someone’s position and need quotes:

1. Write down the prompt
2. Figure out what your stance is and find an author in the text that matches that
3. Look through their writing and find quotes that you can agree with
   1. Write yourself small notes as to why you agree with them, so you don’t forget and aren’t just relying on their word
4. Keep all the quotes numbered and try to prioritize the points you mostly agree with
5. After that, create an outline for your main ideas and add in the quotes that match each of your main ideas/paragraphs. This way, all your information will stay together.

If you’re using quotes to support your arguments:

1. Write down the prompt
2. Write a small outline of your thoughts/opinions/ideas
   1. Based off these, go through the text and write down quotes that either agree or disagree with your stance. It is important to have counterarguments to strengthen your essay and its credibility.
3. Keep all your quotes and ideas numbered/grouped together to make sure you are all organized.
4. Create an outline incorporating your main ideas and add in the quotes that go with those ideas.

It might seem tedious, but this way you and your audience will be able to decipher whose voice/opinions are whose. You never want to just throw in random quotes because you feel lost or unsure what to write. It’s okay to agree with others ideas, but remember your voice, too!

Transitions:

Transitions might not seem like a big issue to prioritize when writing, and while I would partially agree, one should pay attention to it. Sometimes a weird transition from one paragraph or topic to another can disrupt the flow and cause confusion or misinterpretation. While I don’t have a whole lot of information (especially because this isn’t a big focus) I do have some tips and resources that are helpful:

A quick solution: use words such as moreover, to continue, furthermore, nonetheless. However, you must be careful to not overuse those words because constant use makes your essay sound repetitive.

The biggest piece of advice I can give would be to make sure that your paper is organized. The better the organization, the easier it will be to transition into a new topic without things seeming unnatural. If you aren’t sure of your structure, your paper won’t read as smoothly, so definitely make sure to brainstorm and outline! (See those sections for more help!)

Here is a list of a few website that I have found to help me when looking for transitional words or phrases in my writing:

https://www.smart-words.org/linking-words/transition-words.html

https://writingcenter.ashford.edu/transitional-phrases

https://msu.edu/~jdowell/135/transw.html

Summary VS. Analysis:

When I first starting writing papers that dealt more with analysis and synthesis, I struggled with figuring out the difference between summarizing and analyzing; whether it be a quote, a paragraph, etc. I would do great at summarizing, however analyzing wasn’t my strength. As I’ve progressed in my education and written my fair share of essays, it became easier to decipher between the two.

During the Winter Term of my senior year, I was embedded in the World Literature class of Dr. Kate Myers. I was there to observe her teaching and as a bonus I got to help create a few assignments and even put together my own mini presentation on close reading! I compiled all the information that her students felt they struggled with, and summary versus analysis was at the top of the list.

Here are my tips and tricks for doing both!

Summary: covering the main points succinctly (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/summary)

Analysis: a detailed examination of anything complex in order to understand its nature or to determine its essential features : a thorough study. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/analysis)

• A summary is only getting to the base of the text. Summarization should be used for your comprehension of the basic understanding of the contexts.
• When you analyze, you are breaking down what the text means; what does it do

Here’s a list of traits I found that I thought were helpful! (For this list & more information go to: https://writingcenter.ashford.edu/summary-vs-analysis)

When Summarizing:

• Identifies the main points or elements.
• What details were stated or included
• Identifies thoughts or contributions others have had to the same topic
• No argument or conclusion is present

When Analyzing:

• Makes an argument/reaches a conclusion
• Choose specific areas/elements to study
• Examines/Interprets those elements
• Discusses why each element is important/significant
• Discusses how each element connects to other contexts.
• Discusses Causes/Effects, Strengths/Weaknesses, Effectiveness/Non-effectiveness

Conclusions:

So, you’ve done the brainstorming, you wrote an outline, rough draft and got everything you wanted to say out..now what?

Take that question literally.

“What Now? or “So What?” are the best questions you can ask yourself when thinking of your conclusion. When you get to the end of the essay, it is easy to feel like you have said all you needed, which is important. However, you must always ask yourself:

• “So What?”
• Why does everything I’ve written matter?
• What does it to for my argument, opinion, interpretation?
• What does it do for the contexts of the subject I am writing about? Why is this impactful or important?

All of these questions and ones like it can help you come up with a conclusion and can help you avoid repeating yourself a million times. It allows you to tie up loose ends, make connections and leave your last synthesis of information. It’s okay to reiterate main ideas and points but answering some of these questions help you give you a more in-depth ending.