Where’s My Thought Process?!?!?

We all have so many issues when it comes to writing papers. Some people are so much better at them than we are. Not only that, but there are some that freak out more with writing a paper than they would with taking a test. Whether the problem is partially due to issues with grammar, spelling, or even just thinking, the best of writers know that the world is going to smack them in the head at some point of a paper.

Medical assistant jobs, paralegals, and even cashiers need to know something about writing. This is the simple process of communication, something that is around today and has been for many a millennia. As more is required of students and employees, the ideas behind communication are becoming harder to grasp.

So what is there to do about it? Grab a pencil and go for it? Think about it a little while and hope something stirs? Where is that thought process that you thought you once had? Remember, back when you were a teenager and knew absolutely anything about everything? And you were invincible to the world?

We all know those days don't exist for us anymore. Hunting down a thought or two is hard enough, much less the format it's supposed to be in. Ever tried to come up with an assignment? Teachers do it all the time, and that alone takes a special gift. Then there are the instructors that say you need to do this, make up your topic, your thesis, and make it 8 pages long.

The tricky part is making sure the instructor is going to approve it. Here's a hint on how to come up with a great thesis paper on your own:

Randomly choose 5 words from the dictionary or thesaurus. Use these to create your beginning paragraph. The words do not have to relate, however they will need to work together. If you can't find the words yourself, have someone else just open the dictionary to a page with their eyes shut and randomly point at a word. Rinse and repeat.

Incredibly, this works for thesis papers, creative writing, and many other forms of communication. Speeches are created on spur of the moment ideas. Spontaneity is only a spice of life. It is up to you to make it into something incredible. It is also up to you to turn it around from a bad idea to a fabulous thought process.

Thinking it Through

Ever thought of what might be the best option to write your thesis? Is it really the best move to do all that brainstorming and then outline and then this and that and the other?

Not really. Some students use real studying tips and actually work better when they do the paper backwards.

 

That’s right… Backwards.

 

It’s actually very simple. You know the basic steps. Your instructor wants to see your notes, what types they are, and how they relate to your thesis, topic, or even the paper in general. Maybe they are simple thoughts that you came up with and scratched on a napkin because it was the first thing available. I have never seen a student that didn’t have their notes so scattered around that they had to remember what came first, plus remember what the assignment was in the first place.

 

This is how it works. Write the paper first. Write what you know. Don’t look anything up at all. Just write. It can be random, scribbles, little drawings related to the topic in the corner. Essentially, this is your rough draft before the hard part begins. You are telling yourself what you already know. All you have to do now is fill in the blanks.

 

So you have a preliminary sitting in front of you. Within it, you haven’t the first clue of where to place your in text citations, much less what you need to look up to have citations. You know what you wrote because somewhere in the back of your mind, a teacher at one point got to you and instilled it there.

 

Use your notes, your scribbles, or whatever it may be to become your search terms. These are the key elements that will help you to find the scholarly articles you need to make your paper succeed. Get a base of notes, and create your outline from this and your preliminary paper. You already have the basic information. What you are doing now is expanding on it. Granted, it might seem a little barbaric to do it this way, but what’s the point in organizing notes if you have no clue where they go?

 

Believe it or not, this works with scholarship essays. Whether it is weird scholarships or those targeted at a certain group of people, many of them require an essay before acknowledgment, much less acceptance. Write the pre-write, the roughest of drafts you have ever created and expand on what you already know. Don’t know anything? Go to the library and sit down with a book. Let it have pictures in. Visual stimulation will get you a lot further than you ever expected.

 

Once you have a “real” rough draft, you are ready to knock your instructor’s socks off with your witty knowledge, and a little more than what you thought you knew in the first place.

Mop, Broom, and Cleaning Supplies

You finally got it! Your thesis is coming together nicely. For once, your research is paying off and you actually have it figured out…

Now it’s time to clean it up and make it look good for that red pen catwalk.

Read over your paper. Understand that what sounds absolutely phenomenal to you may sound like trash can music to someone else, especially your instructor. It is always a good idea to have an extra pair of eyes read over what you wrote. Can’t find the eyes? Read it out loud, even record it so you can hear it back. Nine times out of ten, reading it out loud can catch those sneaky little errors that manage to get into anyone’s writing.

Using Word can be a major plus in your writing. When it comes to filler information, you know that you can find yourself stating the same thing over and over, just to make a word count. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can find a mental broom and sweep away extra words that really can be replaced with something more fulfilling. Using the find and replace, search your paper for every time you have used the words and, that, it, then, may be, and of. You will be very surprised at how many times these words have been used along with how easily you can get rid of them. This not only gets rid of the filler, but discard repetition in your work as well.

Even the best online colleges expect your papers to be smooth, flowing and on topic. Using your mop, straighten out any run-on sentences, comma splices, preposition errors and other grammatically incorrect things you can find. Think your paper is perfect? Try again. Not one paper is ever completely perfect, but it can be the best that you put for the effort to make it.

Now that you have swept and mopped your paper to a glorious shine, pull out that cleaning rag a make it sparkle. Read your paragraphs. Are they in the right order? Do they mix well with the following paragraph? Is the entire thing a good match for what the instructor asked for? If your answer is yes to every one of these questions, congratulations! Print that baby out and turn it in. If not, you know exactly what to do to change that no into a wondrous YES!

Now that you have primed, proppered, cleaned, polished and sparkled that document to its best, its time to sit back and pat yourself on the back. Great job!

Breaking Down the Thesis

Breaking down the thesis of an essay, term paper, or research paper is not as difficult as it seems. An extremely well written paper can be hard to determine precisely what the thesis statement is because it flows with the paper and is not easily spotted.

This can pose for some difficulties for students who are still understanding the concept of a thesis statement. Remember, a thesis statement is sentence that summarizes the entire paper in a few short words. Many instructors would rather have a thesis statement before the paper is written, but for students who are attending school for careers in education such as English or writing will need to be able to identify in any given paper that is thrown at them.

Normally, the thesis statement is in the introductory paragraph. However, extended papers or lengthy papers may not show the thesis until the second paragraph, or the second introduction. There have been papers that show the thesis statement not only in the introduction, but in the abstract of the paper as well. Also, a good note to go by is that thesis statements are always reworded at the end of a paper.

That last statement can be the one key that helps you find the thesis statement in a paper. Find the two sentences in the paper that mean the exact same thing, but are written completely different. By knowing that one is in the beginning and the other is at the end, you should be able to find the statement fairly easily. No matter what, that statement is going to be the one that says exactly the opinion of the writer, or describes precisely what the paper is going to be about... all in one sentence.

Thinking Thesis–That Thought That Escapes

 

The thoughts of a thesis statement are sometimes really difficult to work with. Think about it: your instructor tells you they want a thesis statement for a persuasive essay about gun control. They want your thesis statement by the next class, but the problem is this: you not only don’t know how to write a thesis statement, but you haven’t the slightest idea as to what one is either.

Never fear. A thesis statement is very simple to work with and to create. If you already know where you stand on your paper, then you have the general idea. If you can say your opinion, then you can write your thesis.

For example, let’s say you are for gun control. Your paper is to persuade others to be for gun control. State your opinion out loud, writing it down as you go. This works on the opposite side of the opinion, too. If you are against gun control, state why. Boom! You have your thesis.

Now, what is a thesis? A thesis statement is the one sentence in the very beginning and very end of a paper that says what your paper is about. Although some teaching careers will tell you it can be broken down into two sentences, usually one does the trick. This sentence summarizes the entire opinion of the paper into a few short words, without running on and on like it’s telling the whole paper in one paragraph.

Thesis papers are the same thing as essays, only normally the thesis statement is stated for you. If your instructor asks you to write a thesis on the death of Edgar Allen Poe, and gives you the statement: “Edgar Allen Poe’s death still remains a mystery, but conclusions have been made to determine the actual cause of death”, then you know exactly what you are writing in your paper. The entire concept is right there: reasons and conclusions to Edgar Allen Poe’s death. This is your body. All you have to do is the research and put it together.

All in all, a thesis is very simple to comprehend. Whether a statement or an entire paper, you can write a thesis. Just spit it out and write it down.