1. Thesis and Topic Sentence Workshop for Essay 2

2. Checking for Topic Sentences
Every single body paragraph of an academic needs to have an effective topic sentence.
A topic sentence is a sentence at the beginning of a paragraph that clearly states the point that the rest of the paragraph will be about.
For an academic essay, a topic sentence should do one of two things:
clearly state the reason your thesis is correct that the paragraph will discuss
clearly state how the ideas/stories/explanations in the paragraph relate to the thesis

3. Checking for Topic Sentences
Example Thesis: While princess toys are often touted as a harmless part of growing up for little girls, their recent saturation of the market is still troubling because girls have fewer non-princess toy choices, the focus of the toys is undeniably on appearance and beauty, and princess toys help to support rigid gender norms.
Some Example Topic Sentences that relate to this thesis:
If princess toys were one choice among many, that would be one thing, but the overwhelming abundance of princess products takes that choice away from young girls. (The rest of this paragraph might discuss statistics that the student has gathered about princess vs non-princess toys for girls. It also might compare the choices in the “girls” section of the toy aisle to the “boys” section. This sentence connects this paragraph to the thesis because it makes a claim about why the princess craze is troubling.)

4. Checking for Topic Sentences
More Example Topic Sentences:
While there are certainly still toys for little girls that are not part of the “princess craze,” some toy lines have introduced princess elements to compete with Disney, which further diminishes girls’ choices. (Notice that this is the SECOND paragraph about choice. Each one of the blue reasons in the thesis might have more than one paragraph devoted to explaining them. The rest of this paragraph should might give examples of several “girls” toys that were changed to make them into a princess toys, and discuss the specific reasons and implications that surround each change.)
Princess merchandise places a great value on outward appearance, and there are princess products available to help little girls “feel pretty” as well, and this encourages girls’ imaginative play to revolve around achieving a certain standard of beauty. (The rest of this paragraph should further explain how the products value outward appearance, give examples of the toys that help girls “feel pretty” and explain why it’s a problem for girls’ play to be centered around achieving beauty standards. Notice how this topic sentence relates back to the second reason in the thesis.)

5. Checking for Topic Sentences
Example Topic Sentences:
The explosion of princess toys onto the shelves of toy stores everywhere are part of a recent trend in children’s toys that sharply divides the “girls” toys from the “boys” toys, which is a practice that supports socially constructed gender norms that do more harm than good. (The rest of this paragraph should give more evidence of this trend and support the statement that these gender norms can be harmful to the girls who are not comfortable with the socially constructed ideas of what femininity should be.)
Notice that every single one of these topic sentences:
Relates back to the thesis in some significant way.
Tells the reader what specific point in support of the thesis the paragraph is going to prove.

6. Highlight your Thesis
By this point in the writing process, you should have a thesis that:
Makes a clear claim about the issue that invites discussion
Makes a claim that can be supported over the course of 4-5 pages
Is NOT a question
Is NOT a statement of fact
If you need to make any changes to your thesis, do so today.

7. Highlight the Topic Sentence of Each Paragraph
Does each topic sentence clearly and succinctly state the main point of the paragraph?
Does each topic sentence connect the paragraph back to the thesis?
If the answer to either of these questions is “no,” you need to revise your topic sentence(s).
If you realize that a paragraph covers too many topics to be covered by one topic sentence, you need to break up that one paragraph into several, each with its own topic sentence.