For the essays you write for college classes, you might support your thesis with textual evidence. In a personal statement, your evidence should come from your own life. For example, you might ...

Offer Personal Conviction as the Basis for the Argument Example: Clearly, Kincaid is being one-sided. Possible Solution: Maintain some distance from your subject. Do not merely assume your idea is an ...

Otherwise, you're just stating your intent, not your thesis or claim. Example: My essay will discuss handgun legislation. Better: Banning handguns is the first step toward controlling crime in America ...

The thesis statement is the conclusion of the paper. A good thesis statement is precise, succinct, and informative. It is not simply a statement of the general topic, interest or plan. Nor is it a ...

Look at the "what" column. Does the essay move logically? (For example, the argument moves from general topic to thesis statement to contextual background to evidence to example to evidence to example ...