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What is a Thesis Statement Generator?
A thesis statement generator is a tool used to help a person writing an essay come up with a cogent and concise thesis statement. Typically, these tools do not provide any content whatsoever, but merely prompt the user to think about the topic in a way that makes his or her opinion clear and easily communicated in words. The writer usually becomes familiar with the structure of a thesis statement through use of the tool, and is soon able to formulate quality theses on his or her own.
Some people find detailed prompts to be valuable writing tools, and since a thesis statement generator merely reformulates the user's ideas in a new format, most academic institutions do not oppose the use of applications like this.
Usually, a thesis statement must include information about the paper's topic, the writer's position on that topic, and sometimes relevant support and opposition to that position. The most important part of a thesis statement is that it makes the writer's argument clear. While many different sentence structures are possible for these statements, a thesis statement generator will always produce the same general type of sentence. This is because its program is only rearranging the input provided by the user, not creating new information.
In most cases, a thesis statement generator includes a number of fields in which the user inputs responses to questions about the paper being written. Questions usually aim to identify the topic of the paper, the writer's position, supporting and opposing arguments, and sometimes a title. The answers the user provides to these questions must be formatted appropriately in order for the thesis statement generator to work. Otherwise, the resulting sentence may make no sense.
Common problems with thesis statement generators usually involve either incoherent ideas or unintelligible sentences. The generator cannot solve disordered thought, so it is important to provide an opinion clearly. Unintelligible sentences are usually caused by mismatched input format, and can easily be resolved by the user. These issues make it is very important to check over any work put through a thesis statement generator before submitting it for a class.
It is common to find generators like these online at writing help sites, but it is also possible to answer the questions, provide the answers, and then rearrange them into a thesis statement without using a service or program. Going through this writing exercise internalizes the thesis statement generator and makes it possible to write without relying on a program. Once the basic skills have been mastered, a writer can generate any kind of thesis statement he or she desires.
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Discussion Comments
Those things saved my life when I was in college! For some reason none of the "how to write an essay" worksheets really got through to me, but once I kind of figured out the logic behind a thesis statement generator and looked over several thesis examples, it just hit me.
I would have never been able to finish all my college essays without a thesis statement generator, so I am definitely a huge fan of them -- as long as you use them appropriately, of course.
Oh, I hate those things. Whenever I assign a thesis paper, I always have one or two students who go to those sites offering "example essays" or free essays, and then I get the same repeat essay three times over.
I know that teachers get a bad rap for being technologically un-savvy, but even the slowest teacher is going to realize that the same essay turned in by three students written in the exact same "computer-speak" is an online version.
The same goes for thesis statement generators. If I assign a paper with the same topic for the whole class to do, chances are that half of them are going to come up with the exact same thesis statement, which you can tell comes from a generator.
And all of this after I even provide them with papers on how to write a thesis! I really don't know what to do about it, except to tell them not to use the online tools, but even then, I can't exactly control it.
Do any fellow teachers out there have any tips?
Great article. You found a really nice balance here between the pros and cons of thesis statement generators.
I personally have mixed feelings about the whole thesis statement generator thing, or even any kind of thesis writing help online.
On the one hand, it can be a great way to arrange your thoughts when you're having trouble getting it all together. I remember several times as a student relying on several different online thesis statement generator programs to help me get my ducks in a row, so to speak.
However, now that I am a teacher, I can see the other side of the story as well. I recently received a bunch of research papers, some of which had obviously made liberal use of a research paper thesis statement generator. It's all well and good to use those things to get your thoughts in order, but, as you said, the statement generator cannot always provide coherent sentences, which can make for very embarrassing results if you just cut and paste them into your paper.
I really don't know what students are thinking when they do that (or use free essays, by the way, but that's another story), because it's just so obviously grammatically incorrect that any teacher is going to nail them for it.
So what do you guys think? Where do you come down on the whole thesis statement generator thing?
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