I'm going into AP (advanced placement) European History, grade 10, and our summer reading assignment was to read a A World Lit Only By Fire, a book about the tenaissance. Along with this assignment, I'm required to write a paragraph about the book's thesis. Does anyone have any advice on how to get started? I'm not sure how to approach the assignment.

Question

Thanks, Christine

A thesis is the main idea, whether of an essay, a book, a novel, or ??

So once you have read the book, ask yourself what the ONE MAIN IDEA is that the author was trying to prove correct. Once you can isolate that thought, you'll have a starting point. Write up that thesis (main idea) into one sentence, and use it as your paragraph's topic sentence.

Now what were the main supporting ideas the author used to explain or prove the main idea? You should have about 5-7 of those ideas, and then write up each one into a sentence. Those will make up the body of your paragraph.

Then write a conclusion, and you'll be done.

If you are still reading the book, be sure you are making a few notes to yourself, with page numbers as references. You will find your notes helpful when you go to plan and write up your paragraph.

=)

thank you so much!