How do I form a convincing argument statement in an essay?

When forming a thesis in an essay it is really important to understand what the question is asking of you. One way to do this might be to try rethinking the question in your own words. For example, "Explore how Shakespeare presents foolishness in Twelfth Night" may be broken down into three smaller points to consider:

 - How does Shakespeare present foolishness - (does he present it as good, bad, etc.)

• In what ways does he do this? - (this may consider different techniques used)

• What effect does this have on the play as a whole?

When coming to your thesis it is really important to keep these questions in mind. Try bullet pointing answers to them before you go on to do a plan.

Next, we want to break down a thesis into three key parts. Firstly, the topic, or what we are arguing about. In this case, that would be 'foolishness'. Secondly, our judgement, this is where we answer the most important part of the question "how is foolishness presented". Thirdly, we come to the explanation, what techniques does Shakespeare to present foolishness in the way that we are arguing? The third question that we considered above should then be weaved into the rest of the essay.

If we were to put all of these elements together a good thesis statement might look like this:

In ' Twelfth Night' Shakespeare presents foolishness as a liberating practice that helps to bring about the resolution of the play. He does this by using elements of the saturnalian tradition and farcical slapstick to create humour and confusion which allows the characters to come to important realisations through the use of rhetorical devices which link seemingly unrelated but important concepts.