How can I write a thesis statement for my presentation on tropical ecology and the Blue Footed Booby?

Your thesis statement, sometimes also called a topic sentence or "big idea" of your paper, should convey to your audience what your paper or presentation will be about. Though the thesis statement is introduced in the introduction of your paper--or during the introduction portion of a spoken presentation--it is sometimes the most difficult part of an essay to write! Consider this: what is the main idea of your presentation? In one or two sentences, what information are you hoping to present and support? If you had just one minute to tell someone very quickly the subject of your paper, what might you say?

Your thesis statement should be related to the body of your essay or presentation. The thesis statement may contain or summarize important points about tropical ecology and the Blue Footed Booby--use the body of your paper to expand upon and support these ideas. For example, if the main food source for the Booby was at risk, you might tell us in your introduction that this is the case and that it is important to conserve the food source. Then, in the body of your paper, you could tell us why it is important to conserve the food source and how it can be done. (This is just an example idea.)

You should re-visit your thesis statement in the conclusion of your essay or presentation. In the introduction, the purpose of your thesis statement is to give us an idea of what we should learn from your presentation. The body then supports this idea. In the conclusion, the thesis statement should remind us of what we have just learned from the presentation and tie it all together. If you have a hard time limiting your thesis statement to just one or two sentences, you can try writing a full paragraph or more about the main idea and then revise it. Go through your draft and ask yourself what information can be removed while preserving the big idea?