Essays poem

Joe Camp

T.R.I.T. is, perhaps, the most useful tool you will ever have to guide you through writing a comprehensive paper ON ANY SUBJECT. These letters represent the four elements that must appear in every well-written paper or essay. Here is what they mean:

T. Thesis

R. Restate Thesis

I, Insert Proofs

R. (return to) Thesis

(T) The thesis is the controlling idea for your paper. It should provide something that needs to be proven, something that you need to prove throughout the rest of your paper. (R) After you’ve established what you want to prove, after you have crafted a clear Thesis Statement, find another way to say the same thing, in order to give your reader another view of the matter at hand. This establishes your idea, firmly in the mind (and imagination) of your reader. It gives your reader a chance to reconsider your stated intentions (thesis) and set it firmly in her mind. (I) Now, you’ve come to the heart of the matter: the proof. You must prove that your contention (thesis) is what you say it is—but how? In the case of writing about literature, a novel, a poem, a play, you quote directly from the work itself or some critical work to show that what you claim in your thesis is, in fact, what you propose. These proofs make up the vast majority of your paper. However, there is a trick: Every proof must (must) relate directly to your thesis. If it does not echo what you claim in your thesis, you must throw it out. If something you have inserted as a supposed proof does not support your thesis, then it hurts your paper. Your paper must consist only of things that support your thesis.

(T) You have proven your thesis and supported your claims well. Now, in order to refresh the memory of your reader, who may by this time have forgotten exactly what you said in your thesis, you sum up by returning to the idea of your thesis once again, thus making a neat package for the reader, who now understands your contentions fully. Hey, you are a writer!

In case it, somehow, escaped your strong powers of observation, I’ll point out, now, that ¾ of this formula is Thesis. That’s how important your thesis is to the success of your mission to write a comprehensive paper. Never lose sight of that thesis while writing any paper; it is the key to that paper’s success. And never, throughout your academic career, forget T.R.I.T.