The Commentary Article

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Department of Study, South College

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An essay always starts with an introductory paragraph. This could include a hook/first sentence that grabs the reader’s attention. Give us a baseline/some background information about the text you are analyzing. What is it called? Who created it? Finally, the thesis statement is the last sentence in the introduction. It should be a clear, arguable statement. It is never a question or quote/cited idea from a source. Make sure it is not vague. For example, a thesis that states “government control is bad” is not only too vague, it is also not very arguable. Arguing that “giving the government too much control over social issues results in them policing the bodies of their citizens” is far more specific and arguable. Avoid contractions and both first and second-person pronouns like I, me, we, you, us, and our unless it’s in a quote you are citing.

Every paragraph needs a topic sentence. This is a smaller claim/subtopic of your thesis. Everything in this paragraph should only be about that subtopic. So, if you run out of topics to discuss/come up short on word count, you might have mashed two subtopics into one paragraph. For example, if one subtopic of “governments control bodies when given too much power” is

birth control availability, the first sentence in this paragraph makes a claim about that topic (like When given the power to __________ the American government has proven they will eliminate birth control availability). I back that claim in the next sentences with quotes/proof from my sources, but I don’t end a paragraph on a citation. I explain how that argument/proof I gave ties to my thesis and proves it to be true. I interpret what this means/the value of the evidence for my reader. Cite in APA (AuthorLastName, Year) or (“Article or Web Page Title,” year) within the text and on the reference page. Quotes cannot stand alone and need introductory clauses.

References

Achterberg, J. (1985). Imagery in healing. Shambhala Publications.