iBT Writing Question: Independent (Thesis and I) It can be argued that the thesis is the most important sentence of your independent essay. This is at least partially true because it prepares the reader for what they are going to encounter in your paper. Actually, it’s sentence structure also tells the grader a lot about the paper they will grade. Let’s take an example: do you agree with the statement that college students should work while they go to school? Now, if you just restate the question as your thesis, then this will be an ordinary thesis but it might not allow you to acquire that top score. Many students tend to write: I think that college student’s should not work while they go to school for many reasons. This sentence begins with "I" and we should try to exclude "I" from the thesis. You can state your opinion with words that have a value. Working while attending college can limit the amount of achievements that a student can attain. You see? This sentence doesn’t contain "I" and it tells us that the writer disagrees with the statement because of the value word "limit". Write your thesis by focusing directly on writing something about the subject, not yourself. POSTED BY TOEFL TIGER AT 7:21 AM LINKS TO THIS POST LABELS: IBT WRITING QUESTION: INDEPENDENT WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2007