I’ve found professors/TAs/readers are increasingly wanting me to add more detail to my thesis or intro paragraph. I don’t understand this because I actually write decent intro paragraphs and thesis statements. Heck, the fact that I actually know what a thesis statement is and where it’s supposed to go is sadly more than some of the other English majors I’ve come across.

Wanting more detail in the intro paragraph isn’t so bad because I can always add more detail without proving anything. How do you add more detail to a thesis statement without having it become horribly long and complicated though? I don’t know how papers are supposed to be structured these days, but I learned to state my argument in general terms and then go into detail. It’s even more ridiculous when they ask you to start proving things in your intro paragraph. What do they want us to do? Write out the paper before the paper?