What is a thesis statement? (Writing)

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement is that sentence or two in your text that contains the focus of your essay and tells your reader what the essay is going to be about. 

Many writers think of a thesis statement as an umbrella: everything you carry along in your essay has to fit under this umbrella, and if you try to take on packages that do not fit, you will either have to get a bigger umbrella or something is going to get wet. 

A thesis statement: 

- tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.

- is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper. 

- directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is our interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II, a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war.

- is usually a single sentence somewhere in your first paragraph that presents an argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation. 

When an assignment asks you to analyze, to interpret, to compare and contrast, to demonstrate cause and effect, or to take a stand on an issue, it is likely that you are being asked to develop a thesis and to support it persuasively. 

How do I get a thesis?

It is the result of a lengthy thinking process. Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do after reading an essay assignment. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts (such as surprising contrasts or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you do this thinking, you will probably have a "working thesis", a basic or main idea, an argument that you think you can support with evidence. 

Collected and adapted by Ayleen Trujillo Ruiz

Web pages: 

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/thesis.htm

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/thesis-statements/