Thesis Statements
demystifying the most important sentence in your academic essay
Here is a list of things that are true about thesis statements. At a future, undisclosed date, I will perhaps flesh these items out here. For now, we can use this list as a discussion starter to help us craft the thesis statements for our research essays.
On the nature of being a statement
Thesis statement must be sentences
Thesis statements cannot be fragments
Thesis statement can’t be questions
Thesis statements cannot be concrete facts. They are abstractions.
A Potentially Helpful Analogy
A thesis statement is promise you make to the reader. You spend the rest of the essay keeping that promise by proving your thesis.
Thesis statements address one idea.
Thesis statements are one independent clause.
Thesis statements are one sentence long.
A thesis statement is a tiny reflection of the essay as a whole.
The subject (SVO) of the thesis statement is the subject of the paper.
In research essays, thesis statements use emotionally neutral language. Research paper thesis statements are in the 3rd person and don’t contain judgements.
In argument essays, thesis statements reflect an opinionated stance.