7.1 Determine What Kind of Thesis You Need
You must have heard how important a thesis statement is. If someone says writing an introduction is the most difficult part of writing, the person may very well feel that way because of the thesis statement. Making a good thesis is a strong indicator of the quality of an essay. Even if an essay demonstrates various ideas and examples, if those cannot be gathered under one solid argument, the essay does not convey a single clear idea. When we read an essay or write our own, we continuously ask this question: “So, what’s the point?” That is why writers need a thesis statement to provide a specific focus for their essay and to organize what they are about to discuss in the body. In short, a thesis is an expression of the main idea of what you are writing about.
While a topic sentence summarizes a paragraph, the thesis statement represents an entire essay. It tells the reader the point you want to make in your essay, and the essay itself supports that point. A thesis statement usually appears in the end of an introduction where you explain the context of your essay toward a main argument or idea. We will practice how to develop a strong, clear thesis statement with the proper elements.
Determine What Kind of Thesis You Need
To write a strong thesis statement, you need to understand what kind of essay you are supposed to write. While each instructor offers specific requirements for a writing assignment, you will likely have one of these types of essays to write: an analytical essay, an expository (explanatory) essay, or an argumentative essay. If you are writing an essay that does not fall under these three categories (e.g., a narrative), a thesis statement somewhere in the first paragraph can still be helpful to your reader.
1. An analytical essay breaks down an issue or an idea into its component parts, evaluates the issue or idea, and presents this breakdown and evaluation to the audience.
Example
Example of an analytical thesis statement:
“An analysis of the data of social media reveals that social media corporations fail to uphold their social responsibility for effectively managing misinformation.”
The paper that follows should:
- Explain the data of social media about misinformation
- Explain the analysis of the data to show these corporations’ failure to manage misinformation
2. An expository (explanatory) essay explains something to the audience.
Example
Example of an expository (explanatory) thesis statement:
“Linda Tirado demonstrates that, although people in poverty tend to be harshly judged for their seemingly unreasonable decisions on limited budgets, they make those decisions to react to the reality of an unforeseen future.”
The paper that follows should:
- Explain how people in poverty make decisions on limited budgets
- Explain why these decisions reflect the poor’s reaction to the reality
3. An argumentative essay makes a claim about a topic and justifies this claim with specific evidence. The claim could be an opinion, a policy proposal, an evaluation, a cause-and-effect statement, or an interpretation (particularly of a literary text). The goal of the argumentative paper is to convince the audience that the claim is true based on the evidence provided.
Example
Example of an argumentative thesis statement about a controversial topic:
“Because animal abuse laws in most states are so lenient that offenders face almost no punishment, we need stronger and stricter laws to protect animals.”
The paper that follows should:
- Present an argument and give evidence to support the claim that we need stronger and stricter laws to protect animals
Example
Example of an argumentative thesis statement about a literary text:
“In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison creates Pecola Breedlove to show the consequence of a Black girl’s internalized hatred that happens when neither her community nor her family can provide her with the resources necessary to develop a lovable self.”
The paper that follows should:
- Explain how the character’s community and family fail to protect her from racist perceptions of her
- Analyze the negative consequences of her internalized hatred
Continue Reading: 7.2 What Is a Persuasive Thesis Statement?
