How to Write a Thesis
In your earlier experiences with writing courses, you may have heard that your thesis summarizes the main idea within your essay. You may have also heard that it is the most important sentence in the entire paper. It adds focus, and gives the writer something to prove. These things are all still true when writing about literature.
It should come as no surprise, then, that you should place a thesis sentence within the introductory paragraph of a paper about literature. Instead of arguing on behalf of a political cause or wading into a hot-button social controversy, however, your thesis in a literature paper will take a scholarly stance about the literary work you are analyzing.
Let’s take a closer look at how to craft an effective thesis statement:
1. State your opinion clearly.
In popular and social media, it is common to say something mysterious — a technique often referred to as “click baiting” — in order to tempt the reader to read more. (“After a customer lost her temper with this Starbucks worker, you won’t believe what happened next!”) While this may be an effective method to draw online readers into news or human interest stories, it is poorly suited to academic writing.
The introduction to a college-level paper shouldn’t hide claims from the reader, or attempt to “tease” them into reading more to find out your main point. Instead of creating vague, low-information “teasers,” aim for a preview. Summarize your ideas up front, so that other members of the academic community know what specific stance you are arguing on behalf of. (If your stance is compelling, academic readers will naturally move on to the body paragraphs of your paper to see whether you’ve managed to prove it!)
2. Stick to one main idea.
Literary texts are often rich, and get the wheels in your head turning. Often, you may feel yourself drawn to multiple topics and arguments within a given work.
For example, the first time students read Shakespeare’s Othello, they are often struck by the toxic racial dynamics within the play. (Indeed, this is one of the things Othello is famous for!) However, the play potentially prompts a variety of questions about other things: domestic violence, Islamophobia and religious conflict, and the stability of human identity, just to name a few. Because of the layered complexity of the play, it is temping to try to prove multiple things about it in an essay.
3. Focus on a point that is arguable (open to debate or interpretation).
Imagine you are reading an essay about the film Shrek. An essay which aimed to prove the thesis statement “Shrek is an ogre who lives in a swamp” would be completely uninteresting. No one disputes this fact. On the other hand, an essay which attempted to prove that “Shrek illustrates how society’s ‘monsters’ are often misunderstood” or that “the creators of Shrek use the film to compare four philosophical concepts of love with one another”? Those essays might have a bit more to say to most readers.
If your thesis is simply recapping the plot of what you’ve read, challenge yourself to keep drafting.
4. Avoid unnecessary “I” and “my” statements.
To be clear, the first person isn’t always inappropriate in academic writing. Academic journals are rife with example after example of scholars who written about a complex range of topics while referring to themselves explicitly. However, there is a risk that comes with first-person writing: it foregrounds the writer over the knowledge or argument that the writer is attempting to impart. Sometimes, a person’s authority, professional expertise, and/or personal experiences give them unique insights into an issue. (An example of this kind of writing can be seen here.) However, unless there is a specific reason to write in first person, in many academic writing situations, third-person voice is a more reliable way of getting your ideas across. This is particularly true when writing about scientific or policy issues. It is also frequently true of academic writing about literature.
If you’re still unsure about whether the “I” voice belongs in your thesis, try writing it without the first-person phrase and comparing the two:
“I think Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’ demonstrates the anxieties many Britons felt about the permanence of empire.”
“Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’ demonstrates the anxieties many Britons felt about the permanence of empire.”
In the case above, the phrase “I think” doesn’t add anything to the thesis. If anything, it creates a sense of subjectivity and speculation. The second version of the thesis statement contains the same argument, but appears stronger and more concise. Therefore, “I think” is unnecessary in this case.
It is also important to note that audience expectations play an important role here, and some instructors have strong feelings about the matter. If your instructor forbids first-person voice in undergraduate essays, you should avoid it.
5. Remember: a thesis is a statement, not a question.
When you first begin planning your paper, you may begin with a research question (which is covered in the previous chapter). Research questions can drive your work in the beginning, but ultimately the goal is to draft a thesis that answers the question. If your thesis merely repeats the question without answering it, that is a clue to keep revising until you have drafted a satisfying answer.