Writing assistance
"No sooner do we come into this world than bits of us start to drop off." -- Gustave Flaubert
Thesis
Thesis
The thesis of an essay is its main idea, the point it is trying to make. The thesis is often expressed in a one- or two-sentence statement, although sometimes it is implied or suggested rather than stated directly.
The thesis statement determines the content of the essay: everything that the writer says must be logically related to the thesis statement.
Because everything you say in your composition must be logically related to your thesis statement, the thesis statement controls and directs the choices you make about the content of your essay. That does not mean your thesis statement is a straitjacket. As your essay develops, you may want to modify your thesis statement. This urge is not only acceptable, it is normal. You can develop a working thesis by determining a question that you are trying to answer in your paper. A one- or two-sentence answer to this question often produces a tentative thesis statement. For example, one of your students wanted to answer the following question in her essay:
Do men and women have different conversational speaking styles?
Her preliminary answer to this question was:
Men and women appear to have different objectives when they converse.
After writing two drafts, she modified her thesis to better fit the examples she had gathered:
Very often, conversations between men and women become situations in which the man gives a mini-lecture and the woman unwittingly turns into a captive audience.
Usually the thesis is presented early in an essay, sometimes in the first sentence. Here are some thesis statements that begin essays:
- One of the most potent elements in body language is eye behavior. (Flora Davis)
- Americans can be divided into three groups--smokers, non-smokers, and the expanding pack of us who have quit. (Franklin E. Zimring)
- Over the past ten to fifteen years it has become apparent that eating disorders have reached epidemic proportions among adolescents. (Helen A. Guthrie)
- Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular construction, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon. (William Zinsser)
Each of these sentences does what a good thesis statement should do--it identifies the topic and makes an assertion about it. Often writers prepare readers for a thesis statement with one or several sentences that establish a context. Notice, in the following example, how the author eases the reader into his thesis about television instead of presenting it abruptly in the first sentence:
- With the advent of television, for the first time in history, all aspects of animal and human life and death, of societal and individual behavior have been condensed on the average to a 19-inch diagonal screen and a 30-minute time slot. Television, a unique medium, claiming to be neither a reality nor art, has become reality for many of us, particularly for our children who are growing up in front of it. (Jerzy Kosinski)
On occasion a writer may even purposely delay the presentation of a thesis until the middle or end of an essay. If the thesis is controversial or needs extended discussion and illustration, the writer might present it later to make it easier for the reader to understand and accept it. Appearing near or at the end of an essay, a thesis also gains prominence. Some kinds of writing do not need thesis statements. These include descriptions, narratives, and personal writing such as letters and diaries. But any essay that seeks to explain or prove a point has a thesis that is usually set forth in a thesis statement.
(Taken from Models for Writers: Short Essays for Composition, 6th ed., Alfred Rosa and Paul Eschholz)