Thesis Statements

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Thesis statements are important to writers because, in order to be successful, an effective essay must have a strong thesis that is restricted, unified, and precise.

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Thesis

A thesis is a clear, concise statement of the writer's assertion about the subject.

What does a thesis do?

• It tells the reader what this piece of writing is about. In this essay I am writing about thesis statements.
• It indicates the writer's attitude about the subject. A thesis without attitude is boring. If I were to write a thesis for this essay on thesis statements, and leave out the attitude, I might write something like this: "This essay is going to be about thesis statements." Instead, my thesis has attitude. I'm telling you thesis statements are important if you want to be a successful writer.
• It makes a contract with readers: by the end of this essay readers will understand why the writer thinks the way he or she does about this subject. In this essay I'm telling you that in order to be successful, an effective essay must have a strong thesis. I'm going to tell you, my readers, why this is so. I'm going to explain what a strong thesis is and show you how to make your thesis statements stronger.

Effective Essay

An essay is evaluated by how well the writer accomplishes his or her purpose with the target audience. If we think of an essay as the trial of an idea or claim, then the essay is judged by how well the writer makes a case for his or her idea. The one sentence statement of that idea is the central assertion or claim the writer is defending in the essay. The writer is saying, "This is so.

Strong Thesis

A strong thesis is restricted, unified and precise.

• This implies that a thesis must not be a fragment because an incomplete sentence does not make a strong assertion about the subject. Consider this example, "How to write a thesis." This phrase does not make an assertion about thesis statements; it simply names a topic.
• A thesis must not be a question. Usually, when the writer explores a central question in an essay, the thesis is the one-sentence answer to the question. The central question of this essay is, "Why should writers know about thesis statements and use them in essays?"
• A strong thesis is not a tentative statement. It will not contain phrases such as "I think..." or "I believe...." These phrases weaken the overall strength of the claim the writer is making. Besides, since the essay is the writer's defense of his or her idea about a subject, it is obvious that the writing is what the writer is thinking.

Restricted

A strong thesis must limit the scope of the topic to what can be discussed in the space available.

An example of an unrestricted thesis is this: "Writing should be focused."

Unified

A strong thesis must express only one central idea.

Here is an example of a thesis lacking unity: "An essay should have a thesis and no spelling or grammar errors."

Precise

A strong thesis should be open to only one interpretation.

Here is an example of an imprecise thesis: "A thesis statement is the driver of the essay.