2 sentence thesis statement

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Learn more Got it! A thesis statement is one sentence that expresses the main idea of a research paper or essay, such as an expository essay or argumentative essay. It makes a claim, directly answering a question. As you can see in the thesis statement examples below, you must be very specific, summarizing points that are about to be made in your paper, and supported by specific evidence. Generally, your thesis statement can be the last line of the first paragraph in your research paper or essay.

Thesis Statement Examples

This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, and how you can craft or refine one for your draft. Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion—convincing others that you have an interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying.

Persuasion is a skill you practice regularly in your daily life. You persuade your roommate to clean up, your parents to let you borrow the car, your friend to vote for your favorite candidate or policy. In college, course assignments often ask you to make a persuasive case in writing. You are asked to convince your reader of your point of view. This form of persuasion, often called academic argument, follows a predictable pattern in writing. After a brief introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence.

If your assignment asks you to take a position or develop a claim about a subject, you may need to convey that position or claim in a thesis statement near the beginning of your draft. The assignment may not explicitly state that you need a thesis statement because your instructor may assume you will include one.

When in doubt, ask your instructor if the assignment requires a thesis statement. When an assignment asks you to analyze, to interpret, to compare and contrast, to demonstrate cause and effect, or to take a stand on an issue, it is likely that you are being asked to develop a thesis and to support it persuasively. Check out our handout on understanding assignments for more information.

A thesis is the result of a lengthy thinking process. Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do after reading an essay assignment. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts such as surprising contrasts or similarities , and think about the significance of these relationships.

Both the argument and your thesis are likely to need adjustment along the way. Writers use all kinds of techniques to stimulate their thinking and to help them clarify relationships or comprehend the broader significance of a topic and arrive at a thesis statement.

For more ideas on how to get started, see our handout on brainstorming. Even if you do not have time to get advice elsewhere, you can do some thesis evaluation of your own. When reviewing your first draft and its working thesis, ask yourself the following :. Suppose you are taking a course on 19th-century America, and the instructor hands out the following essay assignment: Compare and contrast the reasons why the North and South fought the Civil War.

You turn on the computer and type out the following:. This weak thesis restates the question without providing any additional information. How are they the same? How are they different? Now, push your comparison toward an interpretation—why did one side think slavery was right and the other side think it was wrong?

You look again at the evidence, and you decide that you are going to argue that the North believed slavery was immoral while the South believed it upheld the Southern way of life. You write:. Now you have a working thesis! Included in this working thesis is a reason for the war and some idea of how the two sides disagreed over this reason.

As you write the essay, you will probably begin to characterize these differences more precisely, and your working thesis may start to seem too vague.

Maybe you decide that both sides fought for moral reasons, and that they just focused on different moral issues. You end up revising the working thesis into a final thesis that really captures the argument in your paper:.

Compare this to the original weak thesis. This final thesis presents a way of interpreting evidence that illuminates the significance of the question.

Keep in mind that this is one of many possible interpretations of the Civil War—it is not the one and only right answer to the question. Why is this thesis weak? But the question did not ask you to summarize; it asked you to analyze.

First, the question asks you to pick an aspect of the novel that you think is important to its structure or meaning—for example, the role of storytelling, the contrasting scenes between the shore and the river, or the relationships between adults and children. What does it signify?

Eventually you will be able to clarify for yourself, and then for the reader, why this contrast matters. After examining the evidence and considering your own insights, you write:. This final thesis statement presents an interpretation of a literary work based on an analysis of its content.

Of course, for the essay itself to be successful, you must now present evidence from the novel that will convince the reader of your interpretation. We consulted these works while writing this handout. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial.

Anson, Chris M. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers. New York: Longman, Ruszkiewicz, John J. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers. Lunsford, Andrea A. The St. Ramage, John D. Bean, and June Johnson. New York: Pearson, You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Make a Gift. Thesis Statements.

A thesis statement is one sentence that expresses the main idea of a research paper or essay. It makes a claim, directly answering a question and must be very​. to test your ideas by distilling them into a sentence or two; to better organize In general, your thesis statement will accomplish these goals if you think of the 2. A strong thesis statement justifies discussion. Your thesis should indicate the.

Posted 02 May By Sally Baggett Under Writing. Without a thesis, your argument falls flat and your information is unfocused. That type of thesis is a long, well-written paper that takes years to piece together.

Your thesis statement belongs at the end of your first paragraph, also known as your introduction.

This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, and how you can craft or refine one for your draft. Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion—convincing others that you have an interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill you practice regularly in your daily life.

How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement

It's a one-sentence summary of everything in your essay. If you need a compound sentence for a thesis, you really need to write two or more essays so that you can give each independent idea the se If you need a compound sentence for a thesis, you really need to write two or more essays so that you can give each independent idea the separate development it deserves. Or you can ask whether one or more of your multiple sentences is really support for the most important one, and subordinate it accordingly. One tactic I like is to phrase my thesis as a question which the essay will answer in detail; questions tend to pose themselves one at a time, require developed answers, and avoid the repetition that would probably result from stating the thesis at the end of the essay's first paragraph and again at the beginning of its last one. My answer here is of course a gross oversimplification, but to get into the depth it deserves, I'd need at least a class or three!

Thesis Statements

It is one of the first things your teacher looks for and one of the main factors for your grade. This article is here to explain everything in plain English and share actionable tips with you on how to write strong thesis statements for your academic papers. Do not confuse thesis statements with introductions, as most students asking how to start an essay do! An essay thesis closes your introduction rather than substitutes it. Hook readers first , then introduce your topic, and only then state a thesis. It explains to the reader what your paper will be about. Second, it makes a paper logical and focused, simplifying the writing process for you: once you figure out the main idea for yourself and express it in a clear, brief, and intelligible thesis statement, all the following paragraphs of your paper will be based on it. And third, it summarizes your topic and declares your position on it.

A thesis statement defines the scope and purpose of the paper. It needs to meet three criteria: 1.

We refer to that condensation as a thesis statement. In general, your thesis statement will accomplish these goals if you think of the thesis as the answer to the question your paper explores. Here are some helpful hints to get you started. You can either scroll down or select a link to a specific topic.

Thesis statement

Date published January 11, by Shona McCombes. Date updated: January 10, A thesis statement sums up the main point of your paper. It is just one or two sentences long, and usually appears at the end of your introduction. Most kinds of academic essays and research papers require a thesis statement, which can also be thought of as the answer to your research question. Table of contents Why is the thesis statement important? Thesis statement examples How to write a thesis statement What makes a strong thesis statement? The thesis statement is one of the most important sentences in your paper. Its functions include:. You should keep your thesis statement in mind throughout the writing process: the main body should expand on this statement, support it with evidence, and argue for its validity.

A thesis statement usually appears at the conclusion of the introductory paragraph of a paper. It offers a concise summary of the main point or claim of the essay , research paper , etc. It contains the topic and the controlling idea. There are two types of thesis statements: direct and indirect. The indirect thesis statement does not state the explicit reasons, while the direct thesis statement does. If one writes, "I love New York for three reasons," the fact that he or she loves New York is the topic, and "three reasons" are an indirect thesis statement. The essay will contain the three reasons. If one writes, "I love New York because of the food, the jazz clubs and the Broadway Shows," it is a direct thesis statement that tells what each section or body paragraph is going to be about. The thesis statement is developed, supported, and explained in the course of the paper by means of examples and evidence. Thesis statements help organize and develop the body of the writing piece.