What is a "Thesis Statement"?

Answer 1

A thesis statement is about two or three sentences that summarize what you are trying to prove in your essay.

Answer 2

Tips for Writing Your Thesis Statement

1.Determine what kind of paper you are writing:

An analytical paper 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.

An expository (explanatory) paper explains something to the audience.

An argumentative paper 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. The goal of the argumentative paper is to convince the audience that the claim is true based on the evidence provided.

If you are writing a text which does not fall under these three categories (ex. a narrative), a thesis statement somewhere in the first paragraph could still be helpful to your reader.

2. Your thesis statement should be specific—it should cover only what you will discuss in your paper and should be supported with specific evidence.

3. The thesis statement usually appears at the end of the first paragraph of a paper.

4. Your topic may change as you write, so you may need to revise your thesis statement to reflect exactly what you have discussed in the paper.

Answer 3

A thesis statement is an assertion, not a statement of fact or an observation.


Fact or observation: People use many lawn chemicals.

Thesis: People are poisoning the environment with chemicals merely to keep their lawns clean.

Answer 4

A thesis statement in an essay is a sentence that explicitly identifies the purpose of the paper or previews its main ideas.

Answer 5

A thesis statement is simply a written paragraph, indicating what you hope to accomplish (to do) in writing the paper. You have to be very precise choosing appropriate (key) words.