Thesis Statements

   The thesis statement is that sentence or two in your text that contains the focus of your essay and tells your reader what the essay is going to be about. 

   Many writers think of a thesis statement as an umbrella: everything that you

carry along in your essay has to fit under this umbrella, and if you try to take on

packages that don't fit, you will either have to get a bigger umbrella or

something's going to get wet!

   The thesis statement usually appears near the beginning of a paper. 

It can be the first sentence of an essay, but that often feels like a simplistic, unexciting beginning. It more frequently appears at or near the end of the first paragraph. The first paragraph serves as kind of a funnel opening to the essay which draws and invites readers into the discussion, which is then focused by the thesis statement before the work of the essay actually begins.

   Avoid announcing the thesis statement as if it were a thesis statement.  In other words, avoid using phrases such as "The purpose of this paper is . . . . " or "In this paper, I will attempt to . .  ."

(From The Guide to Grammar and Writing)

Tips from Purdue Owl:

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

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

   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.

   In writing a thesis statement, once you have a question to focus on, write your possible ideas and answer them.  

     For example:

     Question: How does Conrad develop the idea that all classes of society are corrupt?
     Answer: He uses images of beasts and cannibalism whether he's describing socialites, policemen or secret agents.

   To write your thesis statement, all you have to do is turn the question and answer around. You've already given the answer, now just put it in a sentence (or a couple of sentences) so that the thesis of your paper is clear. 

     For example:

     In his novel, The Secret Agent, Conrad uses beast and cannibal imagery to describe the characters and their relationships to each other. This pattern of images suggests that Conrad saw corruption in every level of early twentieth century London society.