Students can learn how to write a thesis statement before they
understand the meaning of the term. In fact, if you want students
to understand the concept, you must have them use it in their
writing.
The definition of thesis is a summary of the main idea
of an entire essay, article, or book.
Writing a thesis statement is not hard, as you'll see in a few
moments. However, knowing how to write a thesis within the
process of writing an essay can be difficult even for bright
students.
In fact, I sometimes feel the bright kids struggle more than
the average kids who just go through the motions. To a large extent,
going through the motions enough times is what learning writing
is about.
A thesis is a whole idea
One of my students once posted a message to a class forum pleading,
“Can somebody please give me an idea? There’s no way
I can write an essay without an idea.”
The poor girl didn’t know how right she was.
Most students don’t have whole ideas. If you ask them to
jot down things they could write about, they’ll give you
fragments of sentences, usually nouns and noun phrases.
No one can write a unified, coherent essay about
an idea fragment.
Thesis = topic + assertion
To create something that can serve as the main idea of a paper,
writers have to expand the topic from a fragment to a complete
idea.
They do that by adding an assertion about the topic, and
combining the two into a single declarative sentence that I call
a working thesis. The topic becomes the subject
of the statement, the assertion becomes the predicate.
The assertion is usually the writer's opinion or perspective
on the topic. The assertion doesn’t need to be earth-shaking
or original. Great writing can be developed even from platitudes.
Writers’ initial statements are usually rather ungainly,
but that awkwardness doesn't matter. The purpose of the working
thesis is to help writers gather and sort ideas. For that
reason, you need to teach students to begin
the writing process by developing a thesis statement.
Knowing how to write a thesis is
no use unless students use that knowledge to help them write efficiently.
Later, if the thesis statements pan out, writers polish them.
Polishing transforms initial statements into formal thesis statements
that look and sound good and fit smoothly into the finished essays.
Use what is given you
Nearly every real-world writing assignment, both in school and
on the job, gives writers a topic to write about. In a
great many cases, assignments
even limit writers to a few potential assertions. Initially
writers might not know which assertion is best, but they rarely
are in doubt about what their options are.
Many good classroom writing assignments allow students to write
a thesis without having to come up with either a topic or an assertion.
Students don't even have to know which part is the topic and which
part the assertion.
Sometimes students can simply copy the thesis statement given
in the writing prompt. They need to know nothing — zero,
nada, zip — about how to write a thesis. I call these no-brainer
theses. They often are the work of very brainy teachers.
Other assignments give students a topic plus a choice of assertions
about that topic. Typically, such prompts give students a choice
of two assertions about a topic.
By far, the most common
type of writing prompt is one that gives students a topic while
restricting the range of potential assertions they can use.
Having to come up with an assertion presents a greater challenge
than using one that's given, especially for beginning writers.
It takes more time, more creativity, and more self-confidence.
You can help beginning writers develop confidence by using prompts
that allow them to learn how to write thesis statement without
having to come up with their own assertions.
Published 11-Feb-2008; updated:
15-Jun-2010
