Thesis statement with call to action

by Kim, a high school sophomore
(Baton Rouge, LA, United States)

I need essay help with writing a proper thesis statement. If you combine your thesis statement with your call-to-action is that considered a compound thesis statement? Would it be weaker than if I separated the two? I was thinking of putting the two together because to me it makes the whole idea definite about exactly what I plan to convince my reader about.

Do all these rules about thesis statements hold the same about topic sentences as well?

Linda responds: Wow, Kim, I'm impressed that a high school sophomore even knows about those writing issues. Many of my college students would have difficulty with the concepts you are discussing.

Your use of the phrase a call to action tells me you are planning to write a persuasive essay. Your gut feeling that the call-to-action and the thesis statement somehow belong together in a persuasive essay is pretty much on target. Let's see if I can clarify the concept of the thesis statement within the context of a persuasive essay.

The thesis statement of an essay establishes its purpose, content, and tone. When you are writing a persuasive essay, your purpose is to convince some people to do, to think, or to believe something, right? Since the working thesis is for you alone (your readers don't see the working version) and you already know what action you want your readers to take on your issue, all you really need to do in your working thesis is indicate who your target audience is. Perhaps some examples might help.

This morning at 6 when I started work, kids in this area were getting ready to go stand in the dark in temperatures below 20 degrees to wait for the school bus. The reason they are shivering in the dark is that Congress mandated daylight savings time start on March 13 this year to save energy.

If I thought that is a dumb law (which I do), I might write an essay about daylight savings time. I could prepare a working thesis like one of these:

1. Daylight savings time creates hardships for students.


2. Daylight savings time does not save energy.


3. Daylight savings time should not begin earlier than May 1.

Of those working thesis statements, numbers 1 and 2 suggest a straightforward thesis-and-support essay. People might be convinced that your thesis is true, but unless a reader happens to chair the Joint Committee on Stupid Legislation, there's no reason to think a persuaded reader will do anything.

Number 3, however, is somewhat different. It suggests that somebody ought to take action, but it doesn't say who that somebody is. We could modify that third statement to specify who needs to change the daylight savings time date. That would give a working thesis statement like this: Congress should not set daylight savings time to begin earlier than May 1. You might not see that as a call to action because it does not specify what precisely what you want Representative Bill Mangler to do. It does, however, indicate who needs to take action to achieve the outcome you want.

When I plan the essay, I use a writing skeleton™ that links the thesis to a reason statement. Since the thesis statement implies the call to action, a topic sentence automatically implys it as well.

Again, remember that we're just talking here about planning the essay. When you compose the essay, you don't need to put the thesis statement or the topic sentences into the essay word-for-word as you wrote them in your plan. The plan is just to help you keep on track.

Thanks for sharing your questions, Kim. It is exciting to see a student as young as you developing good writing intuitions. My hat is off to your teachers.