How to write a thesis statement:
With authentic prompts, guessing works

Students can’t always write a thesis statement the no-brainer way by copying one given in the writing prompt.

When a prompt doesn't present a thesis statement and writers don't already have an opinion on the writing topic, their best choice is to take a guess.

Risky? Not really.

Guessing requires a bit of creativity and a little time, but it doesn't involve much risk to students if their teacher — that's you — writes good prompts.

In real life (which means life outside English class), people get writing assignments because of their knowledge, experience, or insight.

In a school setting, for example, if the administrator needs to cut cafeteria costs, she doesn't ask the science department for suggestions; she asks the cafeteria manager. The cafeteria manager is in a position to know — or find out.

The same principle should apply in your classes.

Your writing assignments should be on course topics students know about or on course-related topics they are able to find out about. Then students can't mess up too badly even on their first attempt to write a thesis.

English class writing prompt example

Let’s look at a situation where students have to invent an assertion in response to a English language arts class writing prompt. The teacher poses this essay question for her class:

In a five-paragraph essay of no more than 600 words, identify and discuss three important rules and/or concepts in grammar. For each one, give at least two examples of situations in which you personally use the rule or concept. Your examples can be from written or oral communication situations.

As you can see, this isn't a question to test students' knowledge. It's to expand their knowledge by making them aware of how they use language arts in their daily lives.

Find the topic in the prompt

Topics are usually given as nouns or noun phrases. So when students are told to “identify and discuss three important rules and/or concepts in grammar,” they look for a noun or noun phrase. That phrase is “three important rules or concepts in grammar.”

The directions say students must “identify and discuss” three rules or concepts they use. Putting those two ideas together, gives students this framework for their thesis:

Three important grammar rules/concepts I use are ______, ________, and ________.

In other words, students write a thesis by making the topic into the subject of a sentence and adding a predicate.

All students have to do is “fill in the blank” after the topic with something that makes a sensible assertion. You can't write a thesis much more easily than that, can you?

Although there’s no right or wrong answer to the grammar question, the number of sensible answers is fairly small. For example, this thesis sentence is pure baloney:

Three important grammar rules I use are the correct use of whom, the correct use of the semicolon, and the correct use of the subjunctive mood.

This thesis statement example is plausible:

Three important grammar concepts I use are the sentence, tense, and modifiers.

In every situation I've come across, the number of plausible assertions on a given topic is limited even when the number of potential assertions is huge.

Is this too easy?

You may think that giving students a writing prompt containing not only a topic but also a restricted pool of potential assertions is way too easy.

Don't lose any sleep over it.

Enabling students to write a thesis easily makes it possible for them to do more writing assignments — which is where students build writing skill.