Thesis Statements
The first time a teacher challenged me to write an essay well was in 11th grade. Wait, I might have said that wrong. The first time I felt challenged in writing my essays was in 11th grade. My teacher wanted us to use evidence from the reading to support our opinions or thoughts. The directions given to us though didn’t sound like that. My teacher told us to “put two quotes in the essay.”
Seriously, those were the instructions. I remember it clearly because my friend Austin was in the same class and he somehow managed to figure out a way to keep the teacher happy all while not understanding what he was asking for. Meanwhile, my essays were constantly marked down. I would ask Austin every week, I would look over his essay myself to see what I was missing and even with his example and “putting quotes” in the essay, I didn’t understand what I was supposed to be doing.
It was American Literature and we had to write essays weekly. Yes, weekly. It is a funny thing to remember because if a teacher tried to assign essays weekly, they would be criticized and probably ostracized and all the terrible grades would be that teacher’s fault and their “unrealistic expectations.”
It took me half the year to figure out that what my teacher was looking for was direct evidence to support my opinions. Despite asking my friends, my classmates, my own teacher, it still took me almost a whole semester to fully understand what my teacher was looking for. Citing evidence would have made more sense to me, but “put two quotes” wasn’t helpful. Where did they go in the essay? What part of the reading should I be pulling from? Wait, we’re reading a play, should I pull the dialogue lines or the scene explanation lines? Toward the end of second quarter I think I finally figured it out. Just in time for my teacher to change in the second semester. I still remember him though and how hard he pushed me. He asked for something specific and when I didn’t deliver on it in my essay week after week, I was graded accordingly. My teacher didn’t make excuses for me nor did he allow me to make excuses. He made me learn and grow and try.
Reminiscence of my own educational experience aside, I think there are a lot of students today who are feeling the same way I was back in 11th grade, especially when it comes to writing. Since learning how citing evidence works, my writing has only improved. Even though citing evidence is a very technical aspect and requires a lot of logical thinking, it has improved my fiction writing too. You can’t pull off a plot twist without leaving little evidence crumbs throughout the story.
That illustration leads me to my topic for today’s writing lesson—Thesis Statements.
Thesis statements are simple— they are the point of your essay. This is the sentence that tells your reader what your whole point of your writing is. Your thesis statement needs to be strong. Starting off with a strong thesis will make the rest of the essay better. A strong thesis leads to strong points and strong points leads to an overall strong essay.
“You can’t pull off a plot twist without leaving little evidence crumbs throughout the story. ”
Creating a strong thesis will usually have you working backwards. When you’re writing an essay, you will be given a topic and then you’ll need to come up with support for your opinion or stance on your topic. This is why you need to work backwards, allow your thesis statement to come from what you learn in your research. You can have your opinion or stance but keep an open mind to what your thesis will be because that will probably change after the research portion. Once you know what research can help support, your thesis comes together a lot easier.
Plus, sometimes, the research can change your position. I’ve had that happen to me in college. I’ve gone into essays with what I thought was a clear thesis and direction. After pulling sources and reading articles and trying to piece everything together, I realized I was going to have to go at it from a different angle. The biggest example that comes to mind is a presentation I did in one of my science classes about electric cars.
“A strong thesis leads to strong points and strong points leads to an overall strong essay. ”
Once you have your research, your sources, and your points, let your thesis come from that. What is the best way to sum up everything you have learned? What is the best one sentence summary of what you will be writing about? That’s your thesis. When you’re in middle school and maybe even high school, there is a formula for thesis statements. I call this the practice formula, you want to master this so that by the time you are in college (or even high school AP courses) you aren’t using it anymore.
Thesis statement would go like: -Stance/Opinion- because -point 1/paragraph 1 topic-, -point 2/paragraph 2 topic-, and -point 3/paragraph 3 topic-.
For example:
Electric cars are harder to manage in America because of lack of embracement, lack of charging stations, and different cultures. (This is the long version of my science presentation.)
The thesis I would have gone with if I had written that presentation as an essay would be something like:
America isn’t a country fit for sole electric car usage.
Personally, I am not a fan of the formula for thesis statements. I love a good run-on sentence, but thesis statements like that make me question whether or not I even want to read the rest of the essay. It feels like giving away the ending. Thesis statements should be strong and be exactly what your essay will be about, I also think thesis statements should be enticing. It should be making a reader go— yeah, I want to learn more about that.
I mean, read the two thesis statements, which one would you want to keep reading the essay for?
However, thesis statements take practice, using the formula and extending your thesis statement is okay while you work on your writing skills. In fact, hone in on your thesis writing skills, you’ll come to find that everything starts with a thesis statement. This is a skill that should be perfected in your writing.
“It should be making a reader go— yeah, I want to learn more about that. ”
In writing books, there are a variety of formats that you will have to write in order to explain what your book is about. There is the elevator pitch if you ever get an opportunity to pitch to agents or editors in a public setting. Having an elevator pitch length blurb is also great when you are talking about your book with others as well. People who are not writers do not want to hear all the ins and outs of your story. Trust me here, I know from experience. They want something small and bite-sized to see if they would even be interested in the book.
What else could that bite-sized version or an elevator pitch sized blurb be? Oh, a thesis statement.
If you wanted to get into writing screenplays (scripts) you will have to learn the art of the logline. Loglines are a brief summary of plot, emotional hook, and central conflict. Seriously, it’s short. Less than thirty words according to the internet. I think my word limit was 20 words when I took a screenwriting class in college.
For example:
A rat who can cook makes an unusual alliance with a young kitchen worker at a famous Paris restaurant.
Can you guess the movie the logline comes from? It’s Ratatouille.
Oh hey, loglines kind of look like thesis statements.
“Everything starts with a thesis statement.”
Depending on the type of writing, the genre, and a multitude of other factors, thesis statements can vary even in essay writing. At the end of the day, a thesis statement is what the writing is giong to be about. This should (typically) be the last sentence in your introductory paragraph, by the way. You can avoid the formula of a thesis statement by having a strong introduction paragraph that hints at the support you are going to be using. However, mastering the art of the thesis statement will help you in all your writing endeavors. If you’re not someone who wants to write, understanding how to create a thesis statement will help you identify thesis statements in anything you read.
It is a nifty skill to have. In a world filled with so much noise, sometimes it is nice to be able to know what something is about before spending more time on it.
Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash