The Thesis Statement Is the Most Important Sentence in the Five-Paragraph Essay

Thesis Statements

The thesis statement is the most important sentence in the five-paragraph essay.

Thesis statements are of two basic kinds - the simple thesis statement and the three-part thesis statement .

·  The simple thesis statement is really just a topic sentence that is applied to an entire essay of more than one paragraph.

Example: The Waterloo Campaign was a disaster for Napoleon.

·  The three-part thesis statement includes a three-part list of the essay's main supporting points.

Example: The Waterloo Campaign was a disaster for Napoleon because it destroyed the the bulk of the French armed forces, exposed Napoleon's personal weaknesses, and dramatically eroded his support among the French people.

Good thesis statements (whether simple or three-part)

·  State or name the subject (or topic) of the essay (The Waterloo Campaign)

·  Assert something specific and important about the essay's subject (was a disaster for Napoleon)

·  State or imply the purpose of the essay (the effects of the Waterloo Campaign)

·  Often state the thesis' main supporting ideas in a listing of the supporting points (destroyed the the bulk of the French armed forces, exposed Napoleon's personal weaknesses, and dramatically eroded his support among the French people)

Here are two model thesis statements, with the subjects (topics) bolded and the assertions underlined:

·  Most successful college students have three characteristic abilities that separate them from those who merely play at being students: they have the ability to motivate themselves, they have the ability to organize themselves, and they have the ability to set goals for themselves.

·  But two candidates for the office of Moose City mayor, Candidate X, the Republican nominee, and Candidate Y, the Democratic nominee, differ dramatically in their approaches to taxation, government spending, and social issues .

Notice that subjects and assertions in thesis statements usually correspond to the sentences' complete subjects and complete predicates. Notice the modifier usually in the preceding sentence. Here is a revised thesis statement:

·  Three characteristic abilities that separate most successful college students from those who merely play at being students are the ability to motivate themselves, the ability to organize themselves, and the ability to set goals for themselves.

The complete subject in this revised sentence is now

Three characteristic abilities that separate most successful college students from those who merely play at being students

The complete predicate is now

are the ability to motivate themselves, the ability to organize themselves, and the ability to set goals for themselves.

Which version is better? For a more complete discussion of the effects of word order on readability please see my memos Actors and Actions 1, Actors and Actions 2, and Actors and Actions Review.

When you write three-part thesis statements, maintaining parallelism is very important. Writing good three-part thesis statements requires attention to two different types of parallelism:

·  Grammatical parallelism - maintaining balance by using the same part of speech (for instance, all adjectives) or the same part of the sentence (for example, all clauses)

o  Non-parallel: "She likes dancing, swimming, and to box."

o  Parallel: "She likes dancing, swimming, and boxing."

o  Non-parallel: "He admires people with strong convictions, forceful characters, and who think for themselves."

o  Parallel: "He admires people with strong convictions, forceful characters, and independent minds."

o  Parallel: "He admires people who have strong convictions, who have morals, and who think for themselves." (wordier but grammatical)

·  Conceptual parallelism - maintaining balance by keeping all three parts at the same level of generality

o  Non-parallel: "She likes dancing, swimming, and breathing."

o  Parallel: "She likes dancing, swimming, and boxing."

We've already discussed these types of parallelism in class, and we will discuss them some more.

Thesis statement placement - a reminder

In academic essays, thesis statements almost always come at the end of an introductory paragraph. Here's an example of last-sentence thesis statement placement :

Most people can't easily spot unsuccessful college students when they see them. Since such students go to class only occasionally, are rarely prepared for class discussions when they do appear, and seem to have no clear idea of what they want to accomplish before or after graduation, casual observers often overlook them. After all, they're not around enough to make an impression. On the other hand, successful college students stand out from the crowd. Most successful college students have three characteristic abilities that separate them from those who merely play at being students: they have the ability to motivate themselves, they have the ability to organize themselves, and they have the ability to set goals for themselves.