Center for Writing Across the Curriculum, Dante 202
Thesis Development
Even if your assignment doesn’t ask a specific question, your thesis statement still needs to answer a question about the issue you’d like to explore. In this situation, you need to first figure out what question you’d like to write about.
Elements of a Thesis
A complete thesis contains three elements: an observation, an opinion, and a “so what?” The “so what?” gives your readers a reason to care about your topic and it adds depth to the analysis in your paper. Here are three sample theses:
- Sethe tries to murder her children to spare them from a life of slavery.
This is a perfectly valid statement. However, this can be understood by simply reading the story. What new information are you adding to the conversation?
- In an act of motherly love and devotion, Sethe tries to murder her children to spare them from a life of slavery.
This statement includes a little more depth. We now know that YOU are arguing that the attempted murder was “an act of motherly love and devotion,” not a vicious crime.
- In an act of motherly love and devotion, Sethe tries to murder her children to spare them from a life of slavery. That she would rather live without her children than subject them to a life of bondage demonstrates the devastation that enslavement has on the characters’ identities.
This last thesis statement gives us a reason to care about the subject. It reveals the connection between this one event and the larger themes and implications of the story.
Breakdown of the elements of each thesis
Observation / Opinion / So What?Sethe tries to murder her children to spare them from a life of slavery.
Sethe tries to murder her children to spare them from a life of slavery. / In an act of motherly love and devotion,
Sethe tries to murder her children to spare them from a life of slavery. / In an act of motherly love and devotion, / That she would rather live without her children than subject them to a life of bondage demonstrates the devastation that enslavement has on the characters’ identities.
Notice how each thesis is more specific than the last. Number 3 is actually two sentences! Don’t be afraid to split your thesis statement into multiple sentences. It is more important to be thorough than to cram all of your ideas into a single statement.
Sample Theses
“Through his chivalric deed of pulling the mouse away from the other cat, the character of Coco serves as an allegory to break social divides based on physical characteristics.”
“Miller demonstrates time and time again how evil and destructive cats can be. However, his adventures with Whiskers the cat demonstrate how prejudice can be overcome through personal experience.”
“In his book The Life and Times of Fluffy the Cat, Reynold uses grey imagery in each of Fluffy’s adventures to warn the reader of the cat’s imminent doom, thus showing how one cannot escape one’s fate.”
Two have one sentence; the middle one has two sentences. Two have an author’s name, one does not. One has the title of the text, two do not. However, ALL have observation, opinion, and “so what”, so all are strong theses. Even if your assignment doesn’t ask a specific question, your thesis statement still needs to answer a question about the issue you’d like to explore. In this situation, you need to first figure out what question you’d like to write about.