How to Write a Thesis Statement

Thesis statement complexity can be tailored to the level of the student, but the basic formula is always the same:

THESIS = topic + opinion

For young students, this can be as simple as "Cats are the best type of pet." If a middle schooler, for example, is asked to write a thesis about a work of literature, he might say something like "This story illustrates the themes of temptation and choices."

Many teachers like to use the thesis itself as an aid for organizing the entire paper, requiring students to tack on two or three reasons for their opinion. Those two or three reasons will be the basis for two or three body paragraphs:

THESIS = topic + opinion + reasons

Example: "Cats are the best pets because they don't eat much, keep themselves clean, and keep you company in the house."

Indeed, it is much harder to formulate a body-paragraph structure without this 2- or 3-tiered approach to thesis writing, making this formula especially useful in grades 7 through 9. Higher grades need to move into more sophisticated formats.

The next level of thesis development adds in a deeper, more interpretive level - one that answers the question "how?" or "why?" in response to the opinion.

THESIS = topic + opinion + how or why

This model is best applied to assignments that require higher levels of thinking, perhaps history or English classes. For instance:

"The Roman Empire fell to the widespread invasions of barbaric tribes [why?]because the Roman forces had become too thin and disunified across Europe."

"'The Raven' establishes a dark mood [how?] with its use of morbid imagery and haunting sound patterns."

Requiring this level of thesis development is the first step towards sophistication. The "how" or "why" aspect of the thesis can, if desired, be presented in a 2- or 3-tiered fashion, as with the previous model.

In the English class, a final level of interpretation can be added to the formula:

THESIS = topic + opinion + literary reasoning

This is essentially the same thing as a "how" or "why" element, but it is focused specifically on the task of literary analysis. For this element, students should use one or more literary terms to back up their opinion, showing how the author's literary skill created a work from which their opinion could grow. The above example about "The Raven" does just that. Here is another example:

"In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare portrays a theme of fate [...and the literary reasonong is...] through plot events as well as character speeches that allude to fate, destiny, and coincidence."

This final level of thesis development can be applied to any discipline that requires an opinion to be formed on the basis of reading. Students must be taught in a truly inter-disciplinary fashion which stresses the application of "literary reasoning" to ANY reading text, from classic literature to historical accounts to editorial letters.

Once the student has progressed to the highest level of thesis writing, he is then ready for an advanced approach to inductive or deductive argument structures.