Creating a Thesis Statement: Myths and Rules

Writing to the point is hardly possible without developing a good thesis statement. To achieve that, ensure you have covered a lot of aspects. We will surely tell you about such here. Still, avoiding misleading pieces of advice is even far more important than following useful recommendations only. Still, the last ones also matter a lot. Let’s start from the beginning.

What is a Thesis Statement?

A thesis statement is a principal idea of your text. It is usually formulated in one sentence or two. This statement is based on your topic, expands, and develops it. Such a statement usually reflects your main point of view. It also serves as a ground for creating other ideas that will be listed subsequently in your text.

It is very important to formulate such a statement wisely. Here we have a couple of suggestions to consider for you.

What Should You Emphasize While Creating a Thesis Statement?

First of all, your thesis statement should be to the point. It has to reflect the main idea you want to deliver. A comprehensive understanding of a topic should be formed before formulating its statement itself.

The format of a statement may vary depending on the type of an essay for which you craft it. For a persuasive essay, a more convincing manner should be used, for an argumentative essay – more confident or even strict, for an informative essay – an informative manner, respectively.
This statement should also be content-focused. To some extent, this is a summary of your text in one sentence or two. Make sure your thesis statement and subsequent content are coherent.

Formulate this statement briefly. It should be very concise and explicit. Future readers should not make too much effort to understand the essence this statement has.

At the same time, many myths can mislead you while creating this statement. Here they are.

Myth #1 – Each Essay Requires a Thesis Statement

This may sound more than unusual, but it so. We will tell you about cases when you can avoid developing a thesis statement.

For instance, it can be omitted in short essays because of their sizes. All content of such essays should be to the point and condensed. Your future reader will review it easily in a couple of minutes. Thus, it is better not to overload a text.

Another example is a narrative essay. In this text, you simply tell a story on some topics. So, there is no practical need to develop a thesis statement here. Instead, think about a hook that can make your reviewer interested in reading this essay. Your hook should be gently connected with the next part of a text. As you may guess, adding an extra statement may distract your reader. The moral and the general line of a text will prove you have developed content appropriately.

Myth #2 – Formulate Your Thesis Statement in One Sentence Only

This is not obligatory and sometimes even impossible. For instance, you may formulate a statement for a complex topic or a comparative-and-contract essay. This is always appropriate for long and detailed research papers. Everything depends here on your case. Still, we don’t want to advise you to expand a thesis statement all the time. Keep it short where it is possible and write in one sentence.

If you want to write a statement in two sentences, you may wonder how long they should be. Well, if you have decided to choose this approach, keep it maximally brief and also make these two sentences interrelated. Make sure it is free from any awkwardness or contradictions.
To ensure your thesis requires exactly two sentences, remove one part of it. If your statement looks incomplete, then surely formulate in two sentences.

Myth #3 – Include Your Thesis Statement in the End of the First Paragraph

That is a classical approach. Usually, we speak about an introduction. Still, this approach may vary depending on the case. For instance, if you need to write a long paper, the introduction can be more than one paragraph. Naturally, you will have to place the main statement at the end of the second or third paragraph.

If you are still considering how to include a thesis statement in your narrative essay, you may place it in the final. In this case, it will serve as a summary and conclusion of your text. The same thing is to short essays. If you decide to include this statement, the best palace is the final. For research papers, you may also risk and finalize your paper with this statement.

Myth #4 – Your Thesis Statement Has to Grab the Reader’s Attention

This is not necessary at all. You have a hook for that. Your main statement is like a concentrate of all content you will provide further. This statement should be brief, informative, and to the point. It is not necessary to make it flashy at all.

We also suggest you avoid mixing the main statement with auxiliary information, like statistics data or similar. You should think wisely about the content of a statement and make sure it is free from any irrelevant info.
Still, if you want to include interesting things, do this besides the principal statement. It should be well-meaningful and well-developed only. Making it flashy can even distract your readers and make their comprehension more difficult. So, we suggest you be balanced at this point.

At the same time, if you formulate this statement clear, it can attract the reader’s attention itself. You don’t need to make any excessive effort in this case. If you think about highlighting this statement, we suggest you not doing that. Again, your best strategy is making this statement strong. This will distinguish it among other sentences.

Myth #5 – Your Thesis Statement Should Have Three Supporting Reasons

It is generally acceptable to create an essay of its introduction, three paragraphs, and its conclusion. So, the number of parts of the main statement should be likely equal to the number of paragraphs. That is not so, especially in cases when you have a paper that should be longer than three paragraphs.

We can tell you even more. It is not required to refer somehow to your thesis statement to the next arguments. If you need this statement in your text, make it in a condensed manner only.

Final Words

A thesis statement is a sentence or two that summarizes the overall content of your essay or paper. It should be informative and brief. If you can remove certain words without losing some valuable essence, you should remove such words for sure.

Still, when drafting this statement, you don’t follow common myths about it. For instance, it can be sometimes more than one sentence long, especially for a long paper. This statement also can be placed not only as the last sentence of your introduction but even further in your text. It is also better to avoid sometimes formulating it too flashy or making a hook of it.

Formulate this statement based on the common logic. Imagine you have to inform about your point of view in one or a couple of sentences. How should they look like?
Hope these pieces of advice and warnings will make your writing a little bit easier and more effective.