I’m going to tell you a secret.
What is the fastest way to improve your writing skills?
Answer: a good thesis sentence.
Learning how to write a thesis statement is a useful skill. It will make your writing better and easier. I promise.
What is a Thesis?
It is one sentence. The main idea. A summary of your work. A thesis tells the reader your most important idea without detail.
A thesis is part of every good essay. Essays must have a thesis. You want to write a university research paper? You need a thesis. Usually, you put the thesis in the first paragraph of an essay.
Thesis Sentence Pattern
There are many kinds of thesis sentence patterns. I will teach you one. This pattern works well for academic essays, short stories and even speeches that you write for an oral presentation.
Here’s the sentence pattern: ________ (what/your idea) because _______ (how/why)
Pretty simple, huh? Yes, it is, but sometimes simple is hard to do.
Thesis Example
Here is an example. The subject is food and children. Here’s my thesis:
- Elementary school children should not eat fast food because it has little nutritional value, it doesn’t give students energy to learn and it’s expensive.
The first part of the sentence – elementary school children should not eat fast food – is my idea.
The second part of the sentence – it has little nutritional value, it doesn’t give students energy to learn and it’s expensive – tells the reader why or how.
The sentence does not have many details. It only tells the reader my main idea. That’s the purpose of a thesis.
You Try
Download the worksheet here and try writing some thesis sentences using the pattern I showed you in this lesson.
Send me a few examples so everyone can read them.