How to construct a thesis
statement
Your thesis
statement should be the one sentence
in the first paragraph of your paper that identifies for the reader the
argument that your paper will make. The thesis should be clear and simple. The
entire body of your paper should contribute to supporting the thesis.
Suggested
thesis:
What were the factors that contributed to the Conquest (physical)
of
Observation:
A solid thesis statement would
replace your current subject, which is the impersonal pronoun 'what,' with a phrase that gave an over-arching indication of
WHAT you believe is the answer to the question. For example, you might say
something like:
Suggested re-write:
Thesis
The European heritage of the
conquerors was the most important factor contributing to their physical
conquest of
Following sentence
Their heritage gave Europeans wavy
hair, the Spanish language and ice cream.
Clearly, the content of the re-written
thesis is totally ridiculous; I have constructed it for purposes of
illustration. I do not expect anyone to accept it. But, above, the thesis
statement is the first of the 2 sentences. Then, in the second sentence, I lay
out the 3 prongs of the argument that I will use in the paper in order to
support the thesis. So, this paper would have, in addition to an introduction
(which would consider ‘European heritage’ and ‘conquest’), 3 sections in its
body – one dedicated to HOW each of the more detailed characteristics in the 2nd
sentence (wavy hair, Spanish language, and ice cream) each contributed to
conquest.