Building Effective Thesis Statements
Anatomy of a Thesis Statement
All thesis statements have three major components: a topic, a claim, and scope.
TOPIC: The subject you will discuss
CLAIM: Your point of view or opinion on the subject
SCOPE: How limited your discussion of the topic will be
Functions of Thesis Statements
Although all thesis statements aim to give your reader an overall idea of what you are writing about, there are various ways those statements can function depending on your purpose and what field you are writing in. Below are three general types of thesis statements that you will commonly use. Notice each has a topic (underlined) and a claim (highlighted).
Argumentative: convinces your reader about an issue by presenting compelling evidence to prove your point
Substantial recovery of the ozone layer will occur only by enforcing stringent laws on corporations, not American citizens.
Explanatory: shares information with a reader who may be unfamiliar with a topic or issue
Millennials are spending their income on travel and other temporary expenses instead of buying homes.
Analytical: To break down a subject or work to better understand its mechanics
In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce uses motifs of religious piety and national pride to explore the fraught relationship Stephen Dedalus has with his father.
Qualifiers and Scope
In addition to a topic and claim, your thesis statement should demonstrate how in-depth your discussion of the topic will be, which is called scope. Writers use qualifiers, words that define specific conditions, to identify scope. Let’s look at the same sentences from above to pinpoint their scope:
Substantial recovery of the ozone layer will occur only by enforcing stringent laws on corporations, not American citizens.
(Here, we’ve used a qualifier to show that there’s a direct link between ozone layer recovery and enforcing laws on corporations. We expect that this paper will discuss these two topics, plus their connection.)
Millennials are spending their income on travel and other temporary expenses instead of buying homes.
(We’ve identified how millennials are spending their income while also bringing our attention to something they aren’t purchasing. Your reader would expect you to discuss these spending habits.)
In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce uses motifs of religious piety and national pride to explore the fraught relationship Stephen Daedalus has with his father.
(Not only have we identified the book which we will discuss, we’ve also listed two types of motifs that will prove our claim.)
Order Matters
Your thesis statement provides your reader with a sense of what’s to come. Thus, how you order the important components of your thesis statement will determine your reader’s expectations of the essay structure. Below are some useful structures that can dictate how you will present your material.
If . . . / then . . . : shows cause and effect.
If the U.S. government enforces stringent laws on corporations, not citizens, then substantial recovery of the ozone layer will occur.
List: provides a blueprint of the major supporting points in the order the writer will discuss them.
Millennials do not invest in traditional markets like real estate due to inflation, job availability, and treacherous loan rates.
Comparison: connects two ideas together by showing how they are alike
In A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce uses motifs of religious piety and national pride to explore the fraught relationship Stephen Dedalus has with his father, showcasing the main character's struggle for identity.
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