Thesis Sentence

A thesis sentence, also called a thesis statement, is a declaration of the paper's main argument. Thesis sentences should include an identification of the subject, the conclusion one intends to draw about that subject, and the points one plans to use to support that conclusion. Because the sentence must contain a large amount of information, it may often be longer than one's ordinary sentences, but even so one should take care to write it in a technically sound manner.

Whereas term papers only contain one thesis sentence that defines the whole course of the writing, master's theses may contain several. The student who is writing a master's thesis should include a general thesis sentence in the introduction to the work and a more specific thesis sentence in the opening paragraphs of each chapter. This approach will help the writer remember the trajectory of the entire project and hone the argument of each segment of the project.

Thesis sentences may present a challenge to students who do not have much experience writing them, because the act of writing them strongly is a skill that one develops during the course of one's education. However, a term paper or a thesis will benefit from any diligently attempted thesis sentence.

If one does not know how to write a thesis sentence, one may begin by simply creating a bulleted list of the aforementioned requisite information. One may then rearrange this list, which will clearly present the basic elements of the writing project, to form one sentence. Good thesis sentences use complex structures to show relationships, as in the following schema: "Because of [reason student believes conclusion is valid], the [subject of project] proves to be [brief summary of assertion], as [point 1], [point 2], and [point 3] demonstrate." The student will alter the verbs and the causal relationships to fit his or her argument, but this schema shows how one may combine all the necessary information into a single thesis sentence.

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