Thesis Statement The Most Important Sentence in Your Essay

What is a Thesis Statement It is the main idea for the whole essay Frequently, it shows the number and content of the body paragraphs of the essay It contains two parts: topic and controlling idea

What does a Thesis Statement do? It tells the reader what the topic is It has a controlling idea which shows the reader what you are going to say about the topic

Examples There are three main relationships that dogs have with people. Controlling idea – three main There are many types of dogs. The sense of smell is much stronger in dogs than it is in humans

Thesis Statement with Predictor The predictor tells the reader: how many body paragraphs there will be in the essay what their content will be International students study at Algonquin College for three main reasons: to improve their English, to get a good education, and to find an excellent job. Wars in the twentieth century were fought for three main reasons: ethnic, economic, and religious.

More examples Living in a city is more exciting than living in the suburbs because of the many people, the variety of things to buy, and the fun places to go. Discrimination, lack of economic opportunity, and inferior education are the three main causes of poverty today.

Rules for Thesis Statements 1.A thesis statement must be a statement not a question. Are dogs good companions? X Dogs are good companions.

Rules (cont.) 2.A thesis statement must be a complete sentence. This means it must have a subject and a verb with a tense. City living hazardous to your health. X City living is hazardous to your health.

Rules (cont.) 3. A thesis statement is an opinion; it cannot be a simple statement of fact. A fact does not need any support, and therefore you cannot write an essay about it. I have an older brother and a younger brother. X I have much more in common with my younger brother than I do with my older brother.

Rules (cont.) 4. A thesis statement must state the controlling idea. This means you must state your position on the topic; you cannot simply announce the topic of your essay. This essay is about air pollution. X In this essay, I’m going to tell you about air pollution. X Recent methods of reducing air pollution are showing some positive results.

Rules (cont.) 5. A thesis statement should have only one controlling idea Public transportation in my hometown is too expensive and it is slower than the transportation in Tokyo. X Public transportation in my hometown is too expensive. Public transportation in my hometown has two major problems: cost and speed.