{"id":2267,"date":"2018-06-07T20:21:32","date_gmt":"2018-06-07T20:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-wm-englishcomposition1\/?post_type=chapter&p=2267"},"modified":"2019-01-28T17:20:56","modified_gmt":"2019-01-28T17:20:56","slug":"thesis-sentence-definition","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/chapter\/thesis-sentence-definition\/","title":{"raw":"Thesis Sentence Definition","rendered":"Thesis Sentence Definition"},"content":{"raw":"\"What's<\/span>Remember that\u00a0an essay is a piece of writing that attempts to explain something, analyze something, or present the author's insight. An essay's purpose is to provide a written explanation of your own ideas, interpretations, and evaluations\u2014your direct reflection on, or analysis of, a focused topic.\r\n\r\nIn order to provide insight, analysis, and\/or interpretation, an essay needs a focus. An essay's focus occurs in a thesis sentence, a sentence that provides the author's main idea or argument in succinct form.\r\n\r\nMost college essays will require a thesis sentence, a sentence in which you make a claim or proposition that you then support with evidence and examples, in order to prove the validity of that claim.\u00a0 The thesis, which often comes toward the start of an essay, is the key idea of the whole essay, encapsulated in one sentence.\r\n\r\nWhen you're asked to write an \"essay\" as a course assignment, most likely you will be asked to write a thesis-support essay.\r\n\r\nThesis-support essays are just what their name implies. They offer a thesis near the start of the essay, usually at the end of the introductory paragraph, and then follow with supporting ideas and information. Usually, each unit of support starts with a topic sentence which extracts an idea from the thesis and makes a point about that part of the thesis idea.\r\n\r\nHere's a way to visualize a basic thesis-support essay:\r\n\r\n\"diagram\r\n\r\nWriting a good thesis sentence is key to academic essay writing, as it captures the essence of the writer's insight. The rest of the essay can then develop from, elaborate on, and offer evidence for the thesis sentence's idea. In other words, the thesis sentence makes a promise, or sets up an expectation, for the type of information to follow in the essay.\r\n\r\nView the following videos for\u00a0definitions and examples of thesis sentences.\r\n\r\nThe first video deconstructs three thesis statements to show the topic, claim, and detailed points of each. [reveal-answer q=\"997882\"]Read a text summary of how the sample thesis statements are analyzed.[\/reveal-answer]\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"997882\"]In the first video, the narrator explores three thesis statements. 1)\u00a0\"Going to college demands careful time management in the areas of class time, study time, and relaxation.\"\u00a0 \"Going to college\" is the topic of the thesis, and \"demands careful time management\" is the claim. This is followed by details about the points used to explain the claim: \"class time,\" study time,\" and \"relaxation time.\" 2) \"Stress in the fast-food workplace has led to serious physical, psychological, and emotional problems for employees.\"\u00a0 The topic is \"Stress is the fast-food workplace.\" The attitude is conveyed by \"led to serious...problems,\" and the specific types of problems covered in the essay are physical, psychological, and emotional. 3) \"Advertisers target young people when marketing cigarettes, alcohol, and adult movies.\" The topic is \"advertisers,\" and the claim is \"target young people.\" The essay will focus on three major points: cigarettes, alcohol, and adult movies.[\/hidden-answer]\r\n

Note: Some content in the video \"Writing an Effective Thesis Statement\" is presented visually. You may listen to this video with audio description<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4sx42_C10zw[\/embed]\r\n\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=g-0o5bnmRYs[\/embed]","rendered":"

\"What's<\/span>Remember that\u00a0an essay is a piece of writing that attempts to explain something, analyze something, or present the author’s insight. An essay’s purpose is to provide a written explanation of your own ideas, interpretations, and evaluations\u2014your direct reflection on, or analysis of, a focused topic.<\/p>\n

In order to provide insight, analysis, and\/or interpretation, an essay needs a focus. An essay’s focus occurs in a thesis sentence, a sentence that provides the author’s main idea or argument in succinct form.<\/p>\n

Most college essays will require a thesis sentence, a sentence in which you make a claim or proposition that you then support with evidence and examples, in order to prove the validity of that claim.\u00a0 The thesis, which often comes toward the start of an essay, is the key idea of the whole essay, encapsulated in one sentence.<\/p>\n

When you’re asked to write an “essay” as a course assignment, most likely you will be asked to write a thesis-support essay.<\/p>\n

Thesis-support essays are just what their name implies. They offer a thesis near the start of the essay, usually at the end of the introductory paragraph, and then follow with supporting ideas and information. Usually, each unit of support starts with a topic sentence which extracts an idea from the thesis and makes a point about that part of the thesis idea.<\/p>\n

Here’s a way to visualize a basic thesis-support essay:<\/p>\n

\"diagram<\/p>\n

Writing a good thesis sentence is key to academic essay writing, as it captures the essence of the writer’s insight. The rest of the essay can then develop from, elaborate on, and offer evidence for the thesis sentence’s idea. In other words, the thesis sentence makes a promise, or sets up an expectation, for the type of information to follow in the essay.<\/p>\n

View the following videos for\u00a0definitions and examples of thesis sentences.<\/p>\n

The first video deconstructs three thesis statements to show the topic, claim, and detailed points of each. <\/p>\n

Read a text summary of how the sample thesis statements are analyzed.<\/span><\/p>\n
In the first video, the narrator explores three thesis statements. 1)\u00a0“Going to college demands careful time management in the areas of class time, study time, and relaxation.”\u00a0 “Going to college” is the topic of the thesis, and “demands careful time management” is the claim. This is followed by details about the points used to explain the claim: “class time,” study time,” and “relaxation time.” 2) “Stress in the fast-food workplace has led to serious physical, psychological, and emotional problems for employees.”\u00a0 The topic is “Stress is the fast-food workplace.” The attitude is conveyed by “led to serious…problems,” and the specific types of problems covered in the essay are physical, psychological, and emotional. 3) “Advertisers target young people when marketing cigarettes, alcohol, and adult movies.” The topic is “advertisers,” and the claim is “target young people.” The essay will focus on three major points: cigarettes, alcohol, and adult movies.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Note: Some content in the video “Writing an Effective Thesis Statement” is presented visually. You may listen to this video with audio description<\/a>.<\/p>\n