{"id":2284,"date":"2018-06-07T20:21:55","date_gmt":"2018-06-07T20:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-wm-englishcomposition1\/?post_type=chapter&p=2284"},"modified":"2020-04-30T18:55:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T18:55:22","slug":"parts-of-a-thesis-sentence","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/chapter\/parts-of-a-thesis-sentence\/","title":{"raw":"Parts of a Thesis Sentence","rendered":"Parts of a Thesis Sentence"},"content":{"raw":"A thesis sentence\u00a0has to contain\u00a0two parts:\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. Topic - what the essay is about.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Angle - your idea about the topic. This second part, your idea\/insight\/claim\/argument about a topic, is the important characteristic in creating a thesis sentence for a college essay. The angle makes a promise to your reader about your insight into, claim, or logical argument about the topic. Your angle in your thesis sentence indicates and controls what the rest of the essay will be about.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nNote above that I\u2019ve called the angle a number of different things: idea, insight, claim, argument. Even though you may have slightly different angles when you\u2019re writing for different purposes, all of these variations of the angle have one really important thing in common: they all offer your own viewpoint on your topic. Your own viewpoint, backed up by examples and evidence, is the important thing in a college essay.\r\n\r\n\"Thesis\r\n\r\nOne mistake that a lot of beginning college writers make is to focus on the topic as opposed to the angle in a thesis sentence. Beginning writers often think it\u2019s enough to describe a management theory or a historical event or a psychological philosophy to show knowledge gained. However, if a writing assignment is to write an essay or \u201cpaper,\u201d the likely expectation is that you\u2019ll offer your own argument or angle to show how you\u2019ve evaluated and applied knowledge gained, e.g., Although management theory Y supports the worker\u2019s own initiative much more fully than management theory X, contingency theory is most often applied in the contemporary workplace, because of a number of characteristics of 21st century businesses.\r\n\r\nNote that the sample thesis you just read has a third part, what's often called a \"because clause,\" or some indication of reasons why you are making the claim you're making in the angle.\u00a0 You may decide to use a \"because clause\" in certain cases and not in others; decide if your thesis would be clearer to both you as a writer and to your reading audience with the inclusion of these additional reasons in your thesis.\r\n\r\nAs you start to develop a working thesis sentence for an essay, take time to review and analyze that working thesis to make sure that all of the parts are feasible:\r\n