{"id":144,"date":"2016-03-15T14:58:12","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T14:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/waymaker-level1-english\/?post_type=chapter&p=144"},"modified":"2022-08-26T14:27:15","modified_gmt":"2022-08-26T14:27:15","slug":"1-5-1-video-identify-the-thesis-statement","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/waymaker-level1-english-gen\/chapter\/1-5-1-video-identify-the-thesis-statement\/","title":{"raw":"Video: Identify the Thesis Statement","rendered":"Video: Identify the Thesis Statement"},"content":{"raw":"Every piece of writing has a thesis statement. This is a fancy term for a simple concept. A thesis is the core concept that a piece of writing is trying to convey.\r\n\r\nIn academic writing, the thesis is often explicit<\/strong>: it is included as a sentence as part of the text. It might be near the beginning of the work, but not always--some types of academic writing leave the thesis until the conclusion.\r\n\r\nJournalism and reporting also rely on explicit\u00a0thesis statements that\u00a0appear very early in the piece--the first paragraph or even the first sentence.\r\n\r\nWorks of literature, on the other hand, usually do not contain a specific sentence that sums up the core concept of the writing. However, readers should finish the piece with a good understanding of what the work was trying to convey. This is what's called an implicit<\/strong> thesis statement: the primary point of the reading is conveyed indirectly, in multiple locations throughout the work. (In literature, this is also referred to as the theme<\/em> of the work.)\r\n\r\nAcademic writing sometimes relies on implicit thesis statements, as well.\r\n\r\nThis video offers excellent guidance in identifying the thesis statement of a work, no matter if it's explicit or implicit.\r\n\r\n