You should be able to articulate in a simple, explicit statement the point you are trying to make, whether or not you decide to explicitly define it for your reader.

A thesis represents controlling idea of an essay and helps the reader keep track of that idea as it develops through the body of the text. To determine your thesis, you need to think about your purpose and audience, and decide what it is you want the reader to take away from your communication.

Remember, you bring a great many facts, experiences, impressions to the communication situation, and you need to help the reader make sense of it all, as you have done, "for there is no structure to experience except that which is imposed by the human mind." (Waddell, Craig. Writing a Thesis, Writing Center at Rensselaer.)

A thesis may be defined for your audience in a variety of ways:

• simple (stated explicitly, either in one sentence or in several consecutive sentences)
• delayed-completion (begun in one sentence and completed at some point later in the essay)
• assembled (scattered in bits and pieces throughout the essay)
• or inferred (never explicitly stated-left for the reader to surmise) (Braddock, 310-323).

However even if you chose to use a delayed-completion, assembled, or inferred thesis, you still should be able to state the thesis succinctly, in your own mind. If you don't know what you have committed yourself to, your essay will lack unity, and your readers will have no thread to help them find their way through your thoughts. (Waddell)

Work Cited

Braddock, Richard. "The Frequency and Placement of Topic Sentences in Expository Prose." The Writing Teacher's Sourcebook. Ed. Gary Tate and Edward P. J. Corbett. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.

Waddell, Craig. "Writing a Thesis." The Writing Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.