When you formulate a thesis statement, you make your writing comprehensible, and also the experience on which it is based: you organize the chaos. As a researcher, you pick up facts and experiences that are relevant to your thesis--just as magnets pick up iron filings--and you leave what is irrelevant behind. A good thesis helps to determine what to leave behind.

For both the reader and writer, a thesis cuts through immense confusion to make one point perfectly clear. The above links will assist in this process, since a good thesis is

• suited to your purpose and audience
• clearly defined
• adequately focused
• well supported
• high in the "orders of knowledge"

To formulate a good thesis, it is also useful to understand the differing functions of tentative and definite theses.

A good thesis, though essential to a good analytical essay, is not a panacea for sloppy exposition--there are many other things you must consider as you compose (such as style, syntax, organization, originality, punctuation, and diction).

From materials developed by
Craig Waddell
The Writing Center
4508 Sage Laboratory
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Sources used in developing this material:

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.