Don't Forget Your Thesis

I've been editing many essays lately. Often when I'm finished I'm left wondering what was the point of the essay. The most important element - the thesis - was missing. I read a multitude of interesting facts, quotes, and arguments, yet still I'm perplexed as to what was the main reason for the paper. That main reason is called the thesis. If a paper launches right into explaining something, but fails to give the reader a clue as to what will be explained, the reader is left scratching his or her head in confusion. I have to write a sort of thesis every time I write an article for a magazine. In beginning writing, this is called a topic sentence or an introductory sentence. It basically gives readers a clue as to what they will learn - or, in some cases, what argument will be made - throughout the writing. The thesis might be considered the destination, with the elements in the essay (or article) being the road map to get to the destination. Often, in an essay, the thesis needs to be restated in some way at the end - so that you're reminding readers what it is they just learned. Without the thesis, the writing is just ramblings that take the reader here, there, and everywhere without ever reaching a destination. The following websites actually provides a much better and clearer explanation than what I am attempting here: www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/thesis.html

Avoid Snoopy's fate in "Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Life." In one comic strip by the late Charles Schulz, Snoopy writes the title of his book as "A Sad Story." When Lucy reads it she says, "This isn't a sad story. This is a dumb story." Snoopy responds, "That's what makes it so sad."