Thesis Statement

Construct a sentence that expresses the thesis (your position on the problem you will discuss or issue you will support) of your paper and indicates the dominant development or organization of its content. Here are some examples for each basic kind of organization. The formal voice of informative or scientific writing is used.

Description (the systematic relation of parts to a unique whole):

"Scientists are now able to clone mammals."

Narration (the presentation of sequence, as in history, plot, or process):

"Watson’s discovery of how DNA works in 1953 led to the cloning of plants and lower animals."

Classification (the presentation of kinds of something):

"There are at least three reasons why we should not become too concerned about the cloning of human beings."

Evaluation (a text that proceeds according to criteria):

"An argument against the cloning of humans must appeal to society’s fear and values, as well as to its sense of logic and authority."

For more examples see: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/

Now that you’ve learned about selecting a topic and writing a thesis statement, let’s see what Sam’s chosen for his Classification paper:

"When in motion, drivers should only be allowed to use hands-free cell phones."

What do you think? Enter your critique in the box below, then hit Ask the experts.

Ask the Experts

This is not a good thesis sentence for a classification paper. It is stated as an argument. A better one might be "Cell phone use while driving should be outlawed for three reasons."