The Thesis
The statement or statements that details what your text will be exploring or what arguments it will be making.
Avoid
listing the main points in the thesis
“This essay will argue that Frankenstein’s monster is a hero because he hates killing, saves a child, and has an incredible marathon time”
Being too vague
“Frankenstein’s monster is a hero because he has heroic traits”
Trying to include too much
“In the novella Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s monster is a hero because he hates killing, he loathed the frequent murders he felt he was forced into; he saves a child, the cousin of Victor–his creator–who he saves from drowning in a river and is rewarded with rocks thrown at his head; and he has the superhuman physical prowess of beowulf in the body of a shoddy-Hulk.”
Making promises you don’t keep
“Frankenstein’s monster embodies the heroism of ancient Greece . . .” (then the essay never mentions Greece)
Do These Things
Introduce the most important ideas of the text
Expand just enough to let the reader know what they will be reading
“Evident in his benevolent interactions with a hostile humanity, Frankenstein’s monster
exhibits aspects of heroism similar to Epic heroes of Greek myth. The monster is loath to
kill innocent people, reminiscent of (another Greek hero who did the same thing) . . . The
most firm connection between the creature and Greek heroes is his incredible physical
prowess, similar to Pheidippides who ran the first marathon.”
A thesis does not always need to be one sentence, unless instructed otherwise.
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