The Nuances of Thesis—Declarative and Implied
Thesis in Academic Essay
The form a thesis takes can be different depending of the genre of essay you are writing.
For an academic essay, you will most often use a declarative thesis. A declarative thesis is
a sentence that expresses the basic idea around which the essay will develop. This is most
often found in the introductory paragraph of an essay and needs to be an arguable
statement.
A thesis statement needs to be arguable. A statement such as “Cigarette smoking is likely
to cause lung cancer” does not work because this information has been proven as fact,
and you cannot make a valid argument about a fact.
A better thesis statement might be “Marijuana smoking should be legalized” because this
is an arguable statement that has a number of opposing viewpoints. However, this thesis
is still too broad to be effective. Trying to write an essay on too broad of a topic makes
it difficult for the essay to become a focused work of manageable length. Therefore, it is
important to be more specific when creating a thesis statement.
Instead, the statement “Marijuana should be legalized because its benefits outweigh its
risks” is a solid thesis because it is arguable and it is specific.
So, when writing an argumentative essay, ask yourself:
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Is my thesis statement an arguable one?
Will I be able to find articles that represent opposing viewpoints to my main idea?
Is my thesis sentence narrow enough to facilitate the consideration of one specific
idea?
Thesis in Personal Essay
Not every piece of writing sets out to make a claim. In personal essay, especially, the thesis
does not need to be a distinct one-sentence statement at the beginning of an essay. Often,
in this type of writing, an implied thesis is used. An implied thesis conveys the essays main
idea without necessarily stating it directly in the beginning of the paper. Instead, the main
idea is suggested by the selection and arrangement of the essay's points.
Writers use an implied thesis when they want readers to come to their own conclusions
about the matter at hand. However, just because the writer doesn’t explicitly declare the
thesis doesn’t mean that she or he is working without one. Good writers will always clearly
state their thesis—even if it’s only in their own mind or notes for the paper. They may elect
not to put the thesis in the paper, but each paragraph, each sentence they write, is
controlled by the thesis all the same. It is evident in that the writing centers around one
driving, specific, main point and all parts of the writing are connected and contribute to
that point.
One of the most fascinating things about a thesis sentence is that it is the most important
sentence in a paper, even when it’s not there. In some essays you will find it difficult to
point to a single sentence that declares the argument. Nonetheless, the essay is coherent and
makes a point. In these cases the writers have used an implied thesis.
As you read texts that use implied thesis, you will notice that the main idea flows
through the piece without being glaringly obvious in a formatted type of way. The idea
speaks loud and clear without being formulaic. When you come to the end of such pieces
of writing, you know exactly what one message the writer was trying to convey, even
though it was not necessarily spelled out to you. When you see these types of writing,
pay attention to how they are executed, how the writer weaves his or her ideas
throughout the piece.