Parts of a Thesis Statement

The thesis statement is the key to most academic writing. This is important and worth repeating:

The thesis statement is the key to most academic writing.

The purpose of academic writing is to offer your own insights, analyses, and ideas—to show not only that you understand the concepts you’re studying, but also that you have thought about those concepts in your own way, agreed or disagreed, or developed your own unique ideas as a result of your analysis. The thesis statement is the one sentence that encapsulates the result of your thinking, as it offers your main insight or argument in condensed form.

A basic thesis statement has two main parts:

1. Topic: What you’re writing about
2. Angle: What your main idea is about that topic