5 Breaking Down a Text: Finding the Thesis

What is a thesis?

A thesis is the author’s overall opinion about the topic of the text, also known as their claim or controlling idea. The thesis is the core message that the writer is working to communicate to readers through the text.

While there are many supporting details and main ideas, there is only one thesis. As you work to identify the thesis, you are trying to find or come up with a sentence that reflects the “big picture” of the whole text. Accurately identifying the thesis means that, as a reader, you understand the author’s main message.

A thesis is the focus of a complete work, such as an article, essay, or chapter, and it covers all the main ideas within the text.

• It is a complete sentence and, therefore, a complete thought.
• It is a statement, declaration, assertion, or claim about the topic and never a question or fact.
• It answers the question, “What is the point that the author is making about the topic?”
• If you are writing an assignment that has a prompt question, your thesis will be your direct answer to the writing prompt.

How can I find the thesis?

The following steps are some of the moves strong readers make as they listen to what the author has to say and make sure they understand the overall message of a text. As you practice your reading strategies, you can do these steps in order or mix them together as you get more comfortable and confident with the moves for identifying the thesis. For example, in your initial annotations you might make more notes about the author’s purpose, the structure of the text, or possible passages where you see a stated thesis. Either way, add to your annotations as you look at different features in the text, recording the clues about the author’s core message.

Step 1: Read and Annotate the Main Ideas

Before you try to find the thesis, be sure to read and annotate the whole text. Use the strategies in the Before You Read (Pre-reading)  When You Read , and After You Read pages.

Find the supporting details and main ideas so you have a good understanding of all the points the author made in the text. Once you understand all the parts or sections of the text, you can make sure you understand the author’s thesis. A thesis is also called the “controlling idea” because it controls the focus and determines what points and support the author will need to include. The thesis will cover all the main points, so start with notes about what the author focused on from beginning to end.

Step 2: Consider the Structure

Look at the organization or which points are made in which order. Put together all the parts (all main ideas and related supporting details) to understand the whole message.

Remember, each paragraph serves a purpose to help readers understand the thesis, so the thesis will include or cover much more than the main point in any single paragraph. The thesis will need to reflect the whole text to reflect the author’s whole message, not just one part or section.

For example, often an author will use the earlier paragraphs in a text to introduce and explain an issue or problem related to the topic, then they will have paragraphs that focus on explaining the solution(s)—what is being done or could be done to address that issue. So the thesis will be a sentence that captures the main message of both the problem section and the solution section to accurately convey the author’s whole message.

Step 3: Consider the Purpose

Since the thesis is the “big picture” message of the whole text, once you have read and annotated the paragraphs from beginning to end, take a step back from the text and think about what the author wanted to accomplish with this text. What seems like the most important message they are trying to get readers to understand? What do you think are the author’s intentions or goals?

Step 4: Write Your Version

Without looking at the article, write a sentence stating what you think is the author’s overall point in the text. Remember to think about the whole text and the entire message from beginning to end, not just one part or section.

Step 5: Identify a Stated Thesis or Implied Thesis

Look again at the text and see if there is a sentence or two where the author directly stated their thesis. If not, the thesis might be implied, or something readers piece together from different statements the author made throughout the article.

Your version of the author’s overall claim about the topic (from Step 4) should work to directly state the thesis, either to clarify a thesis that was left implied by the author or to paraphrase the thesis if it is already stated directly by the author.

Step 6: Check Your Wording of the Thesis

Test that you identified the thesis by comparing the thesis (a direct statement from the author and/or your own sentence stating the overall message) to the main ideas. The thesis should cover all the main ideas. If what you identified as the thesis only covers some of them or part of the article, look again at all of the main points. Go back to steps 1-3 to consider what you might have overlooked the first time you tried putting the thesis in your own words.

How do I know if I found the thesis?

Continue to revise your wording of the author’s thesis until your version accurately states (or restates) that overall message in a way that would be clear to someone who has not read the text. Putting the author’s thesis in your own words shows that you fully understand the core message they were working to get across to readers.