Essay Writing for Neurodivergent Students: Thesis Statement

Ah, the thesis statement. Back in high school, I remember thesis statements always felt vague and intimidating. Teachers would emphasize the importance of a strong thesis statement, but I never quite understood how to write one. I’m sure it was explained to me, but for some reason it never sunk in; perhaps the emphasis placed on “super important sentence” overrode my ability to internalize practical steps. All I knew was that my thesis statement had to be brilliant, and I never felt up to the task.

If that sounds like your experience with thesis statements, don’t worry. Although thesis statements are important, they’re also surprisingly easy to write.

Before You Start

If you’ve been reading this series in order, it will be no surprise that before writing your thesis statement, you first need to select a topic and create an outline. If you haven’t completed those steps yet, go back and do them now. Then, read on.

How to Write a Thesis Statement

As I mentioned, thesis statements are often presented as a whole big thing: a massively important sentence that makes up the core of your argument. And while that is true, writing it doesn’t have to be a big deal. Because really, a thesis statement is just a 1-2 sentence summary of your essay.

So, how do you summarize an essay you haven’t written yet? You actually already did, when you created your outline. All that’s left is to turn your outline into a sentence that includes your main point and supporting points.

The exact wording of a thesis statement can vary, but the general formula is:

“(Main point), because (supporting point 1), (supporting point 2), and (supporting point 3).”

For example:

“More people should consider cat ownership, because cats are easy to care for, cat ownership can improve a person’s mental health, and the human-cat bond may be even stronger than the human-dog bond.”

To see the outline this example thesis statement came from, head over to my example outline post. You’ll notice that although the outline also contains quotes as evidence for each supporting point, those quotes are not included in the thesis statement.

And that’s really all there is to it! All your hard work in creating an outline has paid off, because now creating a thesis statement is essentially just rearranging the outline into a sentence.

Conclusion

Writing a thesis statement is often presented as a large, daunting task. However, a thesis statement is actually just a 1-2 sentence summary of your essay. Once you’ve created an outline, you can write a thesis statement simply by extracting the main point and supporting points from your outline, then turning them into a sentence.

If you found this content helpful and would like more personalized support, we offer 1:1 tutoring and academic coaching. Click here to schedule a free consultation.