Thesis Statements

What is an argument?

A thesis statement explains to the reader what argument you will make in your paper. While it can be more than one sentence, your thesis should be concise. A good thesis statement should also come as early in a paper as is reasonable, in order to tell the reader what you will argue and how you will argue it. This second part (the “how”) might include:

• the base of support or evidence for the argument
• the methodology or framework of interpretation.

In the field of Classics

In Classics, your base of support will most likely be a text, a set of texts, an object, a group of artifacts, an archaeological site, or a combination of these different types of sources. A thesis statement goes beyond superficial stances and summarization to answer the looming question of “so what?” or “why do we care?” A thesis statement takes a stance and makes an argument.