Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute, Baruch College
Agnieszka Kajrukszto, Communication Fellow
Composing Guide: Topic Sentence, and Thesis Statement
For many writers the hardest part of the writing process is coming up with a good thesis
statement and then building good topic sentences for each paragraph. This guide will
provide you with tips on both of these topics and will help you with composing a paper.
TOPIC SENTENCE
Writing a good topic sentence will help you write a good paragraph. A topic sentence is a
general statement that is one sentence long; this sentence is the paragraph's main idea. A
topic sentence indicates what the whole rest of the paragraph will be about. It should be a
general statement, but not too general—you need to be able to use it to guide you to write
more on the topic. It may come at the beginning, the middle, or the end of your
paragraph. However, for those who are just developing their writing skills or for those
who want to make sure that they are as clear as possible it is a good idea to place your
topic sentence at the beginning of the paragraph. Try following this motto:

placing your topic sentence at the top of your paragraph keeps the paragraph
development process simple and your focus clear.

be sure your topic sentence is an idea that can be answered with plenty of details;

be sure your topic sentence can be developed into a paragraph
THESIS STATEMENT
The thesis statement is that sentence or two in your text that contains the focus of your
essay and tells your reader what the essay is going to be about. It offers your readers a
quick and easy to follow summary of what the paper will be discussing and what you as a
writer are setting out to tell them. Almost all of us—even if we don’t do it consciously—
look early in an essay for a one- or two-sentence condensation of the argument or
analysis that is to follow. It is actually quite difficult to write a good thesis statement.
You can think of your thesis as a map or a guide both for yourself and your audience, so
it might be helpful to draw a chart or picture of your ideas and how they're connected to
help you get started.
Below you will find a very helpful guide that will effectively show you how to write on
just about any topic. If you follow these suggestions you will be able to clarify in your
head what it is that you are writing about, and you will eventually come up with a good
thesis statement. I suggest that you use that guide whenever you are writing a paper. The
guidelines do not begin with a thesis, but rather with the opportunity to write in an
exploratory way about the topic at hand. One of the final questions in the guidelines was
"What's the point you are trying to make?" When you have done the exercise below, you
will be able to write a good thesis statement and you will have a lot of the information for
your paper.
Composing Guidelines.
(*from The Guidelines for Composing developed by Sondra Perl, New York City Writing Project, Institute
for Literacy Studies, Lehman College, CUNY)
Assuming you are responding to a given question or assignment:
1. To find your place within that assignment or topic, ask yourself.... Of all the things I
know about this topic or subject, what might I want to write about now or sometime in
the future? and make a list of everything that comes to mind.
Now read over your list and ask yourself.... Now that I have a list long or short, what
might I write about now even if I'm not certain of where it will lead?
Once you have selected what you want to write about, put that topic or word or image or
idea or question at the top of a clean page.
2. Questions you can ask yourself as you write:
To begin writing ask yourself.... What are all the parts I know about this? What can I say
about it now? Use this time to name and collect what you already know about the topic.
You might want to do this as a freewrite or as a list about your topic.
After you have written for about fifteen or twenty minutes, you can ask yourself.... What
makes this topic interesting to me or What's important about this that I haven't said yet?
and see if a word or image or phrase comes to mind and write about that. Now as you are
writing ask yourself.... What's this all about?
As you continue to write, you can check in with yourself by asking.... Is this it? Is this
what I'm trying to say? If the answer is "Yeah, that's it" just keep on writing, but if the
answer is "no" or if you get stuck you might ask yourself.... What's missing? What's not
yet been said? or What else is important about this that I've not yet said? and write about
whatever image or word or phrase comes to mind even if doesn't seem to fit with what
you are writing about. Just ask yourself... What's this all about?
3. Questions you can ask yourself when you've collected as much as you can about
your topic at this point:
Ask yourself.... Where's this leading? or ask yourself.... What's the point I'm trying to
make? and write about that.
Now, if it seems appropriate, ask yourself.... What form might I write this in? Is it, for
example, an essay... a poem... a story... a play... a monologue... a dialogue or....
More often than not, you will be asked to write an essay. You then have to take the ideas
you already wrote down and organize it into an essay format, following the rules of
creating paragraphs, using topic sentences, writing conclusion, citing sources, etc.
Good luck!