theme based essay

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How to Write a Theme Essay

Last Updated: January 4, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Jake Adams . Jake Adams is an academic tutor and the owner of Simplifi EDU, a Santa Monica, California based online tutoring business offering learning resources and online tutors for academic subjects K-College, SAT & ACT prep, and college admissions applications. With over 14 years of professional tutoring experience, Jake is dedicated to providing his clients the very best online tutoring experience and access to a network of excellent undergraduate and graduate-level tutors from top colleges all over the nation. Jake holds a BS in International Business and Marketing from Pepperdine University. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 206,402 times.

Starting the Essay

• For example, an essay prompt may ask you to reflect on the theme of good versus evil in John Steinbeck's East of Eden .

• Make a list of everything you know about the topic. This can be information you learned in class, as well as information you found on your own.
• Write down keywords or key scenes in the text that respond to the essay prompt. Think about what words or scenes from the text come to mind when you think of a specific theme.
• For example, when you brainstorm ideas on East of Eden , you may write down any moments in the text that seem to speak to the theme of good and evil.

• Your thesis statement will need to address the theme, your primary example or examples, and the stance you will take on the topic.
• For example, your thesis might be: "In East of Eden , John Steinbeck rejects the Biblical idea of good and evil and instead focuses on the contradictions and complications found in good and evil."

• Introduction: Discuss landscape as metaphor, include thesis statement.
• Body: Describe mountains in opening scene, elaborate on how they symbolize good vs. evil, state how characters live between the mountains, showing how people are caught between good and evil.
• Conclusion: Restate thesis statement, return to landscape as metaphor.

Writing Your Essay

• Questions can make fun hooks for the reader. Ask a rhetorical question that relates to the theme of the essay, such as "How does one decide what is good and what is evil?"
• You can also use a quote from the text as the hook. Find a quote in the text that explores the themes and ideas you'll be discussing in your essay.

• For example, you may introduce the role of nature plays in the text to discuss the theme of good and evil. The first sentence of your body paragraph should discuss the role of nature. This will set up the paragraph and let the reader know what the focus of the paragraph will be.

• For example, you may discuss the use of nature in the text in one paragraph. The body of the paragraph should then use quotes and scenes in the text to support this idea.
• You might write,"The descriptions of the Gabilan Mountains in the text symbolize good and evil. The characters in the story live in the Salinas Valley, trapped in a gray area between these two extremes."

• Ask yourself, "What do I want my readers to have learned through this essay?"
• Remind readers about the essay's theme. Reference some of the arguments you made in the body of your essay, reinforcing how they support your original point.

Revising Your Essay

• Check that there are transitions between paragraphs. Look at the beginning of each paragraph to make sure they all flow well together.

• Print out your paper and proofread it. Oftentimes, errors are easier to catch on paper. If you can't print out your paper, try changing the size or type of the font. Anything that alters how the work looked when you wrote it can help alert you to errors. [13] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source

• Be open to constructive feedback from friends and peers. This will only improve the essay and ensure it is at its best when you turn it in.

Expert Q&A

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• ↑ Jake Adams. Academic Tutor & Test Prep Specialist. Expert Interview. 20 May 2020.
• ↑ https://penandthepad.com/write-essay-theme-book-2200.html
• ↑ https://wts.indiana.edu/writing-guides/how-to-write-a-thesis-statement.html
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/essay-outline/
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-to-write-a-hook/
• ↑ https://libguides.newcastle.edu.au/how-to-write-an-essay/conclusion
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/proofreading/steps_for_revising.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/proofreading/proofreading_suggestions.html
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/editing-and-proofreading/

About This Article

When writing a theme essay, you’ll need to explore a given theme in the text you’re studying. Before you start your essay, brainstorm some notes about your theme, which you can then build your essay from. For example, if you have the theme of good and evil, think about which characters are mostly good or evil, any good or evil actions they take, description that uses light and darkness, and any religious context. In your intro, state your thesis, which should summarize your essay’s main argument. Then, choose 4 or 5 examples of your theme and write a paragraph exploring each one. Make sure you support your points with quotes from the text. In your conclusion, link your ideas back to your thesis statement. For more tips from our English co-author, including how to revise your essay to polish it up, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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A thematic essay is a type of writing assignment that focuses on a specific theme or topic. It requires you to identify a central theme, discuss it in detail, and make connections between various facts. Your main goal is to demonstrate understanding and interpretation of the given subject matter. This type of essay is commonly used in literature classes or history exams.

If you’ve got an assignment to write a theme essay, you might wonder where you should even start from. No worries, we’ve got you covered here! The first thing you must know about this specific type of paper is that it aims to analyze a certain well-known theme and make an interesting statement about it. Here, you must explain meaning and relevance or complexity of your topic. You should summarize details that support your conclusion. In this article, we will conduct a detailed review of theme essay concept. We will also provide you a step by step guide on how to write a proper one. Let's dive right into it!  

Thematic Essay Definition

Let’s start with defining what is a thematic essay and its purpose. In this type, one should select a thesis and form unique statement related to its aspects. You should write about it, explaining or elaborating to your audience the following:

• How is your statement related to your topic?
• Which important or interesting aspects does it highlight?
• What approaches and literary devices are you using for analysis ? How do you explain your general theme? This can be comparison, metaphor, personification etc.

When composing such an essay, you must formulate and defend your statement. Here, you will demonstrate abilities of analysis and literary devices usage. At least several paragraphs would be needed to display such skills properly.

Thematic Essay Outline: What's Inside

The best way to begin is creating a theme essay outline for your topic. An outline should contain all key parts, concepts and ideas of your paper. You should put it in a sketchy but logical manner. This way you'll quickly prepare a shortened version of your assignment. It will also help you in reviewing it. Adding missing points and correcting significant mistakes would be easier at this early stage. Outline should include all main essay parts:  

• Introduction
• Thesis statement
• Body section
• Conclusion.

Keeping it brief, you should not provide complete sentences to describe your statements, ideas and arguments. A few words would suffice for each important point. Purpose is to make it readable for yourself! You should review it quickly and spot any inconsistencies.

How to Write a Thematic Essay Step-By-Step

Now it is time to focus on how to write a theme analysis essay – the complete text from scratch. Is your goal to impress readers and achieve a good grade? Then it is important that you create a proper essay structure template and don't lose any of your key questions! Stay methodical and keep it logical! Make sure your audience is engaged and don’t disappoint them in the end. Below we’ll provide a general idea for each step of this process.

Step 1. Define the Topic for Your Thematic Essay

When it comes to choosing among thematic essay topics, it is important that you pick an interesting and maybe even a controversial one. At the same time, make sure you can actually provide some meaningful input about it. Your assignment should impress readers with detailed analysis and its author’s writing skills. That's why your chosen topic must provide enough material for that.  There is a diverse choice of topics. Choose the one you are really interested in whether it is  Bullying essay  or  Happiness essay . If you need some ideas for great essay topics, feel free to check out our other articles.  

Step 2. Create a Thematic Essay Outline

We've already covered the main points of theme essay outline concept. When writing it, include all the main parts of your future work. Keep it as short as possible, one paragraph per each key point will be enough. It isn’t even necessary to describe everything with complete sentences! A few words would suffice. Once done, review it first and make necessary corrections. It is advised to review an outline several times. That's how any noticeable gaps or mistakes would be spotted early.

Step 3. Start a Thematic Essay with a Hook

A good thematic essay introduction ought to captivate readers right from the start. That’s why it is always advised to add some ‘hook’ into it. You can begin with an unexpected statement, use wordplay or a plot twist. Then you can explain this in the main body part. This way your audience would be interested to hear those explanations. As a result, your paper will have better chances of success. Apart from that, introduction should contain the main statement and some information about its content.  

Step 4. Write Body Paragraphs for Your Theme Essay

Goal of thematic essay body is to answer all the questions stated in an introduction. You must elaborate the meaning of each key idea. Finally, display your usage of literary devices, as we’ve specified earlier. Common practice is to use at least one paragraph per a literary device disclosure. Besides, the main body is the right place to use all relevant sources that can support your analysis or provide you with helpful analogies. Keep the main body logical, so that every paragraph is somehow connected to the previous and the next ones.  

Step 5. Create a Thematic Essay Conclusion

A strong thematic essay conclusion should highlight all important points from tyourhe essay while avoiding adding new facts or evidence. Just restate your thesis, answer all questions and summarize your arguments. It might be also useful to leave some final note for readers with some deeper analysis of your topic. You can also highlight the need for further exploration of the chosen theme and thus to prepare readers for your future works on this topic.  

Step 6. Proofread Your Thematic Analysis Essay

After completing theme essay, it is highly recommended to review it thoroughly, even several times if possible. The goal is to find mistakes and to spot logical gaps or missing details. Even best essays typically have inconsistencies left at the early stage. Taking a fresh look at your text often reveals some issues. If possible, ask your friends or colleagues to review your text. They might notice something you could not.  

How to Format a Thematic Essay

When it comes to thematic essay format, you need to find out what are the requirements in your assignment or which format is common in the institution you will be presenting your essay for. In case no special requirements were made for you, just choose one of the most popular formats for scholarly papers:  

• APA paper format : typically used in natural sciences, education and psychology fields
• MLA: typically used for works in humanities
• Chicago: typically used in business, history, and fine arts fields.

Thematic Essay Example

Let’s illustrate the explanations above with a few theme essay examples. We’ll provide some real ones here so that your every question would be answered. Hopefully you’ll find some inspiration in these examples for your own winning paper! The examples can be found below. Please scroll down to find them.  

Thematic Essay: Final Thoughts

In this article we have explored the theme essay concept in detail. Its central purpose and main definition were examined and a step by step guide for writing a strong one was suggested. We’ve also provided a few working examples for your convenience. Hopefully, all this information will be useful for your scholarly endeavors!

Feel free to check out our  paper writing services ! We’ve got a team of skilled writers with expertise in different literary areas, ready to help you. They deliver high quality content, always on time.  

Frequently Asked Questions About Theme Essay

1. what is the thematic statement.

A thematic statement typically takes the place of a thesis in a thematic essay. It consists of 1-2 complete sentences that express a theme which you have chosen for your work. This statement must convey the main message and also show what analysis will be done. It should be brief however as most of the details are to be provided in the main body.

2. What is the goal of thematic essay?

The thematic essay goal is to express an idea or some insights about the surrounding world and to change readers' minds about certain issues. As an author, you are expected to illustrate the team, provide all necessary explanations and conduct an analysis if needed. Besides, you typically should demonstrate familiarity with some literary interpretations and methods which are used to examine your theme.

3. How long should a theme essay be?

The minimum length of a theme essay is five paragraphs. One is for introduction, one for conclusion and remaining three for the main body. Of course, it can be more than that, depending on the depth of the theme that was chosen. The main rule is to keep your essay logical and concise, avoiding adding too many details. Otherwise your audience might get tired and the effect produced by your writing would be damaged.

4. What is a thematic essay history?

Thematic essay (history class) should be written to analyze some historical facts or significance of specific literary pieces. A typical case is examining different aspects of a controversial leader from the past or a political event that has produced a number of various important consequences. Or you might argue about a specific role of a certain book during a certain period or its influence on different nations or cultural groups.

Daniel Howard is an Essay Writing guru. He helps students create essays that will strike a chord with the readers.

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How to Write a Thematic Essay

Every piece of writing ever written has its agenda. Whether it’s to teach a lesson or show the impact of a particular emotion or action, a central theme can be developed. The goal for us as readers is to uncover what the author was trying to tell us between the lines in their literature. When we do finally discover it, we’ve accomplished the first step of thematic essay writing! Let’s see below how to write a thematic essay with our papers writing service .

What Is a Thematic Essay?

Let’s look at the thematic essay definition; a thematic essay is a piece of writing in which an author develops the central theme in some literature using literary devices like foreshadowing, imagery, personification, etc.

A professional essay writer will uncover the primary subject, elaborate upon the literary devices employed, and express the overall significance of the theme. The primary challenge comes from the fact that although there are various subjects, finding the most meaningful and impactful one can be challenging.

Naturally, each person has their own varied interpretation, making it hard to agree on a central theme wholesomely. In short, a well written thematic essay comes from a healthy central idea that is conclusively proven via literary devices and logical arguments.

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How to Pick a Thematic Topic?

A crucial aspect of writing a good thematic essay is choosing a theme. Follow the hints listed below to help you create a thematic topic:

Brainstorm from your own experiences. Recall what you were talking about in class, with your mates or parents. Do some of these conversations remind you of some book, novel or another piece of literature?

Write down every idea that comes to mind. Sometimes, your most absurd ideas are the best way to go.

List your favourite literature pieces. Which literature piece was the most touching for you? Try to analyze its subject and problems the author built upon within the story; it might help you come up with your own ideas.

Look at the details of other literature pieces: You might find some interesting details within other literature that can help you come up with your theme.

Still have no idea what to write about? No worries, we have your back.

Thematic Essay Topics

• What is George Orwell’s deliberation in portraying a “Perfect Utopia” in his book 1984?
• What main idea is George Orwell painting about Communism in the book Animal Farm?
• What is Harper Lee saying about innocence in her novel To Kill A Mockingbird?
• What is John Steinbeck saying about loneliness and isolation in Of Mice and Men?
• What is F. Scott Fitzgerald saying about the American Dream in The Great Gatsby?

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How to Find and Explore the Central Theme

As stated before, uncovering the main subject and central theme respectively is the first significant step in a thematic paper. However, with so many things going on within the literature, it may be difficult to interpret the central theme accurately. To make sure you choose it correctly, follow these steps:

1. Summarize the literature: What main idea is the author trying to purvey? Usually, there will be many hints along the way, so choosing the right direction may not be so challenging.

2. Pick the most prevalent subject: One thing to note is the significant difference between a subject and a theme. A subject is the general topic of conversation—whether it be love, bravery, deception, etc. A theme is a specific point the author is making about said subject. So, find the talking point that is most commonly being brought up. This will be the focal point of the essay.

3. Read between the lines: After finding the most suitable subject, decipher what main point the author is trying to make. This will become clearer as you get deeper into the literature since clues and examples will appear frequently. After fully deciphering the central theme, there is one more significant step.

4. Overall significance: What is the overall significance that comes from the author’s point? What can be taken from this and applied to our personal lives? In other words, what is the lesson from all of this? What have we learned?

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Thematic Essay Outline

The thematic essay has several key components. First of all, it should be five paragraphs or more, depending on the depth of the theme. Next, it should have a concrete thesis statement, which, in other words, is the thematic statement that comes from the main subject. The introduction presents the reader with the subject and the thesis statement. The body paragraphs each discuss one literary element or more to defend the validity of your thesis, all the while providing many supporting details from the text itself. Lastly, the thematic essay conclusion summarizes the main points presented and finishes off with a statement of significance.

Follow the link to learn more about HOW TO CREATE A WINNING OUTLINE

The thematic essay introduction presents the main subject of discussion in a captivating way. The first sentence of the intro should be a hook statement that makes some intriguing claim about the subject of discussion. If done correctly, this will grab your reader's attention. Afterwards, provide any necessary background information from the literature that will help the audience understand your claims later on. Lastly, put together a well thought out thesis statement that reflects the central theme of the novel.

The body paragraphs follow a thematic essay format. Since each body paragraph’s purpose should be to present a literary device as evidence, the topic sentence should introduce the claim and gateway into the evidence. Every topic sentence must mention a literary device and its relationship to the literature.

Afterwards, to validate your claim, use examples from the book that strengthen the reasoning of your statement. These can be actions from the plot or quotations that are parallel with the central theme. It’s imperative to explain how the action/quote links back to your thesis statement, as it shows that you can support your logic.

Remember: each claim must use a literary device. It can not just be a random moment or inference. Thematic essays are all about proving thesis statements through the use of critical literary devices.

The thematic essay conclusion has three main objectives to complete before wrapping up the entire paper. It should not present any new information or facts, but should summarize the information already given. First of all, restate your thesis statement in a new way. Then, summarize the central claims you made within the body of your paper and their influence on the thesis statement. To finish off the entire work, present an overall concluding statement with a global analysis of the subject. Leave your reader with another hook, making him/her interested in digging deeper into the topic.

Try also read an article on poetry analysis essay , it could be useful and can give you new insights.

Thematic Essay Example

The best way to familiarise yourself with this type of writing is to learn from an example. ‍

Even though the ancient Greek cities of Athens and Sparta were geographically close to each other, they had very distinct cultures, lifestyles, values, and political systems that defined them. The following paper compares and contrasts the cultural impacts of the two cities by examining some of the duties and responsibilities of the citizenry as well as the different values that were deemed important. The paper further evaluates the impact of accomplishments that would have been left by both city-states on the history of western civilization.

Wrap Things Up

Before submitting your thematic essay, make sure to check a couple of things to correct any possible errors.

• Double-check and confirm that the central theme you have decided is the one that the author likely meant to focus on. Unless you can provide a secondary issue and present it strongly enough as a primary, validate the primary subject.
• Go through and proofread your entire paper. Nothing makes reading more irritating than grammatical mistakes, clean that stuff up as much as possible.
• Get a second pair of eyes to read through your paper. It’s best to ask a classmate for help, as they most likely have or had a similar assignment. Another great way to polish things up is to ask one of our writers to give you some helpful advice.

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Having a Trouble with Your Thematic Essay?

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How to Write a Thematic Essay With Explanations and Examples

14 April 2024

last updated

Thematic essays are common essay assignments in college across all disciplines. Basically, this guide begins with a definition of a thematic essay and provides sample topics for illustration. Next, the manual deconstructs the process of writing a thematic essay. Moreover, the guide covers three core stages of thematic essay writing: preliminary actions, establishing the paper’s foundation, and writing. Finally, the manual presents a sample outline and an example of a thematic essay to demonstrate a real writing situation where a student implements these guidelines of thematic paper writing correctly. Hence, students need to learn how to write a thematic essay.

Definition of a Thematic Essay

A thematic essay is a form of academic writing that requires an author to react to a particular question or theme. In this case, instructors expect students to develop a written reaction to a question or theme by connecting various pieces of information to reach a reasonable conclusion. Moreover, writing a thematic essay has a high demand for research and a critical examination of subtle relationships that exist between sources. Then, the research process yields a significant amount of information, which learners may use to generate numerous logical relationships that lead to rational inferences. Consequently, students may select any set of evidence with a clear, logical association provided that their central claim centers on a theme of interest.

Sample Topics for Writing Thematic Essays

• A pure democracy.
• Privacy rights in the big data age.
• Life in prison and the ex-convict experience.

2. Sociology

• Major parenting issues of the 21 st century.
• Thematic family bonds in immigrant families.
• Escaping the cycle of poverty.

3. Literature

• The thematic significance of a muse.
• Corruption in 18th-century short stories.
• Female authors who left a mark on classical literature.
• Memories of the holocaust.
• Landmines on the modern political landscape.
• The cause of the collapse of Middle East alliances in the 20 th century.

5. Psychology

• Teenage confidence after the thematic emergence of social media.
• The impact of abuse on the formation of relationships.
• The efficacy of proactive counseling.

How Do You Know if Your Paper Is Thematic?

A student can readily identify a thematic essay topic because it boldly pronounces a writing theme but does not hint at any specific point of view. In particular, the primary goal of a topic of a thematic essay is to inform readers of a theme rather than the particular approach of an author, which becomes more apparent in the introductory paragraph. Specifically, a thematic essay topic does not allow students to develop a particular supposition concerning a theme because authors realize there may be multiple points of view concerning the idea of a thematic essay.

3 Steps For Writing an Effective Thematic Essay

Step 1: preliminary actions, a. define a thematic topic.

The ability of students to define a topic is dependent on the extent to which they understand essay rubric and instructions. Basically, once learners receive thematic essay instructions, they should critically read their prompts to ensure they comprehend all demands of writing requirements. Then, writers should use keywords from their instructions to write one or more questions, which represent the expectations of instructors. Based on developed questions, students can create a topic that adequately captures the content of possible responses holistically. Also, authors must consider the information in the instructions, which establishes the leeway they have in the selection of a topic, for example, choose a theme not covered in-class readings.

B. Identify a Purpose for Writing a Thematic Essay

The procedure of identifying a purpose occurs in two distinct stages: the selection of a general goal and defining a specific purpose. Basically, authors may write a thematic essay to achieve two general purposes: explanation and persuasion. In this case, expectations of instructors influence the choice of the general purpose of a thematic essay to a large extent. After learners pick the general purpose for writing a paper, they should create a specific purpose that shows the particular effect their papers must have on readers. Mostly, writers generate a specific purpose from questions that represent thematic essay instructions. In turn, the early determination of the purpose is crucial because it affects the students’ approach to research and word choice during drafting.

C. Analyze an Audience

Before writing a thematic essay, students need to determine the characteristics and expectations of readers. Basically, knowledge concerning the characteristics and expectations of the audience is valuable because writing allows authors to understand the interaction between the characteristics and attitudes toward a topic, the readers’ level of expertise, and the significance of misconceptions, which aid in selecting the appropriate presentation approach. Specifically, learners can determine the most effective organization patterns, identify the best evidence, and employ an accepted documentation style. Moreover, students ensure a suitable level of explanation accompanies specialized writing terms that appear in a thematic essay.

D. Generate and Write Ideas

After learners define the purpose and comprehend the needs and traits of the audience, they begin to develop ideas for the content of a thematic essay. Mostly, thematic essay assignments for writing a particular subject focus on topics lecturers discuss in classrooms and other course readings. Consequently, students may generate ideas through brainstorming based on the relevant information from the unit and other related units they encounter during their schooling. During brainstorming, writers engage in idea mapping and clustering, which enables them to keep track of relationships between ideas.

Step 2: Establishing a Foundation for Writing a Thematic Essay

A. search for sources.

The author’s initial ideas regarding a topic act as the starting point for acquiring credible sources that support and refine those ideas. Basically, contemporary learners engage in electronic searches to find useful and reliable sources for thematic essays. In this case, students should begin their search on the library’s website, which provides them with material that is reliable for academic writing . Also, library search engines have complex filter functionalities, which make the process of searching for academic sources quite simple. Then, authors turn to open-web searches using Google Scholar or other public search engines that generate a significantly larger number of sources. However, some articles may not be accessible to students. Moreover, the burden of determining the reliability of sources falls on authors when they use open-web search engines. In turn, students rely entirely on keywords or keyword combinations to generate working bibliographies.

B. Evaluate Sources Before Writing

Working bibliographies undergo an intensive evaluation process to establish whether they meet the necessary quality standards for inclusion in writing a college-level thematic essay. In this case, the evaluation process involves two primary stages: relevance determination and reliability test. During relevance determination, authors should examine each source by using three criteria:

• The level of attention that the source gives to the topic.
• The suitability of the sources’ sophistication to the purpose and audience’s needs.
• Impact of publication date on the relevance of its information.

Next, the reliability test investigates five critical writing aspects:

• The origin of the thematic source.
• The level of expertise of authors.
• Biases of a source in the context of existing literature.
• Availability and quality of the evidence supporting the source’s claims.
• Objectivity in the presentation of the author’s claims and handling of evidence.

C. Write a Thematic Annotated Bibliography

At this point, the revised working bibliography now contains fewer sources that are relevant and reliable. In particular, students should engage in critical reading of all sources in the working bibliography to identify useful pieces of information they may incorporate into a thematic essay. After reading each source, learners write an annotation that contains a summary of a source, ideas for using this source, and an assessment of this source. Besides the three main elements of an annotated bibliography entry, writers may choose to mention specific pieces of evidence, which are the most significant contributions of a source to a thematic essay. Typically, writers develop an annotated bibliography from notes they make as they read through a text.

D. Develop an Outline

Based on an annotated bibliography, students create an essay outline . Basically, the content of an annotated bibliography entry allows learners to develop relationships between sources, which is essential because it begins to shape an essay structure . In this case, writers identify and group sources that support a general point, which splits a body of a thematic essay into discernible sections. Then, authors break down each general point into specific points that can exist as a body paragraph and assign appropriate sources to individual body paragraphs. Furthermore, scholars logically organize particular points and establish some form of flow within each section of a body paragraph. In turn, writers document the organization of general and specific ideas and the distribution of evidence in a list, like a format that allows for easy identification of hierarchy.

Step 3: Writing a Thematic Essay

A. design a working thesis.

A student develops a working thesis statement , which presents his or her central claim. Basically, questions that writers derive from assignment instructions and specific minor arguments listed in a thematic essay outline are the main pieces of information they use to generate a thesis statement. Initially, writing a working thesis statement may appear as a simple combination of individual responses to assignment questions in the context of the information that forms an outline. However, authors must unite individual answers under a specific inference that demonstrates the significance of writing a thematic essay. Also, a working thesis statement undergoes multiple revisions, which occur randomly during the writing process.

B. Review an Outline

Once an author writes a working thesis statement, a person subjects an informal outline to a revision that results in the creation of a formal outline for a thematic essay. Basically, body paragraphs of a thematic essay are building blocks for a central claim. Consequently, learners must review an informal outline to ensure there is an apparent logical build-up to the inference, which they announce in a written thesis statement. During this review, students focus on the organization of minor arguments to ensure that body paragraphs contain a single minor idea while maintaining a rational relationship with other body paragraphs. Moreover, writing a formal outline contains a systematic arrangement where information with the same level of significance or roles has identical indentation or numbering.

C. Select Sources for Writing

Based on writing a formal outline, students make a final assessment of sources for each body paragraph. In particular, a formal outline contains some changes in its organization and the framing of minor arguments of a thematic essay. Also, these changes may affect the relevance of sources to each body paragraph’s argument. Then, the subdivision or merging of minor arguments may cause some sources to become inadequate because they do not extensively cover new minor ideas. Therefore, writers should check the suitability of each source to arguments it supports to ensure each source provides strong, relevant, and accurate evidence before commencing the drafting process.

D. Draft a Thematic Paper

During the drafting stage, authors expand a thematic outline into a complete paper by changing statements and brief notes into coherent paragraphs. Basically, there is no fixed approach to the drafting of a thematic essay because students may start writing at any point in a thematic essay with the aid of a formal outline. Nonetheless, it is an excellent practice for learners to begin drafting from a paragraph they understand the best because it ensures writers waste very little time trying to overcome the fear of creating the first draft. In turn, scholars should allocate adequate time for drafting.

How to Perfect a Thematic Essay

1. revision, a. self-critic.

After completing the first draft, students undertake a self-conducted revision process, which involves rethinking and rewriting. Basically, the process of revision focuses on the evaluation of the evidence and organization of body paragraphs to ensure they support a working thesis statement entirely. Further, learners revisit a working thesis statement to refine its wording and the claim it presents. Before starting the revision process, writers should take a break, which allows a human brain to reset and attain a higher level of objectivity while revising. Moreover, scholars should use a checklist to reduce the risk of overlooking various crucial thematic essay dynamics during individual revision.

B. Peer Review

The individual revision process identifies the apparent flaws in content presentation, but numerous flaws may go unnoticed due to the authors’ subconscious biases concerning their writing styles . As a result, students should subject their thematic essays to a peer review by a classmate, tutor, parent, or writing center staff. In this case, learners should select a peer reviewer that best represents a member of the target audience. Moreover, authors may provide peer reviewers with a checklist to guide them through the revision process, especially if a person is not an expert editor. Then, students should assign adequate time to the peer review process to allow reviewers to carry out the revision task comfortably. In turn, once writers receive feedback from peer reviewers, they consider comments when making the final revision of a paper.

A. Clarity and Effectiveness

The first consideration in the editing process is the clarity and effectiveness of sentences in a thematic essay. Basically, authors should edit each sentence to ensure statements convey the intended meaning to readers. In this case, it is advisable to focus on six clarity issues, which are the most common in writing thematic papers: lack of parallelism, dangling modifiers, vague references to pronouns, incomplete sentences, and incorrect separation of sentences. Besides clarity, learners should evaluate the efficacy of each statement separately and as part of a paragraph. In turn, the effectiveness of writing statements revolves around the smoothness of transitions, conciseness, variability in sentence structure and length, the distinctiveness of the author’s voice, and emphasis on core ideas.

B. Surface Errors

The subsequent stage of the editing process involves editing for thematic surface and documentation errors. In particular, students should strive to eliminate all surface errors because they divert the readers’ attention to meaning, although some writing errors do not necessarily change the meaning of sentences. For example, learners can edit surface errors by using six-item criteria: spelling errors, comma splices, sentence fragments, verb errors, punctuation errors, and pronoun errors. Moreover, students should not attempt to conduct clarity and effectiveness editing simultaneously with surface error editing, which may result in poor writing because of the extensive nature of rules governing the English language. In turn, the final step in editing a thematic essay is the correction of any documentation errors while referring to the appropriate style manual.

Sample Outline for Writing a Thematic Essay

I. introduction.

A. Hook sentence. B. Background information. C. Thematic thesis statement.

A. First paragraph

1. The idea for writing the first thematic paragraph. 2. Evidence supporting this paragraph’s claim. 3. Interpretation and analysis of evidence.

• First specific deduction from evidence.
• Second specific deduction from evidence.

4. A concluding statement that demonstrates the link between the first paragraph’s claim and thesis statement.

B. Second body paragraph

1. The idea for writing the second thematic paragraph. 2. Evidence supporting this paragraph’s claim. 3. Interpretation and analysis of evidence.

4. A concluding statement that demonstrates the link between the second paragraph’s claim and thesis statement.

C. Third body paragraph

1. The idea for writing the third thematic paragraph. 2. Evidence supporting this paragraph’s claim. 3. Interpretation and analysis of evidence.

4. A concluding statement that demonstrates the link between the third paragraph’s claim and thesis statement.

III. Conclusion

A. Restatement of the thesis statement written in a thematic essay. B. Summary of the three minor arguments in the body paragraphs. C. Closing remarks emphasizing the significance of the central claim in the context of the three minor arguments.

Commentary on a Thematic Essay Outline

1. identify a central theme.

The audience can determine the central theme of a thematic essay from a thesis statement or an overview of topic statements. Basically, writing a well-composed thesis statement must explicitly mention the central theme or implicitly hint at the central theme. Alternatively, the audience can read through topic sentences and correctly speculate the central theme of a thematic essay because minor arguments in individual body paragraphs are building blocks of a thesis statement. However, the readers’ ability to identify the central theme from a formal outline is dependent on their pre-existing knowledge concerning a topic because an outline uses statements and annotations with writing little explanation.

2. Uniqueness

A thematic essay stands out from other types of essays because of the high level of freedom that writers enjoy during authorship. During the writing of a thematic essay, authors can choose any purpose or a combination of purposes to use in different sections of 5 parts of an essay , which is a luxury that argumentative essays and expository essays do not extend to writers. Also, essay instructions for writing a thematic essay tend to define a broad scope for research, which implies that authors may develop a wide variety of arguments. In turn, the expansive nature of the subject of a paper is not present for argumentative essays, which forces students to choose one of the two sides of a controversial issue.

Outlining a Thematic Essay

The introduction section is the first part of a thematic essay, which consists of three main elements: hook, background information, and thesis statement. Firstly, a hook is the first statement of any paper that plays the role of capturing the audience’s attention through creative wording, which gives them a reason to read the entire paper. Since students know how to write a hook , they provide the essential background information that readers require to understand a thesis statement. Moreover, the background information element does not have a fixed length. Instead, it is dependent on the complexity of a thesis statement and the overall length of a thematic essay. Also, writing a thesis statement is the final item of the introductory paragraph. In turn, the length of introductions is approximately 10% of the essay’s word count.

II. Body Paragraphs

A. topic sentence.

A topic sentence contains a minor claim that an author discusses within a paragraph. For example, its primary role is to establish content boundaries, which ensures students focus on a particular idea in each paragraph. Moreover, a topic statement should present a minor argument and mention a relation that it has to the central idea of writing a thematic essay or make a tacit suggestion of its link to a thesis statement. Therefore, writers should avoid the use of in-text citations in a topic statement because it implies that an idea is not original.

B. Evidence

After a topic sentence, students unveil the evidence that supports their claims. In college writing, an in-text citation should accompany any evidence that learners introduce into a thematic essay to direct readers to its origin. Also, learners should rely heavily on summary and paraphrasing in their writing, as opposed to direct quotations from sources. Nevertheless, some thematic essay instructions may specify a particular technique writers must use when integrating evidence into a paper.

C. Evaluation

This element of a paragraph structure allows authors to explain the significance of the evidence to the paragraph’s argument. In this section of a thematic essay, students provide an interpretation of the evidence, which informs the audience of the meaning of the evidence in the context of a source text. Then, writers explain the value of the evidence in developing a reasonable justification for the idea proposed in topic sentences. In turn, learners should avoid the inclusion of lengthy pieces of evidence because it creates a situation where the voice of sources is more dominant than the author’s voice.

D. Concluding Statement

A concluding statement emphasizes the logical relationship that exists between the topic sentence, evidence, evaluation, and thesis statement. In some cases, it may establish the relationship of a paragraph with the preceding paragraph. Also, students should ensure a concluding sentence of a paragraph does not contain a meaningless summary of the key pieces of evidence. Then, a concluding statement of a thematic essay must not contain any new evidence because there is no opportunity to explain the contribution of the evidence in supporting the paragraph’s argument.

A concluding paragraph has three critical features: a restatement of the main claim, a summary of minor arguments, and closing remarks. Basically, the opening statement of a thematic essay reminds students of the central argument by using new words and syntax. After the opening statement, learners summarize minor claims that appear in individual body paragraphs while maintaining a logical organization, which is identical to the arrangement of ideas in the body. Finally, authors write a strong closing statement that knits together the introduction, thesis statement, and minor claims to create a lasting impression on the audience. Moreover, students should ensure they do not introduce new evidence or arguments in a concluding paragraph. In turn, authors must not apologize for a lack of expertise on a topic or make absolute claims because it diminishes the efficacy of writing a good conclusion.

Example of Writing a Thematic Essay

Topic: Recruitment of Terrorists

I. Sample Introduction of a Thematic Essay

Terrorism is a global problem, which appears to be spreading despite an increment in the efforts to suppress its growth. Basically, the prevention of recruitment is a crucial counterterrorism strategy. Moreover, its efficacy is dependent on the understanding of the terrorists’ recruitment techniques. In turn, the terrorist groups’ recruitment methods focus on the target’s identity crisis, which puts a potential member at risk of falling for the ‘appeal’ of terrorism.

II. Examples of Body Paragraphs in a Thematic Essay

A. motivation.

An individual’s desire to be part of a movement that is effecting a radical change in society is a significant motivator for participation in terrorism. For example, recent studies show that terrorist groups begin conversations with most young recruits on social media platforms, which discuss topics concerning social, political, and economic oppression (Jacks, 2020). Basically, this finding suggests that young people in contemporary society have a desire to correct the ‘wrongs’ in society as a means of identity. Consequently, terrorists use the increased sensitivity to social injustices as a common ground to initiate and build a relationship with a prospective recruit. In turn, the youth’s strong desire to do something to stop social injustices that their respective governments ignore leaves them vulnerable to radicalization by terrorist groups.

B. Religious Beliefs

Fanatical religious belief may drive an individual to support or participate in terrorism for the sake of being part of a group. According to Mohammed (2020), the constant pressure from religious parents causes the blind indoctrination of adolescents and young adults, which enables recruiters from terrorist groups to present religious concepts as justifications for terrorism, for example, the holy war. In this case, Mohammed concedes that the mosque is an ideal site for the recruitment of terrorism because of the presence of youth with highly impressionable minds. Moreover, youths depend on teachings at places of worship for knowledge that defines their perspective of the world. As a result, terrorist recruiters disguised as spiritual leaders can easily nurture fanatical beliefs that endorse terrorist activities. Eventually, a feeling of separation from the conservative believers pushes them to pursue groups that share their fanatical religious beliefs.

C. Recruiting

The loss of a family member to counterterrorism activities may act as a motivation factor for grievers who are trying to re-establish their identities because they no longer fit into the traditional social structures. For instance, Tobias (2020) argues that recruiters prey on the pain of grieving family members by offering them retribution as a solution to the overwhelming feeling of incompleteness. After the death of a family member, the emotional turmoil increases the susceptibility of individuals to the idea that terrorist acts are an appropriate response to the ‘killers’ of their loved ones. Often, recruitment occurs during this unstable state and encourages the individual to relive the pain each day, which results in the permanent erosion of their former identity. Accordingly, grievers may find themselves as sympathizers of terrorism, which leads to active or passive participation.

III. Sample Conclusion of a Thematic Essay

Most members of terrorist organizations experience an identity crisis at the time of recruitment. Basically, the need to gain membership to a group that fights against social injustices tolerates fanatical religious beliefs or seeks revenge for the death of loved ones is a sign that identity crisis is a common characteristic in recruits. In turn, current counterterrorism initiatives should seek to break the cycle of recruitment, which will weaken terrorist groups.

Takeaway on How to Write a Good Thematic Essay

• Students should define a narrow writing topic to guide them in generating ideas in response to a thematic paper prompt.
• The characteristics and expectations of the audience are vital in determining an appropriate presentation approach.
• Before drafting a thematic essay, authors must write a formal outline and annotated bibliography, which are critical for organization and evidence selection.
• The maintenance of a high level of fluidity during drafting is critical during drafting because it allows writers to experiment with different styles of expression.
• Revision and editing are aspects of the writing process that a student should not take lightly.
• All body paragraphs must adhere to the four-element paragraph structure.
• The conclusion of a thematic essay should not contain any new evidence or arguments.
• Learners must write a thesis statement that captures a theme that instructors highlight in essay prompts.

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How to Write a Thematic Essay: Detailed Guidelines

Table of contents

• 1 What Is a Thematic Essay?
• 2.1 Introduction
• 2.2 Body Paragraphs
• 2.3 Conclusion
• 3.1 Prepare
• 3.2 Take Notes
• 3.3 Write a Perfect Thematic Essay Introduction
• 3.4 Generate the Main Section
• 3.5 Develop a Perfect Thematic Essay Conclusion and edit your work
• 4.1 How is the dog-human relationship portrayed in the Call of the Wild novel?
• 5.1 What is a good hook for a thematic essay?
• 5.2 How to Write a Thesis for a Thematic Essay?
• 5.3 What is a Perfect Topic Sentence for a Thematic Paper?
• 5.4 What is the difference between a Theme Essay and a Research Paper?

Writing a great thematic essay can be difficult, especially when you are unsure about the topic you want to write about. All you do is find a good thesis statement and ensure you start strong, so readers keep reading.

To get a clear thematic essay definition and what makes it good, we first need to know what makes a good thesis statement . It is the first sentence of your paper that states the main point. It should be clear, concise, and compelling. But are there are tricks on how to compose an excellent thematic paper? What should you do to get the perfect thematic paper? Read on to understand how to write a theme essay.

What Is a Thematic Essay?

A thematic essay is one of the types of academic writing  that focuses on a single topic and analyzes it from various angles. It can be about anything from the environment to something as personal as a person’s life story.

A thematic essay is not just about what you have to say; it’s also about how you say it. This is a similarity this type of paper shares with discursive texts. You must create an authentic voice. If you are good at writing a perfect discursive essay , you are probably good with the thematic kind.

In a thematic essay, the author develops the main ideas of literature using literary devices and techniques like personification, imagery, foreshadowing, etc. Skilled writers tend to identify the main topic, comment on the paper’s literary strategy, and convey the theme’s relevance.

Thematic Essay Outline

This outline gives you a structure and table of contents to follow. The paper outline helps you answer all the assignment questions and organize your points.

Outlines enable you to effectively compare various data and create a thorough and cohesive subject analysis. Some styles could have less strict writing guidelines, like entrepreneurship essay writing, allowing for greater formatting styles innovation. When generating a thematic paper, you need at least five paragraphs. These paragraphs should entail an introduction, body and conclusion format.

Introduction

When developing a thematic paper, focus on your outline: Get a concept of the thesis and how the body will support it. Understand how to synthesize all the information before writing your theme essay.

For the paper’s intro, you must include the thesis statement and relevant background data. Your framework sets the stage for future investigation for responding to a particular query, expressing a specific opinion, or describing why and how something operates. It informs the audience about the main points of your work and what will come next.

This segment should also be captivating enough to reel the reader in and urge them to read more. It is the hook that raises interest, stirs debates, or even poses a simple query to the reader. It offers your thematic essay a focus and a clear goal.

Body Paragraphs

The five-paragraph thematic essay format stipulates a basic framework to follow. Ensure the body has three paragraphs. To make your paper more interesting, include extra illustrative details or instances if it does not have a length requirement. If this seems hard, you can still hire a theme essay writer or expert and pay for your essay to get perfect results.

A thematic essay should be brief and free of wordiness. As the paper’s author, you should concentrate on one sub-topic or argument. The number of body paragraphs for confirming each assertion or outlining the reasoning of the thematic essay might vary. Such variation depends on the intricacy of the topics.

This section strengthens the thesis rather than merely restating it. Therefore, avoid introducing fresh information not covered in the text. Instead, summarize the data discussed in the paper and quickly review the central assertions.

How to Write a Thematic Essay?

Here are the tricks to learn how to write a theme-based essay:

Before writing your paper, find all the source elements and materials you will utilize. Some of the preparation elements may include:

• Reading literature abstract
• Recordings from results of discussions
• Your consideration of the paper’s theme
• Finding the perfect topics

Process all the available materials (arguments, reasoning, and organization) properly to get supporting evidence to support your topics.

When going through source materials, take notes. Taking notes helps you pay more attention to the content you are reading to gain crucial information related to your topic. From the notes, you can easily filter what is relevant and generate your understanding of the literary devices you are using.

Write a Perfect Thematic Essay Introduction

When developing a perfect intro, include a brief description of your approach and understanding of the topic. Mention your goals or what you will cover in the thematic essay. Additionally, include a literary device that plays an important role in the task.

Generate the Main Section

The main part of your paper assumes the generation of the paper’s analysis. It entails the paper’s primary information. At this stage, you should describe your topics.

Develop a Perfect Thematic Essay Conclusion and edit your work

This section is fundamental when you are writing a theme essay. Include a summary of your analysis while writing this section. Make it brief.

After writing the theme essay, review it again to fix any mistakes. You can also give the paper to a friend to confirm any errors. Sometimes you can go online and type, “I want to edit my essay, please help.” You will get online resources to help you fix your professional essay. These resources help individuals edit their theme-based essays to perfection.

How to Write a Thematic Essay: Thematic Essay Example

Here is a sample thematic paper that you can work with:

How is the dog-human relationship portrayed in the Call of the Wild novel?

Dogs are men’s best friends with connected feelings. However, this is a cliché since everyone knows dogs’ role in our lives. We can have police dogs, hunting dogs, guide dogs, herding dogs, etc. This isn’t different from the roles that bucks play. Usually, human beings reciprocate the devotion offered to them with friendship. But is the friendship that humans provide sufficient for the adoration that the dog gives? In Call of the wild, there is a human that shows that humans can provide more than companionship and friendship.

At the start of the Call of the wild, we can see that the crucial part that Buck plays to the Miller family exceeds that of a pet. Buck is relied upon to be a pretty reliable protector and companion. Elmo and Buck were consistent protectors and hunters. No wonder their owner treated them well. However, one expression showed Buck the fierce side of life.

We see how humans tend to treat dogs ruthlessly. They forced the dogs to pull very heavy weights even though they were tired and cold. Moreover, the dogs weren’t compensated sufficiently with food and sleep even though they worked hard each day.

Later on, John Thornton saves Buck and his friends. And for the first time, these dogs experienced true love, the love they were missing while under the care of Judge Miller. Therefore, Buck heads back to Thornton with total devotion. After a while, Thornton dies. Buck joins a pack of wolves. But even when in the pack, Buck always returns to where Thornton died to mourn his loving master.

At the end of the story, we can see that death and time aren’t a hindrance for dogs to show their feelings to their master. Indeed, dogs offer more than love to their masters.

What is a good hook for a thematic essay?

A good hook for a thematic paper should be intriguing to grab the reader’s attention. Moreover, it should introduce the main subject for the theme essay.

How to Write a Thesis for a Thematic Essay?

To write the thesis statement, you should capture the following elements:

• Author (if you know them)
• A simple reference to a certain conflict in the story

What is a Perfect Topic Sentence for a Thematic Paper?

A strong topic sentence should be clear and indicate what to expect in the entire paper. However, it should be brief to avoid giving everything away. Moreover, you should review multiple topics to find the right one.

What is the difference between a Theme Essay and a Research Paper?

A theme paper is short and only includes around five paragraphs. Research papers tend to be pretty long, reaching around eight pages. However, as an author, you can gain help in both of these papers using online writing help by Papersowl . The company has experts who work on your paper and ensure you get perfect results.

• Free unlimited checks
• All common file formats
• Accurate results
• Intuitive interface

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How to Write a Thematic Essay?

06 August, 2020

12 minutes read

Author:  Kate Smith

The road to graduation from any educational institution is lined with essays and written assignments – and the majority of these happen to be thematic essays, as they are supposed to demonstrate that the students understand the topic or material well. A thematic essay is almost as old as writing is, for it focuses on investigating a topic to provide detailed analysis and evidence of why a certain claim can be made.

What is a Thematic Essay?

Although this type of essay is commonly used to analyze some historical facts or a specific literary piece and its significance, a thematic essay can be assigned on a variety of subjects. It is also a traditional classroom essay that may be a part of different exams, so students may be required to craft a thematic essay within limited time, sticking to the topic provided. This is the main reason why they consider thematic essays difficult, but whenever there’s a longer deadline and a choice of topics, the writing process is easier.

However, there’s an important thing that everyone who’s wondering ‘what is a thematic essay?’ needs to know. This type of essay mainly lets the teacher determine your knowledge of the material, and it should demonstrate your comprehension of the topic that you can back up with solid arguments and relevant examples. But proper structure is just as essential to your writing as the scope of the topic. All of the points you want to make, as well as the supporting evidence must be organized in a clear, consecutive way. If your essay lacks focus or is illogical in its organization, your readers will not be able to recognize neither the thoroughness of your research, nor the significance of your critical thinking. They might even have trouble following what evidence you found to help you arrive at a certain conclusion.

How to Find and Explore the Central Theme?

To tackle this type of essay, you often have to narrow down a topic that’s too broad before getting started on your writing. A theme is what an author portrays in a literary work, or the specific point the author is making. Often, it is the most frequently discussed one, or it is a lesson of the greatest overall significance that can be derived from the work and applied to our lives. Thus, to effectively plan out how you are going to write a thematic essay, identify the theme first. Focus on the main point the author is trying to make about a particular subject, the message he is trying to convey, why it is relevant or important at the moment, and the way the reader can benefit from it.

That’s why having a place to start and an outline to follow lays the groundwork for your thematic essay. It is the most important step in the entire essay writing process.

Thematic Essay Outline

By using an outline to shape your essay, you have a format to follow that ensures knowledge of the topic, addressing all the questions of the assignment, and keeping all of the points you want to make well-organized. A thematic essay outline lets you effectively draw parallels between different facts, formulate a coherent and detailed evaluation of the topic, and see whether something in the essay is lacking or needs to be rearranged and revised.

Some essay types may have less rigid layouts and writing requirements, allowing for more creativity and freedom when it comes to formatting. However, this is not the case with instructions on how to write a thematic essay. Just as with other traditional essays, there should be at least five paragraphs in a thematic essay, including an introduction with a thesis statement, three body paragraphs that will support your thesis with relevant arguments and examples, and a logical conclusion to wrap everything up at the end.

Introduction 

Generally, to write a thematic essay you need to have an idea of what your thesis will be, how your body paragraphs will prove it, and how you are going to summarize all of the arguments detailed in the body of the essay in your conclusion. The introduction has to present the main subject of your essay as well as any necessary background information and your thesis statement. At the same time, it should be interesting enough to make the reader want to learn more about the topic. The opening sentence of the introduction is often referred to as a ‘hook’ because it is supposed to grab the reader’s attention. For this purpose, it can evoke anticipation, controversy, irony, or ask a question. The thesis statement is very important because it gives your topic a direction and a specific purpose.

The thesis statement lays the ground for further analysis, for answering a specific question, asserting an opinion or explaining how and why something works (or has worked/failed to produce an expected result). Think of your thesis statement as a compelling and concise headline that gives the reader a good idea of what the rest of the paper is about and what to expect next. It should be engaging, but not confusing to your audience. Have you ever been extremely disappointed by reading an article or watching a movie because it wasn’t what the headline, magazine cover or a movie trailer promised it to be? To make sure your reader doesn’t feel like that, you want your thesis to be integral to the essay and to all of the evidence that you provide in the following body paragraphs. Quite often, a thesis statement needs a few revisions to acquire more focus and clarity as you add the body paragraphs to your thematic essay.

Body paragraphs 

While the 5-paragraph structure gives you a basic layout to work with, it should have three body paragraphs because the thesis must be supported by at least three significant arguments. However, unless the essay has a required length, you can include more supporting facts or examples. There may be more body paragraphs than just three, depending on the details of the assignment or the points you are required to address, but keep in mind that your essay should be concise and devoid of wordiness. Usually, the essay writer should focus on one point or sub-topic per paragraph, but depending on the complexity of the topic, the quantity of paragraphs for validating each claim or explaining your reasoning may vary. 

You can think of body paragraphs as building blocks that include expert quotes or specific examples to add weight to them, as well as to your arguments. This is the ‘meat of your essay’ as long as you make sure that you explain the logic behind each quotation or evidence supporting your claim, and that it is in sync with your thesis statement. Such connections are essential as they tie not only the evidence and arguments, but an entire essay together. 

The conclusion is not simply a reiterated thesis, but a reinforced one. However, it’s important to keep in mind that it should not introduce any new facts not discussed in the body of a thematic essay. The conclusion has to summarize the information presented in the essay, briefly going over the main ideas or claims and explaining how they influence your thesis. Finally, it should wrap up your essay in the most meaningful way, emphasizing the significance and relevance of your topic.

Thematic Essay Examples

Check the examples of thematic essays to use as writing models:

https://www.template.net/business/essay/five-paragraph-essay-template/

Thematic essay topics

To sum up, reading some properly structured thematic essay examples may be the most helpful tip for understanding what your essay should look like, and how to organize your thoughts into a logical sequence. Besides, a list of the most commonly used thematic essay topics is a frequent search query along with ‘thematic essay examples’, as it helps students to get an idea of what to expect at exams.

US History Thematic Essay

In this essay, there will be fewer words that address the reader. The purpose of this writing is to present a balanced analysis of a topic based on facts, explaining a topic in a logical and straightforward manner.

US History thematic essay example topics:

• Major movements in U.S. history
• Major advances in U.S. history
• Significant government reforms
• U.S. Presidents and their major decisions 
• U.S. wars and conflicts

Global Regents Thematic Essay 

These topics are likely to feature broad concepts, but they usually include tasks and suggestions that are more specific. In your essay, you are supposed to address this detailed task and the issues, concepts or questions it prompts you to explain or interpret. Using examples from your course of global history or geography is also required in your thematic essay. 

Global Regents thematic essay example topics:

• Impact of colonizations on world history
• Migrations of people and their effects
• Major characteristics of world civilizations
• Cultures and their contributions
• Economic Systems
• Political Systems
• The turning points in history (revolutions, conflicts, wars)
• Revolutions and clashing of ideas
• Revolutions and new discoveries
• Scientific development
• Technological progress
• Human rights: impactful leaders and their ideas
• Human rights violations

Belief Systems Thematic Essay

A belief system is a way a group or an individual regards religious or philosophical principles. The beliefs that have formed major religions or a mainstay of a civilization may be similar or different, but each belief system has influenced the lives of its followers as well as the history, culture, politics, or economy of a specific nation or country.

Belief Systems thematic essay example topics:

• How belief systems influenced ancient civilizations?
• How did a belief form a religion?
• Cultures as systems of interconnections between humans
• The role of religion in Ancient Roman society
• The three major monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam
• Judaism: the first monotheistic religion
• The personal belief system and life values
• Compare Christianity to another religion. Are there more similarities or differences?
• Compare two struggles for religious freedom in different countries and time periods
• What makes all struggles for religious freedom similar?

The bottom line

While students often have difficulties writing thematic essays, these are not the most complicated tasks to complete within a certain course or subject. They just require making a detailed examination of the topic using relevant facts, examples or other evidence that you should be able to find in order to make your arguments more solid, and to show that you have gained a thorough understanding of the topic. However, you mustn’t just summarize the well-known facts or what you have learned from a course or book. In a thematic essay, you are supposed to identify and explain or compare issues, causes, patterns, outcomes, and connections between facts or events as well as their consequences or influences.

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How to Write a Theme Based Essay

What is a Theme Essay?

A theme based essay is an essay where you write something based on a theme which can be derived from a novel, drama, short story, song, poem or any other literary object that has some form, or plot and story in it. The first part in writing a theme based essay is to identify the theme(s) in the literary piece of work you are thinking writing about. Without properly identifying suitable and appropriate themes, you won’t be able to write a good theme based essay. So, the first and foremost step in writing a theme based essay starts with identifying the underlying themes that you have read in your literature work.

To begin with, a theme can be as simple as the moral of a fable. However, themes just don’t stop with the moral of the story alone. They lie deep within the piece of literature and need to be unearthed, as they are never presented in a direct form. They need to be extracted from the characters, their actions, the settings, the plot and everything else that is present in the novel, story, drama or any other piece of literature. Finding the right essay theme for the theme based essay is one of the major pre-requisites for writing a theme based essay and students are urged not to overlook this part as incorrect or wrong theme can weaken the essay.

The first step in finding the theme of a literary object such as a short story or a novel is by looking at its title.

Theme Essay Example #1

For example, if we take the novel ‘Blood Wedding’ by Federico García Lorca, we will see that it evokes a feeling of bloodshed and violence in us by just reading its title! The novel has such a plot that it is replete with violence and bloodshed from the beginning till the end. Even the second phrase of the novel’s title looks like there is an element of wedding and marriage in the novel and is true to a great extent, as there is a vivid depiction of wedding between a prospective bride and bridegroom. In the midst of the wedding ceremony, there is a sea of violence and bloodshed and hence the title ‘Blood Wedding’. So, by looking at the title of the novel itself, we come to know that the prevalent themes in the novel would be both violence and wedding as they are reflected in the title itself.

Theme Essay Example #2

Similarly, if we take a look at the novel ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, we will find that the title of this novel also presents a picture of death and violence just like the previous novel, which was mentioned above in this passage. The title also reveals that there is some amount of foreshadowing in the story or plot narration and we can get a hint here that the underlying theme in this novel is going to be composed at least of death, violence and foreshadowing. If you read this novel, you will find that the author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, has written the novel in such a way that the underlying theme is basically based on these three elements, i.e., death, violence and foreshadowing.

Theme Essay Example #3

Even if we take the novel ‘The House of the Spirits’ (also known as ‘La Casa de los EspÃritus’ in the original Spanish version), we will find that the title reveals a lot about the underlying theme present in the novel. Spirits can mean ghosts, demons, and angels – anything that is not physical in nature but appearing as supernatural or occult. The House of the Spirits is true to its title as there are plenty of ‘spirits’, ‘ghosts’ and supernatural forces that encircle the house of the main protagonist. Since a house holds a family, there is also a lot of talk about family members in the novel. So, the novel essentially consists of themes that are related to the spirits, family members and houses.

So, we can see that the first and foremost step in writing a theme based essay is to identify the main theme or themes from the title itself. However, just depending upon the title of the literary work is simply not enough for identifying the main themes in the novel or story. You must also read the entire novel/story right from the start till the end a number of times as to acquaint yourself thoroughly about the underlying themes present in it. The following steps will help you in identifying the underlying themes in a better way for your theme based essay:

• Notice the patterns and symbols in the story. Does it appear to be repeating itself regularly? For example, in the novel ‘Blood Wedding’, there is a lot of repetition and stress on blood and wedding. This indicates that these two form the main themes in the novel. If you follow the main patterns and symbols, you will get a better idea of the main themes present in the novel or story, which in turn will make it easier for you to write the theme based essay.
• Notice the allusions that are made in the novel or story. Allusion is a literary technique which is used by writers to make indirect or implicit references to something in their story or novel. If you can identify the allusions, you will also be able to identify the themes in the novel/story.
• Emotions, ideas and other forms of abstract things also form the theme of a literary piece such as novels or short stories. For example, in the novel ‘Blood Wedding’, there is a lot of talk about murder, bloodshed, violence and all these form the core theme of the novel. So, basically, the theme can be found at the deeper level, i.e., at the intellectual or emotional level, which makes it a bit abstract but still identifiable at the surface level. 

Once you have identified the theme, you can start writing your actual essay . The steps in writing a theme based essay are:

• Identify the character or character(s) that you are going to mention in your essay. These must relate to the theme you have identified and chosen for your theme based essay. For example, if you have chosen violence as the main theme in the novel ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’, you must write mainly on the characters that take part in violence or are sufferers/witnesses to violence in the novel. For example, you can write how Santiago Nasar was killed violently by the Vicario brothers. How violence is visible from the early part of the novel, how the guns and knives are depicted as violent tools in the plot, etc.
• Maintain the chosen theme by highlighting it throughout your essay. For example, if you have taken violence as the theme from the novel ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’, write on everything that contains violence or refers to violence in the novel. It doesn’t necessarily have to be based on blood bath, gore or macabre, but can include small incidents of violence like underlying tensions, fits, outrage, outbursts, emotional extremes, etc. The point is that you should try to remain as close to the underlying theme that you are writing in your theme based essay as possible by highlighting incidents and situations from the background source, which could be a novel, story, drama or any other literary piece. For example, here, the source referred is from the novel ‘Chronicle of a Death Foretold’.
• Do not try to mix the main theme with the main subject of the novel/story. Many students assume that the theme and plot/story/subject are the same things and try to write on the story or plot. However, a theme is not the plot or story but is actually an idea, which binds the story or plot in a tight fashion. It is more like a message or the main idea(s) that the writer wants to convey to the readers/audience.
• Start with a brief background of the underlying theme(s) that you have identified in the source matter and mention that in the introduction part of the essay. For example, if you have chosen violence as the main theme from the novel ‘Blood Wedding’, you could start writing in the following way:  “The novel Blood Wedding, written by Federico García Lorca, depicts violence in such a way that even the modern reader of today’s times is intrigued by it. One of the main female characters in the novel, La Novia, causes a number of violent murders in the play. The theme of violence can be felt in the first Act itself when El Novio’s mother responds violently and in a bizarre manner when El Novio asks her for a knife - “Knives, knives…Curse them all.” (Lorca, 5) The reaction of El Novio’s mother shows how much fear she has for knives and other similar sharp objects. El Novio’s father was killed in a ghastly manner when his assailants inflicted multiple stabs on his chest and stomach. Due to the violent murder of her husband, El Novio’s mother is in a state of shock and apprehends violence when she hears about the knife.”
• Keep your thoughts well organised and relate the themes closely knitted throughout the main body in your theme based essay. The body should relate only to the main theme but can also refer to other characters, plot, incidents and events that happen in the source matter.
• After you have presented all the incidents and events related to the main theme, you can summarise the effect of the theme on the character(s) or the plot/story and how it affects the novel/story/drama. This way the conclusion would be solid and effective too.

Frequently Asked Questions About Writing a Theme Based Essay

What is the difference between a theme essay and a research paper.

A theme based essay is one in which you are required to write on a theme stemming from a source such as a story, book, drama, song or poem. A research paper, on the other hand, is an argument you make or analysis of your perspective on a topic that is supported by relevant information from a variety of sources. While both require analysis of the topic or theme, the research paper is a specific type of paper that it expands on an essay by requiring you to choose a standpoint and make an argument for it. 

What is a good topic sentence for a theme paper?

A good topic sentence for a theme paper is one that outlines the general idea of the essay in the first sentence of the paragraph. It is an introduction to the essay and allows the reader to know what to expect when they read through the piece.

What is a good hook for a theme essay?

A good hook sentence is meant to grab your reader’s attention. It must speak directly to your reader, be well-crafted with the right, carefully chosen words and should be consistent with your style of writing. These can take the form of a well-known anecdote, a thought-provoking question, a quote or a fact/statistics. Regardless of your choice, it must serve the purpose of grabbing the attention of your readers.

How to write an introduction paragraph for a theme analysis essay?

The first step in writing an introduction for a theme analysis essay is reading and understanding the theme behind the piece to be written about. Once you’ve found your theme, you will want to state what the general theme is and create a thesis statement. The thesis statement will then be used to explain what your theme paper will be about. When you review the piece to be written about, it is best to take thorough notes on the main points of interest so that you can explain and expound on them in your essay. Starting a theme essay with a good hook will help you to capture your readers’ attention. From there, you can follow through with your thesis statement and introduction of your main ideas.

How to write a thesis for a theme essay?

The thesis statement is written in the introductory paragraph of your essay. It explains the focal point of your piece and must be linked to the theme of the essay. The rest of your essay will be written to support the thesis statement.

How to write a theme essay of a book?

The theme is the overarching idea of the piece you are writing about. In order to write the theme you must read and understand the piece; this includes the tone, characters, scenes, etc. of the piece. Making notes of similar concepts within the piece will help you to identify and state the theme.

How do I explore a certain theme in a literature essay?

When exploring the theme in a literature essay, you need to review all aspects of the piece you are wiring about, including the characters, setting, plot, scenes, language, dialogue, etc. Identify commonalities within the piece that will aid you in drafting a theme that the reader will understand and get the gist of the essay.

How to write a conclusion for a theme essay?

The conclusion should be a summary of the main points stated in your theme paper expressed in a concise and direct manner. In it, you should paraphrase your thesis statement, restate the theme, remind the audience of the main points and have a closing sentence that provides closure to your piece while still being memorable. Remember, the conclusion must be the tie that brings together your entire essay.

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Definition and Examples of Theme-Writing

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

• An Introduction to Punctuation
• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

Theme-writing refers to the conventional writing assignments (including five-paragraph essays ) required in many composition classes since the late-19th century. Also called school writing .

In his book The Plural I: The Teaching of Writing (1978), William E. Coles, Jr., used the term themewriting  (one word) to characterize empty, formulaic writing that is "not meant to be read but corrected." Textbook authors, he said, present writing "as a trick that can be played, a device that can be put into operation . . . just as one can be taught or learn to run an adding machine, or pour concrete."

Examples and Observations:

• "The use of themes has been maligned and vilified in the history of writing instruction. They have come to represent what was bad about the Harvard model, including an obsession with 'correcting' the themes in red ink, but the women's colleges typically used themes to get students writing regular essays based on common topics . . . . Theme writing , as David Russell notes in Writing in the Academic Disciplines, 1870-1990 , continued to be a model for required composition courses at small liberal arts colleges much longer than it did in the larger universities, in large part because the universities could no longer keep up with the labor-intensive practice of having students write multiple essays over the course of a semester or year." (Lisa Mastrangelo and Barbara L'Eplattenier, "'Is It the Pleasure of This Conference to Have Another?': Women's Colleges Meeting and Talking About Writing in the Progressive Era." Historical Studies of Writing Program Administration , ed. by B. L'Eplattenier and L. Mastrangelo. Parlor Press, 2004)
• Camille Paglia on Essay Writing as a Form of Repression "[T]he present concentration on essay writing at the heart of the humanities curriculum is actually discriminatory against people of other cultures and classes. I think it's a game. It's very, very obvious to me, having been teaching for so many years as a part-timer, teaching factory workers and teaching auto mechanics and so on, the folly of this approach. You teach them how to write an essay. It's a game . It's a structure. Speak of social constructionism! It's a form of repression. I do not regard the essay as it's presently constituted as in any way something that came down from Mount Sinai brought by Moses." (Camille Paglia, "The M.I.T. Lecture."  Sex, Art, and American Culture . Vintage, 1992)
• English A at Harvard "Harvard's standard, required composition course was English A, first given in sophomore year and then, after 1885, moved to the first year. . . . In 1900-01 writing assignments included a mix of daily themes, which were brief two- or three-paragraph sketches, and more extended fortnightly themes; topics were up to the student and thus varied widely, but the dailies usually asked for personal experience while the longer ones covered a mix of general knowledge." (John C. Brereton, "Introduction." The Origins of Composition Studies in the American College, 1875-1925 . Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1995)
• Theme Writing at Harvard (Late 19th Century) "When I was an undergraduate at Harvard our instructors in English composition endeavored to cultivate in us a something they termed 'The daily theme eye.' . . . "Daily themes in my day had to be short, not over a page of handwriting. They had to be deposited in a box at the professor's door not later than ten-five in the morning. . . . And because of this brevity, and the necessity of writing one every day whether the mood was on you or not, it was not always easy--to be quite modest--to make these themes literature, which, we were told by our instructors, is the transmission through the written word, from writer to reader, of a mood, an emotion, a picture, an idea." (Walter Prichard Eaton, "Daily Theme Eye." The Atlantic Monthly , March 1907)
• The Chief Benefit of Theme-Writing (1909) "The chief benefit derived from theme-writing lies probably in the instructor's indication of errors in the themes and his showing how these errors are to be corrected; for by these means the student may learn the rules that he is inclined to violate, and thus may be helped to eliminate the defects from his writing. Hence it is important that the errors and the way to correct them be shown to the student as completely and clearly as possible. For instance, suppose that a theme contains the sentence 'I have always chosen for my companions people whom I thought had high ideals.' Suppose the instructor points out the grammatical fault and gives the student information to this effect: 'An expression such as he says, he thinks , or he hears interpolated in a relative clause does not affect the case of the subject of the clause. For example, "The man who I thought was my friend deceived me" is correct; "who" is the subject of "was my friend"; "I thought" is a parenthesis which does not affect the case of "who." In your sentence, "whom" is not the object of "thought," but the subject of "had high ideals"; it should therefore be in the nominative case .' From this information the student is likely to get more than the mere knowledge that the 'whom' in this particular case should be changed to 'who'; he is likely to learn a principle, the knowledge of which--if he will remember it--will keep him from committing similar errors in future. "But the theme from which one sentence is quoted above contains fourteen other errors; and the forty-nine other themes which the instructor is to hand back to-morrow morning contain among them about seven hundred and eighty-five more. How shall the instructor, as he indicates these eight hundred errors, furnish the information called for by each one? Obviously he must use some kind of shorthand." (Edwin Campbell Woolley, The Mechanics of Writing . D.C. Heath, 1909)
• Advanced Composition
• Definition and Examples of Correctness in Language
• Models of Composition
• Definition and Examples of Narratives in Writing
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• A Writing Portfolio Can Help You Perfect Your Writing Skills
• What Is a Dangling Modifier?
• What Is Composition? Definition, Types, and Examples
• Hookers vs. Chasers: How Not to Begin an Essay
• Sample Essay Rubric for Elementary Teachers
• The Whys and How-tos for Group Writing in All Content Areas
• How Dyslexia Impacts Writing Skills
• How to Write Your Graduate School Admissions Essay
• Writing Prompt (Composition)

How to write a theme statement

When you get done with a reading assignment for school, usually an essay, novel, or short story, you'll sometimes be asked to write a theme statement.

The definition of a theme statement can vary, but essentially it's asking you to state what the piece of writing was about — not the plot, but what sort of insight or perspective does it give on life/the world/human nature?

Theme is also sometimes known as the "main idea" of a story.

But how do you find the theme of a story? And how do you write a theme statement?

To write a theme statement, follow these 3 steps:

• Pick the main topic addressed in the story
• Pinpoint the author's view on the topic
• Format that perspective using a theme statement template

Let's dive a little deeper:

Finding the theme of a story using topics

After you're finished reading the book, story, or essay (you did read it, right?!), think back on the main character or characters.

Did they undergo some kind of change throughout the journey? Did their outlook on life evolve in some way?

That's usually a pretty good place to start looking for the theme.

For example, maybe the story deals with the broad topic of "love." Well "love" by itself isn't a theme, but a specific perspective on love could be.

Try this exercise once you've found your topic. Fill in the blank:

"This author believes _____ about (topic)."

In our example about love, maybe the story's about how love conquers all. Or maybe it's about how love is fleeting and fickle.

Your theme at this point might look something like this:

"The author believes that true love doesn't really exist."

(A little dark, but hey, it's just an example!)

Using a theme statement template

Every teacher or instructor is going to have their own way of wanting you to present your theme statement, so be sure to get clarity on that directly from them.

That said, there are some agreed upon "rules" of writing theme statements.

• Don't include specific characters or plot points. This perspective on life should apply to people and situations outside the story.
• Don't be obvious. "War is bad," is not a theme. Dig a little deeper using details from the story. (What specifically is bad about war? How does it negatively impact the characters or the world of the story?)
• Don't make it advicey. "You should always be there for your family," isn't a theme, it's a suggestion. Keep your theme statement objective and based solely on evidence from the story ("The bond between family can overcome any obstacle.")
• Don't use cliches. "Once a cheater, always a cheater," or "Actions speak louder than words," aren't themes. They're just expressions people use all the time and have very little power or real insight.

Here is a general template you can use based on what we learned above:

"The central theme of (piece of writing) is (author's position on topic) ."

Alternatively, you could try: "In (piece of writing), (author) presents the idea that (position on topic)."

You may also be asked to use supporting details from the story to back up your theme statement. In that case, your full theme statement might look something like this:

"The central theme of (piece of writing) is (author's position on topic). When (event from the story) happens, it results in (blank), which demonstrates (some element of the theme)."

You're going to have to tweak and adjust this based on how much detail the assignment calls for and which examples from the text you choose to use, but it should be a good starting point!

Theme statement examples

OK, so what does it look like in action?

Here are some example theme statements from stories you're probably already familiar with (I'm doing these mostly to demonstrate how to use the template. I hope you'll put a lot of thought into your own theme statements and play around with different ideas before committing to one) :

In 'The Dark Knight Rises', Christopher Nolan presents the idea that true heroism requires complete and utter selflessness.

The central theme of 'Finding Nemo' is that fear is sometimes more dangerous than danger itself.

In 'Romeo and Juliet', Shakespeare presents the idea that love is more powerful than hate.

Hope this helps! And good luck!

Questions? Let me know in the comments.

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Theme Definition

What is theme? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

A theme is a universal idea, lesson, or message explored throughout a work of literature. One key characteristic of literary themes is their universality, which is to say that themes are ideas that not only apply to the specific characters and events of a book or play, but also express broader truths about human experience that readers can apply to their own lives. For instance, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (about a family of tenant farmers who are displaced from their land in Oklahoma) is a book whose themes might be said to include the inhumanity of capitalism, as well as the vitality and necessity of family and friendship.

Some additional key details about theme:

• All works of literature have themes. The same work can have multiple themes, and many different works explore the same or similar themes.
• Themes are sometimes divided into thematic concepts and thematic statements . A work's thematic concept is the broader topic it touches upon (love, forgiveness, pain, etc.) while its thematic statement is what the work says about that topic. For example, the thematic concept of a romance novel might be love, and, depending on what happens in the story, its thematic statement might be that "Love is blind," or that "You can't buy love . "
• Themes are almost never stated explicitly. Oftentimes you can identify a work's themes by looking for a repeating symbol , motif , or phrase that appears again and again throughout a story, since it often signals a recurring concept or idea.

Theme Pronunciation

Here's how to pronounce theme: theem

Identifying Themes

Every work of literature—whether it's an essay, a novel, a poem, or something else—has at least one theme. Therefore, when analyzing a given work, it's always possible to discuss what the work is "about" on two separate levels: the more concrete level of the plot (i.e., what literally happens in the work), as well as the more abstract level of the theme (i.e., the concepts that the work deals with). Understanding the themes of a work is vital to understanding the work's significance—which is why, for example, every LitCharts Literature Guide uses a specific set of themes to help analyze the text.

Although some writers set out to explore certain themes in their work before they've even begun writing, many writers begin to write without a preconceived idea of the themes they want to explore—they simply allow the themes to emerge naturally through the writing process. But even when writers do set out to investigate a particular theme, they usually don't identify that theme explicitly in the work itself. Instead, each reader must come to their own conclusions about what themes are at play in a given work, and each reader will likely come away with a unique thematic interpretation or understanding of the work.

Symbol, Motif, and Leitwortstil

Writers often use three literary devices in particular—known as symbol , motif , and leitwortstil —to emphasize or hint at a work's underlying themes. Spotting these elements at work in a text can help you know where to look for its main themes.

• Near the beginning of Romeo and Juliet , Benvolio promises to make Romeo feel better about Rosaline's rejection of him by introducing him to more beautiful women, saying "Compare [Rosaline's] face with some that I shall show….and I will make thee think thy swan a crow." Here, the swan is a symbol for how Rosaline appears to the adoring Romeo, while the crow is a symbol for how she will soon appear to him, after he has seen other, more beautiful women.
• Symbols might occur once or twice in a book or play to represent an emotion, and in that case aren't necessarily related to a theme. However, if you start to see clusters of similar symbols appearing in a story, this may mean that the symbols are part of an overarching motif, in which case they very likely are related to a theme.
• For example, Shakespeare uses the motif of "dark vs. light" in Romeo and Juliet to emphasize one of the play's main themes: the contradictory nature of love. To develop this theme, Shakespeare describes the experience of love by pairing contradictory, opposite symbols next to each other throughout the play: not only crows and swans, but also night and day, moon and sun. These paired symbols all fall into the overall pattern of "dark vs. light," and that overall pattern is called a motif.
• A famous example is Kurt Vonnegut's repetition of the phrase "So it goes" throughout his novel Slaughterhouse Five , a novel which centers around the events of World War II. Vonnegut's narrator repeats the phrase each time he recounts a tragic story from the war, an effective demonstration of how the horrors of war have become normalized for the narrator. The constant repetition of the phrase emphasizes the novel's primary themes: the death and destruction of war, and the futility of trying to prevent or escape such destruction, and both of those things coupled with the author's skepticism that any of the destruction is necessary and that war-time tragedies "can't be helped."

Symbol, motif and leitwortstil are simply techniques that authors use to emphasize themes, and should not be confused with the actual thematic content at which they hint. That said, spotting these tools and patterns can give you valuable clues as to what might be the underlying themes of a work.

Thematic Concepts vs. Thematic Statements

A work's thematic concept is the broader topic it touches upon—for instance:

• Forgiveness

while its thematic statement is the particular argument the writer makes about that topic through his or her work, such as:

• Human judgement is imperfect.
• Love cannot be bought.
• Getting revenge on someone else will not fix your problems.
• Learning to forgive is part of becoming an adult.

Should You Use Thematic Concepts or Thematic Statements?

Some people argue that when describing a theme in a work that simply writing a thematic concept is insufficient, and that instead the theme must be described in a full sentence as a thematic statement. Other people argue that a thematic statement, being a single sentence, usually creates an artificially simplistic description of a theme in a work and is therefore can actually be more misleading than helpful. There isn't really a right answer in this debate.

In our LitCharts literature study guides , we usually identify themes in headings as thematic concepts, and then explain the theme more fully in a few paragraphs. We find thematic statements limiting in fully exploring or explaining a the theme, and so we don't use them. Please note that this doesn't mean we only rely on thematic concepts—we spend paragraphs explaining a theme after we first identify a thematic concept. If you are asked to describe a theme in a text, you probably should usually try to at least develop a thematic statement about the text if you're not given the time or space to describe it more fully. For example, a statement that a book is about "the senselessness of violence" is a lot stronger and more compelling than just saying that the book is about "violence."

Identifying Thematic Statements

One way to try to to identify or describe the thematic statement within a particular work is to think through the following aspects of the text:

• Plot: What are the main plot elements in the work, including the arc of the story, setting, and characters. What are the most important moments in the story? How does it end? How is the central conflict resolved?
• Protagonist: Who is the main character, and what happens to him or her? How does he or she develop as a person over the course of the story?
• Prominent symbols and motifs: Are there any motifs or symbols that are featured prominently in the work—for example, in the title, or recurring at important moments in the story—that might mirror some of the main themes?

After you've thought through these different parts of the text, consider what their answers might tell you about the thematic statement the text might be trying to make about any given thematic concept. The checklist above shouldn't be thought of as a precise formula for theme-finding, but rather as a set of guidelines, which will help you ask the right questions and arrive at an interesting thematic interpretation.

Theme Examples

The following examples not only illustrate how themes develop over the course of a work of literature, but they also demonstrate how paying careful attention to detail as you read will enable you to come to more compelling conclusions about those themes.

Themes in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald explores many themes in The Great Gatsby , among them the corruption of the American Dream .

• The story's narrator is Minnesota-born Nick Caraway, a New York bonds salesman. Nick befriends Jay Gatsby, the protagonist, who is a wealthy man who throws extravagant parties at his mansion.
• The central conflict of the novel is Gatsby's pursuit of Daisy, whom he met and fell in love with as a young man, but parted from during World War I.
• He makes a fortune illegally by bootlegging alcohol, to become the sort of wealthy man he believes Daisy is attracted to, then buys a house near her home, where she lives with her husband.
• While he does manage to re-enter Daisy's life, she ultimately abandons him and he dies as a result of her reckless, selfish behavior.
• Gatsby's house is on the water, and he stares longingly across the water at a green light that hangs at the edge of a dock at Daisy's house which sits across a the bay. The symbol of the light appears multiple times in the novel—during the early stages of Gatsby's longing for Daisy, during his pursuit of her, and after he dies without winning her love. It symbolizes both his longing for daisy and the distance between them (the distance of space and time) that he believes (incorrectly) that he can bridge. 
• In addition to the green light, the color green appears regularly in the novel. This motif of green broadens and shapes the symbolism of the green light and also influences the novel's themes. While green always remains associated with Gatsby's yearning for Daisy and the past, and also his ambitious striving to regain Daisy, it also through the motif of repeated green becomes associated with money, hypocrisy, and destruction. Gatsby's yearning for Daisy, which is idealistic in some ways, also becomes clearly corrupt in others, which more generally impacts what the novel is saying about dreams more generally and the American Dream in particular. 

Gatsby pursues the American Dream, driven by the idea that hard work can lead anyone from poverty to wealth, and he does so for a single reason: he's in love with Daisy. However, he pursues the dream dishonestly, making a fortune by illegal means, and ultimately fails to achieve his goal of winning Daisy's heart. Furthermore, when he actually gets close to winning Daisy's heart, she brings about his downfall. Through the story of Gatsby and Daisy, Fitzgerald expresses the point of view that the American Dream carries at its core an inherent corruption. You can read more about the theme of The American Dream in The Great Gatsby here .

Themes in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart

In Things Fall Apart , Chinua Achebe explores the theme of the dangers of rigidly following tradition .

• Okonkwo is obsessed with embodying the masculine ideals of traditional Igbo warrior culture.
• Okonkwo's dedication to his clan's traditions is so extreme that it even alienates members of his own family, one of whom joins the Christians.
• The central conflict: Okonkwo's community adapts to colonization in order to survive, becoming less warlike and allowing the minor injustices that the colonists inflict upon them to go unchallenged. Okonkwo, however, refuses to adapt.
• At the end of the novel, Okonkwo impulsively kills a Christian out of anger. Recognizing that his community does not support his crime, Okonkwo kills himself in despair.
• Clanswomen who give birth to twins abandon the babies in the forest to die, according to traditional beliefs that twins are evil.
• Okonkwo kills his beloved adopted son, a prisoner of war, according to the clan's traditions.
• Okonkwo sacrifices a goat in repentence, after severely beating his wife during the clan's holy week.

Through the tragic story of Okonkwo, Achebe is clearly dealing with the theme of tradition, but a close examination of the text reveals that he's also making a clear thematic statement that following traditions too rigidly leads people to the greatest sacrifice of all: that of personal agency . You can read more about this theme in Things Fall Apart   here .

Themes in Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken

Poem's have themes just as plot-driven narratives do. One theme that Robert Frost explores in this famous poem,  The Road Not Taken ,  is the illusory nature of free will .

• The poem's speaker stands at a fork in the road, in a "yellow wood."
• He (or she) looks down one path as far as possible, then takes the other, which seems less worn.
• The speaker then admits that the paths are about equally worn—there's really no way to tell the difference—and that a layer of leaves covers both of the paths, indicating that neither has been traveled recently.
• After taking the second path, the speaker finds comfort in the idea of taking the first path sometime in the future, but acknowledges that he or she is unlikely to ever return to that particular fork in the woods.
• The speaker imagines how, "with a sigh" she will tell someone in the future, "I took the road less travelled—and that has made all the difference."
• By wryly predicting his or her own need to romanticize, and retroactively justify, the chosen path, the speaker injects the poem with an unmistakeable hint of irony .
• The speaker's journey is a symbol for life, and the two paths symbolize different life paths, with the road "less-travelled" representing the path of an individualist or lone-wolf. The fork where the two roads diverge represents an important life choice. The road "not taken" represents the life path that the speaker would have pursued had he or she had made different choices.

Frost's speaker has reached a fork in the road, which—according to the symbolic language of the poem—means that he or she must make an important life decision. However, the speaker doesn't really know anything about the choice at hand: the paths appear to be the same from the speaker's vantage point, and there's no way he or she can know where the path will lead in the long term. By showing that the only truly informed choice the speaker makes is how he or she explains their decision after they have already made it , Frost suggests that although we pretend to make our own choices, our lives are actually governed by chance.

What's the Function of Theme in Literature?

Themes are a huge part of what readers ultimately take away from a work of literature when they're done reading it. They're the universal lessons and ideas that we draw from our experiences of works of art: in other words, they're part of the whole reason anyone would want to pick up a book in the first place!

It would be difficult to write any sort of narrative that did not include any kind of theme. The narrative itself would have to be almost completely incoherent in order to seem theme-less, and even then readers would discern a theme about incoherence and meaninglessness. So themes are in that sense an intrinsic part of nearly all writing. At the same time, the themes that a writer is interested in exploring will significantly impact nearly all aspects of how a writer chooses to write a text. Some writers might know the themes they want to explore from the beginning of their writing process, and proceed from there. Others might have only a glimmer of an idea, or have new ideas as they write, and so the themes they address might shift and change as they write. In either case, though, the writer's ideas about his or her themes will influence how they write. 

One additional key detail about themes and how they work is that the process of identifying and interpreting them is often very personal and subjective. The subjective experience that readers bring to interpreting a work's themes is part of what makes literature so powerful: reading a book isn't simply a one-directional experience, in which the writer imparts their thoughts on life to the reader, already distilled into clear thematic statements. Rather, the process of reading and interpreting a work to discover its themes is an exchange in which readers parse the text to tease out the themes they find most relevant to their personal experience and interests.

Other Helpful Theme Resources

• The Wikipedia Page on Theme: An in-depth explanation of theme that also breaks down the difference between thematic concepts and thematic statements.
• The Dictionary Definition of Theme: A basic definition and etymology of the term.
• In this instructional video , a teacher explains her process for helping students identify themes.

• PDFs for all 136 Lit Terms we cover
• Downloads of 1910 LitCharts Lit Guides
• Teacher Editions for every Lit Guide
• Explanations and citation info for 40,226 quotes across 1910 books
• Downloadable (PDF) line-by-line translations of every Shakespeare play
• Figure of Speech
• Alliteration
• Climax (Plot)
• Slant Rhyme
• Static Character
• Epanalepsis
• Deus Ex Machina
• Internal Rhyme
• Personification
• Juxtaposition

Writing Theme: The Simple Way to Weave a Thematic Message into Your Story

by J. D. Edwin | 0 comments

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Does the concept of “theme” confuse you? Do you have trouble writing a strong theme, or weaving a theme into your story? How do you write a theme in literature? 

If theme confuses you, you’re not alone. Lots of writers struggle to identify a theme in their book—and many don't even know what thematic message the are communicating through their story until a second or later draft.

The good news is, there are writing tips you can use when weaving a thematic message (or two) into your story. I'd like to share three simple ways to do this.

Why Writing Theme Was Difficult for Me (And How I Overcame This)

I remember the days back in high school English class when I dreaded writing essays on the common themes of books and stories.

There was one particular book that always lingers on my mind, Cold Mountain. I did not understand this book in the least, and when asked about theme, I picked a random sentence that sounded nice and called it a thematic statement. It wasn't one. It was about rocks—not the human condition.

As I grew and developed my skills as a writer, the concept of inserting a theme into a story eluded me.

A theme, after all, is an important story element when writing a novel .

It’s often abstract and vague, and yet it’s supposed to fit every part of your story and tie it all together.

How can you fit this big, confounding idea into your story and keep it consistent throughout, especially when writing a book?

Believe it or not, there is a way!

It wasn’t until the last few years that I finally began to understand how exactly a theme should fit into a story, and that—as it turns out—writing theme isn’t that complicated at all.

When Writing Theme, First Ask Yourself: “What is a Theme?”

A central theme is the main idea or underlying meaning that an author explores in a novel. There can be multiple themes in a story, but each of them says something big about the story's lesson, and what readers can take away from the book.

Does this seem confusing, or ambiguous? Let’s make it simpler:

A theme is an idea that recurs in a story.

That makes a little more sense. But let’s break it down even further.

A theme is a message you keep reminding your reader because it's what the story is really about.

That means a theme is a message that says, “Hey, by the way, just so you remember, this is what I’m trying to tell you. I want you to read this story and remember this .”

You sprinkle this message throughout your story like seasoning on a dish, through description, through dialogue, and through choices made by your characters.

But when writing theme, how do you choose your story's theme(s)? And even after you choose them, how do you weave them into your story's scenes ?

How to Choose Your Story's Theme

Your theme doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be one sentence, a simple phrase, or just one word. In fact, the simpler and more straightforward the theme, the better.

Think of your theme as the one idea you want your readers to keep in the back of their minds during and after reading the story.

For an example, let’s pretend we are going to write a story about an old woman recounting the long life she’s lived.

The theme we want to convey is “passage of time.”

But what does this mean? What will this say about your character experiencing your story, and how can you make this clear to the reader without being overly obvious? What will my story say about the passage of time?

Weaving Theme in Your Story

When writing theme, and then weaving it into your story, begin by identifying words relevant to your theme.

In the example we’ve selected, many words tie to the concept of time, such as:

• Clocks/watches
• Ahead/behind
• Birth/death

Once you identify these words, weave them into your story. This is something that may feel difficult when you first draft your story, but can be done fairly easily in future drafts or during editing.

Let’s take a look at how we can weave this theme of passing time into our story. Imagine this scene:

Doris sat on the creaky bench at the bus stop. The shops down by Main Street had changed from what she remembered. Old McLaren’s barbershop had become a trendy boutique, and the high school where her children attended had been knocked down and rebuilt twice since they graduated. A bike lane had been added to accommodate the increase in cyclers. Biking seemed to have made a comeback. The city bus pulled up with a groan. The tired-looking driver popped the door and gestured to her. “Come on now, I got a schedule to keep.” Doris rose, wincing at her aching bones, and dragged herself onto the bus, where she chose a seat near the back window and watched the city she no longer recognized scroll by outside.

This passage conveys what the story wants to say about time, but something feels weak about it.

It’s loose, like a series of thoughts and descriptions that has a central idea but not quite. To change that, let’s review our theme-relevant words above and take another crack at it.

Here we go:

The ancient bench creaked under Doris as she put her weight on it. It needed a coat of paint badly, but the fast-paced city couldn’t be bothered to pause and refurbish every run-down bus stop. It certainly had time though, Doris thought, to take down and replace all her old haunts. Old McLaren’s barbershop had become a trendy boutique last fall, and the high school where her children attended had been knocked down and rebuilt twice since they graduated at the turn of the century. A bike lane had been added to accommodate the increase in cyclers. Biking was big in the ‘80s, and now the hipsters have brought it back. The city bus pulled up with an exhausted groan. Compared to the bus stop, the old machine looked even worse for wear. The driver with deep lines over his brows popped the door and gestured to her. “Tick-tock, lady. Got a schedule to keep.” Doris rose, wincing at her aching bones. Perhaps she ought to lose weight, she thought to herself, but it was more a flight of fancy than anything – the days when she could still hit the treadmill in between busy work days and long nights partying were far behind her. She dragged herself onto the bus, started to sit in the first available seat, then changed her mind and moved to a quieter spot near the back window, where she settled down heavily and watched the city she no longer recognized scroll by outside.

Does this passage feel more interesting? More emotive? Paints a clearer picture?

The reason is because the theme of time comes through, not only for Doris, but in the poorly maintained bus stop (ancient; contrast against the fast-paced city), the passing of seasons and time (fall, turn of the century), and word choices (tick-tock).

The bus is an old machine, the driver has lines over his brows, the old trend of biking comes full circle, and Doris is no longer the young buck she once was.

Then, instead of sitting in the most convenient seat, she chooses one in the back, a quiet spot that contrasts against her former busy, noisy life of working, gym, and parties.

Every part of this passage now emphasizes time, using words that call to mind clocks, seasons, fast and slow, old and young. Not only does it bring forth the theme and message more strongly, it also makes the story more vivid, tight, and emotional.

Writing theme—specifically the passage of time—in this example takes on new meaning because the context of the story's character, perspective, setting, and conflict all points back to the character's relationship with time itself.

The theme becomes more purposeful because the theme, the passage of time, has a purpose in how the character experiences her surroundings.

Writing With a Theme Makes a Difference

Fitting a theme to your story doesn’t have to be complicated.

By breaking it down to relevant words wrapped around a central idea, you can sprinkle it all throughout your book and reiterate your message to your readers in a subtle, consistent manner.

Writing with a theme can seem daunting, because it feels like everything you write has to fit this one central idea. But the truth is, deciding on a theme can actually help making the writing process easier.

There are a million ways to describe a particular tree your character encounters on their walk. Is it tall? Beautiful? Ugly? Majestic? Inconvenient? Knobbly? But with a theme in mind, you can quickly narrow down the appropriate words to use.

A theme of time, as mentioned above, might lead you to describe the tree as “ancient”, or “a young sapling,” or “bent like grandmother's back.” A different theme, such as young love, might lead you to describe it as “a meeting place of lovers,” or “swaying gently like a lady's hips.”

Instead of being a burden or extra consideration, a theme can work with you and serve as your guide.

And remember, you shouldn't overthink (or overdo) a theme. Plenty of writers don't even know their story's theme until after they've written their first draft.

Still, you need a theme to make a story resonate with your reader after they finish your book. And using the simple tip for writing theme (and weaving it into your scenes) discussed in this post will strengthen your revisions—and the messages making your story memorable and meaningful.

Have you come across themes in your past readings that really resonated with you? Share in the comments below.

First, pick a theme and list out five to ten words relevant to it. Really think about what it would take to integrate these words into a story. Take five minutes to choose your theme and list your words.

Now, take ten minutes to write a blurb that communicates the theme above using the words you listed to inject your message into the story.

When you're done, share your theme and your blurb in the Pro Practice Workshop here . And be sure to support your fellow writers by commenting on what they share, too!

J. D. Edwin

J. D. Edwin is a daydreamer and writer of fiction both long and short, usually in soft sci-fi or urban fantasy. Sign up for her newsletter for free articles on the writer life and updates on her novel, find her on Facebook and Twitter ( @JDEdwinAuthor ), or read one of her many short stories on Short Fiction Break literary magazine .

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