A thesis is the major claim that your paper makes. It establishes the main idea you’ll develop and “prove” in the rest of your paper. A thesis is an explicit statement that’s typically (but not always) placed in the opening paragraph or two of an academic paper.

Here are some sample thesis statements written by former students for the same kind of assignment you’re working on:

• As Kilbourne suggests, women are often relegated to the role of faceless object or “trophy” in magazines, and my two advertisements reveal this idea through their verbal and visual content.
  
  
• The two images below, one for Hugo Boss cologne and one for Michael Kors cologne, illustrate Kilbourne’s assertion that men and women are often portrayed in drastically different—and ultimately harmful—ways in contemporary advertising.
  
  
• The two images from PETA below illustrate Kilbourne’s conclusions that contemporary media tends to oversexualize and objectify women and hold them to impossible beauty standards.
  
  
• The movie posters below illustrate Katz’s key claim about how media images link masculinity with violence.

Notice that each of these statements focuses on an assertion (also known as a claim) that has to do with how people are portrayed in media images (our focus for our assignment!).  Each of the statements also relates back to the lens text (Kilbourne’s video or Katz’s video) in some way, even if the lens text isn’t directly mentioned in the statement. And notice that each of these thesis statements makes a claim only about the writer’s specific images.  This is important because you can’t possibly make claims for all media images ever produced; you can make claims about your specific images only.

Now write out a few attempts at a thesis.  Look back at all your prewriting, and think about the main claim you’d like to make about your images.  Then start trying out some ideas for possible thesis statements.  Usually, it takes several “tries” to get a thesis that will work for your paper!

In the simplest terms, your paper should probably have three main sections–an intro, a body, and a conclusion.  Typically, for a fairly short paper like the one you’ll be writing, your intro will be just one paragraph (or maybe two), and your conclusion will be just one paragraph.  The body section, however, will consist of multiple paragraphs.  There’s no set number of paragraphs for the body section–you’ll just need however many you’ll need in order to fully develop your ideas!

Below are two sample generic (very generic!) outlines that could work for the kind of paper you’re writing for Project #2.  Of course, these aren’t the only possible outlines you could use–see the flow charts in the “Analyzing Texts” chapter of the Norton Field Guide for more ideas. And maybe you’ll tweak things to come up with an alternative structure that works for you!

Sample outline #1:
Intro:
Attention-getting openingStatement of thesisBody:
Description of image 1Description of image 2Analysis of image 1 (illustrating ideas in thesis; applying Kilbourne’s and/or Katz’s ideas)Analysis of image 2 (illustrating ideas in thesis; applying Kilbourne’s and/or Katz’s ideas)Conclusion:
Final comment on images’ meaning and cultural importance

Sample outline #2:
Intro:
Attention-getting openingStatement of thesisBody:
Description of image 1Analysis of image 1 (illustrating ideas in thesis; applying Kilbourne’s or Katz’s ideas)Description of image 2Analysis of image 2 (illustrating ideas in thesis; applying Kilbourne’s or Katz’s ideas)Conclusion:
Final comment on ads’ meaning and cultural importance

Now try to create an outline or some other written/visual plan for YOUR paper.  You may follow the generic outlines given above, if you want, but you must be MUCH more specific in terms of the details.  For instance: insert your actual thesis into the outline; mention what details you’ll describe for each image; mention what ideas from Kilbourne or Katz you’ll discuss in your analysis; etc.  

If you want, you can create a web or cluster to represent your overall plan — but be sure to include the details mentioned above (thesis, ideas about what you’ll discuss in your analysis, etc.). 

Most importantly, remember to consider your rhetorical situation:  What is your purpose in writing–what are you trying to achieve? Who is your audience? How familiar will they be with your images? With your lens text? How much detail will you need to provide? How can you guide your readers through your writing?