: Re: Do thesis statements have to follow a specific order? I am 40 years old, returning to college a second time. I have just been informed by my teacher that a thesis statement must always list

@Courtney562

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If this is an undergraduate course, your instructor has the right idea. I think you're focused a little too much on the ordering part to hear the full idea of what a good thesis statement is.
Nothing is communicated with "Enkidu and Grendel have similarities." Any two of anything will contain at least some similarities.
I'm not familiar enough with those two characters to continue with that example, but hopefully the idea of "Voldemort and Darth Vader have similarities" communicates the same type of statement and is not a thesis statement. "Voldemort and Darth Vader are similar because both are victims of abusive childhoods, have complicated relationships with their families, and inspire fear with distinctive scary facial features" is a thesis statement.
Thus, armed with a three-pronged thesis statement, you spend the next parts of your essay providing evidence for each argument of your thesis. The thesis above has no evidence built in. You have to prove that they had abusive childhoods and this affects their later actions with examples from the movies, facts about psychology, similar historical accounts, whatever. And then do that for the next two arguments.
This is why the instructor recommended following the same order. It's a logical flow. To go from that sentence to something other than the first point is a disruption of that flow.

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