While your general and specific speech purposes reflect your own goals as a speaker, your thesis statement is a single sentence that communicates to your audience the main idea of your speech. For example:

General Purpose To persuade.

Specific Purpose To persuade the audience to vote.

Thesis Statement Audience members should vote because voting not only fulfills the duty of every citizen in a democracy but also bonds voters to their communities and gives those communities a voice in how government is run.