As a model of an almost fully extended macromolecule, a small, flexible, inextensible, nearly straight thread in a shearing flow with weak Brownian motions is considered. The hydrodynamic resistance to motion is included using the slenderbody theory for Stokes flow. The variation of the small transverse displacements along the thread is expressed as a truncated sum of Fourier components, with appropriately chosen modal functions. A diffusion equation is derived in the Fourier space and solved. The expected deformation of the thread is then given for axisymmetric and two-dimensional straining flows. The transverse displacement of the ends and the small shortening of the projected length of the thread are both found to be sensitive to the truncation of the Fourier representation, although it becomes clear on physical grounds that the ratio of the shortening to the typical transverse distortion should increase with the number of degrees of freedom. In simple shear flow the deformation increases as the thread aligns with the flow, until the analysis breaks down when the entire thread is no longer in the extensional quadrants. The influence of the 2:1 ratio of the resistance coefficients from the slender-body theory is found to be a small numerical factor.