How To Write a
Thesis Statement
What is a Thesis Statement?
Almost all of us—even if we don’t do it
consciously—look early in an essay for a one- or two-sentence condensation of
the argument or analysis that is to follow. We refer to that condensation as a
thesis statement.
Why Should Your Essay Contain A Thesis
Statement?
- to
test your ideas by distilling them into a sentence or two
- to
better organize and develop your argument
- to
provide your reader with a “guide” to your argument
In general, your thesis statement will
accomplish these goals if you think of the thesis as the answer to the question
your paper explores.
How Can You Write Good Thesis Statement?
Here are some helpful hints to get you
started. You can either scroll down or select a link to a specific topic.
How
to Generate a Thesis if the Topic is Assigned.
How
to Generate a Thesis if the Topic is Not Assigned.
How to Tell a Strong Thesis Statement from a Weak One.
How to Generate a
Thesis Statement if the Topic is Assigned.
Almost all assignments, no matter how
complicated, can be reduced to a single question. Your first step, then, is to
distill the assignment into a specific question. For example, if your
assignment is “Write a report to the local school board explaining the
potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class,” turn the
request into a question like “What are the potential benefits of using
computers in a fourth-grade class?” After you’ve chosen the question your essay
will answer, compose one or two complete sentences answering that question.
Q: “What are the potential benefits of using computers
in a fourth-grade class?”
A: “The potential benefits of using computers in a
fourth-grade class are . . . .”
OR
A: “Using computers in a fourth-grade class promises to
improve . . . .”
The answer to the question is the thesis
statement for the essay.
How to Generate a
Thesis Statement if the Topic is Not Assigned.
Even if your assignment doesn’t ask a
specific question, your thesis statement still needs to answer a question about
the issue you’d like to explore. In this situation, your job is to figure out
what question you’d like to write about.
A good thesis statement will usually include
the following four attributes:
- take
on a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree
- deal
with a subject that can be adequately treated given the nature of the
assignment
- express
one main idea
- assert
your conclusions about a subject
Let’s see how to generate a thesis statement
for a social policy paper.
Brainstorm the topic.
Let’s say that your class focuses upon the problems posed by drug addiction.
You find that you are interested in the problems of crack babies, babies born
to mothers addicted to crack cocaine.
You start out with a thesis statement like
this:
Crack babies.
This fragment isn’t a thesis statement.
Instead, it simply indicates a general subject. Furthermore, your reader
doesn’t know what you want to say about crack kids.
Narrow the topic
Your readings about the topic, however, have led you to the conclusion that not
only do these babies have a difficult time surviving premature births and
withdrawal symptoms, but their lives will be even harder as they grow up
because they are likely to be raised in an environment of poverty and neglect.
You think that there should be programs to help these children.
You change your thesis to look like this:
Programs for crack
kids.
This fragment not only announces your
subject, but it focuses on one main idea: programs. Furthermore, it raises a
subject upon which reasonable people could disagree, because while most people
might agree that something needs to be done for these children, not everyone
would agree on what should be done or who should do it. You should note that
this fragment is not a thesis statement because your reader doesn’t know your
conclusions on the topic.
Take a position on the topic.
After reflecting on the topic a little while longer, you decide that what you
really want to say about this topic is that in addition to programs for crack
babies, the government should develop programs to help crack children cope and
compete.
You revise your thesis to look like this:
More attention should be paid to the
environment crack kids grow up in.
This statement asserts your position, but the
terms more attention and the environment are vague.
Use specific language.
You decide to explain what you mean about “the environment,” so you write:
Experts estimate that half of crack
babies will grow up in home environments lacking rich cognitive and emotional
stimulation.
This statement is specific, but it isn’t a
thesis. It merely reports a statistic instead of making an assertion.
Make an assertion based on clearly stated
support.
You finally revise your thesis statement one more time to look like this:
Because half of all crack babies are
likely to grow up in homes lacking good cognitive and emotional stimulation,
the federal government should finance programs to supplement parental care for
crack kids.
Notice how the thesis answers the question,
“Why should anything be done for crack kids, and who should do it?” When you
started thinking about the paper, you may not have had a specific question in
mind, but as you became more involved in the topic, your ideas became more
specific. Your thesis changed to reflect your new insights.
How
to Tell a Strong Thesis Sentence from a Weak One.
1. A strong thesis takes some sort of stand.
Remember that your thesis needs to show your
conclusions about a subject. For example, if you are writing a paper for a
class on fitness, you might be asked to choose a popular weight-loss product to
evaluate. Here are two thesis statements:
There are some negative and positive
aspects to the Banana Herb Tea Supplement.
This is a weak thesis. First, it fails to
take a stand. Second, the phrase “negative and positive aspects” is vague.
Because Banana Herb Tea Supplement
promotes rapid weight loss that results in the loss of muscle and lean body
mass, it poses a potential danger to customers.
This is a strong thesis because it takes a stand.
2. A strong thesis justifies discussion.
Your thesis should indicate the point of the
discussion. If your assignment is to write a paper on kinship systems, using
your own family as an example, you might come up with either of these two
thesis statements:
My family is an extended family.
This is a weak thesis because it states an
observation. Your reader won’t be able to tell the point of the statement, and
will probably stop reading.
While most American families would
view consanguineal marriage as a threat to the
nuclear family structure, many Iranian families, like my own, believe that
these marriages help reinforce kinship ties in an extended family.
This is a strong thesis because it shows how
your experience contradicts a widely-accepted view. A good strategy for
creating a strong thesis is to show that the topic is controversial. Readers
will be interested in reading the rest of the essay to see how you support your
point.
3. A strong thesis expresses one main idea.
Readers need to be able to see that your
paper has one main point. If your thesis expresses more than one idea, then you
might confuse your readers about the subject of your paper. For example:
Companies need to exploit the
marketing potential of the Internet, and web pages can provide both advertising
and customer support.
This is a weak thesis statement because the
reader can’t decide whether the paper is about marketing on the Internet or web
pages. To revise the thesis, the relationship between the two ideas needs to
become more clear. One way to revise the thesis would
be to write:
Because the Internet is filled with
tremendous marketing potential, companies should exploit this potential by
using web pages that offer both advertising and customer support.
This is a strong thesis because it shows that
the two ideas are related. Hint: a great many clear and engaging thesis
statements contain words like “because,” “since,” “so,” “although,” “unless,”
and “however.”
4. A strong thesis statement is specific.
A thesis statement should show exactly what
your paper will be about, and will help you keep your paper to a manageable
topic. For example, if you write a paper on hunger, you might say:
World hunger has many causes and
effects.
This is a weak thesis statement for two major
reasons. First, “world hunger” can’t be discussed thoroughly in five or ten
pages. Second, "many causes and effects" is vague. You should be able
to identify specific causes and effects. A revised thesis might look like this:
Hunger persists in
This is a strong thesis because it narrows
the subject to a more specific and manageable topic and it also identifies the
specific causes for the existence of hunger.
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