Come up With a Thesis
All students, whether in high school or college, need to write standard expository (explanatory) essays. Each essay must include a thesis statement. A thesis statement is your main point and is presented as an argument. Writing a thesis statement involves answering the main question and doing a bit or research to make sure your thesis can be backed up.
Contents
Steps
Understanding Your Topic
- Determine the assignment or task the teacher has given. Be sure you know the type of essay, its length, format, topic, purpose, and structure. Whether you have an assigned topic or a more general topic, your first step is to distill the assignment topic into one question which your thesis statement can answer.
- Think about your assignment topic. What are you expected to write about? Then take this topic and make it a question you can answer.
- For example, if you are assigned a paper or report on explaining the safety benefits of buckling your seatbelt in the car, make it into a question you can answer.
- Your topic becomes “What are the safety benefits of buckling your seatbelt?”
- The answer to this question is the beginning of your thesis statement.
- Focus on the topic to be developed. A good thesis provides a concise point of view that is relevant to your subject matter. Is your topic an argument, an explanation, a personal description, a contrastive analysis, or a book analysis?
- Knowing what kind of paper you’re writing will further help you construct a quality thesis. Though you may be writing a paper about World War II or The Great Gatsby, your statement should contain similar attributes.
- A good thesis statement answers the question asked of you. It’s your interpretation of the subject. It should aim to make a claim that others can dispute.
- Your thesis should also express one main idea that can be developed enough to cover all parts of the assignment.
- Consider what you want to say about the topic. What will your point of view be? Develop a point of view that interests you.
- Whether you’re given a broad assignment like a paper on The Great Gatsby, or a more specific topic like the benefits of wearing seatbelts, you need to take a side and explain it clearly.
- Break down your topic into an argument that you can adequately speak about. For example, if your topic is about the benefits of seatbelts, you have many points of view to explore. You can take a broader route and decide to talk about the decrease in fatal accidents since seatbelts became required. Or, you can get more specific and discuss the laws of wearing your seatbelt in the back seat. Your argument right now is that seatbelts save lives.
- You can also choose to take the other side. Your argument may be that seatbelts don’t provide any new benefits. This side may be harder to argue in such a broad area, however. Because there may be a lot of information against you, you may consider getting more specific. You may consider arguing that seatbelt technology hasn’t improved safety in X amount of time. You may find that there is more information on the advancement of other vehicle safety measures which has progressed much farther than seatbelts.
- If your topic is even broader, like a report on The Great Gatsby, you have to find an angle that you can argue about. Perhaps after reading the book, you became interested in how American consumerism and monetary pride lead to the Great Depression.
- Come up with your own question to answer for this topic. A great way to come up with a solid thesis statement is to ask a question.
- You might have the question: “What are the real world ramifications of the themes presented in The Great Gatsby?”
- Therefore, you begin with this conclusion written as a sentence: “The monetary pride and dichotomy of old and new money depicted in The Great Gatsby lead to the Great Depression”. This isn’t your thesis statement yet. This isn’t a well enough formed argument, but it allows you to have a starting opinion and main idea.
- Remember that you want to take a stance that reasonable people could argue. This doesn’t mean that you have to take an unpopular opinion, but you should be able to create a conversation with your thesis.
- Think of how to express your point in a single, complete sentence. If you had to state your idea "in a nutshell", what would you say?
- You have already begun to do this by finding your point of view. However, your argument isn’t fully formed yet.
- After you come up with your idea, do a little research to see if you have enough credible information to back it up.
- Perhaps you look up seatbelt statistics and find that there isn’t enough information to argue that seatbelt technology hasn’t improved enough. Or, that there isn’t enough information to provide a counterargument. While researching, you read about front seat seatbelts and rear seat seatbelts. You then decide your argument is that backseat passengers should be required to wear seatbelts. Seatbelts are not always required to be worn in the backseat depending on the region. You find this topic has enough information to explore.
- Now write down a few different sentence options that argue your point of view. Try to make a slightly different point in each sentence. One sentence may be: “Backseat passengers should be required to wear seatbelts at all times.” Another could be: “Not wearing your seatbelt in the backseat increases risk of serious injury by X percent.”
- If you are writing about a broader topic, like your book report on the Great Gatsby, you may find through research that your current argument is too hypothetical. You may not find enough factual correlation to support your topic in the context of your paper’s requirements. Further research is required to support or change your argument.
Gathering Information and Brainstorming
- Compile a few sources to back up your argument. Before you waste time writing your thesis statement and then struggling to fill a paper backing up your point, gather some sources that provide you with enough information to write about.
- If you decide to argue that seatbelts should be worn in the backseat, find sources that give you crash and safety statistics. Look for articles and facts that argue both sides of the argument.
- If you’re writing about the themes of consumerism and pride depicted in The Great Gatsby serving as a roadmap to the Great Depression, research causes of the Great Depression. Do further research to see if other people have a similar argument to yours. See how other similar topics and articles go about relating the actual story in The Great Gatsby to the Great Depression.
- Write a "scratch" sentence. Make sure it's a complete sentence with a subject and verb. It cannot be a question, or an announcement of your purpose ("In this essay, I'm going to...").
- With enough information to back up your thesis, it’s time to go back to what you have written already and see what you may need to change about it. Perhaps in your research gave you a new angle to include.
- While you previously had “Backseat passengers should be required to wear seatbelts at all times,” you realize that this doesn’t fulfill all of the requirements of your thesis. Though you have a solid argument, you haven’t fully answered your question.
- The question: “What are the benefits of buckling your seatbelt?” still needs to be addressed. Look through your research to find some specific stats to back up your statement.
- Make sure your sentence beats the “So what?” test. It cannot be solely a statement of fact, but must include evidence that backs up your opinion. If someone read your sentence, you want it to illicit a response.
- While “Backseat passengers should be required to wear seatbelts at all times,” expresses your opinion, it doesn’t provide an argument yet that someone can really contest.
- Get specific with the “why’s” or “what’s”. “Due to X percent of unbelted backseat passengers being ejected and fatally wounded in car accidents, backseat passengers should be required to buckle up at all times.” is a more structured thesis that provides a “why”.
- The same applies to your potential book report. “The monetary pride and dichotomy of old and new money depicted in The Great Gatsby lead to the Great Depression.” doesn’t exactly offer a specific interpretation of the literary work. Consider, “The fear of muddled class systems and the pursuit of the American Dream depicted in The Great Gatsby lead to an age of consumerism and excess, which triggered The Great Depression.” This sentence more clearly defines your stance. It also passes the “So what?” test because you have outlined a controversial point of view which presents an interpretation of the literature.
- Read over your sentence one more time and see if it answers your question. Make sure your sentence includes words that state the topic, your opinion, and that it doesn’t wander.
- Getting more specific in your thesis is good, but it can sometimes cause you to wander as you try to incorporate everything you want to say. Remember, your thesis is a one-sentence introduction that gives an outline for the body of your paper.
- You don’t have to include every little detail you will touch on in your thesis. It should provide a well-structured overview.
- If your original question is “What are the safety benefits of buckling your seatbelt?” read over your current thesis and see if it still answers that question. “Due to X percent of unbelted backseat passengers being ejected and fatally wounded in car accidents, backseat passengers should be required to buckle up at all times.” Your current thesis doesn’t exactly answer this question, so it’s time to revise it again.
- “What are the real world ramifications of the themes presented in The Great Gatsby?” is answered in our current statement: “The fear of muddled class systems and the pursuit of the American Dream depicted in The Great Gatsby lead to an age of consumerism and excess, which triggered The Great Depression.” However, we can still revise and tighten our statement.
Finalizing Your Thesis Statement
- Make sure your thesis has an arguable point, that is not too general a fact or solely a personal opinion. Though your thesis is essentially your personal opinion, it needs to be presented as a structured argument.
- Your thesis is a statement that others may hold a different opinion about. And which you will develop in your essay to show why you have this point of view.
- Check to make sure your thesis contains an argument that hits on the focus of your question.
- Revising your seatbelt thesis to: “Increasing seatbelt laws to include mandatory buckling in back seats will provide further safety benefits by reducing the percent of fatalities in vehicle accidents.” better answers your original question.
- Strike a balance between being too vague and too specific in your thesis. A very vague, large statement will require many pages for you to support adequately. A highly specific idea may not be a strong enough argument or provide enough evidence to back up.
- While “The fear of muddled class systems and the pursuit of the American Dream depicted in The Great Gatsby lead to an age of consumerism and excess, which triggered The Great Depression.” answers your question, it’s slightly broad.
- “The themes of wealth disparity in American royalty, and pursuit of the American Dream presented in The Great Gatsby depict a parallel to real world consumerism and excess which lead to the Great Depression.” narrows down that you will talk about specific themes in the book and compare these fictional themes to the real world.
- This is also an example of a thesis statement which can be broken up into two sentences.
- Make sure your thesis covers the assignment. Now that you’ve compiled evidence, revised, and come to a specific stance, read over the assignment again. Make sure that you can write a paper with your current thesis that will fulfill the requirements.
- If your assignment was to discuss the benefits of seatbelts, read your thesis again and ask yourself if it can cover the criteria.
- “Increasing seatbelt laws to include mandatory buckling in back seats will provide further safety benefits by reducing the percent of fatalities in vehicle accidents.” In this thesis, you have taken a position that can be argued.
- You have made it specific by narrowing your topic a particular aspect of seatbelt safety. And you have given an answer to how your argument will discuss the benefits of seatbelts.
- Make sure you can accurately explain your ideas well enough in your essay to support your thesis. If you’ve already done some research, which you should have to arrive at your thesis, you should be able to provide enough evidence throughout your essay to back up your claim.
- Before beginning your paper, make sure you have fulfilled all the criteria. Do you answer a question? Are you taking a position others can challenge or oppose? Is your thesis specific enough? Does it pass the “So what?” and “how and why?” test.
- If your thesis doesn’t fulfill these requirements, take a break and then go back and revise. Sometimes, after taking a step back, you can come back with a better angle.
- As you write your essay, follow your thesis and outline, but don’t feel that you have to compromise your paper to fit your thesis. If you find yourself needing to revise your thesis throughout your essay, do so.
Tips
- Your thesis may appear as the first sentence of a short essay (2-3 paragraphs), but usually it is the last sentence of your introduction.
- Be sure to follow up your opinion throughout the essay, without going off into another topic.
- Look for good sample thesis statements in your textbook, handbook, or writing lab.
- Occasionally a thesis needs two sentences but try to get your idea into one sentence. It might be a little long, but that's usually acceptable.
- Be sure your thesis is not a question: "Do all Europeans support the Euro?" is not a thesis, but the question your thesis can answer.
- Try to include a list of reasons, causes, points, etc. into your thesis that you will develop in your essay.
- In the conclusion or final sentences, be sure to refer back to the thesis, but use slightly different language. Don't simply repeat the thesis.
- Ask your teacher to review your thesis and be prepared to rewrite it several times before you finish. It's possible you may rewrite it even after you finish the essay if your argument changed slightly.
Warnings
- Be sure you don't simply copy something you find on the internet. Plagiarism is illegal and can get you removed from the class and school. Teachers can easily go on websites and check for plagiarism.
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