How to Write a Thesis Statement?

A thesis statement is one of the first indicators of what your audience should expect. Therefore, you must ensure that the structure that you have planned for your piece shines in the expression of the thesis.

Look at the final introductory sentence of this article, for example. What can you ascertain about the expected structure of this piece based on it? The first thing that jumps out is the word article. This means that the presentation should follow a logical format with ideas developed in paragraph form. It also implies that there should be 10 distinct pieces of information regarding the construction of an adequate thesis statement. Immediately following the statement, there is a sub-heading with the number 10 beside it. This conforms to the idea the thesis sold because you can now infer that the article takes the format of a listing. Finally, the thesis uses the word “outline.” This means that for each of the 10 areas, there should be information aimed at conveying an understanding of each.

The type of paper you’re writing should also be evident from your thesis. The three main types of papers are argumentative, expository, and analytical. There is usually a topic sentence within the thesis. In the case of this article, it was established that grasping the purpose of a thesis statement makes the use of one easier. There is also a statement from the writer on the topic sentence. The example of this is the last sentence of the introductory area that was discussed above.

Technically speaking, every paragraph has a topic sentence. The thesis statement is no different. Many people believe that a thesis statement is a single sentence; however, it is more than that. The thesis statement of this article is the entire final paragraph of the introductory segment. The topic sentence is the first one in that paragraph, and the final sentence covers how the article plans to address it.

A paragraph should always have a topic sentence, which gives the reader an idea of what to expect in the other sentences. It is a summary of the point of the paragraph. You can test your writing using this principle in a simple way. Consider writing a summary of whatever it is your piece is about. If your paragraph structure is sound, you should be able to do this using only the first sentence of each paragraph. Try doing this with all your writing to see just how coherent it is.

This is the first determinant of how effective your thesis statement is. As stated before, it must be something that can be argued as opposed to a statement of fact. Imagine you are writing a piece about proper dog care. The topic sentence of your thesis could read, “Owners can care for dogs just as effectively as professionals can.” You establish the idea of a paragraph here. It is arguable, and it gives a sense of where your paper is going.

Your sources have more bearing on your thesis than you realize. Some people write in a manner that can be viewed as writing in reverse. Chances are that you know the topic you should be writing on prior to starting. The issue that this creates is that you may feel inclined to start building your thesis and your arguments before you have located reliable sources or decided on how you plan to use them.

Sources are fundamental in supporting your argument. However, they can only provide this supported if they align well with what you are saying in your paper. Imagine that you were writing a paper on the extent to which waste oil is being converted to cologne. You may focus on how the waste oil ended up where it was discovered, and you may also focus on the conversion of the oil to cologne. Imagine if you started writing, drafted your thesis, and then discovered that none of your sources covered the conversion process. This means that the only support for your argument is what you have said based on belief.

This is the reason that you need to locate trustworthy sources beforehand and plan how they should be used to support your paper. First, ensure that bias factors are not present. For example, since Facebook owns WhatsApp, Mark Zuckerberg may not be the best person to ask for an honest review of WhatsApp. Second, ensure your source is credible through processes such as citing of other reputable sources, or peer-reviewing. Therefore, you may want to stick to sources such as books, scholarly journals, or articles from reputable outlets.

Apart from establishing where you plan to go with your writing, your thesis statement needs to be definitive. This is not in the sense of being factual, but rather in the sense of establishing where you stand on the matter. As stated before, the thesis is supposed to be arguable. This makes sense because if not, what would be the point of proving it? Instead, you should aim to bring across what you plan to discuss and where you stand on it. This is how you make a strong thesis statement.

To give you more clarity on what counts as a strong or a weak thesis statement, consider the following sentence as a part of a thesis paragraph, “It is very likely that heavy weights yield better results when building muscle.” A sentence like this does not convey the belief of the writer. If anything, it says that the writer is not too sure of what he/she is writing about. Saying “It is very likely” is not taking a stand, and it leaves an air of ambiguity. Instead, you could opt for a sentence such as “Since a higher intensity overloads muscles at a more rapid rate than volume, it results in better muscle gains.” Again, this is very much an arguable topic. The difference is that the belief of the writer is communicated clearly.

This is one of the main reasons a thesis needs to be arguable. The art of convincing an audience of your point is not simply stating your belief and a bunch of points to follow it. Counterarguments also need to be a factor in your writing.

You can look at this as arguing from the standpoint of logic. Consider the fact that the sky appears blue and imagine that this fact wasn’t as visually obvious as it is. This makes it an arguable point of discussion. If you were to put together an argument for the fact that the sky is blue, the opposite could also be argued. This means that your points need to do two things. They need to build on your thesis and convey your belief, and they also need to show why any belief to the contrary is less valid than your own. Appealing to intelligence in this manner is the best way to convince the opposite side.

The point of putting your thesis and the points you plan to develop through this process is to strengthen it. Refinement is a natural process for a thesis, and it only leads to the writing of a stronger paper. There is no argument for which a counterargument does not exist. If you think you have found one, then you are either incorrect or you have found a fact.

Many people take the idea of a thesis being the focus of the argument the wrong way. While it must be the focus, you cannot exactly choose whatever format you want and then build the rest of the argument around it. One of the most common mistakes to this end is the use of a question as a thesis tool. An effective thesis can never take the form of a question.

A question is thought-provoking. Normally when they are included in a paper, they influence readers to stop and to consider what is being asked. It helps to create engagement, which is always a positive thing for an academic paper. Even if you are reading it in the form of a speech, you never want it to feel like you’re just putting information out there, as that can become a detached experience. To this end, questions act as an effective tool.

However, this rule does not apply when you are creating your thesis statement. The expectation is to have questions explored, answered, and discussed with your paper. Therefore, the foundation of the paper cannot be a question. In that case, you are effectively answering a question by using another question. A thesis statement with this base has no base at all. The lack of an argument leaves a thesis dead in the water. Guess where that leaves your paper?

Good thesis statement placement is fundamental to its success. Imagine reading a paper on caring for your vehicle and being told why the paper was written at the end. Obviously, that’s a very awkward time to get that information. If anything, the time spent reading the paper is probably also spent wondering why it exists. This is the reason that you need to place your thesis statement early in your paper.

It’s the basic science of making an introduction. Take this article, for example. The thesis statement is the final paragraph of the introductory segment. By the normal standard, even that is considered a bit too late. Typically, you want your thesis statement to lie within your opening paragraph or the second one. Think of it as a map that gives your readers direction on where you’re going with your argument.

This is a part of the reason that the thesis statement for this article was put at such a late point. As a rule of thumb, the longer the paper is, the later you can reasonably place the thesis statement. This is because it feels less buried in that sense. You also want to avoid going too far to point out where your thesis statement is as it causes your paper to look less professional. Therefore, you should never be using sentence structures that begin with things like “The point of this research paper is to…” to this end.

Before moving into the final two important considerations in thesis statement writing, there are a couple of falsities surrounding thesis statements that you should know, so that you can actively avoid believing them and writing based on them.

The thesis statement does not have to be a single sentence. As stated earlier, think of a thesis statement as a paragraph with a topic sentence. Especially in complex arguments or long academic papers, it is almost impossible to establish your statement of position with no more than a single sentence.

Your essay can begin without your thesis statement. As stated before, thesis statement refinement is a natural process. In fact, it is encouraged. While you should not begin an essay with nothing for a thesis, you can begin once you have established a tentative one. This process allows you to ensure your paper aligns well with your thesis.

A thesis can give less or more than three points. Many people have a basic idea in their heads where a thesis statement is concerned. This idea is that it must establish three points about the topic that you intend to discuss. Each point should then be covered in a subsection. This is not the case. The number of points used to achieve this is irrelevant.

These things are considered rules of thesis writing by numerous persons, but they are not factual. Bear these in mind as you write to avoid caging yourself.

There are techniques that you can use to make many things easier, and a thesis statement is no exception. This is a simple three-step process that you can go through whenever you need to write a thesis statement, and it should help you to come out on the other end, confident in what you have written.

Begin by thinking of a broad idea that lies within the spectrum of the subject you intend to write about. For example, imagine that you want to write about the psychological advantages of taking part in extra-curricular activities at the college level. Once you have your broad idea, break it down to as specific a level as is possible. Using the same example, you can narrow the topic down to the advantage of relationship formulation.

The next step is to create a question based on the area of focus that you have established. You can go back to the previous example and create a question. For example, you could ask, “Why are extra-curricular activities effective in helping college students to form meaningful relationships?”

The final step is for you to answer your own question. Going back to our example, you could say that the creation of a closed context for shared experiences allows for the formulation of relationships by association. The answer to the question is what you use to establish your working thesis statement. Sometimes, this answer can suffice as is, and in other cases, it may need slight tweaking. However, this three-step process should point you in the right direction.

The final thing to discuss is the topic selection for your paper, and it follows the previous point. Until now, the discussion has been around various techniques you can use to help with thesis construction and placement. In the previous point, the broad subject you want to discuss was mentioned. How does one come up with this wide scope in the first place to even have something to narrow down?

The first thing is that you need to ensure that the topic suits you. Of course, you can’t be passionate about everything in the world. Also, it’s possible that you have been given a broad idea that you’re not particularly into. Regardless of what the case may be, you must establish an area of discussion that interests you as your level of interest shows in anything you write. The point is, begin by thinking about what speaks to you from either observation, research, or even communication. Don’t impose any limits on your thoughts where this is concerned as the best thesis idea could be lying around in the weirdest of places.

One method is to apply the concepts of phenomenon, point of view, and context when selecting a thesis. Begin by selecting a phenomenon. You could use “German vehicles” for example. Next, you select your point of view. You may think that German engineering has drastically improved. Finally, there is the context. Maybe your observation was over the past five years. You could combine this to get “The engineering process responsible for the creation of German vehicles is a testament of innovation.”

Conclusion

As you can infer, a thesis statement is very important to writing because of the role it plays. Your whole paper could be made or broken because of a strong or a weak thesis statement. This importance means that you must strategically approach the creation of a thesis statement in your writing. As the task of drafting one can get overwhelming because of the number of variables involved, 10 tips were discussed above, which should go a long way in helping you to ensure that you write the strongest thesis statement possible.

Before going over putting the statement together, there are a few things to remember first. Begin by thinking of the kind of paper you are writing. Your thesis statement must reflect this. You cannot write an argumentative paper using an expositional thesis, for example.

Remember that the opening statement of a thesis works in a similar manner to one in any other paragraph with one caveat. It must foreshadow the paragraph, but it must also foreshadow the whole paper.

Your sources must be relevant, depending on the thesis statement you have chosen. If you can’t use them to advance your thesis, then you cannot use them at all. If your thesis is not definitively able to establish your position on a matter, then it comes across as being weak. You must account for opposing arguments to your own in your thesis development. It helps to strengthen your own arguments and makes them more compelling. A question is not a thesis. It comes across as if you are unsure of what it is that you are trying to communicate to your audience. Finally, place the thesis early in your paper, remember to avoid the myths, and use the techniques outlined to formulate a concise thesis statement that you believe in.