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Do you know how to write a thesis statement? This is something all students must learn, no matter where they study or what they major in. Most academic tasks involve writing an essay, and most essays have a thesis in them. In fact, it counts as a separate and independent element of a written work, and professors usually assign a big number of points for it. Considering that writing a statement is easy, this is your chance of compensating for more difficult and weak places in your paper, scoring points and ensuring that your final grade is high enough.
But how to make a good thesis statement? First of all, you should understand its definition. Thesis is a key statement of an essay, a controversial and argumentative claim that reflects its essence and discloses the writer’s goal. Your hypothesis should be short as well as concise, but as informative as possible. By reading this sentence, audience understands what research is based on and its aims, so its importance is absolute. But let’s explore reasons underlying its relevance from a deeper angle.
How to Go About Writing a Thesis Statement?
There are many different strategies that students could use as a guide when they’re working on thesis statement. But as practice shows, the easiest solutions are the best. In many ways, statement defines your paper, so you should approach it as an answer to a specific question. This is exactly how we are going to treat it. There are three steps students should undertake during their writing process.
- Ask a question. What is a thesis statement? Apart from definition we mentioned, it could also be seen as a statement that answers the “so what” question. For example, you decided to explore the impact of child abuse on mental development of children as they grow up. Imagine that your audience is heartless enough to ask you, “What does it matter? Why are you conducting research on this issue? How will you explore it, what is your argument, what would your findings mean?” All these small questions help direct you toward the creation of your thesis statement.
- Reply to these questions.This is the time where you start preparing answers. If you asked yourself 6 questions, then develop 6 consequent replies to them. It doesn’t mean that your statement will be crazily long and that hypothesis must feature all these answers. They are simply a starting point that could demonstrate what your final version of thesis statement is going to include. Remember this: strong thesis statement must mention all parts of an argument you’re presenting. Let’s reply to the questions we asked in the previous paragraph on the same topic: “Understanding how children change under the influence of abuse is important because it could help in the development of effective therapy for them. In this research, I’m going to analyze case studies of boys and girls from abusive families. Prove that common symptoms uniting them include problems with communication, PTSD, and trust issues. On this basis, researchers could develop enhanced therapeutic methods.” As you see, we addressed all questions, but now the time for turning these answers into concise and coherent statement came.
- Finalize and trim your answer. When writing a good thesis statement, keep in mind that it shouldn’t take many sentences. It should be readable and of average length, so you should trim your collection of answers until only the most relevant moments are left. An effective way of doing that includes taking crucial aspects from each answer and combining them into one sentence. Taking our abuse example, this is how final thesis statement could look like: “As case studies show, children who survived abuse often display communication problems, PTSD, trust issues, which gives researchers an opportunity to devise therapy based on these findings.” So, three sentences became one, which preserved all important elements for forming an independent and informative claim. Follow this sample and your statement will be completed in no time!
Understanding Required Length on Thesis Statement Examples
Next stage of writing a thesis incorporates learning how long it should be. There are different possibilities here because papers come in varying sizes. Research could take 10 or even 20 pages but at the same time, it could require only 3 or 5 of them. So, how to determine what length an average thesis should have? Fortunately, there are several academic rules that could help confused students decide.
In majority of cases, creating a thesis statement should be limited to just 1 sentence. It could be pretty long, up to 40 or even 45 words, but do not overdo and avoid including a second sentence, at least when it comes to short or medium-sized papers. In rare cases, developing thesis statement could require a writer to use 2 sentences, but it’s deviation rather than norm. This could only be justified when an essay is very long and has a complex subject matter.
For instance, when you are exploring topic and provide 5+ arguments, planning on elaborating on each of them in thesis statements, one sentence wouldn’t be enough. You might need more. But in any case, making thesis longer than 2 sentences is definitely not recommended, so if you are struggling, try using some tips. Combine several lines into one through semi-colon; use a dash for further clarification. If you are still stuck, ask your professor for help or seek assistance online — these methods are always effective!
Where to Place a Thesis in an Essay?
Every maker of serious academic paper wonders, where does the thesis statement go? Some of them already know that it should be put into introduction, but while this fact narrows down potential answers, it doesn’t complete it. Introduction of an essay usually takes about 10% from the word count of written assignment, so it is vast enough to confuse you. Some students put statement in the first sentence, mixing it up with a hook; others choose a middle of paragraph. All these options are wrong — correct place is the very end of introduction.
So, if you are unsure of how to write a good thesis statement, place it as the last sentence of your intro. This could already bring you some points. Introduction is a section that should impress the readers and interest them in reading your paper further, so such placement of thesis is strategic. By making it the last, you ensure that your audience finishes intro on a high note. This will keep their interest and encourage them to keep reading. But some exceptions are possible: when we are talking about huge projects like dissertations, thesis statement could be situated somewhere in the second paragraph of introduction. Hypothesis becomes typically longer and more complex, so follows slightly different rules. Remember that if you are ever in doubt, ask your supervisors for assistance.
How to Create a Thesis Statement That’ll Be Strong and Relevant?
One of the most important questions is, how to make thesis strong? It should differ from other sentences — in other words, it must be instantly distinguishable from everything else. There are several ways in which you could make it powerful and strong enough to compel your readers, and we’re going to present 4 main ones.
- Concise.Good thesis statements are concise. In this context, “concise” means being brief and comprehensive at the same time, so this is something you should strive to achieve when developing your key statement. Don’t write it long: ideally, thesis should have just one sentence (two in exceptional cases that we discussed earlier, when the work is longer than usual). Avoid overfilling with unnecessary information because readers should not know all the smallest details. Provide only the most important points that are going to serve as the focus of your body paragraphs. Each opening sentence should lead back to thesis statement, so build this link thoughtfully.
- Contentious. Contentious means argumentative, and to an extent, it also denotes something controversial. Check any available thesis statement format based on online examples. Almost all of them will be controversial in one way or another — this is what most types of thesis are about. They express an argument that you have a specific opinion on, and you’re going to be proving it in your essay. So, be direct and daring about it. But there are several possible exceptions. Not every statement must be argumentative. Some are explanatory in nature, and they outline what your work will be about in general, without putting a claim that should be proven. This is typical of dissertations: a writer will mention what they’ll be discussing without fighting to sway anyone’s opinion.
- Coherent. Coherency means being logical, steady, as well as consistent. The initial thesis statement outline could be flawed, but when the time for creating its final version comes, all three mentioned components must be present. Of course, every student should re-read their entire work, no matter how many pages they’ve written. The more times they do it, the more mistakes and small errors they are likely to find. Proofreading is vital. Re-read it once, then repeat this action. Twist and edit it until you are sure that there are no grammar mistakes left. Each sentence part should be logical and linked to the next one. Semantic meaning is equally important. Does every word have a purpose? Does it contribute to pushing your argument forward? Try to ensure that an answer is “yes” in all instances.
- Compare and watch formatting. Proceed with final assessment has come. How does thesis statement sound to you? Is it strong? Does it present your point clearly? Can you immediately understand which sentence from your introduction has the biggest relevancy? After these questions are answered, too, you’re ready to move toward the finishing line. Also, how about formatting? Keep the following in mind: hypothesis statement cannot follow a bullet-point format. Hypothesis should be an actual sentence, even though mentioning arguments as bullet points could seem like an attractive option. Watch out for margins – check MLA or APA template and format everything properly. After this is done, your statement is complete and ready to be assessed by professor.
Remember the Tips and Create an Impressive Thesis
At this point, you understand what thesis is and how to craft it. Sure, writing it in reality could prove to be more difficult than learning theory about it, but if this is the case and you worry, don’t — there are always extra solutions. Look at any thesis statement example — we gave you a sample above, but there are many more published within the Internet. You could even find some close to your chosen essay topic. This strategy would definitely give you a clear idea of where you should be heading with your hypothesis.
Do you still lack certainty and are scared to proceed with your writing? Like we mentioned, finding outside help could be a solution. Use online thesis makers — they could generate a statement on the basis of your essay. Better yet, ask human experts for consultation. Our team would be happy to assist you in developing a thesis statement or writing it in your stead entirely. If you want to try doing this task yourself, after all, never forget that this part of paper is vital: make hypothesis informative, strong, and engaging, and after several attempts, you’ll become an expert yourself.
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