A thesis can exist in several places. It can be in a debate speech, a closing argument of a lawyer, or sometimes even the punch line of a commercial. However, the most common place you are likely to be required to leave a good thesis statement is in an essay.
Whether you are tasked with writing an informative essay or an argumentative essay or you are handling a compare and contrast type of essay, without a good well-written thesis statement, your argument becomes weak because it is the thesis statement that guides the rest of your paper. Since it is the sentence that sums up the central point of your essay, a thesis statement shall come towards the end of your introduction paragraph.
Your thesis statement might differ depending on the type of essay you are writing. However, despite the type of essay, the statement will state directly the main point you want to pass and the premise upon which your arguments shall be based on.
Everything you shall say in the essay shall relate to this statement, and thus it carries a lot of weight. You don’t want your essay to suffer from a vague thesis statement that is hard to back up with hard facts. A weak thesis statement will water down your paragraphs and a good thesis statement will enable you to build strong paragraphs.
A good thesis statement will make a claim, a claim that others might dispute, however, it shall also be a roadmap for the essay and tell the audience how you are going to interpret the importance of the subject matter you are discussing. It is your stance.
How to write a good thesis statement
The thesis statement from the above explanation is thus a result of a lengthy thinking process and not the first thing you will do when you have an essay to write. As a scholar, before you build an argument that is strong on any piece of work, it is important to go through that document to collect enough evidence and organize it coherently.
You can look for a relationship between items and draw puzzles where there are similarities and think about the importance of these relationships and patterns. Once you have gone through the work trying to find similarities, you shall have a “working thesis” which is a representation of the main idea of an argument that you think you can support with enough evidence. You will improve both your working thesis and the argument the more you look into the piece of work you are tasked with.
To write a good thesis, start with a question.
The first thing you shall do when writing a thesis statement for an essay, whether the essay is argumentative, expository, or literary analysis, is to start by asking a question, at the same time bear in mind that a thesis statement will look different in each of these types of essays. We shall have a look at how the thesis statement writing process shall unfold in each of the essays.
You shall start with a question, in an argumentative essay, your question will look thus;
Do steroids have a positive or negative impact on developing muscles?
If you had been tasked with writing an expository essay about diet, your question can be;
How do proteins help with gaining muscles?
If you are writing a thesis statement in a literary analysis essay, your question shall look like this:
How does Mario Puzo portray Michael Corleone in the Goodfather?
The second step in writing a thesis statement is writing a tentative answer to the questions you asked above.
In an argumentative essay, your answer shall look like this;
Steroids have a more negative impact than a positive one in developing muscles.
In an expository essay, your answer shall be like this;
Proteins are the building blocks that repair and maintain muscles.
In a literary analysis essay, your answer shall look like this;
Mario Puzo portrays Michael Corleone as a tragic hero.
The 3rd step in writing a good thesis statement is developing your answer.
At this point as a writer or a student, you can consider why you have given a certain answer and how you want to convince the readers to agree with your answer. Your answer will become more detailed as you read more about your topic.
Note that the final thesis statement you will create will not only state your stance, but it will also be a summary of the entire argument.
To revisit the above questions, let’s look at a developed answer to all the questions in various types of essays.
In the argumentative essay, a developed answer will look like this;
Steroids have a more negative impact than a positive one on developing muscles because when they are taken for long, they lead to muscle wasting and weakness.
In an expository essay, a developed answer will look like this;
Proteins are great for growing and maintaining muscles because amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins, help the tissues repair after a strenuous workout.
In a literary analysis essay, a developed answer will look like this;
Mario Puzo portrays Michael Corleone as a tragic hero in the Godfather because he is initially a good character who finds himself in a situation that conflicts with his reserved personality and forces him to make tough decisions.
The fourth step in writing a good thesis statement is in improving your thesis.
Let’s have a look at the examples above to have a clear picture of how each has unfolded leading to a strong thesis statement.
In an expository essay, the first statement, which is a weak thesis statement was:
Proteins are the building blocks that repair and maintain muscles.
The developed good thesis statement is convincing and shall look like this:
Proteins are great for growing and maintaining muscles because amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins, help the tissues repair after a strenuous workout. Your muscles slightly tear during a workout and for them to repair and grow bigger, you need the building blocks that are found in protein-rich food like organic eggs.
In a literary analysis example, the first statement, which is a weak thesis statement was;
Mario Puzo portrays Michael Corleone as a tragic hero.
A developed, good thesis statement that is convincing shall look like this;
Mario Puzo portrays Michael Corleone as a tragic hero in the Godfather because he is initially a good character who finds himself in a situation that conflicts with his reserved personality and forces him to make tough decisions that affect his family and lineage radically.
What makes a good thesis statement?
What are the fundaments of a powerful thesis?
When writing a thesis statement, you will consider several factors like the length and the position it shall hold in an essay. Don’t also forget to consider how strong its argument is.
In terms of length, the thesis statement can either be short or long, this might depend on the points it mentions. However, the statement shall have two clauses. The independent clause (which is the opinion) and the dependent clause (which are the concrete facts that support the opinions). You can thus aim for a single sentence or two sentences that are more than fifty words long.
The second attribute is the position of the thesis statement, you will place your thesis statement at the beginning of an essay. Many instructors might have different preferences on the exact location of a thesis but the rule of thumb is that in many academic institutions, the thesis shall appear at the end of the introduction paragraph. The last two sentences of that paragraph shall hold the statement.
Consider if you have taken an arguable position or one that is difficult to challenge. If you have written a thesis statement that no one could disagree with and cannot be debated, there might be a chance that you have provided a summary as opposed to making an argument.
Consider if the thesis statement is specific enough and doesn’t contain vague statements such as ‘good’ or ‘great’. It would help your thesis if you can be specific enough, why would you consider something good, or what specifically makes it great. Expounding on the grey areas shall give your thesis more clarity and make it believable enough and yet still debatable.
Consider if the rest of your essay supports the thesis statement without wavering. If your paragraphs and the thesis statement don’t seem to support each other strongly, you can alter some parts of your “working thesis” to reflect the new things you may have noticed while writing. It is okay to revise the thesis until you have a clear stand.
Lastly, your thesis statement ought to answer the “how and why” question. If your reader’s first response to the thesis is “how or even why?” your thesis might not be specific enough and poor at directing the reader towards your position and the rest of the essay. The audience needs to understand the position you have taken right from the beginning. Another question the thesis statement should address is the “so what?” question, you need to clear any clarifications in your thesis statement and connect to the larger issue being discussed.
