How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples,Table of contents
WebDeveloping A Thesis. Think of yourself as a member of a jury, listening to a lawyer WebA thesis statement should show exactly what your paper will be about, and will AdImprove Grammar In Your Essays & Avoid Plagiarism. It's Fast & Easy! Fast and Easy. Improve Grammar In Your Essays and Avoid Plagiarism. Try Today!Find and Add Sources Fast · Fix Punctuation Errors · Improve Word ChoiceService catalog: Grammarly Premium, Grammarly Business, Grammarly @edu AdOur editors will polish your rough work into a sparkling gem of a thesis. This ensures your thesis is always flawless and impactful. Experience the change now!ESL Experts · Rated /5 · Subject Experts · Live Support5/5 ( reviews)Edited within 24 Hours - $ · Edited within 3 Days - $ ... read more
and it is likely to mark you as moralistic and judgmental rather than rational and thorough. It also may spark a defensive reaction from readers sympathetic to communism. If readers strongly disagree with you right off the bat, they may stop reading. An effective thesis has a definable, arguable claim. This thesis makes a definite, arguable claim: that the disintegration of economies played a more important role than cultural forces in defeating communism in Eastern Europe. The reader would react to this statement by thinking, "Perhaps what the author says is true, but I am not convinced. I want to read further to see how the author argues this claim. A thesis should be as clear and specific as possible. Avoid overused, general terms and abstractions.
For example, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because of the ruling elite's inability to address the economic concerns of the people" is more powerful than "Communism collapsed due to societal discontent. Copyright , Maxine Rodburg and The Tutors of the Writing Center at Harvard University. Skip to main content. Main Menu Utility Menu Search. Harvard College Writing Program HARVARD. FAQ Schedule an appointment Writing Resources Writing Resources Writing Advice: The Barker Underground Blog Meet the tutors! Contact Us Drop-in Hours. Steps in Constructing a Thesis First, analyze your primary sources.
Michael Dukakis lost the presidential election because he failed to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention. While Dukakis' "soft-on-crime" image hurt his chances in the election, his failure to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention bore a greater responsibility for his defeat. Some Caveats and Some Examples A thesis is never a question. Writing Resources Strategies for Essay Writing How to Read an Assignment How to Do a Close Reading Developing A Thesis Outlining Summary Topic Sentences and Signposting Transitioning: Beware of Velcro How to Write a Comparative Analysis Ending the Essay: Conclusions Brief Guides to Writing in the Disciplines.
Quick Links Schedule an Appointment Drop-in Hours English Grammar and Language Tutor Harvard Guide to Using Sources Writing Advice: The Harvard Writing Tutor Blog Departmental Writing Fellows Videos from the Three Minute Thesis Competition Follow HCWritingCenter. Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College Accessibility Digital Accessibility Report Copyright Infringement. 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. 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:.
This is a weak thesis because it merely states an observation. 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. Readers need to be able to see that your paper has one main point.
If your thesis statement 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. 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.
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're writing a seven-to-ten page paper on hunger, you might say:. This is a weak thesis statement for two major reasons. 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 Glandelinia because jobs are scarce and farming in the infertile soil is rarely profitable. This is a strong thesis statement because it narrows the subject to a more specific and manageable topic, and it also identifies the specific causes for the existence of hunger.
Home Writing Guides How to Write a Thesis Statement. How to Write a Thesis Statement. Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check. Try for free. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education because it facilitates easier access to information. The invention of braille in the 19th century transformed the lives of blind people, allowing them to participate more actively in public life. What is a thesis statement? Why do I need a thesis statement? The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons: It gives your writing direction and focus. It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point. How can I come up with a thesis statement? Follow these four steps to come up with a thesis statement : Ask a question about your topic.
Write your initial answer. Develop your answer by including reasons. Refine your answer, adding more detail and nuance. Where does the thesis statement go in an essay? Is this article helpful? Shona McCombes Shona has a bachelor's and two master's degrees, so she's an expert at writing a great thesis. She has also worked as an editor and teacher, working with students at all different levels to improve their academic writing. Other students also liked. Use topic sentences to structure your ideas and keep your paragraphs focused. Follow these 6 steps for a strong paragraph structure.
Think of yourself as a member of a jury, listening to a lawyer who is presenting an opening argument. You'll want to know very soon whether the lawyer believes the accused to be guilty or not guilty, and how the lawyer plans to convince you. Readers of academic essays are like jury members: before they have read too far, they want to know what the essay argues as well as how the writer plans to make the argument. After reading your thesis statement, the reader should think, "This essay is going to try to convince me of something. I'm not convinced yet, but I'm interested to see how I might be. An effective thesis cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no. Superlatives like "the best" almost always lead to trouble. It's impossible to weigh every "thing" that ever happened in Europe.
And what about the fall of Hitler? Couldn't that be "the best thing"? A good thesis has two parts. It should tell what you plan to argue, and it should "telegraph" how you plan to argue—that is, what particular support for your claim is going where in your essay. Steps in Constructing a Thesis. First, analyze your primary sources. Does the author contradict himself or herself? Is a point made and later reversed? What are the deeper implications of the author's argument? Figuring out the why to one or more of these questions, or to related questions, will put you on the path to developing a working thesis.
Without the why, you probably have only come up with an observation—that there are, for instance, many different metaphors in such-and-such a poem—which is not a thesis. Once you have a working thesis, write it down. There is nothing as frustrating as hitting on a great idea for a thesis, then forgetting it when you lose concentration. And by writing down your thesis you will be forced to think of it clearly, logically, and concisely. You probably will not be able to write out a final-draft version of your thesis the first time you try, but you'll get yourself on the right track by writing down what you have. Keep your thesis prominent in your introduction. A good, standard place for your thesis statement is at the end of an introductory paragraph, especially in shorter page essays.
Readers are used to finding theses there, so they automatically pay more attention when they read the last sentence of your introduction. Although this is not required in all academic essays, it is a good rule of thumb. Anticipate the counterarguments. Once you have a working thesis, you should think about what might be said against it. This will help you to refine your thesis, and it will also make you think of the arguments that you'll need to refute later on in your essay. Every argument has a counterargument. If yours doesn't, then it's not an argument—it may be a fact, or an opinion, but it is not an argument.
This statement is on its way to being a thesis. However, it is too easy to imagine possible counterarguments. For example, a political observer might believe that Dukakis lost because he suffered from a "soft-on-crime" image. If you complicate your thesis by anticipating the counterargument, you'll strengthen your argument, as shown in the sentence below. Some Caveats and Some Examples. A thesis is never a question. Readers of academic essays expect to have questions discussed, explored, or even answered. A question "Why did communism collapse in Eastern Europe? A thesis is never a list. However, political, economic, social and cultural reasons are pretty much the only possible reasons why communism could collapse.
This sentence lacks tension and doesn't advance an argument. Everyone knows that politics, economics, and culture are important. A thesis should never be vague, combative or confrontational. An ineffective thesis would be, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because communism is evil. what does evil mean? and it is likely to mark you as moralistic and judgmental rather than rational and thorough. It also may spark a defensive reaction from readers sympathetic to communism. If readers strongly disagree with you right off the bat, they may stop reading.
An effective thesis has a definable, arguable claim. This thesis makes a definite, arguable claim: that the disintegration of economies played a more important role than cultural forces in defeating communism in Eastern Europe. The reader would react to this statement by thinking, "Perhaps what the author says is true, but I am not convinced. I want to read further to see how the author argues this claim. A thesis should be as clear and specific as possible. Avoid overused, general terms and abstractions. For example, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because of the ruling elite's inability to address the economic concerns of the people" is more powerful than "Communism collapsed due to societal discontent.
Copyright , Maxine Rodburg and The Tutors of the Writing Center at Harvard University. Skip to main content. Main Menu Utility Menu Search. Harvard College Writing Program HARVARD. FAQ Schedule an appointment Writing Resources Writing Resources Writing Advice: The Barker Underground Blog Meet the tutors! Contact Us Drop-in Hours. Steps in Constructing a Thesis First, analyze your primary sources. Michael Dukakis lost the presidential election because he failed to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention. While Dukakis' "soft-on-crime" image hurt his chances in the election, his failure to campaign vigorously after the Democratic National Convention bore a greater responsibility for his defeat. Some Caveats and Some Examples A thesis is never a question.
Writing Resources Strategies for Essay Writing How to Read an Assignment How to Do a Close Reading Developing A Thesis Outlining Summary Topic Sentences and Signposting Transitioning: Beware of Velcro How to Write a Comparative Analysis Ending the Essay: Conclusions Brief Guides to Writing in the Disciplines. Quick Links Schedule an Appointment Drop-in Hours English Grammar and Language Tutor Harvard Guide to Using Sources Writing Advice: The Harvard Writing Tutor Blog Departmental Writing Fellows Videos from the Three Minute Thesis Competition Follow HCWritingCenter. Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College Accessibility Digital Accessibility Report Copyright Infringement.
How to Write a Thesis Statement,How to Write a Thesis Statement
AdOur editors will polish your rough work into a sparkling gem of a thesis. This ensures your thesis is always flawless and impactful. Experience the change now!ESL Experts · Rated /5 · Subject Experts · Live Support5/5 ( reviews)Edited within 24 Hours - $ · Edited within 3 Days - $ AdImprove Grammar In Your Essays & Avoid Plagiarism. It's Fast & Easy! Fast and Easy. Improve Grammar In Your Essays and Avoid Plagiarism. Try Today!Find and Add Sources Fast · Fix Punctuation Errors · Improve Word ChoiceService catalog: Grammarly Premium, Grammarly Business, Grammarly @edu WebDeveloping A Thesis. Think of yourself as a member of a jury, listening to a lawyer WebA thesis statement should show exactly what your paper will be about, and will ... read more
The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its many benefits for education because it facilitates easier access to information. But the thesis statement should always clearly state the main idea you want to get across. Second, many causes and effects is vague. Every argument has a counterargument. There is nothing as frustrating as hitting on a great idea for a thesis, then forgetting it when you lose concentration.
Readers of academic essays expect to have questions discussed, explored, or even answered. Your first step, then, is to distill the assignment into a specific question. A thesis should never be vague, combative or confrontational. Expository thesis statement The invention of braille in the 19th century transformed the lives of blind people, essay with thesis, allowing them to participate more actively in public life. Readers need essay with thesis be able to see that your paper has one main point. At this stage it can be simple, and it should guide the research process and writing process. A strong thesis statement justifies discussion.
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