Do you feel like you’re walking a tight rope when you are trying to write an effective thesis statement?
What is a thesis statement?
A thesis statement, in the simplest of terms, consists of:
- Giving your readers a brief preview about the topic of your paper
- Delivering a short argumentative assertion point
- Offering a debatable viewpoint as the focus of your paper
- Guiding your readers towards the conclusions you will draw in your paper
The Type of Paper You’re Writing Determines the Structure of Your Thesis Statement
Writing a thesis statement is not as simple as saying, ‘Here’s the formula, now just insert your words into this paragraph.’ Every paper will have its own strategies and statements, but listed below are several tips for how you can go about writing your thesis statement.
Remember that every thesis statement has two parts: the main idea you want to convey, and the reason that supports your main idea. (Idea + Reason.) You can think of the plus sign (+) in this equation representing the word because, which makes it easier for you to build your thesis statement.
Examples of Well Written Thesis Statements
As I tried to wrap my head around the idea of writing my initial draft thesis statement, I found several definitions and examples offered by the University of Washington as the most helpful tips to getting started.
Thesis statements must make a claim. Thesis statements are not statements of fact, and they should be more than a simple point of view. For example:
Statement of fact: “Karl Marx was a political thinker who believed that capitalism exploits working people.” This is a point that is essentially undisputeable.
Similarly, the claim “The United Nations is an organization comprised of different nation-states around the world” is not likely to inspire much debate.
Opinion statements: On the other hand, the sentence “Marx was wrong about capitalism because capitalism is good for people” is closer to a thesis statement because it makes a claim – it takes a stand or a perspective on a particular topic. But in this format it is too much of an opinion and not enough of an argument.
Similarly, “The United Nations is an ineffective organization” is closer to a thesis statement than the factual statement about the United Nations because it raises a point that is debateable. But again, in this format it doesn’t offer the reader much information and, thus, it sounds like the author is simply stating their viewpoint which may or may not be substantiated by evidence.
The key difference between an opinion statement and thesis statement is that the latter conveys to the reader that the claim being offered has been thoroughly explored and is defendable by evidence.
Thesis statements: Thus, in the first example, you need to indicate that you have a clear sense of which of Marx’s views were wrong and why they were wrong (by “wrong” do you mean incorrect, inaccurate, silly, ridiculous, unsupported…?). Furthermore, you would need to specify what you mean by capitalism being “good” for people. Good in what sense? It makes them happy? successful? productive? Being specific in your claims means that you will have to think through your evidence to be sure it supports your conclusions. By doing this, you will make it clear to your reader that your thesis is something that you have considered and are able to support through the knowledge you have acquired in the course.
Thus, you may end up with:
Marx’s views about capitalism were rooted in a specific time and place, neither of which are true today; his arguments that capitalism exploits working people, when re-examined in contemporary society, do not account for the high standard of living enjoyed by a great many workers around the world.
Note: You should always think about what another argument (perhaps the opposite one) would look like if you were to try to counter your own. This will ultimately strengthen your argument because it requires you to justify to yourself and others why you think what you think. For example, one could counter the above thesis statement with:
Marx’s critique of capitalism, though written over 100 years ago, is still devastating today; with the gap between rich and poor increasing even in the world’s richest countries such as the U.S., it has become clear that a capitalist economic system can only result in massive exploitation of the working class.
Of course, one can re-work a thesis statement indefinitely and one can almost always find something at fault with it. But the point is that you must be sure that your thesis statement is indicating to your reader that you have an argument to make.
In addition, your thesis should also help you organize your paper. As you present your argument in your thesis, it should lay out how you will organize your paper. For example if your thesis is, “The organization of the UN makes it incapable of preventing war between major powers,” this then gives the central structure to your paper. First you will explore the UN’s organizational structure. Then you will examine why that structure hampers the UN’s ability to keep peace. After laying the foundations of your central argument, you can elaborate on the specific logical steps within your thesis. You can add to the argument above, by describing the organizational structures you wish to explore, such as the Security Council, funding of the UN, and other assorted points that you are going to explore more fully in your paper. Always be sure to present them in order as they will appear in order as they will appear in your paper. In the end, your thesis should lay out your argument and provide the reader with a map to the paper.
Excerpt from: https://depts.washington.edu/pswrite/thesis.html
In summary
I found the above-referenced online reference to be the most easy method to follow. What especially intrigued me was the statement ‘Note’ about coming up with another opposite argument. It seems to me that many statements could be written based on just the idea that this approach offers any writer a thesis statement ‘starter.’
Examples of a Thesis Statement and Downloadable Worksheets
If you’re still in doubt about whether your thesis statement is weak or strong, I’ve included a site that has Thesis Statement Worksheets that you can download. I liked all the examples they showed, and I liked seeing how various universities treated each thesis statement example. Here’s the link to download thesis statement worksheets: http://printableworksheets.in/?dq=Thesis Statement
Thoughts? Questions? Reactions?
What are your reactions to this way of creating a thesis statement?
Agree? State why.
Disagree? State why.
Share another method you’ve tried that works. We like to hear your ideas.
