A thesis statement is an important component of your paper because it acts as a roadmap for your readers. It helps your readers know the destination of your paper or what your paper is about.
Since a thesis statement acts as an overarching conclusion of what your paper will defend, it should always be present in your academic papers.
A thesis statement can be regarded as a complete sentence, in most cases, that articulates the argument and purpose of the research paper. Apart from proving the paper’s direction to the readers, it also guides the writing process by focusing your research, outlining, and the process of drafting the paper.
As noted earlier, a thesis statement should be debatable, allowing readers to agree or disagree with your claims. Therefore, it is good to know whether this can be expressed as a question
A thesis statement cannot be a question because an inquisitive statement does not present a claim or a stand for other people to agree with or disagree with.
A thesis should be a sentence that asserts the author’s stand and does not engage the audience in a question. It is based on this statement that the author argues the paper, essay, or research study.
The arguments that you will present within the body paragraphs are meant to convince your readers to agree with your thesis statement.
On the other hand, a question cannot state something because a question seeks an answer.
A question allows the readers or the audience to respond to the question and therefore there will be no debate concerning the claims.
Thesis statements prove themselves using evidence and reasoning. As we explained in our essay writing guide, a thesis is the basis of the entire essay.
A thesis statement can have multiple sentences depending on the type of claims and the structure of the claims
A thesis statement cannot be multiple sentences because it is a stand that should be expressed in just a statement. A thesis of an essay should not be more than one sentence as it will divide the author’s stance into two or more parts, yet it should be one. Therefore, you should not limit yourself to a single sentence when writing a final thesis statement.
In almost all academic institutions, a single-sentence thesis statement is widely used in essays. While you can have more than one sentence to explain your claims, a thesis remains single.
While it should be one sentence, you should introduce your thesis. Generally, two sentences are recommended not when writing a thesis statement but only when explaining the claims or expounding on the thesis statement.
It should be noted that more than two sentences may fragment the claims. Remember that a good thesis statement should be concise and clear. The more direct and shorter a thesis stamen is, the more it makes the writer seem assertive and confident.
A thesis statement cannot be an opinion because it has to be based on arguable or provable points. Ideally, a thesis statement should be debatable and it should be proven through facts, reasoning, and evidence. On the contrary, an opinion is not factual and cannot be proved through reasonable evidence.
At the same time, an opinion cannot be argued upon because it is subjective. Thesis statements should be objective and therefore not opinions.
In most cases, particularly in academic essay writing, the thesis statement should come at the beginning of the paper where it is located at the end of the introduction. This means that when writing an introduction paragraph, the last sentence of the paragraph should be the thesis statement.
Though this is the case, in narrative writings, the thesis statement is usually placed at the end of the narrative. This is because the narrative’s main point or moral/lesson comes after the story has been told. The story makes your claim or points understandable to the readers.
A thesis statement cannot be located in the second paragraph of your essay or paper because it should be written in the first paragraph.
Ideally, a thesis statement should be located at the end of the first paragraph, which is always the introduction paragraph. This is most likely located on the first page of your paper or an essay.
Some essays contain more than one introduction paragraph, depending on the scope of your paper or the number of things that need to be introduced.
As such, the production can be at the last sentence of the second paragraph of your introduction.
If the introduction has three paragraphs, then the thesis statement should appear in the last sentence of the first paragraph.
As noted earlier, the thesis statement should be located in the last sentence of your introduction paragraph.
A thesis statement cannot be a quote because it is a stand or a claim by the author and not any other person. It is a statement of position, which gives the basis of the whole essay, paper, or research study.
Using a quote is inappropriate because a quote is another writer’s work or claim. However, you can quote another person to support your thesis
If your thesis statement is a complete quote, then you will have subjective claims. A thesis should be objective. Therefore, you cannot base your arguments based on another person’s ideas.
However, you can incorporate a quote within your thesis statement to emphasize or illustrate some of your claims that need to be proved.
Now that we have understood what a thesis is and is not, it is time to explain how to write a good thesis statement for your paper or an essay.
Now that new have understood a thesis statement and its general purpose, let us explore the best strategies for writing a good thesis statement. This is because it is a very important component of the paper, and many students do not know how to write it well.
Instructors can penalize students when they come up with poor thesis statements.
The first step in writing a good thesis statement is coming up with the initial or working thesis before you start the writing process.
You should do this as soon as you decide on the topic of your paper. Here, you should decide on what you are going to say concerning the topic.
This will guide your entire brainstorming process before you begin writing.
The creation of a working thesis is guided by a research question. The research question, on the other hand, is guided by the topic of your paper. Your instructor may provide a research question in the instructions.
However, if they have not provided it, you should come up with your research question based on what you would like to find out concerning the topic.
After you have come up with a research question, trying to come up with your initial answer to that question. This can be achieved after you have done some preliminary research on the topic and the research question.
Coming up with a tentative question is not difficult at this stage because you have decided on your topic, formulated a research question, and conducted initial research.
The next step should be to further develop the research question’s answer. This means that you should consider why this is the answer and the strategies you will use to convince the readers to agree with you.
When you research more about the topic and start the writing process, more details to your answer will emerge.
Once you have done all that, you should go back to the working thesis statement and improve it. This is the stage where you fine-tune your thesis statement to state the position of your paper and summarize your arguments.
Improving the thesis statement entails various things. The first thing is to make sure that your thesis statement is debatable. This especially applies to persuasive or argumentative papers. It should allow readers to have a different opinion concerning your arguments.
For example, a thesis that states “Pollution harms the environment” is not debatable because pollution suggests something that causes harm or has a negative effect. Studies also demonstrate that pollution is bad. Try to come up with debatable thesis statements.
Another strategy of writing a good thesis statement is to narrow it down. This will make your argument more effective. Since the thesis statement should be supported using evidence in the body paragraphs of your paper, a broad thesis statement will require a lot of evidence to support it.
If the scope of your paper is not big, then narrow down the thesis statement to make it good.
You can also create a good thesis statement by deciding the type of claim you are going to present. The type of claim depends on the type of paper you are writing and it helps focus the thesis statement.
The types of claims include claims of definition/fact, claims of cause and effect, claims about value, claims about policies or solutions.
Read more on how to write a good claim in an essay so that you can learn how to distinguish this and the issue of a thesis statement.
Josh Jasen or JJ as we fondly call him, is a senior academic editor at Grade Bees in charge of the writing department. When not managing complex essays and academic writing tasks, Josh is busy advising students on how to pass assignments. In his spare time, he loves playing football or walking with his dog around the park.
