What is a Thesis Statement?

When we write, we establish a relationship between ourselves and our readers. A thesis statement helps us do this because it lets the reader know what we’re going to write about. A thesis statement is a statement of the specific argument, position or point that the paper makes. To fully understand a thesis statement, one must first understand two terms: topic and argument.

A topic is a general subject, such as “the chemical properties of soda pop,” “Romantic poets” or “medieval-era pirates.” (Arg, matey.) Many professors assign topics when they ask you to write a paper. For example, a biology professor might ask you to write about white blood cells. A history professor might ask you to write about Vietnam. An eccentric nursing professor might ask you to write about your grandpa’s urinary tract health. (Ew.) Each of these is a topic.

Sometimes professors do not assign a topic and you have to choose one for yourself. If this happens and you can’t think of anything to write about, you should consider some invention exercises [link?].

An argument is more than lots of yelling and some broken plates, which is what an argument was in my family. An argument, at least in academic writing, is the part of a thesis that makes a claim or draws a conclusion about a particular topic. It evaluates, analyzes or explains something specific about your topic.

For example, if we were writing about pirates, we could write, “Pirates are cool,” and we have made an argument. It’s not a great argument, but it’s still an argument.

How do we know we’ve made an argument? Well, the first clue is that someone, probably my little sister, could disagree with us and write, “Pirates are stupid.” Since she disagrees, we can argue about pirates. Thus, by nature, an argument is arguable. If we write, “Pirates live on boats,” no one can argue with us, not even my sister. Pirates obviously live on boats. If we write, “Vietnam was a war in Asia,” our history professor is going to fail us because we haven’t made an argument. Instead we’ve just stated a fact.

A second clue is that we need to support our argument. All good arguments require supporting evidence. If arguments didn’t require evidence, we wouldn’t have anything to write about.

What does a Thesis Statement do?

It’s like that Janet Jackson song says: “What have you done for me lately?” (Not that I regularly listen to Janet Jackson or anything. In my room. By myself when I’m sad.) For those of you who didn’t suffer through the pop music of the early 90s, think about it this way: a thesis must help someone, and it actually helps two people: your reader and you.

In most cases your reader will be your professor, and your thesis lets your professor know what your paper will discuss and what you say about it. When you include a thesis in your paper, your professor doesn’t have to guess or figure out what your ideas are or what you want to say.

A thesis helps you keep focused. Everything in an essay needs to connect with your thesis, and if it doesn’t, it shouldn’t be in your paper. It helps to visualize your thesis as a prom outfit. If you’ve gone to all the trouble to rent a black tuxedo, and you’ve bought yourself some swanky black shoes and sweet black tie, you probably wouldn’t wear white socks. Well, if you’ve gone to all the trouble to write six pages about medieval pirates, it doesn’t make much sense to write a paragraph about sea otters. Sea otters might be cute, but pirates they are not. Arg, matey. Unless your thesis explained the relationship between otters and pirates, the otters have to go.

This is a pretty obvious example, but let’s say we’re in a chemistry course and have chosen to write a paper about the chemical properties of soda pop. As a tentative thesis, we’ve written, “The chemical formula of sugar, more than the artificial flavors or colors, plays the most important role in a soda’s taste.” If this were our thesis, we would want to write about carbonization, cohesion and acidity, and we may want to explain the way that the chemical formula affects taste buds, but we probably don’t want to discuss the way that our bodies digest soda pop. Talking about digestion would suddenly move us into the field of biology, which is not related to our thesis.

Are there different kinds of Thesis Statements?

Yes, there are, and we actually use of two types of thesis statements: explicit and implicit.

The explicit thesis is a specific sentence or group of sentences that clarifies the writing’s topic and specific arguments. For example, if an essay were an ocean, then the explicit thesis is a map of the currents and trade winds. It prevents your reader from getting lost or falling off the edge. A reader will know an explicit thesis because it makes her think, “Aha. So that’s what this is going to be about.”

The implicit thesis doesn’t tell the reader what the writing argues. Rather, it lets the reader infer or figure out the meaning of the essay. Again, if we think of your essay as a ocean, an implicit thesis is a bit like an exploratory voyage. The reader might feel a little lost, but by the end of the paper he will understand where he’s been and how he got there. A reader will know that an essay has an implicit thesis because he thinks, “Okay. So that’s what it was all about.”

This is a tough question to answer because some types of papers and several disciplines have different ideas about thesis statements. For this reason, the safest answer to this question is always the one your professor gives you.

However, we can make several generalizations about the type of thesis statement you should use in your writing.

• Most academic essays will use an explicit thesis.
• Most long works use an explicit thesis to prevent confusion.
• Most personal writing and self-reflective writing will use an implicit thesis.
• Writing that emphasizes the process more than the conclusion or the results will often use an implicit thesis.
• When writing for a hostile audience (that is, someone who will disagree with the claims that you make), most writers will choose to use an implicit thesis.
• Many papers for sciences classes won’t use a thesis at all. These disciplines have their own special forms of writing.

Many types of reports, letters and memos for business and education classes will have their own format and may not require theses.

Where does a thesis appear in a paper?

A thesis generally appears at the end of the essay’s first paragraph, but this rule can be broken in several special cases:

• Your professor tells you to put it somewhere else. Professors give you directions for a reason. If you don’t follow directions, they kill you. Really. It happened to me once, and now I am dead, and I’m not having fun.

• Your paper is incredibly long. If you are writing a 12-page paper, it’s possible that your thesis appears at the end of the second or third paragraph. If you’re writing a book, it’s likely that your thesis will appear at the end of the introduction or the first chapter.

• You’re writing in a discipline in which there are no theses, just hypotheses. Such fields include biology, chemistry or physics. Different fields and disciplines have different styles of writing, and some do not use theses. They have special styles of writing, and you should consult a guide [link?[ to better understand what you have to do.

What are some characteristics of a strong Thesis?

Thesis statements differ from paper to paper, but a strong thesis statement tends to exhibit the following traits.

1. It is direct. It gets to the point and avoids phrases such as "I believe...“ and “This paper will show..."
   

   Weak:	In this paper, I argue that pirates are the best type of seamen around.
   Strong:	Since pirates live a life of unending danger and often influence trade routes and the products we trade, they deserve our attention more than any other type of seaman.

2. It expresses just one main idea.
   

   Weak:	There are good and bad things about being a pirate, and some of these good and bad things have positive and negative effects.
   Strong:	Because of the high-stakes adventure and the constantly shifting scenery of piracy, pirates always find themselves in a position to influence the world of trade.

3. It makes an argument.
   

   Weak:	Pirates drink rum.
   Strong:	Rum-drinking is essential to the life of a pirate and, historically, the success of piracy has primarily relied upon a continuous rum supply.

     

4. It is specific.
   

   Weak:	Pirates do a lot of things that are sort of neat.
   Strong:	From rum-drinking to swash-buckling, from pillaging to smuggling, the pirate leads a life of constant adventure that draws upon all of humanity’s finest physical traits.

How do I know if my Thesis is strong?

If you have time, you should always run your thesis past your instructor or bring your essay to the Writing Center. If you don’t have time, you can always check your thesis on your own by answering these questions. If you answer “no” to any of these questions, you may want to rethink your thesis.

• If your professor gave you a question to answer, did you answer it?
• Does your thesis seem to appear in an appropriate place, neither too early nor too late in the essay?
• Have you made an argument?
• If you made an argument, is it specific?
• Does your thesis express one main idea?
• Does your argument require supporting evidence and examples?

Conclusion

Rarely do beginning writers master the thesis statement in their first essay. Indeed, the complexity of thesis statements explains why whole chapters and entire books have been written about the subject. However, by constantly examining the relationship between your topic and what you want to say about, and by speaking with your professors and people in the Writing Center, you can eventually write a thesis statement that reflects your level of thought as well as the time you invest in your work.

Bibliography

Anson, Chris M. and Robert A. Schwegler. The Longman Handbook for Writers. 2nd ed. New York: Longman, 2000.

Avery, H., et al. Thinking It Through: a Practical Guide to Academic Essay Writing.3rd ed. Peterborough: Trent University Academic Skills Centre, 1995.  

Hairston, Maxine and John J. Ruszkiewicz. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers. 4th ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.

Lunsford, Andrea and Robert Connors. The St. Martin's Handbook. 3rd ed. New York: St. Martin's, 1995.

Rosen, Leonard J. and Laurence Behrens. The Allyn & Bacon Handbook. 3rd ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1997.

Links to other Thesis Guides

How to Write a Thesis Statement (Indiana University)
Using Thesis Statements (University of Toronto)
The Thesis Statement (University of Richmond)
Developing a Thesis Statement (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Back to Top