The Research Process

Step 6: Formulate a Thesis

The thesis controls your paper, limits its focus and illuminates your own ideas about the subject all at once.  Your thesis is not a fact about your topic, but a claim or an opinion about the topic.  A good thesis has three qualities:

1.    It must be a generalization demanding proof or further development.  The sentence “Ritalin is a drug that many people use to treat ADD and ADHD” would not make a good thesis.  There’s nowhere to go to develop this statement – it’s simply a statistical fact.  You could provide adequate support simply by citing the prescription rate.  A better thesis might be, “Ritalin has been used to treat ADD and ADHD, but it may not be the safest or most efficient way to treat these disorders.”  This statement would require evidence in many forms.

2.    It must not be too general, or you won’t be able to support it well in only a few pages.  In just seven or so pages, you can’t develop a thesis like, “Lots of women have made their mark on history”.  Better:  “Suffragettes in the nineteenth century lit the spark that would later become the modern feminist movement.”

3.    It must be not be vague.  The sentence “Ritalin is a useful drug” is way too hazy to make a good thesis.  A better thesis:  “While some feel that Ritalin is over-prescribed in the United States, it is actually the best treatment for those that suffer from ADD or ADHD.”   

Note that these thesis statements are claims that need to be backed up with facts and details.  The thesis should reflect your own idea about your topic, not just a re-hash of what you read somewhere else.  Your own ideas should definitely take center stage, and you can use facts and details that you come across in your research to help support what you yourself believe about your topic.  By the time you are done researching your topic, you have a right to have an opinion about it, even if you aren’t passionately arguing a point.