MAKING YOUR THESIS STATEMENT WORK FOR YOU

A thesis statement reveals the main point of your essay to readers. It also guides you through the research and writing process. Sometimes it isn’t until you start to write one that you really discover what you want to say.

There is something you can do to ease the sometimes difficult process of conceiving a thesis sentence. Put something on paper, anything at all that touches on the subject you’ve chosen to write about. Even the roughest ideas are better than a blank page.

Once you have a rough draft, a set of notes or some of your ideas in writing, you are ready to start asking questions that will help narrow and focus your topic. To get the most out of your statement, you need to make a claim or an argument that not everyone will agree with, but one that you can support with vivid, believable examples that go beyond your own thoughts and feelings.                          

With that in mind, ask yourself any or all of the following questions and respond to them in writing:

How did this subject enter my life?

Why does it matter to me?

What do I want the reader to think or feel after reading my essay?

In what ways is my statement open for debate?

Who would disagree with my statement? Why?

How will I address these differences? Which ones will I ignore?

How will I show my reader that what I’m saying is true?

What assumptions have I made that my reader might disagree with?

What research, observation and interviews will make what I want to say more believable?

What do I have to say about this topic that’s different than other things I’ve heard or read?

What does my audience already know about this topic?

What am I going to tell readers that’s particularly interesting or new?

 Looking at what I’ve already written, where is the tension, conflict or controversy? What else can I say about this?

If I had to boil down my statement into 35 words or less, what would I say?

If I replaced weak verbs in this sentence with strong active ones, what would I be saying? Is this what I want to say?    

If strong verbs make my statement more dynamic, what else can I do to make what I have to say clear and direct?

Many thesis statements fall into one of these three overlapping categories. Sometimes you can clarify your thoughts just by figuring out which category your thesis falls under.

             Am I trying to point out a hidden truth?

             Am I trying to say that something often overlooked is worthwhile?

             Am I trying to say that a bad policy should be changed or a new one created?