Thesis Statements

What Is a Thesis Statement?

A thesis statement is the statement of the argument of your paper. In other words, the thesis is your paper’s point—the reason for its existence. It clearly and concisely states the argument presented in your paper. In a persuasive or analytical paper, this is the “this is what I’m about to show you” sentence of your paper.

**A good thesis statement makes a claim.**

How do you know if your thesis statement makes a claim? It makes a claim if you can agree or disagree with it.

Here is an example of a thesis statement that does not make a claim: In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Captain Ahab is obsessed with finding the white whale and ends up destroying himself and his entire crew.

This is not a thesis; it is a statement of fact. Ahab is obsessed with finding and killing the white whale. The entire sentence merely summarizes the main plot of the book.

Instead, your thesis statement needs to be an opinion: The white whale in Melville’s Moby Dick represents nature, and Captain Ahab’s suicidal pursuit illustrates the futility and foolishness of man’s attempt to conquer nature.

This is a correct thesis. You can agree or disagree with this statement; therefore, it is a claim.

However, you must be able to defend your claim. If you can come up with evidence in order to prove your claim, then it is defendable. However, if you cannot prove your argument nor have no plausible support, your paper will fall flat. To prevent this, always ask what evidence you can draw from the text (or the facts). If the answer is none, then find another thesis.

A good thesis statement is a condensed outline of the paper.

This means that you should not bring up something in your paper that you do not mention in your thesis. After reading a thesis statement, the reader should be prepared to follow your paper from point to point:

Thesis
Kate Chopin, in the short story “The Storm,” uses a metaphorical relationship between the building, climax, and falling action of the storm and the affair between the two main characters to examine sexuality in the illicit form and assert that it, like a natural storm, should not be subject to moral interpretations.

This thesis is good because it tells the reader exactly where the paper is going. The paper is going to look at how the storm functions as a symbol for illicit sexuality in Chopin’s short story, as well as how that symbol affects the interpretation of the story. The reader is thus prepared to read the paper and follow its argument.

A good thesis statement is specific.

If a thesis statement is too vague, you will either not be able to defend it or find that it is not a thesis. A thesis statement that says, “Bob Dylan’s unique writing style developed out of folk protest and the blues” is probably too broad to defend in a three-page paper while it may be a great topic for a fifty-page paper. A better topic for a three-page paper might be the effect of Woody Guthrie on the writing of a specific song on Bob Dylan’s first album.

How Do I Develop a Thesis?

The first thing to do is look at the assignment. Most teachers will give several prompts for you to think about when they assign an essay. If you have prompts for the paper, make sure that you answer the prompt.

Ideally, coming up with a thesis statement is an organic process, but it may help to follow some general steps: define, research, narrow, and defend. However, keep in mind that each of these steps flows into and out of the others.

Define

First, define the topic. Start broad and become more specific. If the topic is Naturalism in the short story “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane, write down “Naturalism” on a page.

Research

Ask yourself what you know about Naturalism. If you do not know enough, then do some research until you know what you need to know. Then read the story once or twice to get an idea of the main themes that might relate to Naturalism. You will later draw on your research to defend your argument and do more research to find new proofs to defend it or expand old proofs.

Narrow

Next, you need to narrow your topic and find your argument. To narrow the topic, ask yourself what interests you about the text that applies to the topic:

Topic Naturalism
Narrowed topic The relationship between the men and the sea
Argument The sea controls the destinies of the men in the boat

Defend

Now that you have a tentative argument, find specific examples from the story to prove your point. In a five-paragraph format, you will usually end up with three specific examples:

Example 1 The personification of the waves
Example 2 The thoughts of each character on their perilous situation
Example 3 Similarity between Billie and the soldier of Algiers

Write Your Thesis

Now put it all together, and there is your thesis:

Thesis
In Stephen Crane’s short story “The Open Boat,” the personification of the waves, the thoughts of each character on their situation, and the similarity between Billie and the soldier of Algiers develop a naturalistic relationship in which nature has utter control of the fates of the men in the boat.

This thesis is a specific claim (nature has utter control) with specific support (the three points) that prepares the reader to follow the paper from point to point. Obviously, a lot of careful thinking and rethinking goes into following these steps. There is no easy way to develop a thesis.

Do not be afraid to change your thesis! If, once you write the paper, you look through the paper and find that you actually wrote about something else, that is not a bad thing. As long as you have an argument defended in the paper, all you must do is discover what your argument really is.

Is It a Thesis?

Below are two examples of bad and good theses with explanations:

Bad Getting married in college is crazy.

Good Because of the rising cost of college tuition, the stresses involved in being in class and working, and the cost of food and housing, getting married in college is not worth the risk.

Why The first sentence is an unsubstantiated opinion. The second states the support for the argument and states the argument clearly.

Bad In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two minor characters that die offstage.

Good Shakespeare uses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s apparent helplessness and offstage death to maximize the pathos of the death of pawns next to the deaths of royalty.

Why The first sentence is a statement of fact. The second states an opinion and prepares the reader for the main proofs that the author will use in support of the opinion.