the first draft of my thesis

• U.S. Locations
• UMGC Europe
• Learn Online
• Find Answers
• 855-655-8682
• Current Students

Online Guide to Writing and Research

Assessing your writing, explore more of umgc.

• Online Guide to Writing

The Draft Stage

The First Draft

Your first draft is where you bring all your work together—your research, your notes, your brainstorming—in your initial attempt to introduce, state, and develop your thesis. Below are some questions to help you answer the main question: does it work?

Mailing Address: 3501 University Blvd. East, Adelphi, MD 20783 This work is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License . © 2022 UMGC. All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the validity or integrity of information located at external sites.

Table of Contents: Online Guide to Writing

Chapter 1: College Writing

How Does College Writing Differ from Workplace Writing?

What Is College Writing?

Why So Much Emphasis on Writing?

Chapter 2: The Writing Process

Doing Exploratory Research

Getting from Notes to Your Draft

Introduction

Prewriting - Techniques to Get Started - Mining Your Intuition

Prewriting: Targeting Your Audience

Prewriting: Techniques to Get Started

Prewriting: Understanding Your Assignment

Rewriting: Being Your Own Critic

Rewriting: Creating a Revision Strategy

Rewriting: Getting Feedback

Rewriting: The Final Draft

Techniques to Get Started - Outlining

Techniques to Get Started - Using Systematic Techniques

Thesis Statement and Controlling Idea

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Freewriting

Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Summarizing Your Ideas

Writing: Outlining What You Will Write

Chapter 3: Thinking Strategies

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone

A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone: Style Through Vocabulary and Diction

Critical Strategies and Writing

Critical Strategies and Writing: Analysis

Critical Strategies and Writing: Evaluation

Critical Strategies and Writing: Persuasion

Critical Strategies and Writing: Synthesis

Developing a Paper Using Strategies

Kinds of Assignments You Will Write

Patterns for Presenting Information

Patterns for Presenting Information: Critiques

Patterns for Presenting Information: Discussing Raw Data

Patterns for Presenting Information: General-to-Specific Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Specific-to-General Pattern

Patterns for Presenting Information: Summaries and Abstracts

Supporting with Research and Examples

Writing Essay Examinations

Writing Essay Examinations: Make Your Answer Relevant and Complete

Writing Essay Examinations: Organize Thinking Before Writing

Writing Essay Examinations: Read and Understand the Question

Chapter 4: The Research Process

Planning and Writing a Research Paper

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Ask a Research Question

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Cite Sources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Collect Evidence

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Decide Your Point of View, or Role, for Your Research

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Draw Conclusions

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Find a Topic and Get an Overview

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Manage Your Resources

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Outline

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Survey the Literature

Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Work Your Sources into Your Research Writing

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Human Resources

Research Resources: What Are Research Resources?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found?

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Electronic Resources

Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Print Resources

Structuring the Research Paper: Formal Research Structure

Structuring the Research Paper: Informal Research Structure

The Nature of Research

The Research Assignment: How Should Research Sources Be Evaluated?

The Research Assignment: When Is Research Needed?

The Research Assignment: Why Perform Research?

Chapter 5: Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity

Giving Credit to Sources

Giving Credit to Sources: Copyright Laws

Giving Credit to Sources: Documentation

Giving Credit to Sources: Style Guides

Integrating Sources

Practicing Academic Integrity

Practicing Academic Integrity: Keeping Accurate Records

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Paraphrasing Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Quoting Your Source

Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Summarizing Your Sources

Types of Documentation

Types of Documentation: Bibliographies and Source Lists

Types of Documentation: Citing World Wide Web Sources

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - APA Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - CSE/CBE Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - Chicago Style

Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - MLA Style

Types of Documentation: Note Citations

Chapter 6: Using Library Resources

Finding Library Resources

Chapter 7: Assessing Your Writing

How Is Writing Graded?

How Is Writing Graded?: A General Assessment Tool

The Draft Stage: The First Draft

The Draft Stage: The Revision Process and the Final Draft

The Draft Stage: Using Feedback

The Research Stage

Using Assessment to Improve Your Writing

Chapter 8: Other Frequently Assigned Papers

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Article and Book Reviews

Reviews and Reaction Papers: Reaction Papers

Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Adapting the Argument Structure

Writing Arguments: Purposes of Argument

Writing Arguments: References to Consult for Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Anticipate Active Opposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Determine Your Organization

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Develop Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Introduce Your Argument

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - State Your Thesis or Proposition

Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Write Your Conclusion

Writing Arguments: Types of Argument

Appendix A: Books to Help Improve Your Writing

Dictionaries

General Style Manuals

Researching on the Internet

Special Style Manuals

Writing Handbooks

Appendix B: Collaborative Writing and Peer Reviewing

Collaborative Writing: Assignments to Accompany the Group Project

Collaborative Writing: Informal Progress Report

Collaborative Writing: Issues to Resolve

Collaborative Writing: Methodology

Collaborative Writing: Peer Evaluation

Collaborative Writing: Tasks of Collaborative Writing Group Members

Collaborative Writing: Writing Plan

General Introduction

Peer Reviewing

Appendix C: Developing an Improvement Plan

Working with Your Instructor’s Comments and Grades

Appendix D: Writing Plan and Project Schedule

Devising a Writing Project Plan and Schedule

Reviewing Your Plan with Others

By using our website you agree to our use of cookies. Learn more about how we use cookies by reading our  Privacy Policy .

Thesis Statements

What this handout is about.

This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, and how you can craft or refine one for your draft.

Introduction

Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion—convincing others that you have an interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill you practice regularly in your daily life. You persuade your roommate to clean up, your parents to let you borrow the car, your friend to vote for your favorite candidate or policy. In college, course assignments often ask you to make a persuasive case in writing. You are asked to convince your reader of your point of view. This form of persuasion, often called academic argument, follows a predictable pattern in writing. After a brief introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it serves as a summary of the argument you’ll make in the rest of your paper.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement:

• tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.
• is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper.
• directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II or Moby Dick; a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war or the novel.
• makes a claim that others might dispute.
• is usually a single sentence near the beginning of your paper (most often, at the end of the first paragraph) that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.

If your assignment asks you to take a position or develop a claim about a subject, you may need to convey that position or claim in a thesis statement near the beginning of your draft. The assignment may not explicitly state that you need a thesis statement because your instructor may assume you will include one. When in doubt, ask your instructor if the assignment requires a thesis statement. When an assignment asks you to analyze, to interpret, to compare and contrast, to demonstrate cause and effect, or to take a stand on an issue, it is likely that you are being asked to develop a thesis and to support it persuasively. (Check out our handout on understanding assignments for more information.)

How do I create a thesis?

A thesis is the result of a lengthy thinking process. Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do after reading an essay assignment. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts (such as surprising contrasts or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you do this thinking, you will probably have a “working thesis” that presents a basic or main idea and an argument that you think you can support with evidence. Both the argument and your thesis are likely to need adjustment along the way.

Writers use all kinds of techniques to stimulate their thinking and to help them clarify relationships or comprehend the broader significance of a topic and arrive at a thesis statement. For more ideas on how to get started, see our handout on brainstorming .

How do I know if my thesis is strong?

If there’s time, run it by your instructor or make an appointment at the Writing Center to get some feedback. Even if you do not have time to get advice elsewhere, you can do some thesis evaluation of your own. When reviewing your first draft and its working thesis, ask yourself the following :

• Do I answer the question? Re-reading the question prompt after constructing a working thesis can help you fix an argument that misses the focus of the question. If the prompt isn’t phrased as a question, try to rephrase it. For example, “Discuss the effect of X on Y” can be rephrased as “What is the effect of X on Y?”
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? If your thesis simply states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it’s possible that you are simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like “good” or “successful,” see if you could be more specific: why is something “good”; what specifically makes something “successful”?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? If a reader’s first response is likely to  be “So what?” then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue.
• Does my essay support my thesis specifically and without wandering? If your thesis and the body of your essay do not seem to go together, one of them has to change. It’s okay to change your working thesis to reflect things you have figured out in the course of writing your paper. Remember, always reassess and revise your writing as necessary.
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? If a reader’s first response is “how?” or “why?” your thesis may be too open-ended and lack guidance for the reader. See what you can add to give the reader a better take on your position right from the beginning.

Suppose you are taking a course on contemporary communication, and the instructor hands out the following essay assignment: “Discuss the impact of social media on public awareness.” Looking back at your notes, you might start with this working thesis:

Social media impacts public awareness in both positive and negative ways.

You can use the questions above to help you revise this general statement into a stronger thesis.

• Do I answer the question? You can analyze this if you rephrase “discuss the impact” as “what is the impact?” This way, you can see that you’ve answered the question only very generally with the vague “positive and negative ways.”
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not likely. Only people who maintain that social media has a solely positive or solely negative impact could disagree.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? No. What are the positive effects? What are the negative effects?
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? No. Why are they positive? How are they positive? What are their causes? Why are they negative? How are they negative? What are their causes?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? No. Why should anyone care about the positive and/or negative impact of social media?

After thinking about your answers to these questions, you decide to focus on the one impact you feel strongly about and have strong evidence for:

Because not every voice on social media is reliable, people have become much more critical consumers of information, and thus, more informed voters.

This version is a much stronger thesis! It answers the question, takes a specific position that others can challenge, and it gives a sense of why it matters.

Let’s try another. Suppose your literature professor hands out the following assignment in a class on the American novel: Write an analysis of some aspect of Mark Twain’s novel Huckleberry Finn. “This will be easy,” you think. “I loved Huckleberry Finn!” You grab a pad of paper and write:

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.

You begin to analyze your thesis:

• Do I answer the question? No. The prompt asks you to analyze some aspect of the novel. Your working thesis is a statement of general appreciation for the entire novel.

Think about aspects of the novel that are important to its structure or meaning—for example, the role of storytelling, the contrasting scenes between the shore and the river, or the relationships between adults and children. Now you write:

In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and life on the shore.

• Do I answer the question? Yes!
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not really. This contrast is well-known and accepted.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? It’s getting there–you have highlighted an important aspect of the novel for investigation. However, it’s still not clear what your analysis will reveal.
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? Not yet. Compare scenes from the book and see what you discover. Free write, make lists, jot down Huck’s actions and reactions and anything else that seems interesting.
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? What’s the point of this contrast? What does it signify?”

After examining the evidence and considering your own insights, you write:

Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must leave “civilized” society and go back to nature.

This final thesis statement presents an interpretation of a literary work based on an analysis of its content. Of course, for the essay itself to be successful, you must now present evidence from the novel that will convince the reader of your interpretation.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. 2010. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers , 6th ed. New York: Longman.

Lunsford, Andrea A. 2015. The St. Martin’s Handbook , 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 2018. The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing , 8th ed. New York: Pearson.

Ruszkiewicz, John J., Christy Friend, Daniel Seward, and Maxine Hairston. 2010. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers , 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

How to write a thesis statement

Published March 20, 2021. Updated May 1, 2022.

Thesis Statement Definition

A thesis statement is the main claim that you are making in your paper.

Overview of Thesis Statement

The thesis statement is usually one sentence and is located near the beginning of your paper, usually at the end of your introduction paragraph. It tells your readers what stance you take on an issue. Most of the time, when you are writing a paper, you will be responding to a prompt. Analyzing the prompt is essential in making sure your thesis statement actually addresses the question you are trying to answer. The thesis statement needs to directly answer this prompt in a focused and specific way. Some thesis statements also acts as a guide for your paper by telling readers the order in which premises will appear in the paper. This can help the reader be prepared for what you are going to say and to anticipate some of the ideas that you may write about.

Worried about your writing? Submit your paper for a Chegg Writing essay check , or for an Expert Check proofreading . Both can help you find and fix potential writing issues.

Steps in Writing a Strong Thesis Statement

Writing a thesis statement can feel overwhelming at first, but by following these steps, you can make the process less daunting.

Step 1: Analyze the Assignment Prompt

While it seems simple, analyzing the prompt is essential in making sure your thesis statement actually supports the question you are trying to answer. If you are given a prompt by your instructor, read it carefully several times. You may want to underline or circle key action words like “claim” or “analyze” and key terms from your class. Then, try to rewrite it in your own words. Even if it doesn’t sound perfect, putting it your own words will ensure that you really understand what it is asking.

Example assignment prompt: In a well-developed essay, explain how writers like John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as Enlightenment ideas, sparked the French Revolution.

Rewritten in your own words: Write a clear, well supported essay. This essay will not only be about HOW the French Revolution started, but it will be on ideas and writings (not events), specifically those of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Be sure to include other ideas from the Enlightenment.

At this point you will hopefully have a basic answer to the question presented in the prompt. It is okay if you don’t know exactly how to answer it, but you should jot down a simple answer to help you begin your writing.

Step 2: Do Your Research

A strong thesis statement will be clear and specific, and it will be later supported by evidence from your research. You won’t be able to write a statement like this until you do your research.

The research will look different depending on your task. If you are writing a literary analysis essay, you may need to search the text and identify important plot events, character changes, and quotations. This research may feel a lot like brainstorming. If you are writing an argumentative essay, you may need to find articles and books in the library or in databases.

While researching your topic, keep the assignment prompt and your general answer in mind. Try to see if your research supports your initial idea or if you will need to revise your idea based on the information you find.

Step 3: Narrow Your Focus

Chances are, after you complete your research, you will have more information than you need. Now is the time to look at all of the evidence, data, and sources you collected, and determine what relates specifically to your assignment prompt and your general answer and what does not. If you have irrelevant information, put it to the side and save it in case it becomes relevant later.

Next, try to categorize the research you have into a few distinct groups. If your prompt asks you to compare and contrast, you may sort based on similarities or differences. If your prompt asks you to analyze the character development of a character in a novel, you might create your categories based on changes in that character.

Step 4: Write the “Working Thesis”

Now that you understand the prompt and have completed thorough research, draft a version of your thesis. This statement is often called a “working thesis” because you will likely revise it several times throughout the writing process. Try to be clear and specific, answer the prompt directly, and state a claim you will prove in the rest of your writing.

Revising Your Thesis Statement

After you have written the first draft of your essay, it is time to go back and make sure your thesis statement still matches what you actually wrote about. Reread your thesis statement and the topic sentence of each paragraph. Make sure that all of the topic sentences directly support the thesis and that the thesis statement encompasses the ideas you presented in your body paragraphs. If you find that they don’t perfectly align, you may need to revise your thesis statement to match what you wrote.

Now is also a good time to make sure your thesis statement uses effective language. Make sure you have used active verbs instead of passive and that your tone is professional and academic. If you have words like “very” or “extremely,” you could replace them with stronger and more specific options like “significant” or “acutely.”

Examples of Working Thesis Statements and Thesis Statements

Let’s take a look at a few examples of working thesis statements and thesis statements. For this first example, your assignment prompt asked you to discuss the impact of reading on children. After a bit of research, you may land on the following idea:

It is important for children to read often when they are in early elementary school.

This statement is a good working thesis, but it is not strong enough to be your final draft. It does make a claim, but it is vague and does not provide a roadmap for the reader. It also does not discuss the impact of reading. Why is it important for children to read? What are the benefits of children reading? A stronger thesis statement might say:

Children who read often in early elementary school develop strong vocabularies and improve their reading comprehension skills, increasing their confidence in reading increasingly complex texts.

This revised thesis is more focused, is likely based on research, and helps readers see the key ideas you will discuss in the paper.

Now imagine that your professor has asked you to write an essay on the role of language in George Orwell’s 1984. After you have read through your notes, read the novel, and brainstormed ideas, you may decide on the following working thesis:

Control of language is used as a source of power in 1984.

This working thesis is a good start for your brainstorming and your outline. From here, you would want to consider how language is used as a source of power and why it is used that way. A revised thesis might read:

In George Orwell’s 1984 , the Party manipulates citizens into total submission to the Party’s ideals through Newspeak, propaganda, and altered history.

This thesis statement provides a clear guide to writing. It uses active verbs (e.g., “the Party manipulates”) and clear details of language (e.g., Newspeak, propaganda, altered history) from the novel.

Before you turn in that paper, don’t forget to cite your sources in APA format , MLA format , or a style of your choice.

Key Takeaways

• The purpose of a thesis statement is to tell your readers what claim you will be proving in your paper.
• To write a thesis statement, first analyze your prompt or identify a topic, then do your research, and finally write a “working thesis.”
• Be sure your thesis is clear, is direct, and makes a claim that you can support throughout your paper.
• Revise your thesis after you finish your first draft, adding detail to your claim and replacing weaker vocabulary choices with stronger ones.

What’s included with a Chegg Writing subscription

• Unlimited number of paper scans
• Plagiarism detection: Check against billions of sources
• Expert proofreading for papers on any subject
• Grammar scans for 200+ types of common errors
• Automatically create & save citations in 7,000+ styles
• Cancel subscription anytime, no obligation

Developing a Thesis Statement

Many papers you write require developing a thesis statement. In this section you’ll learn what a thesis statement is and how to write one.

Keep in mind that not all papers require thesis statements . If in doubt, please consult your instructor for assistance.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement . . .

• Makes an argumentative assertion about a topic; it states the conclusions that you have reached about your topic.
• Makes a promise to the reader about the scope, purpose, and direction of your paper.
• Is focused and specific enough to be “proven” within the boundaries of your paper.
• Is generally located near the end of the introduction ; sometimes, in a long paper, the thesis will be expressed in several sentences or in an entire paragraph.
• Identifies the relationships between the pieces of evidence that you are using to support your argument.

Not all papers require thesis statements! Ask your instructor if you’re in doubt whether you need one.

Identify a topic

Your topic is the subject about which you will write. Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic; or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper.

Consider what your assignment asks you to do

Inform yourself about your topic, focus on one aspect of your topic, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts, generate a topic from an assignment.

Below are some possible topics based on sample assignments.

Sample assignment 1

Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II.

Identified topic

Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis

This topic avoids generalities such as “Spain” and “World War II,” addressing instead on Franco’s role (a specific aspect of “Spain”) and the diplomatic relations between the Allies and Axis (a specific aspect of World War II).

Sample assignment 2

Analyze one of Homer’s epic similes in the Iliad.

The relationship between the portrayal of warfare and the epic simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64.

This topic focuses on a single simile and relates it to a single aspect of the Iliad ( warfare being a major theme in that work).

Developing a Thesis Statement–Additional information

Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic, or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper. You’ll want to read your assignment carefully, looking for key terms that you can use to focus your topic.

Sample assignment: Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II Key terms: analyze, Spain’s neutrality, World War II

After you’ve identified the key words in your topic, the next step is to read about them in several sources, or generate as much information as possible through an analysis of your topic. Obviously, the more material or knowledge you have, the more possibilities will be available for a strong argument. For the sample assignment above, you’ll want to look at books and articles on World War II in general, and Spain’s neutrality in particular.

As you consider your options, you must decide to focus on one aspect of your topic. This means that you cannot include everything you’ve learned about your topic, nor should you go off in several directions. If you end up covering too many different aspects of a topic, your paper will sprawl and be unconvincing in its argument, and it most likely will not fulfull the assignment requirements.

For the sample assignment above, both Spain’s neutrality and World War II are topics far too broad to explore in a paper. You may instead decide to focus on Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis , which narrows down what aspects of Spain’s neutrality and World War II you want to discuss, as well as establishes a specific link between those two aspects.

Before you go too far, however, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts. Try to avoid topics that already have too much written about them (i.e., “eating disorders and body image among adolescent women”) or that simply are not important (i.e. “why I like ice cream”). These topics may lead to a thesis that is either dry fact or a weird claim that cannot be supported. A good thesis falls somewhere between the two extremes. To arrive at this point, ask yourself what is new, interesting, contestable, or controversial about your topic.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times . Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Derive a main point from topic

Once you have a topic, you will have to decide what the main point of your paper will be. This point, the “controlling idea,” becomes the core of your argument (thesis statement) and it is the unifying idea to which you will relate all your sub-theses. You can then turn this “controlling idea” into a purpose statement about what you intend to do in your paper.

Look for patterns in your evidence

Compose a purpose statement.

Consult the examples below for suggestions on how to look for patterns in your evidence and construct a purpose statement.

• Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis
• Franco turned to the Allies when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from the Axis

Possible conclusion:

Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: Franco’s desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power.

Purpose statement

This paper will analyze Franco’s diplomacy during World War II to see how it contributed to Spain’s neutrality.

• The simile compares Simoisius to a tree, which is a peaceful, natural image.
• The tree in the simile is chopped down to make wheels for a chariot, which is an object used in warfare.

At first, the simile seems to take the reader away from the world of warfare, but we end up back in that world by the end.

This paper will analyze the way the simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64 moves in and out of the world of warfare.

Derive purpose statement from topic

To find out what your “controlling idea” is, you have to examine and evaluate your evidence . As you consider your evidence, you may notice patterns emerging, data repeated in more than one source, or facts that favor one view more than another. These patterns or data may then lead you to some conclusions about your topic and suggest that you can successfully argue for one idea better than another.

For instance, you might find out that Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis, but when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from them, he turned to the Allies. As you read more about Franco’s decisions, you may conclude that Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: his desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power. Based on this conclusion, you can then write a trial thesis statement to help you decide what material belongs in your paper.

Sometimes you won’t be able to find a focus or identify your “spin” or specific argument immediately. Like some writers, you might begin with a purpose statement just to get yourself going. A purpose statement is one or more sentences that announce your topic and indicate the structure of the paper but do not state the conclusions you have drawn . Thus, you might begin with something like this:

• This paper will look at modern language to see if it reflects male dominance or female oppression.
• I plan to analyze anger and derision in offensive language to see if they represent a challenge of society’s authority.

At some point, you can turn a purpose statement into a thesis statement. As you think and write about your topic, you can restrict, clarify, and refine your argument, crafting your thesis statement to reflect your thinking.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Compose a draft thesis statement

If you are writing a paper that will have an argumentative thesis and are having trouble getting started, the techniques in the table below may help you develop a temporary or “working” thesis statement.

Begin with a purpose statement that you will later turn into a thesis statement.

Assignment: Discuss the history of the Reform Party and explain its influence on the 1990 presidential and Congressional election.

Purpose Statement: This paper briefly sketches the history of the grassroots, conservative, Perot-led Reform Party and analyzes how it influenced the economic and social ideologies of the two mainstream parties.

Question-to-Assertion

If your assignment asks a specific question(s), turn the question(s) into an assertion and give reasons why it is true or reasons for your opinion.

Assignment : What do Aylmer and Rappaccini have to be proud of? Why aren’t they satisfied with these things? How does pride, as demonstrated in “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” lead to unexpected problems?

Beginning thesis statement: Alymer and Rappaccinni are proud of their great knowledge; however, they are also very greedy and are driven to use their knowledge to alter some aspect of nature as a test of their ability. Evil results when they try to “play God.”

Write a sentence that summarizes the main idea of the essay you plan to write.

Main idea: The reason some toys succeed in the market is that they appeal to the consumers’ sense of the ridiculous and their basic desire to laugh at themselves.

Make a list of the ideas that you want to include; consider the ideas and try to group them.

• nature = peaceful
• war matériel = violent (competes with 1?)
• need for time and space to mourn the dead
• war is inescapable (competes with 3?)

Use a formula to arrive at a working thesis statement (you will revise this later).

• although most readers of _______ have argued that _______, closer examination shows that _______.
• _______ uses _______ and _____ to prove that ________.
• phenomenon x is a result of the combination of __________, __________, and _________.

What to keep in mind as you draft an initial thesis statement

Beginning statements obtained through the methods illustrated above can serve as a framework for planning or drafting your paper, but remember they’re not yet the specific, argumentative thesis you want for the final version of your paper. In fact, in its first stages, a thesis statement usually is ill-formed or rough and serves only as a planning tool.

As you write, you may discover evidence that does not fit your temporary or “working” thesis. Or you may reach deeper insights about your topic as you do more research, and you will find that your thesis statement has to be more complicated to match the evidence that you want to use.

You must be willing to reject or omit some evidence in order to keep your paper cohesive and your reader focused. Or you may have to revise your thesis to match the evidence and insights that you want to discuss. Read your draft carefully, noting the conclusions you have drawn and the major ideas which support or prove those conclusions. These will be the elements of your final thesis statement.

Sometimes you will not be able to identify these elements in your early drafts, but as you consider how your argument is developing and how your evidence supports your main idea, ask yourself, “ What is the main point that I want to prove/discuss? ” and “ How will I convince the reader that this is true? ” When you can answer these questions, then you can begin to refine the thesis statement.

Refine and polish the thesis statement

To get to your final thesis, you’ll need to refine your draft thesis so that it’s specific and arguable.

• Ask if your draft thesis addresses the assignment
• Question each part of your draft thesis
• Clarify vague phrases and assertions
• Investigate alternatives to your draft thesis

Consult the example below for suggestions on how to refine your draft thesis statement.

Sample Assignment

Choose an activity and define it as a symbol of American culture. Your essay should cause the reader to think critically about the society which produces and enjoys that activity.

• Ask The phenomenon of drive-in facilities is an interesting symbol of american culture, and these facilities demonstrate significant characteristics of our society.This statement does not fulfill the assignment because it does not require the reader to think critically about society.

Drive-ins are an interesting symbol of American culture because they represent Americans’ significant creativity and business ingenuity.

Among the types of drive-in facilities familiar during the twentieth century, drive-in movie theaters best represent American creativity, not merely because they were the forerunner of later drive-ins and drive-throughs, but because of their impact on our culture: they changed our relationship to the automobile, changed the way people experienced movies, and changed movie-going into a family activity.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast-food establishments, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize America’s economic ingenuity, they also have affected our personal standards.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast- food restaurants, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize (1) Americans’ business ingenuity, they also have contributed (2) to an increasing homogenization of our culture, (3) a willingness to depersonalize relationships with others, and (4) a tendency to sacrifice quality for convenience.

This statement is now specific and fulfills all parts of the assignment. This version, like any good thesis, is not self-evident; its points, 1-4, will have to be proven with evidence in the body of the paper. The numbers in this statement indicate the order in which the points will be presented. Depending on the length of the paper, there could be one paragraph for each numbered item or there could be blocks of paragraph for even pages for each one.

Complete the final thesis statement

The bottom line.

As you move through the process of crafting a thesis, you’ll need to remember four things:

• Context matters! Think about your course materials and lectures. Try to relate your thesis to the ideas your instructor is discussing.
• As you go through the process described in this section, always keep your assignment in mind . You will be more successful when your thesis (and paper) responds to the assignment than if it argues a semi-related idea.
• Your thesis statement should be precise, focused, and contestable ; it should predict the sub-theses or blocks of information that you will use to prove your argument.
• Make sure that you keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Change your thesis as your paper evolves, because you do not want your thesis to promise more than your paper actually delivers.

In the beginning, the thesis statement was a tool to help you sharpen your focus, limit material and establish the paper’s purpose. When your paper is finished, however, the thesis statement becomes a tool for your reader. It tells the reader what you have learned about your topic and what evidence led you to your conclusion. It keeps the reader on track–well able to understand and appreciate your argument.

Writing Process and Structure

This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.

Getting Started with Your Paper

Interpreting Writing Assignments from Your Courses

Generating Ideas for

Creating an Argument

Thesis vs. Purpose Statements

Architecture of Arguments

Working with Sources

Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources

Using Literary Quotations

Citing Sources in Your Paper

Drafting Your Paper

Generating Ideas for Your Paper

Introductions

Paragraphing

Developing Strategic Transitions

Conclusions

Revising Your Paper

Peer Reviews

Reverse Outlines

Revising an Argumentative Paper

Revision Strategies for Longer Projects

Finishing Your Paper

Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist

How to Proofread your Paper

Writing Collaboratively

Collaborative and Group Writing

While Sandel argues that pursuing perfection through genetic engineering would decrease our sense of humility, he claims that the sense of solidarity we would lose is also important.

This thesis summarizes several points in Sandel’s argument, but it does not make a claim about how we should understand his argument. A reader who read Sandel’s argument would not also need to read an essay based on this descriptive thesis.  

Broad thesis (arguable, but difficult to support with evidence) 

Michael Sandel’s arguments about genetic engineering do not take into consideration all the relevant issues.

This is an arguable claim because it would be possible to argue against it by saying that Michael Sandel’s arguments do take all of the relevant issues into consideration. But the claim is too broad. Because the thesis does not specify which “issues” it is focused on—or why it matters if they are considered—readers won’t know what the rest of the essay will argue, and the writer won’t know what to focus on. If there is a particular issue that Sandel does not address, then a more specific version of the thesis would include that issue—hand an explanation of why it is important.  

Arguable thesis with analytical claim 

While Sandel argues persuasively that our instinct to “remake” (54) ourselves into something ever more perfect is a problem, his belief that we can always draw a line between what is medically necessary and what makes us simply “better than well” (51) is less convincing.

This is an arguable analytical claim. To argue for this claim, the essay writer will need to show how evidence from the article itself points to this interpretation. It’s also a reasonable scope for a thesis because it can be supported with evidence available in the text and is neither too broad nor too narrow.  

Arguable thesis with normative claim 

Given Sandel’s argument against genetic enhancement, we should not allow parents to decide on using Human Growth Hormone for their children.

This thesis tells us what we should do about a particular issue discussed in Sandel’s article, but it does not tell us how we should understand Sandel’s argument.  

Questions to ask about your thesis 

• Is the thesis truly arguable? Does it speak to a genuine dilemma in the source, or would most readers automatically agree with it?  
• Is the thesis too obvious? Again, would most or all readers agree with it without needing to see your argument?  
• Is the thesis complex enough to require a whole essay's worth of argument?  
• Is the thesis supportable with evidence from the text rather than with generalizations or outside research?  
• Would anyone want to read a paper in which this thesis was developed? That is, can you explain what this paper is adding to our understanding of a problem, question, or topic?
• picture_as_pdf Thesis

Reference management. Clean and simple.

How to write a thesis statement + examples

What is a thesis statement?

Is a thesis statement a question, how do you write a good thesis statement, how do i know if my thesis statement is good, examples of thesis statements, helpful resources on how to write a thesis statement, frequently asked questions about writing a thesis statement, related articles.

A thesis statement is the main argument of your paper or thesis.

The thesis statement is one of the most important elements of any piece of academic writing . It is a brief statement of your paper’s main argument. Essentially, you are stating what you will be writing about.

You can see your thesis statement as an answer to a question. While it also contains the question, it should really give an answer to the question with new information and not just restate or reiterate it.

Your thesis statement is part of your introduction. Learn more about how to write a good thesis introduction in our introduction guide .

A thesis statement is not a question. A statement must be arguable and provable through evidence and analysis. While your thesis might stem from a research question, it should be in the form of a statement.

Tip: A thesis statement is typically 1-2 sentences. For a longer project like a thesis, the statement may be several sentences or a paragraph.

A good thesis statement needs to do the following:

• Condense the main idea of your thesis into one or two sentences.
• Answer your project’s main research question.
• Clearly state your position in relation to the topic .
• Make an argument that requires support or evidence.

Once you have written down a thesis statement, check if it fulfills the following criteria:

• Your statement needs to be provable by evidence. As an argument, a thesis statement needs to be debatable.
• Your statement needs to be precise. Do not give away too much information in the thesis statement and do not load it with unnecessary information.
• Your statement cannot say that one solution is simply right or simply wrong as a matter of fact. You should draw upon verified facts to persuade the reader of your solution, but you cannot just declare something as right or wrong.

As previously mentioned, your thesis statement should answer a question.

If the question is:

What do you think the City of New York should do to reduce traffic congestion?

A good thesis statement restates the question and answers it:

In this paper, I will argue that the City of New York should focus on providing exclusive lanes for public transport and adaptive traffic signals to reduce traffic congestion by the year 2035.

Here is another example. If the question is:

How can we end poverty?

A good thesis statement should give more than one solution to the problem in question:

In this paper, I will argue that introducing universal basic income can help reduce poverty and positively impact the way we work.

• The Writing Center of the University of North Carolina has a list of questions to ask to see if your thesis is strong .

A thesis statement is part of the introduction of your paper. It is usually found in the first or second paragraph to let the reader know your research purpose from the beginning.

In general, a thesis statement should have one or two sentences. But the length really depends on the overall length of your project. Take a look at our guide about the length of thesis statements for more insight on this topic.

Here is a list of Thesis Statement Examples that will help you understand better how to write them.

Every good essay should include a thesis statement as part of its introduction, no matter the academic level. Of course, if you are a high school student you are not expected to have the same type of thesis as a PhD student.

Here is a great YouTube tutorial showing How To Write An Essay: Thesis Statements .

What are your chances of acceptance?

Calculate for all schools, your chance of acceptance.

Your chancing factors

Extracurriculars.

How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement: 4 Steps + Examples

What’s Covered:

What is the purpose of a thesis statement, writing a good thesis statement: 4 steps, common pitfalls to avoid, where to get your essay edited for free.

When you set out to write an essay, there has to be some kind of point to it, right? Otherwise, your essay would just be a big jumble of word salad that makes absolutely no sense. An essay needs a central point that ties into everything else. That main point is called a thesis statement, and it’s the core of any essay or research paper.

You may hear about Master degree candidates writing a thesis, and that is an entire paper–not to be confused with the thesis statement, which is typically one sentence that contains your paper’s focus. 

Read on to learn more about thesis statements and how to write them. We’ve also included some solid examples for you to reference.

Typically the last sentence of your introductory paragraph, the thesis statement serves as the roadmap for your essay. When your reader gets to the thesis statement, they should have a clear outline of your main point, as well as the information you’ll be presenting in order to either prove or support your point. 

The thesis statement should not be confused for a topic sentence , which is the first sentence of every paragraph in your essay. If you need help writing topic sentences, numerous resources are available. Topic sentences should go along with your thesis statement, though.

Since the thesis statement is the most important sentence of your entire essay or paper, it’s imperative that you get this part right. Otherwise, your paper will not have a good flow and will seem disjointed. That’s why it’s vital not to rush through developing one. It’s a methodical process with steps that you need to follow in order to create the best thesis statement possible.

Step 1: Decide what kind of paper you’re writing

When you’re assigned an essay, there are several different types you may get. Argumentative essays are designed to get the reader to agree with you on a topic. Informative or expository essays present information to the reader. Analytical essays offer up a point and then expand on it by analyzing relevant information. Thesis statements can look and sound different based on the type of paper you’re writing. For example:

• Argumentative: The United States needs a viable third political party to decrease bipartisanship, increase options, and help reduce corruption in government.
• Informative: The Libertarian party has thrown off elections before by gaining enough support in states to get on the ballot and by taking away crucial votes from candidates.
• Analytical: An analysis of past presidential elections shows that while third party votes may have been the minority, they did affect the outcome of the elections in 2020, 2016, and beyond.

Step 2: Figure out what point you want to make

Once you know what type of paper you’re writing, you then need to figure out the point you want to make with your thesis statement, and subsequently, your paper. In other words, you need to decide to answer a question about something, such as:

• What impact did reality TV have on American society?
• How has the musical Hamilton affected perception of American history?
• Why do I want to major in [chosen major here]?

If you have an argumentative essay, then you will be writing about an opinion. To make it easier, you may want to choose an opinion that you feel passionate about so that you’re writing about something that interests you. For example, if you have an interest in preserving the environment, you may want to choose a topic that relates to that. 

If you’re writing your college essay and they ask why you want to attend that school, you may want to have a main point and back it up with information, something along the lines of:

“Attending Harvard University would benefit me both academically and professionally, as it would give me a strong knowledge base upon which to build my career, develop my network, and hopefully give me an advantage in my chosen field.”

Step 3: Determine what information you’ll use to back up your point

Once you have the point you want to make, you need to figure out how you plan to back it up throughout the rest of your essay. Without this information, it will be hard to either prove or argue the main point of your thesis statement. If you decide to write about the Hamilton example, you may decide to address any falsehoods that the writer put into the musical, such as:

“The musical Hamilton, while accurate in many ways, leaves out key parts of American history, presents a nationalist view of founding fathers, and downplays the racism of the times.”

Once you’ve written your initial working thesis statement, you’ll then need to get information to back that up. For example, the musical completely leaves out Benjamin Franklin, portrays the founding fathers in a nationalist way that is too complimentary, and shows Hamilton as a staunch abolitionist despite the fact that his family likely did own slaves. 

Step 4: Revise and refine your thesis statement before you start writing

Read through your thesis statement several times before you begin to compose your full essay. You need to make sure the statement is ironclad, since it is the foundation of the entire paper. Edit it or have a peer review it for you to make sure everything makes sense and that you feel like you can truly write a paper on the topic. Once you’ve done that, you can then begin writing your paper.

When writing a thesis statement, there are some common pitfalls you should avoid so that your paper can be as solid as possible. Make sure you always edit the thesis statement before you do anything else. You also want to ensure that the thesis statement is clear and concise. Don’t make your reader hunt for your point. Finally, put your thesis statement at the end of the first paragraph and have your introduction flow toward that statement. Your reader will expect to find your statement in its traditional spot.

If you’re having trouble getting started, or need some guidance on your essay, there are tools available that can help you. CollegeVine offers a free peer essay review tool where one of your peers can read through your essay and provide you with valuable feedback. Getting essay feedback from a peer can help you wow your instructor or college admissions officer with an impactful essay that effectively illustrates your point.

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

Search St. Lawrence

• How to Write and Review a First Draft of a Paper
• Office & Department Directory
• Geology Department

The purpose of the first draft is to get one’s ideas on paper and to try out a plan of organization for those ideas. Of course, it should follow the outline that you have prepared beforehand! Much of the effort of a first draft is experimental. For example when writing, one should err toward including, rather than excluding, information and ideas. That is, the first draft is the time to see whether or not an idea or approach works. If you leave it out, neither you nor another reader will be able to evaluate the appropriateness, of that idea to the paper or its manner of expression there.

The draft is written for you to use. It is a tool. It often is shared with colleagues, advisers or classmates whose opinions you respect because you wish to have their criticisms and their ideas for improvement. They should be honest in their evaluation, giving reasons for their criticisms and suggesting methods for improvement if possible. You should be open to their suggestions, evaluating them objectively and non-defensively. Accepting suggestions will greatly improve most papers!

If a format is prescribed for a paper either by a professor in case of a course paper, by an adviser or department in the case of a thesis, or by a journal editor when preparing a manuscript for publication, attempt to follow the format immediately from the first draft onward. Be precise; follow it exactly. A prescribed format is not “guidelines”; it is an expectation. (Suggested formats are “more like guidelines” but they too should be guiding you.) Virtually all journals have on-line “suggestions to authors” or “instructions for authors” or some such on the journal web page. Print a copy of these; read them carefully and keep them at your side as you write. They will include information about figures, tables, reference styles and submission methods as well. Adhere to them.

A thesis is often a special case of this writing process, and a first draft of a thesis is a document of critical importance to your success. (See Guidelines for preparation of Theses in Goelogy) Thus, even the first draft should be as correct as is possible in format, style and grammar so that it is your ideas and expression that are getting the most attention from your helpers, the reviewers. It will be a poor thesis that begins by a first draft devoted to spelling corrections, comma positioning and bad grammar. Attend to such things immediately in your first reading, called “proofing” or “proof reading”, of it and BEFORE sharing with others.

As a reviewer, one should concentrate on the larger issues of the paper including its organization, clarity expression, logic, scientific accuracy, citation and conciseness. The second time you read your draft ask:

• Is there a natural progression of sections and ideas in the paper, or would an alternative organization work better?
• Is the topic, or its presentation, so broad that ideas are treated only superficially?
• Do some sections or aspects of the paper work much better than other sections? Why?
• Has the topic been adequately researched?
• Is the writing style clear and readable?
• What aspect of the paper is strongest? Weakest?
• Make helpful suggestions for improvement or change.

These are examples of the types of questions one should address when providing feedback on a first draft. To reiterate, reviewers should not have to focus on spelling, grammar, and sentence construction before they can understand your ideas!! These “nuts and bolts” issues are important but you should have taken care of them when you proof read the draft!! Do not wait for the final draft to repair a mistake; repair it in the first draft. If the first draft is filled with a large number of typos and spelling and grammatical errors, they will mask the quality of your ideas and expression making review an onerous task and making most reviewers “unfriendly”. ALL SUCH ERRORS NOTED BY REVIEWERS IN THE FIRST DRAFT SHOULD NEVER BE REPEATED IN THE SECOND DRAFT!! Some reviewers refuse to help with a second draft if they see that their grammatical corrections on the first draft were not accepted and dealt with immediately, and who could blame them.

Reviewers may provide feedback to an author using global comments in the form of a memo, as opposed to detailed comments throughout the text. That is, on the back of the paper, the cover page if there is room, on a separate sheet of paper, you should prepare a memo to the author. In this memo, one should select only a few aspects of the paper to address. Concentrate on emphasizing what is working well and what most needs to be changed to improve the paper. Detailed comments should be penned on the draft where they apply.

When giving your own first draft to a reviewer, consider providing the reviewer with some guidance. For example, if you tried to take a particular approach, ask the reviewer to specifically address the effectiveness of that point. If you are having difficulty with a particular section, ask the reviewer for his or her assessment of what is needed in that section. If used effectively, a good reviewer can play a vital role in the development of a paper.

Finally, remember that the draft is a tool used in the writing process. It is not a process to be rushed. Begin your paper EARLY. This is a DRAFT that you are preparing. There should be at least two further drafts – generally reviewed by fewer people or by only the author – on the way to the final product! Make every draft count toward final excellence of expression and communication.

This UFI (Useful Flyer of Information) was developed and written by Mark A. Davis for the benefit of the students. It has been highly modified by J.M. Erickson, W. Caesar and the Geotechnical Writing class (2010) at St. Lawrence University.

• Request Info Discover why St. Lawrence is the right choice
• Visit & Tour Plan a tour in person or virtually
• Apply Begin your application process

10 Things To Do After You Write Your First Draft

Remember : no one can write a great essay in one draft; a good paper requires revision, revision and more revision!

• Revisit the Prompt: After focusing so much on completing a draft, sometimes it’s easy to skip over the most basic purpose of your paper— answering the prompt. Read over the assignment and make sure that your paper addresses every single question your professor asks.
• Revisit the Thesis: Reread your thesis, and ask yourself: does your whole paper prove/support/pertain to your thesis? Make sure you’ve stuck to your thesis throughout each part of your essay, and remember that you should rewrite your thesis whenever you can make it a better guide for your essay. Sometimes the best theses are written after you’re done with everything else.
• Look at each paragraph by itself: Try to edit each paragraph by itself before looking at all the paragraphs together. Take a look at the “claim” of each paragraph, and determine whether each distinct chunk of your essay is fully developed. Does each paragraph have its own point? Have you supported the claim of each paragraph with evidence? Have you analyzed the evidence you used in each paragraph? Avoid super long and super short paragraphs.
• Look at the sequence of your argument: After you’ve determined what each paragraph argues, try to examine the sequence of your argument. Does the order of your paragraphs make sense? Could you reorder them to make the paper more logical? Do the transitions between paragraphs flow smoothly?
• Revisit the Conclusion and Introduction: Make sure that your conclusion and introduction do not contradict each other and that they do not just simply repeat the same ideas. The introduction should be a brief introduction into the question/ problem you’re answering, while the conclusion should go beyond just the main point you’ve stated (such as: the significance of your conclusion, further questions, etc.).
• Read your paper aloud: Reading the paper aloud will allow you to reexamine the flow and progression of your paper. It will also allow you to catch the grammatical mistakes, inconsistent tones, or awkward sentence structures that you might miss by simply reading the paper quickly to yourself. Pay close attention to active/passive voice and consistency of verb tense.
• Read and re-read your paper for different problems: Each time you read through your paper, try to tackle one thing at a time by having an important question in the back of your mind as you revise. Focus on issues such as: Have you addressed your target audience? Have you eliminated unnecessary or redundant sentences/ ideas? Have you analyzed, and not merely summarized?
• Talk about your paper with your friends: Try to have conversations about your ideas—sometimes talking can help you a lot with writing. Discussing the issues or each main ideas of a paper can help you discover for yourself what you really want to write about. Your friends can also help be a critical listener, and give you a chance to practice presenting your ideas to an audience.
• Think about your professor and class: Many professors have their own preferences for writing, and it can be useful to either speak with them about what they are looking for, or to pay attention to how they have marked your papers in the past. It is also a good idea to consider how your paper fits it with the rest of your class material and to try to draw connections with what you have learned in class and what you’re writing.
• Just Keep Swimming!: Remember that no paper is ever perfect, and that a good paper requires revising, revisiting and re-thinking. Writing is a never-ending process!

Mailing Address

Pomona College 333 N. College Way Claremont , CA 91711

Get in touch

Give back to pomona.

Part of   The Claremont Colleges

• General Overview
• How to Apply
• Admission Requirements
• Admissions Checklist
• International Students
• Transfer Credits
• Open House Events
• Financial Aid
• Submit Official Transcripts
• Prepare for Your First Class
• Student Email
• Student Portal
• Student Services
• Master Booklist
• Graduate Online Writing Studio
• KU Bookstore
• Make a Payment
• Contact Graduate Admissions Counselor
• Contact Graduate Financial Aid Counselor
• Virtual Visit
• Why Keiser Graduate School?
• Accreditation
• ADA/Accessibility
• Columbia College, SC
• Sumner College
• West Virginia University
• Testimonials
• Our Newsletter

Entering Zip will list the campuses closest to your location top to bottom.

By clicking the "Submit" button, I authorize Keiser University to make or allow the placement of recurring marketing calls, emails, and texts to me at the phone number that I have provided, including through the use of automated technology or a prerecorded or artificial voice. I understand that I am not required to provide my phone number as a condition of purchasing any property, goods, or services. Privacy Policy

Whether you're thinking about pursuing an advanced degree in education or are already in such a program, one thing you will need to be prepared for...

Writing a winning thesis or dissertation: guidance for an education graduate student.

Posted on July 31, 2024 on Graduate School , Seahawk Nation

Quick Contact

Whether you’re thinking about pursuing an advanced degree in education or are already in such a program, one thing you will need to be prepared for is writing a thesis or dissertation. In most graduate-level education programs, a thesis or dissertation is the culmination of years of challenging work, serving as your own independent research that marks the final step before earning your graduate degree.

If writing a dissertation or thesis sounds like a daunting task, it does not have to be. With a little preparation and some best practices in mind, you can approach writing a thesis or dissertation with confidence.

Understanding the Thesis and Dissertation Process

Before writing a thesis or dissertation, it’s important to understand their general scope and purpose, along with some key differences between a thesis and a dissertation. After all, while there are some similarities between the two, a dissertation and a thesis are not the same thing.

Defining the Scope and Purpose

The primary purpose of a thesis or dissertation in an education graduate program is for students to demonstrate what they have learned in their respective programs while applying their own research, theory, analysis and synthesis. Ultimately, the author of a thesis or dissertation should successfully contribute something new to the existing topic. In dissertations specifically, students may also be required to articulate, discuss and defend their research orally in front of professors or other faculty members. This oral defense is not required for a master’s thesis.

Differences Between Thesis and Dissertation

When it comes to writing a thesis or a dissertation, the terms “dissertation” and “thesis” are sometimes used interchangeably. That said, it is crucial to understand that these are two different things. Generally, a dissertation is primarily focused on filling a gap in existing literature or extending upon current research regarding a specific topic. The goal is to analyze literature to the point of saturation and determine where there is a need for further research. In a dissertation, a doctoral student will then explain where the problem exists given current research and develop a research study to explore or evaluate the problem, thus filling the gap and contributing meaningfully to the field.

On the other hand, a thesis is more of a presentation of information that’s already out there with no obligation to conduct additional research.

Choosing the Right Topic

One of the most important aspects of drafting a great thesis or dissertation begins with choosing the right topic. Here, it is paramount to select a topic that not only interests you but is relevant to your future professional goals and aspirations. After all, there’s a good chance you may use your thesis or dissertation as a basis for future work or further research.

Considering Current Research Trends

In selecting a topic, you will also want to consider current research trends in your field. What is trending in the realm of education and what could you contribute to existing research? There are research gaps or questions that remain unanswered about certain educational topics that could be addressed through your research.

Research and Proposal Development

In most graduate programs, you will need to write and present a research proposal before you can really get started on your thesis or dissertation. Most research proposals are reviewed and approved by a professor or other faculty.

Conducting a Literature Review

A literature review is to discover the research available on your research topic. This review should detail each source you plan to use in your own research with plenty of detail. More specifically, a literature review is a comprehensive summary of the current literature on a given topic that demonstrates the need for additional research to be conducted. Literature reviews comprise a major portion of a proposal, including a summary of each source as it relates to the need for additional research.

Finding Reliable Sources

Quality is vital when it comes to selecting literature for your research or literature review. Ideally, your literature review should include plenty of recent and reputable sources that come from academic journals, books, articles and even other dissertations.

Developing a Research Proposal

Once you have a better understanding for what is already out there, you can craft a research proposal that discusses your specific research topic, the current problem, the purpose behind your research, the methodology you plan to use and the relevant literature that further defends a need for your topic to be investigated.

Methodology Selection

An important part of your research proposal will be your methodology selection, which will explain exactly how you plan to go about your research. For example, will your research be qualitative, quantitative or a mix of both and why? How will the methodology you choose answer your research questions?

Writing and Structuring Your Thesis or Dissertation

After your research proposal is approved, you will have the green light to begin working on your thesis or dissertation. You will receive feedback or thesis guidance from the faculty member who reviewed your proposal. It is important to reflect on the feedback and make revisions as needed.

Creating an Outline

One of the most helpful things you can do as you get started with your dissertation or thesis is to create an outline. This allows you to develop the most critical aspects of your final project that include your thesis, your main points and other key details to ensure that they flow logically.

For reference, an outline for a dissertation will typically include the following:

• Introduction of existing research
• Review of literature
• Conceptual framework
• Methodology
• Results or findings
• Interpretations, conclusions or recommendations for future research

Structuring Arguments

In creating an outline, include designated sections for each of your main points with specific research, statistics, or other data to support it. This will ensure that your arguments are made clearly and that your thought process is clear.

Writing Tips and Strategies

Even if writing is not necessarily your strong suit, you will need to be able to put together a cohesive document for your thesis or dissertation. There are some basic strategies worth keeping in mind to help you get started.

First, it can be helpful to write your introduction and conclusion paragraphs last once you have completed all your research. While it might seem counterintuitive to do it this way, it can help set the tone for the rest of your writing. Likewise, this strategy ensures that you include your main points while preparing your readers for the information to come.

Additionally, meet with your advisor or faculty sponsor regularly to gain valuable feedback and keep your project on track.

Data Collection and Analysis

Whether you are writing a thesis or dissertation, you will need to do a fair amount of your own qualitative or quantitative research. It’s important to understand the various data collection methods available to you, plus the best practices for analyzing and interpreting data.

Choosing Data Collection Methods

There are two main types of data collection:

• Quantitative data  - Refers to hard data that is numerical in nature, such as statistics and percentages.
• Qualitative data  - Refers to information that is non-numerical, such as interviews and focus groups.
• Mixed methods – Refer to a combination of both quantitative and qualitative data.

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Once you have all the data you need to write your thesis or dissertation, the challenging part is often analyzing and interpreting the data to apply to your own research. The most important thing to keep in mind when looking at hard data is how it relates back to your research and specific research questions.

When working with quantitative data, it can also be helpful to look for specific trends and correlations that you can share in your research.

Reviewing and Editing Your Work

Once you have completed the first draft of your thesis or dissertation, the process of reviewing, revising and editing your work before submission is important to ensure that the document is free of errors and that it effectively communicates your main points to the reader.

Peer Review and Feedback

One of the best ways to improve upon the first draft of your dissertation or thesis is through peer review and feedback. By having others read your draft and provide feedback, you can gain some valuable insights into how your arguments are being interpreted. Even if the person you ask to read your draft is not familiar with the subject matter, they can still provide useful feedback on the organization of the information, structure and grammar/spelling.

Proofreading and Final Edits

It may take several rounds of revisions before your dissertation or thesis is approved. Even when you feel like the entire thing is ready to submit, it is important to complete another round of proofreading and editing to be sure that the entire document is polished and in the best shape possible. This includes not just running a basic spell check but taking the time to read your paper word for word.

Formatting Guidelines

In most education programs, you will be instructed to use the  American Psychological Association (APA) style when writing and formatting your thesis or dissertation. It is important to follow all formatting guidelines here, especially as they relate to citations or references.

Preparing for the Defense

In many doctorate programs and some graduate programs, students will also be expected to defend their dissertations in front of other scholars, usually professors or other faculty from the department. This process can be daunting, even for those who know their research well and have crafted thoughtful dissertations.

Crafting Your Presentation

In preparing for a dissertation defense, it is imperative to craft a presentation that covers the basics of your dissertation topic, how you researched it and what your findings were. Following your presentation, you can expect to be asked questions by those in attendance about your topic and other aspects of your research.

Practicing Your Defense

The best way to prepare for a dissertation defense is to practice as much as possible. This way, you will be prepared for the kinds of questions that may be asked, and you will feel a little more confident when completing your defense.

Mock Sessions

Mock defense sessions can be especially helpful for practicing your presentation and answering questions from a real crowd. Do not hesitate to ask your fellow students or even some trusted professors to practice with you to provide feedback or ask questions.

Handling Questions

One of the most difficult aspects of defending a dissertation is often answering questions from the audience. One important tip to keep in mind here is to prepare some answers in advance to some of the questions you think might be asked during your dissertation defense. This way, you will be completely prepared to knock these out of the park.

Ready to Pursue an Advanced Degree?

As you can see, there is a lot that goes into writing a dissertation or thesis as part of your graduate education program. With this dissertation guidance in mind, you will be prepared to craft and even defend your thesis or dissertation with success.

Still looking for the right graduate education program to suit your interests and professional goals? Keiser University is proud to offer a number of advanced degrees in education, including our  Master of Science in Education, Teaching and Learning  program. If you’re interested in earning your doctorate degree, we also offer a  Doctor of Education  and a  Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership .

Learn more about any of the graduate programs offered at Keiser University by  contacting a graduate admissions counselor today, or get started with your online application  for enrollment.

Jessica Kircher

Pardon Our Interruption

As you were browsing something about your browser made us think you were a bot. There are a few reasons this might happen:

• You've disabled JavaScript in your web browser.
• You're a power user moving through this website with super-human speed.
• You've disabled cookies in your web browser.
• A third-party browser plugin, such as Ghostery or NoScript, is preventing JavaScript from running. Additional information is available in this support article .

To regain access, please make sure that cookies and JavaScript are enabled before reloading the page.

Get the Reddit app

An online community for discussing issues related to academia, faculty life, research, and institutional structures. This is NOT the place to ask questions about your homework, your particular school or professors, or to get admission advice! Survey posts must be approved by mods in advance, must include contact/IRB info, and must be specific to academia.

I am writing the first draft of my thesis right now and it looks like hot garbage.

I'm an undergrad writing my senior thesis.

When I say I feel like this is hot garbage, my god. I'm not sure if it is imposter syndrome or what but I feel as though my writing is clunky, I'm not synthesizing my points well, my organization is off...

I'm nervous to even show this to my adviser. I'm trying to get just one section done by the end of the month so I can send it off as a writing sample for graduate schools.

I know it probably isn't as bad as I realize, but it really sucks right now. I haven't written a proper research paper in probably a year, which doesn't help. But man, it's rough. Hopefully the later drafts get better.

By continuing, you agree to our User Agreement and acknowledge that you understand the Privacy Policy .

Enter the 6-digit code from your authenticator app

You’ve set up two-factor authentication for this account.

Enter a 6-digit backup code

Create your username and password.

Reddit is anonymous, so your username is what you’ll go by here. Choose wisely—because once you get a name, you can’t change it.

Reset your password

Enter your email address or username and we’ll send you a link to reset your password

Check your inbox

An email with a link to reset your password was sent to the email address associated with your account

Choose a Reddit account to continue

• QB Rankings
• RB Rankings
• WR Rankings
• TE Rankings
• Kicker Rankings
• Defense Rankings
• Custom Rankings (LeagueSync)
• Half PPR Rankings
• Full PPR Rankings
• Standard Rankings
• Salary Cap Cheat Sheets
• IDP Rankings
• Dynasty Rankings
• Dynasty Superflex Rankings
• Custom Top 200
• Top 200 Half PPR Rankings
• Top 200 Full PPR Rankings
• Top 200 Standard Rankings
• Top 200 Superflex Rankings
• Top 200 Keeper Rankings
• Multi-Site ADP
• Underdog ADP
• Printable Cheat Sheet
• Rookie Cheat Sheet
• Custom Cheat Sheet
• DraftHero (Live Draft Assistant)
• Draft Simulator
• Who Should I Draft?
• ADP Bargains
• Custom Top 200 Rankings
• Custom Cheat Sheets
• Who Should I Start?
• Waiver Wire Cheat Sheet
• Trade Evaluator
• Waiver Wire Planner
• All Articles
• The Most Accurate Podcast
• Draft Strategy
• Player Profiles
• Perfect Draft
• High Stakes
• Player News
• Depth Charts
• Schedule Grid
• Fantasy Pts Allowed (aFPA)
• Positional Rankings
• Playoff Matchup Planner
• Fantasy Points Browser
• Player Stats App
• NFL Player Stat Explorer
• NFL Team Stat Explorer
• Red Zone Stats
• RBBC Report
• Def Knowledgeseeker
• Off Knowledgeseeker
• Air Yards App
• Market Share Splits App
• DFS MVP Podcast
• DFS Strategy
• Tournaments
• Single-Game
• The Solver (Premium Optimizer)
• Stack Value Reports
• Ownership Projections
• Floor & Ceiling Projections
• Leverage Scores
• Pricing CSV
• DFS Points Browser
• Move the Line Podcast
• Season-Long NFL Player Props
• Weekly NFL Player Props
• Prop Stat Explorer
• Reverse Gamelogs
• Parlay Calculator
• Arbitrage Calculator
• Odds Conversion Calculator
• Hedge Calculator
• NFL Future Odds
• Player Prop Finder
• NFL Game Odds
• Team Totals
• Lookahead Lines
• Betting Discord
• Free Betting Sub
• Best Sportsbook Promos
• Sportsbook Promo Codes
• Fanduel Promo Code
• DraftKings Promo Code
• BetMGM Promo Code
• Caesars Promo Code
• Bet365 Promo Code
• Free 4for4 Subscription
• 4for4 Coupon Code

Who Should I Draft with the 1st Pick in Fantasy Football

To nail your fantasy football draft, you need the right strategy, along with savvy player takes. This article outlines the best player to draft with the first overall pick, along with tips for filling out the remainder of your roster based on ADP and specific scoring settings.

Our Perfect Draft series covers multiple draft spots in various scoring formats and league sizes using Draft Hero software . Find your perfect draft today!

Here are the current Perfect Drafts from the 1st spot:

• 1st in a 12-Team ESPN PPR League
• 1st in a 10-Team Yahoo Half-PPR League
• 1st in a 12-Team Yahoo Half-PPR League

Standard League: Christian McCaffrey , RB (SF)

Since 2019, there have been five running back seasons of 20 or more standard fantasy points per game. Christian McCaffrey owns three of them. In standard leagues, he is the obvious 1.01 selection. The 49ers scored the third-most points in the NFL last season, and McCaffrey is the offense’s focal point in the red zone – his 79 red zone touches ranked first at the position in 2023.

Pass-catching volume matters far less in standard compared to PPR formats, so McCaffrey’s third-place finish in total receptions (67) was positively overshadowed by his league-leading 2,023 total yards and 21 touchdowns. Currently, McCaffrey has the highest 2024 ADP on all major fantasy platforms.

Assuming you begin your draft with the 49ers star runner, focus on landing two to three wide receivers, along with an elite quarterback over the next four rounds. It’s possible to box yourself into a corner if you open your draft with back-to-back running backs, though standard leagues are the one format where drafters can pull this strategy off in 2024.

Looking at last season, eight running backs, four wide receivers, and zero tight ends reached 200 standard fantasy points. Only one tight end, Sam Laporta, even reached 150 points (153). Because overall scoring is depressed in standard, quarterbacks become relatively more valuable. Seven signal callers reached 300 total fantasy points, so it’s critical to get one of them onto our fantasy squad in the fourth or fifth round.

Best Alternative Picks: Bijan Robinson or Breece Hall

If you’re a contrarian, these two running backs offer youth and are still on offenses that project to score an above-average number of touchdowns.

PPR Scoring: Christian McCaffrey , RB (SF)

McCaffrey has finished as the top PPR scorer in fantasy points per game in three of the past five seasons, including last year. McCaffrey just led the league in rushing yards, total yards, and touchdowns, and his 24.5 fantasy points per game was higher than any other player, regardless of position, in fantasy football. The team made no major additions to the running back room in free agency or the draft, so McCaffrey’s role should not change much heading into next season.

Building a strong receiver core is arguably the most important aspect of nailing a PPR draft since wide receivers generally catch more passes than running backs and tight ends. If we start off with McCaffrey, we need to draft three to four receivers over the next five rounds. Over the past two seasons, 13 running backs, 22 wide receivers, and just one tight end have reached 250 PPR fantasy points. Turning to fantasy points per game, we have 16 receivers with at least 17 fantasy points per game over the past two seasons compared to 11 at the running back position.

Elite quarterback strategy can still be effective in PPR formats, but it’s definitely not as critical compared to standard-scoring leagues. Tight end can also be considered after the first four rounds, once receivers with obvious fantasy WR1 upside are off the board.

For a full 16-round PPR draft with picks and explanations from the 1.01 spot see Brendan Darr's ESPN article as part of our Perfect Draft series.

Best Alternative Picks: CeeDee Lamb / Tyreek Hill / Ja'Marr Chase

If you’re looking to start with a wide receiver, these three project for heavy volume in well above average offenses. PPR drafts are the most effective place for those interested in employing the Zero RB strategy, where three to four receivers, plus an elite quarterback and tight end, are selected before filling out the running back room.

Half-PPR Scoring: Christian McCaffrey , RB (SF)

Surprise, surprise… McCaffrey is once again the preferred pick at the 1.01 slot. Everything mentioned about him in the standard and PPR sections holds true in half-PPR formats.

In a half-PPR league, a blend of the standard and PPR formats is recommended. Elite quarterbacks and tight ends fall in the middle here, where neither are slam dunk picks, but they can both be part of a well-rounded fantasy roster with upside. Make sure to have three to four wide receivers by the sixth round in a half-PPR league to make sure you’re not boxed out at the position.

For a full 16-round draft half-PPR with picks and explanations from the 1.01 spot see Justin Edwards' Yahoo article as part of our Perfect Draft series.

Best Alternate Picks: Several Players

Because half-PPR is a nice medium between standard and PPR scoring, any of the alternate picks listed above are viable here.

Superflex: Jalen Hurts , QB ((PHI)

You can go many different ways in Superflex drafts depending on your specific draft room, but starting with a quarterback like Jalen Hurts provides safety and upside. Hurts’ 26.8 fantasy points per game during the 2022 fantasy season is the highest mark by a quarterback since Lamar Jackson ’s 2019 season. Last year, only Josh Allen out-scored Hurts.

No other quarterback provides Hurts’ combination of mobility and passing ability with an elite supporting cast. The Eagles have a top-flight offensive line, and Hurts will be throwing to A.J. Brown , DeVonta Smith , Dallas Goedert , and the newly-signed Saquon Barkley . Despite “struggling” at the end of the 2023 campaign, Hurts still scored more than 20 fantasy points in five of six games to close out the fantasy season.

The beauty of beginning a Superflex draft with a quarterback like Hurts is the flexibility it gives you in the next few rounds. Drafters should aim for one more quarterback by the end of the fifth round to avoid being locked out of the position – the quarterback position has more stability and fewer injuries than the other flex-worthy ones.

Two to three strong wide receivers, along with one or two running backs should be the focus, as well. High-end fantasy running backs and receivers can rival quarterback scoring, but it’s rare to see a tight end perform like a top-12 quarterback in fantasy. If you need to de-prioritize a starting spot in superflex, make it your tight end or second running back if going particularly wide receiver heavy.

Best Alternate Pick: Josh Allen or Christian McCaffrey

McCaffrey shows up here once again because he can actually out-score all the quarterbacks in a given season. Allen has recorded at least 24 fantasy points per game in four straight seasons, but that also coincided with Stefon Diggs ’ arrival. With a depleted supporting cast, Allen’s fantasy season could look a lot like Patrick Mahomes from last year.

Top Late-Round Targets

Late-round picks should complement your draft strategy from the early and middle rounds. For example, if your team includes several early receivers, take more shots on running backs late.

These ground rules for your fantasy bench should help you stay on track towards the end of your draft:

• If you took an elite quarterback or tight end, a second one is not needed
• Prioritize your opponents’ backup running backs, as opposed to your own
• Stash at least one rookie or second-year player
• Wide receivers should be under age 29
• When deciding between two players, choose the younger option or the one on the better offense

Before outlining a couple of players that fit these bullet points, if your league starts a kicker and defense, wait until the final two rounds to fill these slots.

MarShawn Lloyd : Lloyd checks a lot of boxes we’re looking for in a late-round pick. He’s a rookie handcuff running back on a Packers offense that projects to be high-scoring once again. The third-round pick would likely take on a heavy workload should the starter, Josh Jacobs , get injured.

Rico Dowdle : Dowdle has only tallied 113 career NFL touches since the Cowboys scooped him up as an undrafted free agent in 2020. However, he now finds himself on a Dallas Cowboys depth chart devoid of any solid options. Currently, his only hurdle to major playing time is the 29-year-old Ezekiel Elliott .

Below, you can see a realistic 16-round draft with the first overall pick. The following table provides the round you can expect to draft each player in a typical, 12-team half-PPR fantasy league.

• Free Articles

• Testimonials
• Terms & Conditions
• Accessibility Statement

BETSPERTS MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY GROUP

4for4 Fantasy Football. Copyright © Intense Industries, LLC. All rights reserved.

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Dissertation
• Dissertation & Thesis Outline | Example & Free Templates

Dissertation & Thesis Outline | Example & Free Templates

Published on June 7, 2022 by Tegan George . Revised on November 21, 2023.

A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical early steps in your writing process . It helps you to lay out and organize your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding the specifics of your dissertation topic and showcasing its relevance to your field.

Generally, an outline contains information on the different sections included in your thesis or dissertation , such as:

• Your anticipated title
• Your abstract
• Your chapters (sometimes subdivided into further topics like literature review, research methods, avenues for future research, etc.)

In the final product, you can also provide a chapter outline for your readers. This is a short paragraph at the end of your introduction to inform readers about the organizational structure of your thesis or dissertation. This chapter outline is also known as a reading guide or summary outline.

Table of contents

How to outline your thesis or dissertation, dissertation and thesis outline templates, chapter outline example, sample sentences for your chapter outline, sample verbs for variation in your chapter outline, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about thesis and dissertation outlines.

While there are some inter-institutional differences, many outlines proceed in a fairly similar fashion.

• Working Title
• “Elevator pitch” of your work (often written last).
• Introduce your area of study, sharing details about your research question, problem statement , and hypotheses . Situate your research within an existing paradigm or conceptual or theoretical framework .
• Subdivide as you see fit into main topics and sub-topics.
• Describe your research methods (e.g., your scope , population , and data collection ).
• Present your research findings and share about your data analysis methods.
• Answer the research question in a concise way.
• Interpret your findings, discuss potential limitations of your own research and speculate about future implications or related opportunities.

For a more detailed overview of chapters and other elements, be sure to check out our article on the structure of a dissertation or download our template .

To help you get started, we’ve created a full thesis or dissertation template in Word or Google Docs format. It’s easy adapt it to your own requirements.

 Download Word template    Download Google Docs template

It can be easy to fall into a pattern of overusing the same words or sentence constructions, which can make your work monotonous and repetitive for your readers. Consider utilizing some of the alternative constructions presented below.

Example 1: Passive construction

The passive voice is a common choice for outlines and overviews because the context makes it clear who is carrying out the action (e.g., you are conducting the research ). However, overuse of the passive voice can make your text vague and imprecise.

Example 2: IS-AV construction

You can also present your information using the “IS-AV” (inanimate subject with an active verb ) construction.

A chapter is an inanimate object, so it is not capable of taking an action itself (e.g., presenting or discussing). However, the meaning of the sentence is still easily understandable, so the IS-AV construction can be a good way to add variety to your text.

Example 3: The “I” construction

Another option is to use the “I” construction, which is often recommended by style manuals (e.g., APA Style and Chicago style ). However, depending on your field of study, this construction is not always considered professional or academic. Ask your supervisor if you’re not sure.

Example 4: Mix-and-match

To truly make the most of these options, consider mixing and matching the passive voice , IS-AV construction , and “I” construction .This can help the flow of your argument and improve the readability of your text.

As you draft the chapter outline, you may also find yourself frequently repeating the same words, such as “discuss,” “present,” “prove,” or “show.” Consider branching out to add richness and nuance to your writing. Here are some examples of synonyms you can use.

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or research bias, make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

Research bias

• Anchoring bias
• Halo effect
• The Baader–Meinhof phenomenon
• The placebo effect
• Nonresponse bias
• Deep learning
• Generative AI
• Machine learning
• Reinforcement learning
• Supervised vs. unsupervised learning

 (AI) Tools

• Grammar Checker
• Paraphrasing Tool
• Text Summarizer
• AI Detector
• Plagiarism Checker
• Citation Generator

When you mention different chapters within your text, it’s considered best to use Roman numerals for most citation styles. However, the most important thing here is to remain consistent whenever using numbers in your dissertation .

The title page of your thesis or dissertation goes first, before all other content or lists that you may choose to include.

A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical first steps in your writing process. It helps you to lay out and organize your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding what kind of research you’d like to undertake.

• Your chapters (sometimes subdivided into further topics like literature review , research methods , avenues for future research, etc.)

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

George, T. (2023, November 21). Dissertation & Thesis Outline | Example & Free Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved August 19, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/dissertation-thesis-outline/

Is this article helpful?

Tegan George

Other students also liked, dissertation table of contents in word | instructions & examples, figure and table lists | word instructions, template & examples, thesis & dissertation acknowledgements | tips & examples, get unlimited documents corrected.

✔ Free APA citation check included ✔ Unlimited document corrections ✔ Specialized in correcting academic texts

Christian McCaffrey is the undisputed No. 1 overall pick. He outscored the WR1 by nearly three points per game in half-PPR formats and roughly one point per game in full-PPR formats, and he outscored the RB2 by over 100 points in both formats.

At picks 2-6, I prefer WRs over RBs.  You can’t win your draft in the first few rounds, but you sure can lose it, and you’re more likely to lose it by exposing yourself to the heightened injury risk of RBs compared to WRs. Since the NFL switched to 17 games in 2021, here are the average missed games for startable players at each position (defined as top-36 RBs and WRs and top-12 QBs and TEs by ADP).

Related: Use our Sleeper promo code to get a $100 bonus ahead of the NFL season!

Also, the WRs have higher ceiling/floor combos. Below are their three-year highs/lows in PPR points.

• WR1 CeeDee Lamb: 405/233
• WR2 Tyreek Hill : 378/299
• WR3 Ja’Marr Chase : 307/246
• WR4 Justin Jefferson : 365/204
• WR5 Amon-Ra St. Brown : 332/223
• RB2 Breece Hall : 289/117
• RB3 Bijan Robinson : 252/252

In fact, the RB who has gotten the closest to scoring on par with the top-five WRs isn’t Hall or Robinson, but Jonathan Taylor (377/156). Taylor has the best offensive line and the least competition for snaps of the three, so I don’t mind taking him as high as RB2.

My tiers for the top-10 picks are: (1) McCaffrey, (2) Lamb, Hill, Chase, St. Brown, Jefferson, (3) Hall, Robinson, Taylor.

If you’re in a 12-team league and drafting 11th or 12th, I think the best course of action is to go balanced with one RB and one WR in the first two rounds. There’s a clear drop-off in value at both positions after the top 10, but by being balanced, you allow yourself to more readily take advantage of value as it presents itself in Rounds 3-4 and on, which will be crucial since drafting late typically already puts you at a disadvantage in terms of expected fantasy points.

• In my second WR tier, you find only Puka Nacua and A.J. Brown . So, I suggest prioritizing WR in Round 1, as there should be a wider selection of RBs to choose from when you’re picking again in Round 2. 
• Among RBs outside the top four, I prefer Travis Etienne to Jahmyr Gibbs , Saquon Barkley, and Derrick Henry . Gibbs is amazing, but he’s still part of a committee and could be more volatile than you’d like for the RB5. Henry and Barkley are fine RB1 choices, but if we’re nitpicking, they get dinged a bit for age and for switching teams.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Chris Raybon’s fantasy football strategy guide is part of our 2024 Fantasy Football Draft Kit , which includes exclusive season-long rankings, expert projections, cheat sheet builders, and more tips to help you win your fantasy leagues! Click here to access now!

The perfect fantasy football draft strategy in 2024 redraft leagues is all about maximizing your team’s weekly ceiling and floor. Part of that is simply picking the right players – you can also check out my projections and rankings for help. The other part is having a smart fantasy draft strategy and roster construction philosophy that considers where value is on the board so that you dynamically adapt as your drafts unfold. This article details what I’ve found to be the optimal fantasy football strategy for 2024 and which players to target as a result.

I’ll start by walking through the first six rounds of 2024 fantasy football drafts. You’ll notice I put a lot of emphasis on wide receiver strategy during these rounds. After that, I’ll show you how to build out the rest of your roster at each position. 

(Note: Everything you’re about to read applies to traditional redraft formats that start one QB, are 10 or 12 teams and use half- or full-PPR scoring.)

2024 Fantasy Football Strategy

Recent Articles

• Fantasy Football Strategy: How to Draft Every Position & Win Your League in 2024
• Top 10 Fantasy Football Sleepers for 2024 Drafts
• Fantasy Football Rankings: Koerner’s Top 150 Big Board for Fantasy Drafts
• Fantasy Football Rankings: Raybon’s Top 200 Big Board for Fantasy Drafts
• Koerner’s Fantasy Football WR Tiers: Rankings for Redraft Leagues (Preseason Updates)

Fantasy football Ultimate Draft Board: Perfect picks for every round

• Fantasy football, NFL analyst for ESPN.com
• Member of Pro Football Writers of America
• Founding director of Pro Football Focus Fantasy
• 2013 FSTA award winner for most accurate preseason rankings

Fantasy football drafts are all about collecting the best possible values, but we all know there are special players we badly want on our squad.

Whether it's the young, up-and-coming wide receiver on our favorite team, a sleeper running back no one is talking about or this year's big breakout at tight end, these players add an extra level of excitement to the roster construction process.

This round-by-round analysis will give you an idea of what's going through my head on draft day, headlined by those players I have circled on my cheat sheet. Note that I used Average Draft Position (ADP) data from Draft Sharks' terrific Market Index Tool in order to ensure this road map would be useful for as many of you as possible.

For a more philosophical look at the current fantasy football landscape, including strategies for drafting, trading and working waivers in all types of formats, be sure to check out the 2024 fantasy football playbook .

Here it is -- my personal recipe for a fantasy football championship this season:

When making my selections in fantasy football, I often ask myself: "Am I drafting this player at his ceiling?" If the answer is "yes," I generally aim for someone with more upside. Of course, all of the players available in the first round or so are likely at or near their ceilings, so this is an opportunity to not overthink it and simply take the best available player on the board.

Round 1 -- Bijan Robinson

Who I choose in the first round will primarily depend on where I pick (duh), but Robinson is a player we can generally get our hands on in the early or middle portion of the round.

Robinson's rookie season felt a bit underwhelming, but despite all the roadblocks to success, he still finished sixth among RBs in yardage, fifth in snaps and second in targets. His fantasy production was solid, but would've been much better had he received more work near the goal line (two carries inside the opponent's 5-yard line). With offensive playcaller Arthur Smith and QB Desmond Ridder out and replaced by Zac Robinson and Kirk Cousins , respectively, Bijan Robinson is well positioned to reach his high ceiling in 2024. I'm willing to pick Robinson as high as second overall in my drafts.

If I'm picking in the middle of the first round and the "Big 3" RBs ( Christian McCaffrey , Breece Hall , Robinson) are gone, I'm happy to roll with a top-tier WR such as CeeDee Lamb , Tyreek Hill , Ja'Marr Chase , Amon-Ra St. Brown or Justin Jefferson .

Round 2 -- Garrett Wilson

Same as Round 1, our pool of available players is very dependent upon where we are in the draft order. If I'm near the turn between Rounds 1 and 2, I'm eyeing the best available among Jonathan Taylor , Saquon Barkley , Kyren Williams and Wilson. If I'm later in the round, the likes of Isiah Pacheco and Chris Olave often make it to my roster.

Same as last year, though, I want to get my hands on Wilson. Yes, we got burned by Aaron Rodgers ' season-ending injury on the first drive of his Jets' debut, but he'll be back under center in 2024. Wilson has been heavily utilized during his first two seasons (fourth among WRs in targets), but hasn't reached his fantasy ceiling because of the team's horrific quarterback play (7 career TDs). He's a sneaky bet to lead all wideouts in TD receptions in 2024.

Round 3 -- Mike Evans

Field Yates, Mike Clay and Daniel Dopp discuss the pros and cons to drafting Mike Evans.

We head south for the third round, as I tend to find myself selecting either Evans or his Tampa Bay teammate Rachaad White .

Evans (10th among WRs in fantasy points per game last season) continues to get the job done, having led all wideouts in touchdowns last season (13) while registering his 10th consecutive campaign as a top-25 fantasy scorer with 1,000-plus yards. At age 31, the future Hall of Famer likely has another year or two of high-end play in the tank. If not Evans, Michael Pittman Jr . is a strong target in this range.

If I want to go running back here, White is the easy choice. A target of mine in this column last year, White went on to finish first in snaps and routes, second in carries and touches and fourth in yards among running backs. The 25-year-old has minimal competition for touches and remains a solid, fringe-RB1 option.

Round 4 -- Alvin Kamara

I can't believe I'm admitting this, but yes, I have a 29-year-old running back on my radar in fantasy football. If you listen to the Fantasy Focus podcast on the regular, you know Field, Stephania and Daniel are going to give me hell for this, but Kamara -- even at the ancient age of 29 -- is way too good of a value to pass on.

The Saints' lead back finished third among RBs in fantasy PPG last season (his sixth top-eight finish in seven campaigns) and -- after leading the position in target share (19%) in 2023 -- he has now finished all seven seasons in the top five among backs in targets. With Jamaal Williams all but a nonfactor last season and second-year RB Kendre Miller seemingly struggling to progress, Kamara is set up for another big season.

If I miss on Kamara, the younger Kenneth Walker III is an attractive fallback plan. At wide receiver, DK Metcalf has shown a bit of a limited fantasy ceiling in recent years, but he's a solid target in Round 4 and that's especially the case in non-PPR leagues. Also, I'm not afraid to pounce on TE Mark Andrews toward the end of the round.

Round 5 -- Malik Nabers

Field Yates explains why Malik Nabers should be considered among the top 20 wide receivers this season in fantasy.

Nabers' stock continues to rise (he may cost a fourth-round pick by the time you're reading this), but the No. 6 pick in April's draft very well could be one of the league's next great players. Even if the Giants' offense struggles, Nabers will undoubtedly be force-fed the ball, a trait that has followed wide receivers selected in the top 10 over the past decade.

If I miss on Nabers, Zay Flowers is my target of choice. The clear No. 1 wide receiver in Baltimore, Flowers enjoyed a hefty 24% target share as a rookie and finished strong, with all four of his games with 20-plus fantasy points coming in Baltimore's final seven games (including the playoffs).

If I'm in the running back market, D'Andre Swift has the look of a nice value near the turn between Rounds 5 and 6. I'm also monitoring Trey McBride , though there's a similar tight end still on the board, as well, and I can get him in a few rounds (teaser alert).

Round 6 -- Joe Burrow or Dak Prescott

Unless you reach way too early on one of them, it's tough to mess up quarterback this season. There are roughly 10 or 11 quarterbacks we can feel pretty comfortable starting every week, and that number could be higher if a player such as Jayden Daniels proves to be the real deal. Want a superstar like Josh Allen in the third round? No one can blame you. How about Lamar Jackson a round later? That works. Want to wait until the middle rounds and go after Kyler Murray or Jordan Love ? Fine.

Of course, even at a deep position, the goal remains to find the best possible value. I've identified Burrow and Prescott as the best targets considering the combination of their talent, fantasy upside and inexpensive cost. Prescott absolutely lit it up last season after a slow start and ended up third among QBs in fantasy points. He has now finished eighth or better on a points-per-game basis in four of the past five seasons. Burrow was fantasy's No. 4-scoring quarterback in 2022 and, after that dreadful start to 2023, got back on track and was, once again, fantasy's QB4 during his final five games prior to the season-ending wrist injury. Both veteran quarterbacks have top-five upside.

If not quarterback, WR Keenan Allen and RB Rhamondre Stevenson are on my radar.

The middle rounds

OK, so the core of my team is in place. It's time to start filling gaps and adding depth. I obviously want players with upside, but I also want guys I feel comfortable placing in my Week 1 lineup. We'll save the high-risk fliers for later.

Round 7 -- Evan Engram or Calvin Ridley

Tight end is very similar to quarterback this season, in that it's hard to mess up because there are at least 10 quality options and perhaps a few more than that. (My top 10 doesn't include the likes of Brock Bowers , T.J. Hockenson , Dalton Schultz or Dallas Goedert .)

But, again, same as quarterback, we can do our best to keep a level head and identify the best possible value. To me, that value is Engram. The 30-year-old has been a top-five fantasy TE in each of the past two seasons and is coming off a year when he finished fourth in the NFL in receptions (his 114 were 19 more than any other tight end). Engram is a top-five TE option who can be had several rounds after unproven commodities at the position. I'll take that discount all day long.

Though I did choose to feature Engram here, his ex-teammate Ridley is one of my most drafted players this year. Ridley signed a massive contract with the Titans and should immediately slide in as Will Levis ' top target. The ex-Jaguar led the NFL with 25 end zone targets in 2023 (no one else had more than 20) and he has finished 27th or better in fantasy PPG all five seasons in the league. Ridley's cost is rising with DeAndre Hopkins battling a knee injury, but he's still well worth consideration in the fifth through seventh rounds.

Rashee Rice (who would be going earlier if not for a potential suspension hanging over him) and -- if I've waited at quarterback -- Jordan Love are my other primary targets in this range.

Round 8 -- Diontae Johnson or Rome Odunze

In a deeper league (i.e. perhaps one in which we must start three WRs and a flex), we're still looking for a Week 1 starter, but many of us are now done filling out our lineup and are on to stocking our bench with talent. Either way, I have some options, including Johnson and Odunze.

The first is Johnson, who has a safer path to targets out of the gate. Traded to Carolina during the offseason, the 28-year-old delivered three straight top-30 fantasy campaigns prior to stumbling to 45th in Pittsburgh's struggling pass offense in 2023. The elite route runner is well positioned for a rebound as Bryce Young 's top target.

If I'm aiming for a higher ceiling, I'll throw a dart at Odunze. The ninth overall pick in April's draft will be working with a rookie quarterback ( Caleb Williams ) and has substantial target competition (Keenan Allen and DJ Moore ), but as noted earlier, wideouts selected in the top 10 tend to produce at a high level right out of the gate. Odunze would be a risky early-round pick, but betting on his talent in the eighth round is well worth it (he won't be nearly this cheap in 2025 drafts).

Though Johnson and Odunze are my top targets here, we actually have a ton of intriguing options in this range. I'm also looking at the likes of Marquise Brown , Xavier Worthy and Ladd McConkey at wide receiver, David Njoku at tight end and Kyler Murray at quarterback.

Daniel Dopp and Mike Clay weigh in on how the Commanders will balance a talented backfield with Brian Robinson and Austin Ekeler.

Round 9 -- Brian Robinson Jr .

We're officially in dart throw territory and the analysis here is similar to last round: I'll be picking my favorite solid/underrated veteran or taking a shot on a breakout candidate.

In this case, the player I've chosen is the former -- third-year RB Robinson. Washington signed Austin Ekeler during the offseason, but the ex-Charger is a long shot to operate as a feature back after a rough season (3.5 YPC) and at age 29. Robinson, meanwhile, has quietly soaked up exactly 214 touches in each of his first two seasons (despite seven missed games) and actually led all backs in yards per target (8.6) last season. In a fast-paced, Kliff Kingsbury offense, Robinson is set up well for a strong 2024 campaign.

If I miss out on Robinson, I'm eyeing a few upside wide receivers, including Christian Watson , Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Keon Coleman .

Round 10 -- Courtland Sutton or Brian Thomas Jr .

I could have gone a few different routes here, but I've drafted Sutton and Thomas a ton in this range this offseason, so both are worth some discussion. Sutton is unlikely to match his TD total from 2023 (10 on 92 targets), but he gets plenty of work (90-plus targets in three straight seasons), especially near the goal line (top 10 in end zone targets during three of his four full seasons). He remains the clear No. 1 target in Denver and, while that supplies him with a high fantasy floor regardless, he very well could post one of his best seasons if rookie QB Bo Nix proves to be the real deal.

Thomas, meanwhile, is yet another high-pedigree dart throw. The 23rd pick in April's draft will slide into a prominent offensive role in Jacksonville alongside Christian Kirk and Gabe Davis . It's very possible he'll quickly replace Calvin Ridley as Trevor Lawrence 's favorite target.

Bengals second-year RB Chase Brown and Vikings TE T.J. Hockenson (recovering from a torn ACL) are also on my radar in this range.

The late-round fliers

At this point, our starting lineup is likely full, which means it's time to look for values and upside for our bench.

Round 11 -- Undervalued veteran

Recent ADP shows that, at this point in the draft, a lot of the most appealing young breakout players are already off the board. Some intriguing late-round dart throws remain, but we can get them a bit later.

Instead, I think this area of the draft has a few undervalued veterans who very well could end up as viable weekly flex options. The three that stand out to me are Tyler Lockett , Chuba Hubbard and J.K. Dobbins .

Lockett is nearing the end of his prime (age 31), but still ended up 21st in targets, 11th in end zone targets and 32nd in fantasy points among wide receivers last season. Hubbard and Dobbins are running back wild cards. Hubbard, who was quietly ninth among backs in touches last season, figures to lead the Carolina backfield until Jonathon Brooks (torn ACL) is ready to go (likely not prior to Week 4). Dobbins has suffered two major injuries (knee, Achilles) over the past three seasons, but he's still only 25 years old and his only competition in Los Angeles is 29-year-old Gus Edwards . Both backs very well could land on the weekly RB2/flex radar.

Round 12 -- Ty Chandler

Chandler is among my favorite running back dart throws. The third-year back was solid last season (4.5 YPC, caught 21 of 25 targets) and his only roadblock to a big role in 2024 is newcomer Aaron Jones . Jones will undoubtedly open the season as the lead back, but he turns 30 in December and has had durability issues (missed time in five of seven seasons). Chandler will have a role right out of the gate and, if Jones fades or misses extended time, he very well could push for flex value.

If not Chandler, Mike Williams is appealing after signing on as the Jets' No. 2 wide receiver.

Rounds 13-14 -- High-ceiling insurance and breakout candidates

ADP starts to go out the window late in the draft, so now is the time to get our favorite late-round sleepers and breakout candidates.

Here are the players I will be considering with my final few picks:

Quarterback fliers: I generally select one quarterback in a 10-team league, especially since a lot of solid QB2 options will go undrafted in most formats. However, if I'm eyeing a sneaky breakout candidate in a deeper league, the likes of Bryce Young and Will Levis are on my radar.

Running back insurance: A few popular insurance RBs will be gone by now, but a ton remain, including Tyler Allgeier , Antonio Gibson , Kendre Miller , MarShawn Lloyd , Jaleel McLaughlin , Ray Davis , Jaylen Wright , Elijah Mitchell , Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Braelon Allen . Pick your favorite!

Wide receiver veterans: With teams using more wide receivers than ever before, there are always notable, high-floor veteran wideouts available late. Darnell Mooney , Gabe Davis, Adam Thielen and Rashid Shaheed are the headliners.

Wide receiver upside fliers: Despite the comfort of a safe, veteran receiver, I'm typically aiming for more upside here. Those targets include rookies Ja'Lynn Polk , Adonai Mitchell , Xavier Legette , Ricky Pearsall , Jermaine Burton and Jalen McMillan , as well as second-year wideouts Tre Tucker , DeMario Douglas , Marvin Mims Jr. , Dontayvion Wicks and Josh Downs . I could expand this list even further, but as a simple rule, we should have our eyes on first- and second-year receivers taken on Day 1 and 2 in the NFL draft.

Tight end options: There are always a few interesting late-round TE fliers of note (I mentioned Dalton Kincaid and Trey McBride in this section one year ago) and among those available this season are Tyler Conklin (hello, Aaron Rodgers ), Chigoziem Okonkwo , Tucker Kraft , Luke Musgrave and the always-fun Taysom Hill .

Rounds 15-16 -- Kicker, D/ST and more breakout candidates

We're assuming a 16-round draft here, so this is the point where league rules come into play. If we're drafting here at ESPN, we'll be forced to select both a defense and a kicker (I'll cover my favorite targets at those spots later).

However, if there's flexibility in your league, this is a spot where we can gain a leg up on the competition. Most of our leaguemates are going to select at least one kicker and defense and let them rot on their roster until Week 1.

Why? I have no idea. Don't do that.

In lieu of those positions, I will gather up insurance policies at other positions (especially running back) and wait for injuries to strike during the preseason. If I have the Ravens' defense rostered and Christian McCaffrey goes down for the season, I have the Ravens' defense. If I have Elijah Mitchell rostered and McCaffrey goes down, I have a potential RB2. Oh, and I can always drop two players and pick up a defense with a good matchup and a decent kicker just prior to Week 1. By the way, if your league is hosted here at ESPN (why wouldn't it be?), one way around the draft room restrictions is to cut your kicker and defense after the draft in favor of adding more of the high-upside stashes mentioned earlier.

Defense/Special Teams

History has taught us over and over and over again, we should never reach on D/STs. In fact, six of the past seven top-scoring fantasy D/STs finished ninth or worse the following season. That includes the 2016 Vikings, 2017 Jaguars, 2018 Bears, 2019 Patriots, 2020 Rams and 2022 Patriots. Be smart. Just don't do it.

The Browns, Cowboys, Jets, Ravens and 49ers top my D/ST rankings, but since I like to stream, I'll also be looking at the Seahawks, Bengals, Vikings, Bears and Saints, as each has a relatively light Week 1 opponent.

This is as simple as picking the top guy left on the board. Harrison Butker , Brandon Aubrey and Justin Tucker top my rankings, but don't reach on any of them. Prior to Daniel Carlson pacing the position in both 2021 and 2022, the last No. 1-scoring kicker to finish top 10 the following season was Matt Bryant in 2017 (Carlson fell to 24th in 2023).

So, there you have it. My game plan for a 2024 fantasy football championship. Remember, this piece should not serve as your only draft board. It's simply the players I've found myself targeting and, with ADP in mind, those I would love to have on my squad this year.

• SI SWIMSUIT
• SUBSCRIBE NOW

Fantasy Football Pick 12 Strategy: How to Draft From the 12th Spot in 2024

Jason schandl | aug 13, 2024.

Receiving the 12th pick in fantasy football drafts is typically met with groans. Being the last one in your league to make a selection in Round 1 can feel like it sets your team way back from the start. And honestly, picking at the top of Round 2 probably doesn't quite outweigh the disadvantage you get in the first round.

But let's also not overreact with doom and gloom here. There are so many variables in a fantasy football season that even if this draft position does put you at some slight disadvantage, you're still the one who is ultimately in control of your destiny.

The 12th pick also brings unique opportunities, and making back-to-back selections has benefits people tend to overlook when they lament the negatives of the situation.

To help you with the strategy of picking from the No. 12 spot in your 2024 fantasy football draft, let's walk through each phase of the draft to see how things can play out.

Click to jump ahead to a round:

Round 1/2: a reactive start, round 3/4: stay flexible (even if it scares you), round 5/6: take control of your own fate, round 7/8: positional considerations, later rounds: keeping the same principles in mind.

One of the biggest potential benefits of picking 12th is when the teams picking ahead of you go off-script. Sometimes you'll find a mid-first-round talent falling into your lap at 12, or you find yourself with the option to grab two players with first-round value with those first two picks.

Looking at average draft position (ADP) data from FantasyPros , that situation can go a couple of different ways.

Starting things off, the chances of someone typically being drafted in the top eight falling to you are almost zero, so don't spend much time getting your hopes up. But if, for some outlandish reason, one of the top RBs (McCaffrey, Hall, Robinson) or WRs (Lamb, Hill, Jefferson, Chase, St. Brown) fall to you, you make that pick. It doesn't matter if you're lower than most people on one of them — there's a reason they're the clear-cut top eight players off the board this year.

But now some more realistic scenarios. The next tier of players in that range looks something like: Saquon Barkley, AJ Brown, Jonathan Taylor, Jahmyr Gibbs, Garrett Wilson. Puka Nacua's injury bumps him down a bit at WR and Kyren Williams is at the top of the next tier of running backs.

If you're number-savvy, you may have noticed something already, but let me spell it out: I mentioned a top tier of eight players, and the secondary tier has five names in it. That adds up to 13 players, which means you are guaranteed to have two of them available for your first two picks.

This is why I say we're being reactive here. You don't want to come into a draft in the 12-slot with a predetermined idea of what positions you're going after early. If you love running backs but your choices are AJ Brown, Garrett Wilson and Kyren Williams, you should probably go with the two WRs anyway. If you thought you might go Zero RB but it's Taylor and Gibbs on the board, you'll probably want to hold your nose with that RB-RB start.

You'll occasionally get some extra wiggle room here if someone ahead of you still loves Nacua or reached on Kyren Williams (or even Marvin Harrison Jr. if they're feeling really spicy), but in most drafts you will have exactly two of those top 13 players available to you.

Watching 22 players go off the board between your picks is going to feel horrible — and the wait from Round 2 to Round 3 is probably the most painful of the draft when you started in the No. 12 spot. But be patient, and don't make any rash decisions until you're on the clock.

If the picks ahead of you dictated that you start your draft with two WRs or two RBs, it can be really easy to feel like you must address other positions here. But unless your league has no flex spots or other starting lineup quirks, don't get ahead of yourself. One of the biggest advantages to picking at the end of a round is scooping up any value picks who shouldn't be falling, and you don't want to take away your advantage by worrying too much about roster balance this early.

If you started with Saquon Barkley and Jonathan Taylor but Josh Jacobs is still on the board here? Pounce on the opportunity and worry about roster balance later.

Picks 36 and 37 have a bit of a similar dropoff to the tier gap that we saw at the Round 1-2 turns. Notice on the ADP table that 36 players have an ADP of 33.6 or better, and then there's a drop to 37.4. You can use that tier break to guide your picks. But there's certainly more wiggle room than we saw with our last picks.

Cooper Kupp, for example, is a reasonable pick at the top of the third round. And you don't need to go quarterback early. If Jalen Hurts has fallen to you at the end of Round 2, passing on him for a lower-ADP RB or WR (even someone outside the tier like Kupp) is totally fine.

Your third and fourth picks offer a ton of flexibility — take advantage of this. Draft your top two players almost regardless of position (the one exception being that you don't want to start with four straight running backs unless your league lets you start all four).

Let me take this opportunity to address one of drafters' biggest concerns when picking "at the turn" (the final pick of one round and the first of the next round): that a run will happen on a position you need during your 22-pick wait, and you'll miss out.

To start with, you're not going to win your league drafting with fear. Reaching on a tight end you don't necessarily like just because you might get stuck with a different tight end you don't like later is not going to give you a roster you love. Besides, one of the only ways to get truly burned by a run is to reach on a player.

If you ignore a run, you're almost guaranteed to get value at the position later in the draft. Tons of quarterbacks just went off the board? Well, that means there are far fewer quarterbacks likely to go between your next picks, increasing your chances of scooping up some value later in the draft. A run also means people are ignoring other positions — leaving extra value falling into your lap at other positions.

So what I'm saying is, if you don't have a tight end or quarterback at the Round 5/6 turn, don't feel like you suddenly need to fill those spots. Reaching on Jordan Love and David Njoku here is a worse result than missing out on a run at either position would be anyway.

We started the draft with a reactionary strategy, and we stayed flexible with our next two picks. Now we take the bull by the horns. Following ADP in any strict sense becomes less necessary the deeper we get into drafts, and these early-mid rounds tend to be filled with potential league winners every season. Because we're talking general draft strategy in this series I'll leave the "which ones are league winners" conversation for another article (try Michael Fabian's breakout running backs , for example), but this is your time to plant your flag.

Draft yourself your league winners. Be bold with these picks.

By Round 7, the positional breakdown of your roster starts to matter a little bit more.

I take a more extreme approach than many, but I think it's fine for your first six picks to be running backs and wide receivers. That means one of them will have to start the season on your bench (assuming a typical 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 Flex starting lineup), but that's fine. Injuries and busts happen at such a high rate that the chances of your top five picks all remaining starters for you is somewhat low. And if they do you're in such a good spot that having a "wasted" sixth-round pick doesn't mean too much.

But even I start to focus on holes in my lineup by Rounds 7 and 8.

Those rounds become especially interesting when you're picking late in the round. You get to choose whether you're punting the quarterback and tight end positions or not.

At QB, the gap between Kyler Murray and Jordan Love (ADP 73.8 and 74.0) vs. Brock Purdy (93.4) is huge. If none of the top 10 quarterbacks have fallen to you, you now face a tough choice. Do you reach a bit to grab your starter? I say be bold — not many will be drafted until your next two picks (presumably only one other team is missing a starter), so the options available to you next round will be almost the same.

At tight end, there are a couple more options in this range. David Njoku (81.6) and Jake Ferguson (86.6) are pretty comparable options — they're starters, but they're not guys you feel great about being every-week staples in your lineup. If you're taking one now, you probably need to take a second later in the draft anyway. So it's totally reasonable to grab one of them right now. However, if you don't view someone like Dallas Goedert (TE12 at 108.2) or even Dalton Schultz (TE14 at 129.0) as a big step down from Njoku/Ferguson (I don't), then punting tight end can be viable too.

I wouldn't necessarily punt both positions in the same draft, however, because both do force you to pay some extra attention to the waiver wire if your picks don't pan out and having to try streaming both positions can be tricky.

The later rounds of fantasy football drafts are more about grabbing the players you like when they're available. As I mentioned earlier, the deeper into a draft we go the less ADP matters. Taking Rashid Shaheed at pick 160 instead of his ADP of 175.2 is not a reach. But can you imagine drafting someone 15 picks early with your first-round pick?

So you probably don't need as much guidance about specific rounds as the draft rolls on, but you will want to keep some of those core principles around drafting at the turn in mind: don't overreact to positional runs, do be on the lookout for value players falling into your lap.

Of course, this is also where you do have to finally round out your roster, making sure you're set at quarterback and tight end, and reacting to how your early rounds went with how you construct your bench. If three of your first four picks were wide receivers, you'll probably want some extra late-round lottery tickets at running back.

And then, to cap off your draft, select your defense and kicker last. It's not worth missing out on one of those potential late-round steals to get a slightly better defense that you probably end up having to drop as soon as they have a bad matchup anyway.

And if you need any more resources to prepare for your draft, we have you covered with the 2024 SI fantasy football draft kit .

JASON SCHANDL