How to Use thesis in a Sentence

  • We disagreed with the basic thesis of the report.
  • The book's central thesis is that propaganda influences the masses in important ways.
  • New evidence supports his thesis .
  • She wrote her thesis on Renaissance Nativity scenes.

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How to Write a Thesis Statement (Full Guide + 60 Examples)

Crafting the perfect thesis statement is an art form that sets the foundation for your entire paper.

Here is how to write a thesis statement:

Write a thesis statement by clearly stating your topic, expressing your position, and providing key points. For example: “Social media impacts teens by influencing self-esteem, enabling cyberbullying, and shaping social interactions.” Be specific, concise, and arguable.

This ultimate guide will break down everything you need to know about how to write a thesis statement, plus 60 examples.

What Is a Thesis Statement?

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Table of Contents

A thesis statement is a concise summary of the main point or claim of an essay, research paper, or other piece of academic writing.

It presents the topic of your paper and your position on the topic, ideally in a single sentence.

Think of it as the roadmap to your paper—it guides your readers through your arguments and provides a clear direction.

Key Elements of a Thesis Statement

  • Clarity: Your thesis should be clear and specific.
  • Position: It should convey your stance on the topic.
  • Argument: The statement should make a claim that others might dispute.

Types of Thesis Statements

There are various types of thesis statements depending on the kind of paper you’re writing.

Here are the main ones:

  • Standard Method – This is the classic thesis statement used in many academic essays. It provides a straightforward approach, clearly stating the main argument or claim and outlining the supporting points.
  • Research Paper – Designed for research papers, this type involves extensive research and evidence. It presents a hypothesis or a central argument based on your research findings.
  • Informative Essay – Used for essays that aim to inform or explain a topic. It provides a clear summary of what the reader will learn.
  • Persuasive Essay – For essays meant to persuade or convince the reader of a particular point of view. It clearly states your position and outlines your main arguments.
  • Compare and Contrast Essay – Used when comparing two or more subjects. It highlights the similarities and differences between the subjects and presents a clear argument based on these comparisons.
  • Analytical Essay – Breaks down an issue or idea into its component parts, evaluates the issue or idea, and presents this breakdown and evaluation to the audience.
  • Argumentative Essay – Makes a claim about a topic and justifies this claim with specific evidence. It’s similar to the persuasive essay but usually requires more evidence and a more formal tone.
  • Expository Essay – Explains or describes a topic in a straightforward, logical manner. It provides a balanced analysis of a subject based on facts without opinions.
  • Narrative Essay – Tells a story or relates an event. The thesis statement for a narrative essay usually highlights the main point or lesson of the story.
  • Cause and Effect Essay – Explores the causes of a particular event or situation and its effects. It provides a clear argument about the cause and effect relationship.

How to Write a Thesis Statement (Standard Method)

Writing a standard thesis statement involves a few straightforward steps.

Here’s a detailed guide:

  • Identify Your Topic: What is your essay about?
  • Take a Stance: What is your position on the topic?
  • Outline Your Main Points: What are the key arguments that support your stance?
  • Combine All Elements: Formulate a single, coherent sentence that encompasses all the above points.
  • “Social media has a significant impact on teenagers because it influences their self-esteem, provides a platform for cyberbullying, and shapes their social interactions.”
  • “Climate change is a pressing issue that requires immediate action because it threatens global ecosystems, endangers human health, and disrupts economies.”
  • “The rise of remote work is transforming the modern workplace by increasing flexibility, reducing overhead costs, and enhancing work-life balance.”
  • “School uniforms should be mandatory in public schools as they promote equality, reduce bullying, and simplify the morning routine.”
  • “Digital literacy is essential in today’s world because it improves communication, enhances job prospects, and enables informed decision-making.”

How to Write a Thesis Statement for a Research Paper

Research papers require a more detailed and evidence-based thesis.

Here’s how to craft one:

  • Start with a Research Question: What are you trying to find out?
  • Conduct Preliminary Research: Gather evidence and sources.
  • Formulate a Hypothesis: Based on your research, what do you think will happen?
  • Refine Your Thesis: Make it specific and arguable.
  • “The implementation of renewable energy sources can significantly reduce carbon emissions in urban areas, as evidenced by case studies in cities like Copenhagen and Vancouver.”
  • “Genetically modified crops have the potential to improve food security, but their impact on biodiversity and human health requires further investigation.”
  • “The use of artificial intelligence in healthcare can improve diagnostic accuracy and patient outcomes, but ethical concerns about data privacy and algorithmic bias must be addressed.”
  • “Urban green spaces contribute to mental well-being and community cohesion, as demonstrated by longitudinal studies in various metropolitan areas.”
  • “Microplastic pollution in oceans poses a severe threat to marine life and human health, highlighting the need for stricter waste management policies.”

How to Write a Thesis Statement for an Essay

You’ll write thesis statements a little differently for different kinds of essays.

Informative Essay

  • Choose Your Topic: What are you informing your readers about?
  • Outline Key Points: What are the main pieces of information?
  • Draft Your Statement: Clearly state the purpose and main points.
  • “The process of photosynthesis is essential for plant life as it converts light energy into chemical energy, produces oxygen, and is the basis for the food chain.”
  • “The human digestive system is a complex series of organs and glands that process food, absorb nutrients, and eliminate waste.”
  • “The Industrial Revolution was a period of major technological advancement and social change that reshaped the economies and societies of Europe and North America.”
  • “The history of the internet from its early development in the 1960s to its current role in global communication and commerce is a fascinating journey of innovation and transformation.”
  • “The impact of climate change on Arctic ecosystems is profound, affecting wildlife, indigenous communities, and global weather patterns.”

Persuasive Essay

  • Identify Your Position: What are you trying to convince your reader of?
  • Gather Supporting Evidence: What evidence backs up your position?
  • Combine Elements: Make a clear, arguable statement.
  • “Implementing a four-day workweek can improve productivity and employee well-being, as supported by studies from Iceland and Japan.”
  • “The death penalty should be abolished as it is inhumane, does not deter crime, and risks executing innocent people.”
  • “Public transportation should be made free to reduce traffic congestion, decrease pollution, and promote social equity.”
  • “Recycling should be mandatory to conserve natural resources, reduce landfill waste, and protect the environment.”
  • “Vaccination should be mandatory to protect public health and prevent the spread of contagious diseases.”

Compare and Contrast Essay

  • Choose Subjects to Compare: What are the two (or more) subjects?
  • Determine the Basis of Comparison: What specific aspects are you comparing?
  • Draft the Thesis: Clearly state the subjects and the comparison.
  • “While both solar and wind energy are renewable sources, solar energy is more versatile and can be used in a wider variety of environments.”
  • “Although both capitalism and socialism aim to improve economic welfare, capitalism emphasizes individual freedom while socialism focuses on collective equality.”
  • “Traditional classroom education and online learning each offer unique benefits, but online learning provides greater flexibility and access to resources.”
  • “The novels ‘1984’ by George Orwell and ‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley both depict dystopian societies, but ‘1984’ focuses on totalitarianism while ‘Brave New World’ explores the dangers of technological control.”
  • “While iOS and Android operating systems offer similar functionality, iOS provides a more streamlined user experience, whereas Android offers greater customization options.”

How to Write a Thesis Statement for an Analytical Essay

An analytical essay breaks down an issue or idea into its component parts, evaluates the issue or idea, and presents this breakdown and evaluation to the audience.

  • Choose Your Topic: What will you analyze?
  • Identify Key Components: What are the main parts of your analysis?
  • Formulate Your Thesis: Combine the components into a coherent statement.
  • “Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ explores themes of madness and revenge through the complex characterization of Hamlet and his interactions with other characters.”
  • “The economic policies of the New Deal addressed the Great Depression by implementing financial reforms, creating job opportunities, and providing social welfare programs.”
  • “The symbolism in ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald reflects the moral decay and social stratification of the Jazz Age.”
  • “The narrative structure of ‘Inception’ uses nonlinear storytelling to explore the complexities of dreams and reality.”
  • “The use of color in Wes Anderson’s films enhances the whimsical and nostalgic tone of his storytelling.”

How to Write a Thesis Statement for an Argumentative Essay

An argumentative essay makes a claim about a topic and justifies this claim with specific evidence.

It’s similar to the persuasive essay but usually requires more evidence and a more formal tone.

  • Choose Your Topic: What are you arguing about?
  • Gather Evidence: What evidence supports your claim?
  • Formulate Your Thesis: Make a clear, evidence-based statement.
  • “Climate change is primarily driven by human activities, such as deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels, which increase greenhouse gas emissions.”
  • “The benefits of universal healthcare outweigh the costs, as it ensures equal access to medical services, reduces overall healthcare expenses, and improves public health.”
  • “The death penalty should be abolished because it violates human rights, is not a deterrent to crime, and risks the execution of innocent people.”
  • “Animal testing for cosmetics should be banned as it is unethical, unnecessary, and alternatives are available.”
  • “Net neutrality should be maintained to ensure a free and open internet, preventing service providers from prioritizing or blocking content.”

How to Write a Thesis Statement for an Expository Essay

An expository essay explains or describes a topic in a straightforward, logical manner.

It provides a balanced analysis of a subject based on facts without opinions.

  • Choose Your Topic: What are you explaining or describing?
  • Outline Key Points: What are the main facts or components?
  • Formulate Your Thesis: Combine the elements into a clear statement.
  • “The water cycle consists of evaporation, condensation, and precipitation, which are essential for maintaining the earth’s water balance.”
  • “The human respiratory system is responsible for taking in oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide through a series of organs, including the lungs, trachea, and diaphragm.”
  • “Photosynthesis in plants involves the absorption of light energy by chlorophyll, which converts carbon dioxide and water into glucose and oxygen.”
  • “The structure of DNA is a double helix composed of nucleotides, which are the building blocks of genetic information.”
  • “The process of mitosis ensures that cells divide correctly, allowing for growth, repair, and reproduction in living organisms.”

How to Write a Thesis Statement for a Narrative Essay

A narrative essay tells a story or relates an event.

The thesis statement for a narrative essay usually highlights the main point or lesson of the story.

  • Identify the Main Point: What is the main lesson or theme of your story?
  • Outline Key Events: What are the key events that support this point?
  • Formulate Your Thesis: Combine the main point and events into a coherent statement.
  • “Overcoming my fear of public speaking in high school taught me the value of confidence and perseverance.”
  • “My summer volunteering at a wildlife rescue center showed me the importance of compassion and teamwork.”
  • “A family road trip across the country provided me with unforgettable memories and a deeper appreciation for our diverse landscapes.”
  • “Moving to a new city for college challenged me to adapt to new environments and build independence.”
  • “A childhood friendship that ended in betrayal taught me the importance of trust and resilience.”

How to Write a Thesis Statement for a Cause and Effect Essay

A cause and effect essay explores the causes of a particular event or situation and its effects.

It provides a clear argument about the cause and effect relationship.

  • Identify the Event or Situation: What are you analyzing?
  • Determine the Causes: What are the reasons behind this event or situation?
  • Identify the Effects: What are the consequences?
  • Formulate Your Thesis: Combine the causes and effects into a coherent statement.
  • “The rise in global temperatures is primarily caused by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, and leads to severe weather patterns and rising sea levels.”
  • “The introduction of invasive species in an ecosystem disrupts the balance and leads to the decline of native species.”
  • “Economic recession is caused by a combination of factors, including high unemployment rates and declining consumer confidence, and results in reduced business investments and government spending.”
  • “Prolonged exposure to screen time can cause digital eye strain and sleep disturbances, affecting overall health and productivity.”
  • “Deforestation contributes to soil erosion and loss of biodiversity, leading to the degradation of ecosystems and reduced agricultural productivity.”

How to Write a Good Thesis Statement

Writing a good thesis statement is all about clarity and specificity.

Here’s a formula to help you:

  • State the Topic: What are you writing about?
  • Express Your Opinion: What do you think about the topic?
  • Provide a Reason: Why do you think this way?
  • “Remote work is beneficial because it offers flexibility, reduces commuting time, and increases job satisfaction.”
  • “Regular exercise is essential for maintaining physical and mental health as it boosts energy levels, improves mood, and reduces the risk of chronic diseases.”
  • “Reading fiction enhances empathy by allowing readers to experience different perspectives and emotions.”
  • “A plant-based diet is advantageous for both personal health and environmental sustainability.”
  • “Learning a second language enhances cognitive abilities and opens up cultural and professional opportunities.”

Check out this video about how to write a strong thesis statement:

How to Write a Thesis Statement (Formula + Template)

Use this simple formula to craft your thesis statement:

[Main Topic] + [Your Opinion/Position] + [Reason/Key Points]

Template: “__________ (main topic) has __________ (your opinion) because __________ (reason/key points).”

  • “Electric cars are the future of transportation because they reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower fuel costs, and require less maintenance.”
  • “Social media platforms should implement stricter privacy controls because user data is vulnerable to breaches, exploitation, and misuse.”
  • “Higher education should be more affordable to ensure equal access and promote social mobility.”
  • “Television news often fails to provide balanced coverage, leading to public misinformation.”
  • “Volunteer work should be encouraged in schools to foster community engagement and personal development.”

Thesis Statement Tips

Writing a strong thesis statement is crucial for a successful essay. Here are some tips to help you craft a killer thesis statement:

  • Be Specific: Avoid vague language. Make sure your thesis statement clearly defines your argument or main point.
  • Be Concise: Keep it to one or two sentences. Your thesis statement should be brief and to the point.
  • Make It Arguable: Ensure that your thesis statement presents a claim or argument that can be disputed.
  • Place It Appropriately: Typically, your thesis statement should be placed at the end of your introduction paragraph.
  • Revise and Refine: Don’t be afraid to revise your thesis statement as you write and refine your essay. It should evolve as your ideas develop.

Common Thesis Statement Errors

Avoid these common errors when crafting your thesis statement:

  • Too Broad: A thesis statement that is too broad makes it difficult to focus your essay. Narrow it down to a specific point.
  • Too Vague: Avoid vague language that lacks specificity. Be clear about what you’re arguing.
  • Lacks an Argument: Ensure that your thesis statement makes a clear argument or claim. Avoid statements that are purely factual or descriptive.
  • Too Complex: A thesis statement should be straightforward and easy to understand. Avoid overly complex sentences.
  • Off-Topic: Make sure your thesis statement is directly related to the topic of your essay. Stay on track.

How Do You Start a Thesis Statement?

Starting a thesis statement involves using clear and concise language that sets the stage for your argument.

Here are some exact words and phrases to begin with:

  • “The purpose of this paper is to…”
  • “This essay will argue that…”
  • “In this essay, I will demonstrate that…”
  • “The central idea of this paper is…”
  • “This research aims to prove that…”
  • “This study focuses on…”
  • “This analysis will show that…”
  • “The main argument presented in this paper is…”
  • “The goal of this essay is to…”
  • “Through this research, it will be shown that…”

How Long Should a Thesis Statement Be?

A thesis statement should be clear and concise, typically one to two sentences long.

Aim for 20 to 30 words, ensuring it includes the main topic, your position, and the key points that will be covered in your paper.

This provides a focused and precise summary of your argument, making it easier for readers to understand the main direction of your essay or research paper.

While brevity is essential, it’s also crucial to provide enough detail to convey the scope of your argument.

Avoid overly complex sentences that can confuse readers. Instead, strive for a balance between clarity and comprehensiveness, ensuring your thesis statement is straightforward and informative.

Summary Table of Thesis Statement Writing

Type of Thesis StatementExample
Standard Method“Social media influences teenagers’ self-esteem and social interactions.”
Research Paper“Renewable energy reduces urban carbon emissions, shown by case studies.”
Informative Essay“Photosynthesis converts light energy into chemical energy for plants.”
Persuasive Essay“A four-day workweek improves productivity and well-being.”
Compare and Contrast Essay“Solar energy is more versatile than wind energy.”
Analytical Essay“The symbolism in ‘The Great Gatsby’ reflects social stratification.”
Argumentative Essay“Climate change is driven by human activities, requiring urgent action.”
Expository Essay“The water cycle is essential for maintaining earth’s water balance.”
Narrative Essay“Overcoming my fear of public speaking taught me confidence.”
Cause and Effect Essay“Deforestation leads to soil erosion and loss of biodiversity.”

Final Thoughts: How to Write a Thesis Statement

Writing a strong thesis statement is the cornerstone of a successful paper.

It guides your writing and helps your readers understand your argument. Remember to be clear, specific, and concise. With practice, you’ll master the art of crafting killer thesis statements.

Read This Next:

  • How to Write a Hypothesis [31 Tips + Examples]
  • How to Write a Topic Sentence (30+ Tips & Examples)
  • How to Write a Paragraph [Ultimate Guide + Examples] What Is A Universal Statement In Writing? (Explained) 21 Best Ways To Write Essays When You Are Stuck [Examples]

How To Write A Strong Thesis Statement

A thesis statement is the most important part of an essay. It’s the roadmap, telling the reader what they can expect to read in the rest of paper, setting the tone for the writing, and generally providing a sense of the main idea.

Because it is so important, writing a good thesis statement can be tricky.

Before we get into the specifics, let’s review the basics: what thesis statement means. Thesis is a fancy word for “the subject of an essay” or “a position in a debate.” And a statement , simply, is a sentence (or a couple of sentences).

Taken together, a thesis statement explains your subject or position in a sentence (or a couple of sentences). Depending on the kind of essay you’re writing, you’ll need to make sure that your thesis statement states your subject or position clearly.

While the phrase thesis statement can sound intimidating, the basic goal is to clearly state your topic or your argument . Easy peasy!

The basic rules for writing a thesis statement are:

  • State the topic or present your argument.
  • Summarize the main idea of each of your details and/or body paragraphs.
  • Keep your statement to one to two sentences.

Now comes the good stuff: the breakdown of how to write a good thesis statement for an informational essay and then for an argumentative essay (Yes, there are different types of thesis statements: check them all out here ). While the approach is similar for each, they require slightly different statements.

Informational essay thesis statements

The objective of an informational essay is to inform your audience about a specific topic. Sometimes, your essay will be in response to a specific question. Other times, you will be given a subject to write about more generally.

In an informational essay , you are not arguing for one side of an argument, you are just providing information.

Essays that are responding to a question

Often, you will be provided with a question to respond to in informational essay form. For example:

  • Who is your hero and why?
  • How do scientists research the effects of zero gravity on plants?
  • What are the three branches of government, and what do each of them do?

If you are given a question or prompt, use it as a starting point for your thesis statement. Remember, the goal of a thesis statement in an informational essay is to state your topic.

You can use some of the same vocabulary and structure from the questions to create a thesis statement. Drop the question words (like who , what , when , where , and why ). Then, use the keywords in the question or prompt to start your thesis statement. Be sure to include because if the question asks “why?”

Check out the following example using the first prompt:

Original question : Who is your hero and why? Drop the question words : Who is your hero and why? Answer the question using the key words : My hero is Amelia Earhart, because she was very brave, did things many women of her time did not do, and was a hard worker.

If we were to write the rest of the essay based on this thesis statement, the outline would look something like this:

Introduction : My hero is Amelia Earhart, because she was very brave, did things many women of her time did not do, and was a hard worker. Body paragraph 1 : Details about how Amelia Earhart was brave Body paragraph 2 : Details about how she did things many women of her time did not do Body paragraph 3 : Details about how she was a hard worker Conclusion:  It is clear that Amelia Earhart was a brave woman who accomplished many things that women of her time did not do, and always worked hard. These are the reasons why she is my hero.

These general guidelines work for other thesis statements, with some minor differences.

Essays that are responding to a statement or given subject

If you aren’t given a specific question to respond to, it can be a little more difficult to decide on a thesis statement. However, there are some tricks you can use to make it easier.

Some examples of prompts that are not questions are:

  • Write about your favorite sports team.
  • Describe how a motor works.
  • Pick a famous scientist and write about their life.
  • Compare and contrast the themes of a poem and a short story.

For these, we recommend using one of the following sentence starters to write your thesis with:

  • In this essay, I will …
  • [Subject] is interesting/relevant/my favorite because …
  • Through my research, I learned that …

As an example of how to use these sentence starters, we’ve put together some examples using the first prompt: Write about your favorite sports team.

  • In this essay, I will describe the history and cultural importance of the Pittsburgh Steelers, my favorite sports team.
  • The Pittsburgh Steelers are my favorite because they have had a lasting impact on the history and culture of the city.
  • Through my research, I learned that the Pittsburgh Steelers have had a lot of influence on the history and culture of Pittsburgh.

Any one of these thesis statements (or all three!) could be used for an informational essay about the Pittsburgh Steelers football team and their impact on the history and culture of Pittsburgh.

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Argumentative essay thesis statements

The basic building blocks of an informational essay also apply when it comes to an argumentative essay . However, an argumentative essay requires that you take a position on an issue or prompt.

You then have to attempt to persuade your reader that your argument is the best. That means that your argumentative thesis statement needs to do two things:

  • State your position on the issue.
  • Summarize the evidence you will be using to defend your position.

Some examples of argumentative essay prompts are:

  • Should high school students be required to do volunteer work? Why or why not?
  • What is the best way to cook a turkey?
  • Some argue that video games are bad for society. Do you agree? Why or why not?

In order to create a good thesis statement for an argumentative essay, you have to be as specific as possible about your position and your evidence. Let’s take a look at the first prompt as an example:

Prompt 1: Should high school students be required to do volunteer work? Why or why not? Bad thesis statement: No, I don’t think high school students should be required to do volunteer work because it’s boring. Good thesis statement: I think high school students should not be required to do volunteer work because it takes time away from their studies, provides more barriers to graduation, and does not encourage meaningful volunteer work.

Let’s look at a couple other examples:

Prompt 2: What is the best way to cook a turkey? Bad thesis statement:  The best way to cook a turkey is the way my grandma does it. Good thesis statement:  The best way to cook a turkey is using my grandmother’s recipe: brining the turkey beforehand, using a dry rub, and cooking at a low temperature.

Prompt 3: Some argue that video games are bad for society. Do you agree? Why or why not? Bad thesis   statement:  Video games aren’t bad for society, because they’re super fun. Good thesis statement:  Video games aren’t bad for society because they encourage cooperation, teach problem-solving skills, and provide hours of cheap entertainment.

Do you notice the difference between the good thesis statements and the bad thesis statements? The bad statements are general, not specific. They also use very casual language. The good statements clearly lay out exactly what aspects of the argument your essay will focus on, in a professional manner.

By the way, this same principle can also be applied to informational essay thesis statements. Take a look at this example for an idea:

Prompt:  What are the three branches of government, and what do each of them do? Bad thesis statement:  There are many branches of government that do many different things. Good thesis statement:  Each of the three branches of government—the executive, the legislative, and the judicial—have different primary responsibilities. However, these roles frequently overlap.

In addition to being more specific than the bad thesis statement, the good thesis statement here is an example of how sometimes your thesis statement may require two sentences.

Final thoughts

A thesis statement is the foundation of your essay. However, sometimes as you’re writing, you find that you’ve deviated from your original statement. Once you’ve finished writing your essay, go back and read your thesis statement. Ask yourself:

  • Does my thesis statement state the topic and/or my position?
  • Does my thesis statement refer to the evidence or details I refer to in my essay?
  • Is my thesis statement clear and easy to understand?

Don’t hesitate to edit your thesis statement if it doesn’t meet all three of these criteria. If it does, great! You’ve crafted a solid thesis statement that effectively guides the reader through your work. Now on to the rest of the essay!

use word thesis in a sentence

Ways To Say

Synonym of the day

The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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

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How to write a thesis statement + examples

Thesis statement

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 .

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

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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.

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use word thesis in a sentence

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?
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The Thesis Sentence

The thesis sentence is arguably the most important sentence in an academic paper. Without a good, clear thesis that presents an intriguing arguable point, a paper risks becoming unfocused, aimless, not worth the reader's time.

The Challenge of the Thesis Sentence

Because the thesis sentence is the most important sentence of a paper, it is also the most difficult to write. Readers expect a great deal of a thesis sentence: they want it to powerfully and clearly indicate what the writer is going to say, why she is going to say it, and even how it is that she is going to go about getting it said. In other words, the job of the thesis sentence is to organize, predict, control, and define the paper's argument.

In many cases, a thesis sentence will not only present the paper's argument, it will also point to and direct the course that the argument is going to take. In other words, it may also include an "essay map" - i.e., phrases or clauses that map out for the reader (and the writer) the argument that is to come. In some cases, then, the thesis sentence not only promises an argument, it promises the structure of that argument as well.

The promises that a thesis sentence makes to a reader are important ones and must be kept. It's helpful sometimes to explain the thesis as a kind of contract between reader and writer: if this contract is broken, the reader will feel frustrated and betrayed. Accordingly, the writer must be very careful in the development of the thesis.

Working on the Thesis Sentence

Chances are if you've had trouble following or deciphering the argument of a paper, there's a problem with the thesis. If a tutor's first response to a paper is that he doesn't know what the paper is about, then the thesis sentence is either absent from the paper, or it's hiding. The first thing you might wish to do is to ask the writer what his thesis is. He may point to a particular sentence that he thinks is his thesis, giving you a very good place to start.

Let's say that you've read a paper in which you've encountered this thesis:

Although heterosexuality has long been regarded as the only natural expression of sexuality, this view has been recently and strongly challenged by the gay rights movement.

What's wrong with this sentence? Many things, the most troublesome of which is that it argues nothing. Who is going to deny that the heteronormative view has been challenged by the gay rights movement? At this point, you need to ask the writer some questions. In what specific ways has the gay rights movement challenged heterosexuality? Do these ways seem reasonable to the writer? Why or why not? What argument does he intend to make about this topic? Why does he want to make it? To whom does he want to make it?

After giving the writer some time to think about and talk about these questions, you'll probably want to bring up another problem that is certain to arise out of a thesis like this one: the matter of structure. Any paper that follows a thesis like this one is likely to ramble. How can the reader figure out what all the supporting paragraphs are doing when the argument itself is so ill-defined? You'll want to show the writer that a strong thesis suggests - even helps to create - strong topic sentences. (More on this when we consider matters of structure, below).

But before we move on to other matters, let's consider the problem of this thesis from another angle: its style. We can see without difficulty that the sentence presents us with at least two stylistic problems: 1) this thesis, which should be the most powerful sentence of the paper, employs the passive voice, and 2) the introductory clause functions as a dangling modifier (who regards heterosexuality as the only natural way to express sexuality?).

Both stylistic problems point to something at work in the sentence: the writer obliterates the actors - heterosexuals and homosexuals alike - by using the dangling modifier and the passive voice. Why does he do that? Is he avoiding naming the actors in these sentences because he's not comfortable with the positions they take? Is he unable to declare himself because he feels paralyzed by the sense that he must write a paper that is politically correct? Or does he obliterate the actors with the passive voice because he himself wishes to remain passive on this topic?

These are questions to pose to the writer, though they must be posed gently. In fact, you might gently pose these questions via a discussion of style. For instance, you might also suggest that the writer rewrite the sentence in the active voice:

Although our society has long regarded heterosexuality as the only natural expression of sexuality, members of the gay rights movement have challenged this view strongly.

This active construction helps us to see clearly what's missing:

Although our society has long regarded heterosexuality as the only natural expression of sexuality, members of the gay rights movement have challenged this view strongly, arguing XYZ.

This more active construction also makes it clear that merely enumerating the points the author wants to make is not the same thing as creating an argument. The writer should now be able to see that he needs to go one step further - he needs to reveal his own position on the gay rights movement. The rest of the paper will develop this position.

In short, there are many ways to begin work on a writer's thesis sentences. Almost all of them will lead you to other matters important to the paper's success: its structure, its language, its style. Try to make any conversation you have about thesis sentences point to other problems with the writing. Not only is this strategy efficient, but it also encourages a writer to see how important a thesis is to the overall success of his essay.

Talking Your Way to a Workable Thesis

For the sake of making (we hope) a somewhat humorous illustration of the matter at hand, we offer the following scenario, which shows how tutor and tutee can talk their way to a workable thesis - and, indeed, to a good essay. So sit back, and enjoy this "break" in your training.

Imagine (though it is indeed quite a stretch) that a freshman composition teacher has the audacity to assign a paper on cats (the animals, not the play). The students may write any kind of paper they like - narration, description, compare/contrast, etc. - as long as their essays contain a thesis (that is, that they argue some point) concerning cats. A writer comes to you for help in developing her thesis. You read the assignment, and then you tell the writer that she first must choose the kind of paper she would like to do. She decides to do a narrative because she thinks she has more freedom in the narrative form. Then you ask her what she has to say about cats. "I don't like them," is her reply.

"OK," you say, "that's a start. Why don't you like them?" The writer has lots of reasons: they smell, they're aloof, they shed, they keep you up nights when they're in heat, they're very middle class, they steal food off of the table, they don't get along with dogs (the writer loves dogs), and on, and on. After brainstorming for a while, you tell the writer to choose a few points on which she'd like to focus - preferably those points that she feels strongly about or those which seem unusual. She picks three: cats smell, they steal food, and they are middle class. She offers her thesis: "I don't like cats because they are smelly, thieving, and middle class."

"O.K.," you say, "It's not a very sophisticated thesis but we can use it for now. After all, it defines your stance, it controls your subject, it organizes your argument, and it predicts your strategy - all the things that a thesis ought to do. Now let's consider how to develop the thesis, point by point."

You begin to ask questions about cats and their smell. "What do they smell like?" you say. The writer thinks awhile, and then says, "They smell like dirty gym shorts, like old hamburgers, like my eighth-grade math teacher's breath." The writer laughs, particularly fond of the final simile. Then she adds, "My boyfriend has a cat. A Tom. When he moved into his first apartment, that cat sprayed all over the place, you know, marking his territory. The place stunk so bad that I couldn't even go there for a week. Can you imagine? Your boyfriend gets his first apartment, and you can't even go in the place for a week?"

The writer has sparked your imagination; you think that she can spark her teacher's imagination as well. "Why don't you do your narrative about your boyfriend's cat? You could tell the story - or you could make up a story - about going over there for dinner, hoping for a romantic evening, and being put off by the cat." The writer likes this idea and goes off to write her draft. She returns with the following story about her boyfriend and his cat.

She was hoping for a romantic dinner; he was making her favorite meal. She could smell the T-bone and the apple pie before she even got to his door. But when she opened the door, her appetite was obliterated: the smell of cat spray smelled worse than her eighth-grade math teacher's breath. Of course, because she remained hopeful for a romantic evening, she put on her best face, tried not to grimace, and gave her boyfriend the flowers she'd picked up on the way. They chat; everything is going fine; he goes to the kitchen to check on dinner; she hears his shriek. The cat has stolen all of the food! Upon searching, they find the cat under the sofa, not only with their dinner, but with the writer's wallet, her favorite picture of her mom torn in half, her new leather jacket now full of cat hairs. This cat not only stinks, he's a thief as well. Still, the evening need not be a total waste. They order pizza, have some wine. She and her man talk; their moods improve, and she decides that it might be a nice time to kiss. She pulls the old yawn trick to get her arm around him, and just as she's ready to kiss him the cat jumps into his lap. "Oh, Pookie, Pookie, Pookie," her boyfriend says, giving himself over to the purring cat. "Damn lap cat," the writer says to herself, and leaves it at that. She has written a paper illustrating that cats are smelly, thieving, and middle class. She has fulfilled her thesis.

Now, you like this paper. It's got a great voice, and it's got humor. You feel, however, that the writer should refine the thesis. It has served the writer well in helping her to organize, control, predict, and define her essay; however, she needs now to consider how to choose words and a tone which will hook the reader and reel him in. You explain to the writer that her thesis can be humorous, that she can feel free to be extreme, because a funny, exaggerated thesis would suit this funny, exaggerated paper.

After some doodling and some dialogue, the writer comes up with the following thesis: "All cats should be exterminated because they are the stinking, kleptomaniacal darlings of the bourgeoisie." You laugh; you like it. Moreover, the thesis has given the writer an ending for her essay: she exterminates the cat in her boyfriend's microwave, convinces him to get a goldfish instead, and the two of them live happily ever after. The writer is happy. The tutor is happy. The paper works.

While you will likely not encounter a "cat" assignment at Dartmouth, this sort of experience with writing a thesis is a common one. Even when papers are more sophisticated than this one - even when the subject is Hitler's rise to power, or Freud's treatment of taboo - writers will often write a working thesis, one that guides them through the writing process. Then they will return to the thesis, sometimes several times before their paper is finished, revising it to better fit their paper's increasingly refined argument and tone.

Polishing the Thesis Sentence

Look at the sentence's structure. Is the main idea of the paper placed appropriately in the main clause? If there are parallel points made in the paper, does the thesis sentence signal this to the reader via some parallel structure? If the paper makes an interesting but necessary aside, is that aside predicted - perhaps in a parenthetical element? Remember: the structure of the thesis sentence also signals much to the reader about the structure of the argument. Be sure that the thesis reflects, reliably, what the paper itself is going to say.

As to the style of the sentence: hold the thesis sentence to the highest stylistic standards. Help a writer to make sure that it is as clear and concise as it can be, and that its language and phrasing reflect confidence, eloquence, and grace.

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Developing Strong Thesis Statements

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The thesis statement or main claim must be debatable

An argumentative or persuasive piece of writing must begin with a debatable thesis or claim. In other words, the thesis must be something that people could reasonably have differing opinions on. If your thesis is something that is generally agreed upon or accepted as fact then there is no reason to try to persuade people.

Example of a non-debatable thesis statement:

This thesis statement is not debatable. First, the word pollution implies that something is bad or negative in some way. Furthermore, all studies agree that pollution is a problem; they simply disagree on the impact it will have or the scope of the problem. No one could reasonably argue that pollution is unambiguously good.

Example of a debatable thesis statement:

This is an example of a debatable thesis because reasonable people could disagree with it. Some people might think that this is how we should spend the nation's money. Others might feel that we should be spending more money on education. Still others could argue that corporations, not the government, should be paying to limit pollution.

Another example of a debatable thesis statement:

In this example there is also room for disagreement between rational individuals. Some citizens might think focusing on recycling programs rather than private automobiles is the most effective strategy.

The thesis needs to be narrow

Although the scope of your paper might seem overwhelming at the start, generally the narrower the thesis the more effective your argument will be. Your thesis or claim must be supported by evidence. The broader your claim is, the more evidence you will need to convince readers that your position is right.

Example of a thesis that is too broad:

There are several reasons this statement is too broad to argue. First, what is included in the category "drugs"? Is the author talking about illegal drug use, recreational drug use (which might include alcohol and cigarettes), or all uses of medication in general? Second, in what ways are drugs detrimental? Is drug use causing deaths (and is the author equating deaths from overdoses and deaths from drug related violence)? Is drug use changing the moral climate or causing the economy to decline? Finally, what does the author mean by "society"? Is the author referring only to America or to the global population? Does the author make any distinction between the effects on children and adults? There are just too many questions that the claim leaves open. The author could not cover all of the topics listed above, yet the generality of the claim leaves all of these possibilities open to debate.

Example of a narrow or focused thesis:

In this example the topic of drugs has been narrowed down to illegal drugs and the detriment has been narrowed down to gang violence. This is a much more manageable topic.

We could narrow each debatable thesis from the previous examples in the following way:

Narrowed debatable thesis 1:

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just the amount of money used but also how the money could actually help to control pollution.

Narrowed debatable thesis 2:

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just what the focus of a national anti-pollution campaign should be but also why this is the appropriate focus.

Qualifiers such as " typically ," " generally ," " usually ," or " on average " also help to limit the scope of your claim by allowing for the almost inevitable exception to the rule.

Types of claims

Claims typically fall into one of four categories. Thinking about how you want to approach your topic, or, in other words, what type of claim you want to make, is one way to focus your thesis on one particular aspect of your broader topic.

Claims of fact or definition: These claims argue about what the definition of something is or whether something is a settled fact. Example:

Claims of cause and effect: These claims argue that one person, thing, or event caused another thing or event to occur. Example:

Claims about value: These are claims made of what something is worth, whether we value it or not, how we would rate or categorize something. Example:

Claims about solutions or policies: These are claims that argue for or against a certain solution or policy approach to a problem. Example:

Which type of claim is right for your argument? Which type of thesis or claim you use for your argument will depend on your position and knowledge of the topic, your audience, and the context of your paper. You might want to think about where you imagine your audience to be on this topic and pinpoint where you think the biggest difference in viewpoints might be. Even if you start with one type of claim you probably will be using several within the paper. Regardless of the type of claim you choose to utilize it is key to identify the controversy or debate you are addressing and to define your position early on in the paper.

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How to write a thesis statement (with examples)

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What exactly is a thesis statement?

What if I told you that one sentence in your essay or thesis could be the difference between a First and a Fail?

It may sound absurd – perhaps even unfair – but it’s true. I refer, of course, to the thesis statement. A thesis statement is your entire essay if it were condensed into a single sentence. If your essay title is a question, then your thesis statement is the one-sentence answer.

It tends to arrive near the end of the first paragraph of a thesis.

Let’s take a look at an example from a Master of Education degree thesis:

Thesis title What constitutes ‘good writing’ for GCSE students of English?

Thesis statement The examination rubric by which GCSE English writing performance is assessed, influenced by a long history of variable ‘tastes’, may now be said to describe ‘good writing’ as that which is grammatically accurate, sophisticated, and suited to purpose, genre and audience.

(The thesis statement would be located in paragraph 1, after a brief overview of the subject).

Why is a thesis statement important?

As I mentioned, the way your thesis statement is written can be the difference between a First and a Fail. But how?

To answer that, let’s think about what ‘thesis’ means. From the Greek thésis, meaning ‘proposition’, your thesis is your main argument.

It is the position you have to support and defend for the remainder of your essay. Without something clear to defend, the fortress you build will crumble and the army you deploy will run about like headless chickens.

In essence: without a clear thesis statement, you don’t have an essay.

“Establishing a clear thesis at the start of your essay is crucial for both you and your examiner. For your examiner, it’s evidence that you have answered the question. For you, it can function as an essay plan.”

For both of you, it’s a litmus test for the quality of the argument: if you can’t fit your essay’s arguments into a sentence, they are too diffuse; and if you can’t stick to your thesis statement’s focus throughout your essay, you are not focused.

A precisely focused and well-grounded essay is more worthy of a First Class grade than one with a scattergun approach.

What should a thesis statement include?

What your thesis statement includes is determined by three things:

1. The subject and topic of the essay. 2. The purpose of the essay. 3. The length of the essay.

Let’s examine each of those in more detail to see how they can help us refine our thesis statement.

The subject and topic of the essay

Look at this real-life title from an undergraduate Sports Science essay:

What are the key differences between training recommendations for maximising muscular strength and maximising muscular hypertrophy?

The first task is, of course, to determine the subject of the essay.

In this example, that would be ‘training recommendations for maximising muscular strength and training recommendations for maximising muscular hypertrophy’.

Knowing that means that I know I will need to deploy my knowledge about those two similar but distinct areas. It also means that I should be using the specialist terminology relevant to the field, such as load, isotonic and volume.

Next, I need to determine the topic.

Here it would be ‘the key differences’ between training recommendations for those two goals. That phrase ‘key differences’ is likely to be at the heart of my thesis statement, to show that I’m on track.

With that in mind, my thesis statement might look like this:

Whilst both training outcomes require resistance training centred upon isotonic contractions, it is likely that the absolute load requirements may need to be higher for strength purposes, whilst the total training volume may need to be higher for hypertrophy purposes.

It is by no means a complete essay, but it states clearly what the ‘short answer’ to the question is, whilst paving the way for the ‘long answer’ to follow.

But what if the essay isn’t just looking for the facts organised into a specific order? What if the essay is asking for analysis? Or an argument?

The purpose of the essay

Different essay purposes require different thesis statements. Fortunately, there are only three main essay purposes, and they’re pretty easy to recognise:

1. The expository essay: This is an essay type that asks for the key facts on a subject to be laid out, with explanations. The Sports Science question above is an example of this. It asks for the WHAT and HOW of something.

2. The analytical essay: This essay type asks you not only to lay out the facts, but also to analyse and deconstruct them to better understand them. It is typical in subjects such as English Literature and Fine Art. It asks for the WHY of something.

3. The argumentative essay: This type of essay asks you to use the facts available, to analyse them for value, and then to provide a point of view about the subject. It moves more quickly through the WHAT, HOW and WHY of a topic through to: WHY DOES IT MATTER?

All of the above essay types need a thesis statement that includes a proposition (a statement which answers the question or addresses the title).

Beyond that, these three essay types all require different additions.

For the expository essay , you need to add an overview of the details of the conclusion. Let’s look at an example:

Expository essay title: What are the key differences between training recommendations for maximising muscular strength and maximising muscular hypertrophy? (BSc in Sports Science)

Expository thesis statement: Whilst both training outcomes require resistance training centred upon isotonic contractions, it is likely that the absolute load requirements may need to be higher for strength purposes, whilst the total training volume may need to be higher for hypertrophy purposes. (The basic conclusion is that both approaches need isotonic resistance training; the details are teased out in bold.)

For the analytical essay , you need to add an overview of the analysis performed. Here’s an example:

Analytical essay title: Why did England and Wales vote to leave the European Union? (BA in Politics)

Analytical thesis statement: A close consideration of the voter demographics, the populist nature of political messages leading up to the referendum, and the history of Britain’s status in the EU, will demonstrate that Brexit was primarily motivated by the machinations of the Right.

(The basic conclusion is that Brexit was influenced by politicians; the analytical approach is in bold.)

For the argumentative essay , you need to add an overview of your reasoning. Another example:

Argumentative essay title: To what extent do you consider the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays to be in question? (BA in English Literature)

Argumentative thesis statement: Shakespeare’s authorship of his plays is beyond question, given both the entirely unconvincing nature of any counter-theories and the relatively unstable conception of the playwright’s identity as it stands. (The basic conclusion is that Shakespeare did write his plays; the reasoning is in bold.)

As you can see from these examples, the purpose of the essay gives a very clear demand for something beyond a simple answer.

But, there’s more!

The length of the essay

The prescribed length of the essay also defines what you need to do with your thesis statement.

Your thesis statement is a microcosm : a miniature, compressed version of your whole essay.

So, it makes sense that the length of the actual essay is going to impact upon the content of the thesis statement.

If, for example, your essay is expected to be 800 words long and on the subject of Eve in the Bible, then it would be overly ambitious for your thesis statement to say: ‘through comprehensive study of the Bible and extant criticism’. For an 800 essay, more precision will be necessary. It would be better for your thesis statement to say: ‘with due awareness of the complexity of the issue, focusing on feminist readings of Genesis .’

“Matching the scope given in your thesis statement to the depth you provide in your essay is a very effective way to ensure precision.”

Contrastingly, if your essay is expected to be 80,000 words long (a PhD thesis, for example), on the subject of stop-motion animation, it would be rather unambitious to suggest that the essay will ‘provide a visual analysis of Wallace and Gromit: The Wrong Trousers’, only. For a PhD, we would expect more content to be covered, and multiple approaches to analysis to be considered.

Indeed, matching the scope given in your thesis statement to the depth you provide in your essay is a very effective way to ensure precision.

So, to summarise, how do I write a thesis statement?

It’s a simple, three-part process:

1. Identify the question in the title (or make a question from the statement). 2. Answer that question in as few words as possible. 3. Complete the sentence by providing an overview of the foundation behind your answer.

Easy, right? It can be!

That said, there are plenty of traps that essayists can fall into with this part of the essay. Let’s look at some of these pitfalls and how to avoid them.

Pitalls to Avoid

Pitfall #1: amateurish style.

This is common throughout academic essays written by beginners. It’s not just the thesis statement that falls foul of sounding amateurish. There are plenty of ways this happens, which are beyond the scope of this argument, but the following example is a prime example: In this essay, I will explore the various pieces of evidence before concluding.

This is amateurish for a few reasons. Firstly, it doesn’t actually say anything. You could otherwise word it, ‘I will write an essay which answers the question’ – a rather wasted sentence. The next, and more forgivable issue is the use of the first-person. We want to get a sense that an individual wrote this essay, but we never want to hear them mentioned! Make sense? No? Sorry.

This should instead read more like:

This essay considers evidence from X in light of Y which ultimately reveals Z at the heart of the issue.

(It focuses on the specifics, X, Y, and Z, and is devoid of any mention of its author.)

Pitfall #2: empty phrasing

This is similar to amateurish style. However, empty phrasing is not just amateur-sounding; it’s manipulative-sounding.

Using phrases such as “in order to” instead of, simply, “to” – or “due to the fact that” instead of just “as” – look like attempts to fill up the word count with waffle rather than content. The same goes for phrases that can be substituted for one word: ‘it is evident that’ can (and should) become ‘evidently’.

Watch this thesis statement from a GCSE essay on Music go from hideous to tolerable:

Beethoven was unable to hear his work, due to the fact that he was deaf, so it is evident that he musically conceptualised the notes in order to compose. (Wordy!)

Beethoven was unable to hear his work, as he was deaf, so it is evident that he musically conceptualised the notes to compose. (Slightly less wordy.)

Beethoven’s deafness made him unable to hear his work, so evidently he musically conceptualised the notes to compose. (About as concise as such a complex sentence will get…)

Do not mistake wordiness for sophistication. Your ideas should be sophisticated; your writing should be clear.

Pitfall #3: non-standard grammar

For an examiner, the English language is not just a vehicle for your ideas. It should be, but the academic process always involves the assessment of your expression.

So, to satisfy our examiners’ prescriptive tastes, we need to adhere to the basic tenets of Standard English.

Take a look at the following thesis statement example from an A Level Sociology essay: Considering the status of BAME in Internet culture, the demonstrably racist treatment at the hands of the police, and the energy behind the BLM protests, concluding that there is hope for the future.

This sentence has no finite main verb, so it is technically not a sentence. To become a grammatical sentence, we would need to make ‘concluding’ finite: ‘it can be concluded’, or ‘we conclude’.

The writer got lost in this example because the sentence was so long!

Long sentences can also lead to a failure to make subject and verb agree, like in the next thesis statement example from a school Geography essay:

The most populous municipalities of Spain, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, and Zaragoza, does not rank in the top ten most dense populations of the country, with the exception of Barcelona.

Because the subject ‘municipalities’ is separated from the verb ‘does’ by eight words, it is easy to forget that they do not agree. It should, of course, be ‘do, not ‘does’.

Final words

The thesis statement, as I said at the start, can be the difference between a First and a Fail. So, take your time with it.

Write it carefully.

Then redraft and refine it several times, until it’s as good as you can make it.

The payoff is a slick, coherent thesis statement that paves the way to a great essay that really impresses your examiner.

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25 Thesis Statement Examples That Will Make Writing a Breeze

JBirdwellBranson

Understanding what makes a good thesis statement is one of the major keys to writing a great research paper or argumentative essay. The thesis statement is where you make a claim that will guide you through your entire paper. If you find yourself struggling to make sense of your paper or your topic, then it's likely due to a weak thesis statement.

Let's take a minute to first understand what makes a solid thesis statement, and what key components you need to write one of your own.

Perfecting Your Thesis Statement

A thesis statement always goes at the beginning of the paper. It will typically be in the first couple of paragraphs of the paper so that it can introduce the body paragraphs, which are the supporting evidence for your thesis statement.

Your thesis statement should clearly identify an argument. You need to have a statement that is not only easy to understand, but one that is debatable. What that means is that you can't just put any statement of fact and have it be your thesis. For example, everyone knows that puppies are cute . An ineffective thesis statement would be, "Puppies are adorable and everyone knows it." This isn't really something that's a debatable topic.

Something that would be more debatable would be, "A puppy's cuteness is derived from its floppy ears, small body, and playfulness." These are three things that can be debated on. Some people might think that the cutest thing about puppies is the fact that they follow you around or that they're really soft and fuzzy.

All cuteness aside, you want to make sure that your thesis statement is not only debatable, but that it also actually thoroughly answers the research question that was posed. You always want to make sure that your evidence is supporting a claim that you made (and not the other way around). This is why it's crucial to read and research about a topic first and come to a conclusion later. If you try to get your research to fit your thesis statement, then it may not work out as neatly as you think. As you learn more, you discover more (and the outcome may not be what you originally thought).

Additionally, your thesis statement shouldn't be too big or too grand. It'll be hard to cover everything in a thesis statement like, "The federal government should act now on climate change." The topic is just too large to actually say something new and meaningful. Instead, a more effective thesis statement might be, "Local governments can combat climate change by providing citizens with larger recycling bins and offering local classes about composting and conservation." This is easier to work with because it's a smaller idea, but you can also discuss the overall topic that you might be interested in, which is climate change.

So, now that we know what makes a good, solid thesis statement, you can start to write your own. If you find that you're getting stuck or you are the type of person who needs to look at examples before you start something, then check out our list of thesis statement examples below.

Thesis statement examples

A quick note that these thesis statements have not been fully researched. These are merely examples to show you what a thesis statement might look like and how you can implement your own ideas into one that you think of independently. As such, you should not use these thesis statements for your own research paper purposes. They are meant to be used as examples only.

  • Vaccinations Because many children are unable to vaccinate due to illness, we must require that all healthy and able children be vaccinated in order to have herd immunity.
  • Educational Resources for Low-Income Students Schools should provide educational resources for low-income students during the summers so that they don't forget what they've learned throughout the school year.
  • School Uniforms School uniforms may be an upfront cost for families, but they eradicate the visual differences in income between students and provide a more egalitarian atmosphere at school.
  • Populism The rise in populism on the 2016 political stage was in reaction to increasing globalization, the decline of manufacturing jobs, and the Syrian refugee crisis.
  • Public Libraries Libraries are essential resources for communities and should be funded more heavily by local municipalities.
  • Cyber Bullying With more and more teens using smartphones and social media, cyber bullying is on the rise. Cyber bullying puts a lot of stress on many teens, and can cause depression, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts. Parents should limit the usage of smart phones, monitor their children's online activity, and report any cyber bullying to school officials in order to combat this problem.
  • Medical Marijuana for Veterans Studies have shown that the use of medicinal marijuana has been helpful to veterans who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Medicinal marijuana prescriptions should be legal in all states and provided to these veterans. Additional medical or therapy services should also be researched and implemented in order to help them re-integrate back into civilian life.
  • Work-Life Balance Corporations should provide more work from home opportunities and six-hour workdays so that office workers have a better work-life balance and are more likely to be productive when they are in the office.
  • Teaching Youths about Consensual Sex Although sex education that includes a discussion of consensual sex would likely lead to less sexual assault, parents need to teach their children the meaning of consent from a young age with age appropriate lessons.
  • Whether or Not to Attend University A degree from a university provides invaluable lessons on life and a future career, but not every high school student should be encouraged to attend a university directly after graduation. Some students may benefit from a trade school or a "gap year" where they can think more intensely about what it is they want to do for a career and how they can accomplish this.
  • Studying Abroad Studying abroad is one of the most culturally valuable experiences you can have in college. It is the only way to get completely immersed in another language and learn how other cultures and countries are different from your own.
  • Women's Body Image Magazines have done a lot in the last five years to include a more diverse group of models, but there is still a long way to go to promote a healthy woman's body image collectively as a culture.
  • Cigarette Tax Heavily taxing and increasing the price of cigarettes is essentially a tax on the poorest Americans, and it doesn't deter them from purchasing. Instead, the state and federal governments should target those economically disenfranchised with early education about the dangers of smoking.
  • Veganism A vegan diet, while a healthy and ethical way to consume food, indicates a position of privilege. It also limits you to other cultural food experiences if you travel around the world.
  • University Athletes Should be Compensated University athletes should be compensated for their service to the university, as it is difficult for these students to procure and hold a job with busy academic and athletic schedules. Many student athletes on scholarship also come from low-income neighborhoods and it is a struggle to make ends meet when they are participating in athletics.
  • Women in the Workforce Sheryl Sandberg makes a lot of interesting points in her best-selling book, Lean In , but she only addressed the very privileged working woman and failed to speak to those in lower-skilled, lower-wage jobs.
  • Assisted Suicide Assisted suicide should be legal and doctors should have the ability to make sure their patients have the end-of-life care that they want to receive.
  • Celebrity and Political Activism Although Taylor Swift's lyrics are indicative of a feminist perspective, she should be more politically active and vocal to use her position of power for the betterment of society.
  • The Civil War The insistence from many Southerners that the South seceded from the Union for states' rights versus the fact that they seceded for the purposes of continuing slavery is a harmful myth that still affects race relations today.
  • Blue Collar Workers Coal miners and other blue-collar workers whose jobs are slowly disappearing from the workforce should be re-trained in jobs in the technology sector or in renewable energy. A program to re-train these workers would not only improve local economies where jobs have been displaced, but would also lead to lower unemployment nationally.
  • Diversity in the Workforce Having a diverse group of people in an office setting leads to richer ideas, more cooperation, and more empathy between people with different skin colors or backgrounds.
  • Re-Imagining the Nuclear Family The nuclear family was traditionally defined as one mother, one father, and 2.5 children. This outdated depiction of family life doesn't quite fit with modern society. The definition of normal family life shouldn't be limited to two-parent households.
  • Digital Literacy Skills With more information readily available than ever before, it's crucial that students are prepared to examine the material they're reading and determine whether or not it's a good source or if it has misleading information. Teaching students digital literacy and helping them to understand the difference between opinion or propaganda from legitimate, real information is integral.
  • Beauty Pageants Beauty pageants are presented with the angle that they empower women. However, putting women in a swimsuit on a stage while simultaneously judging them on how well they answer an impossible question in a short period of time is cruel and purely for the amusement of men. Therefore, we should stop televising beauty pageants.
  • Supporting More Women to Run for a Political Position In order to get more women into political positions, more women must run for office. There must be a grassroots effort to educate women on how to run for office, who among them should run, and support for a future candidate for getting started on a political career.

Still stuck? Need some help with your thesis statement?

If you are still uncertain about how to write a thesis statement or what a good thesis statement is, be sure to consult with your teacher or professor to make sure you're on the right track. It's always a good idea to check in and make sure that your thesis statement is making a solid argument and that it can be supported by your research.

After you're done writing, it's important to have someone take a second look at your paper so that you can ensure there are no mistakes or errors. It's difficult to spot your own mistakes, which is why it's always recommended to have someone help you with the revision process, whether that's a teacher, the writing center at school, or a professional editor such as one from ServiceScape .

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  • What Is a Thesis? | Ultimate Guide & Examples

What Is a Thesis? | Ultimate Guide & Examples

Published on September 14, 2022 by Tegan George . Revised on April 16, 2024.

A thesis is a type of research paper based on your original research. It is usually submitted as the final step of a master’s program or a capstone to a bachelor’s degree.

Writing a thesis can be a daunting experience. Other than a dissertation , it is one of the longest pieces of writing students typically complete. It relies on your ability to conduct research from start to finish: choosing a relevant topic , crafting a proposal , designing your research , collecting data , developing a robust analysis, drawing strong conclusions , and writing concisely .

Thesis template

You can also download our full thesis template in the format of your choice below. Our template includes a ready-made table of contents , as well as guidance for what each chapter should include. It’s easy to make it your own, and can help you get started.

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Table of contents

Thesis vs. thesis statement, how to structure a thesis, acknowledgements or preface, list of figures and tables, list of abbreviations, introduction, literature review, methodology, reference list, proofreading and editing, defending your thesis, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about theses.

You may have heard the word thesis as a standalone term or as a component of academic writing called a thesis statement . Keep in mind that these are two very different things.

  • A thesis statement is a very common component of an essay, particularly in the humanities. It usually comprises 1 or 2 sentences in the introduction of your essay , and should clearly and concisely summarize the central points of your academic essay .
  • A thesis is a long-form piece of academic writing, often taking more than a full semester to complete. It is generally a degree requirement for Master’s programs, and is also sometimes required to complete a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts colleges.
  • In the US, a dissertation is generally written as a final step toward obtaining a PhD.
  • In other countries (particularly the UK), a dissertation is generally written at the bachelor’s or master’s level.

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The final structure of your thesis depends on a variety of components, such as:

  • Your discipline
  • Your theoretical approach

Humanities theses are often structured more like a longer-form essay . Just like in an essay, you build an argument to support a central thesis.

In both hard and social sciences, theses typically include an introduction , literature review , methodology section ,  results section , discussion section , and conclusion section . These are each presented in their own dedicated section or chapter. In some cases, you might want to add an appendix .

Thesis examples

We’ve compiled a short list of thesis examples to help you get started.

  • Example thesis #1:   “Abolition, Africans, and Abstraction: the Influence of the ‘Noble Savage’ on British and French Antislavery Thought, 1787-1807” by Suchait Kahlon.
  • Example thesis #2: “’A Starving Man Helping Another Starving Man’: UNRRA, India, and the Genesis of Global Relief, 1943-1947″ by Julian Saint Reiman.

The very first page of your thesis contains all necessary identifying information, including:

  • Your full title
  • Your full name
  • Your department
  • Your institution and degree program
  • Your submission date.

Sometimes the title page also includes your student ID, the name of your supervisor, or the university’s logo. Check out your university’s guidelines if you’re not sure.

Read more about title pages

The acknowledgements section is usually optional. Its main point is to allow you to thank everyone who helped you in your thesis journey, such as supervisors, friends, or family. You can also choose to write a preface , but it’s typically one or the other, not both.

Read more about acknowledgements Read more about prefaces

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An abstract is a short summary of your thesis. Usually a maximum of 300 words long, it’s should include brief descriptions of your research objectives , methods, results, and conclusions. Though it may seem short, it introduces your work to your audience, serving as a first impression of your thesis.

Read more about abstracts

A table of contents lists all of your sections, plus their corresponding page numbers and subheadings if you have them. This helps your reader seamlessly navigate your document.

Your table of contents should include all the major parts of your thesis. In particular, don’t forget the the appendices. If you used heading styles, it’s easy to generate an automatic table Microsoft Word.

Read more about tables of contents

While not mandatory, if you used a lot of tables and/or figures, it’s nice to include a list of them to help guide your reader. It’s also easy to generate one of these in Word: just use the “Insert Caption” feature.

Read more about lists of figures and tables

If you have used a lot of industry- or field-specific abbreviations in your thesis, you should include them in an alphabetized list of abbreviations . This way, your readers can easily look up any meanings they aren’t familiar with.

Read more about lists of abbreviations

Relatedly, if you find yourself using a lot of very specialized or field-specific terms that may not be familiar to your reader, consider including a glossary . Alphabetize the terms you want to include with a brief definition.

Read more about glossaries

An introduction sets up the topic, purpose, and relevance of your thesis, as well as expectations for your reader. This should:

  • Ground your research topic , sharing any background information your reader may need
  • Define the scope of your work
  • Introduce any existing research on your topic, situating your work within a broader problem or debate
  • State your research question(s)
  • Outline (briefly) how the remainder of your work will proceed

In other words, your introduction should clearly and concisely show your reader the “what, why, and how” of your research.

Read more about introductions

A literature review helps you gain a robust understanding of any extant academic work on your topic, encompassing:

  • Selecting relevant sources
  • Determining the credibility of your sources
  • Critically evaluating each of your sources
  • Drawing connections between sources, including any themes, patterns, conflicts, or gaps

A literature review is not merely a summary of existing work. Rather, your literature review should ultimately lead to a clear justification for your own research, perhaps via:

  • Addressing a gap in the literature
  • Building on existing knowledge to draw new conclusions
  • Exploring a new theoretical or methodological approach
  • Introducing a new solution to an unresolved problem
  • Definitively advocating for one side of a theoretical debate

Read more about literature reviews

Theoretical framework

Your literature review can often form the basis for your theoretical framework, but these are not the same thing. A theoretical framework defines and analyzes the concepts and theories that your research hinges on.

Read more about theoretical frameworks

Your methodology chapter shows your reader how you conducted your research. It should be written clearly and methodically, easily allowing your reader to critically assess the credibility of your argument. Furthermore, your methods section should convince your reader that your method was the best way to answer your research question.

A methodology section should generally include:

  • Your overall approach ( quantitative vs. qualitative )
  • Your research methods (e.g., a longitudinal study )
  • Your data collection methods (e.g., interviews or a controlled experiment
  • Any tools or materials you used (e.g., computer software)
  • The data analysis methods you chose (e.g., statistical analysis , discourse analysis )
  • A strong, but not defensive justification of your methods

Read more about methodology sections

Your results section should highlight what your methodology discovered. These two sections work in tandem, but shouldn’t repeat each other. While your results section can include hypotheses or themes, don’t include any speculation or new arguments here.

Your results section should:

  • State each (relevant) result with any (relevant) descriptive statistics (e.g., mean , standard deviation ) and inferential statistics (e.g., test statistics , p values )
  • Explain how each result relates to the research question
  • Determine whether the hypothesis was supported

Additional data (like raw numbers or interview transcripts ) can be included as an appendix . You can include tables and figures, but only if they help the reader better understand your results.

Read more about results sections

Your discussion section is where you can interpret your results in detail. Did they meet your expectations? How well do they fit within the framework that you built? You can refer back to any relevant source material to situate your results within your field, but leave most of that analysis in your literature review.

For any unexpected results, offer explanations or alternative interpretations of your data.

Read more about discussion sections

Your thesis conclusion should concisely answer your main research question. It should leave your reader with an ultra-clear understanding of your central argument, and emphasize what your research specifically has contributed to your field.

Why does your research matter? What recommendations for future research do you have? Lastly, wrap up your work with any concluding remarks.

Read more about conclusions

In order to avoid plagiarism , don’t forget to include a full reference list at the end of your thesis, citing the sources that you used. Choose one citation style and follow it consistently throughout your thesis, taking note of the formatting requirements of each style.

Which style you choose is often set by your department or your field, but common styles include MLA , Chicago , and APA.

Create APA citations Create MLA citations

In order to stay clear and concise, your thesis should include the most essential information needed to answer your research question. However, chances are you have many contributing documents, like interview transcripts or survey questions . These can be added as appendices , to save space in the main body.

Read more about appendices

Once you’re done writing, the next part of your editing process begins. Leave plenty of time for proofreading and editing prior to submission. Nothing looks worse than grammar mistakes or sloppy spelling errors!

Consider using a professional thesis editing service or grammar checker to make sure your final project is perfect.

Once you’ve submitted your final product, it’s common practice to have a thesis defense, an oral component of your finished work. This is scheduled by your advisor or committee, and usually entails a presentation and Q&A session.

After your defense , your committee will meet to determine if you deserve any departmental honors or accolades. However, keep in mind that defenses are usually just a formality. If there are any serious issues with your work, these should be resolved with your advisor way before a defense.

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

  • Survivorship bias
  • Self-serving bias
  • Availability heuristic
  • Halo effect
  • Hindsight 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

The conclusion of your thesis or dissertation shouldn’t take up more than 5–7% of your overall word count.

If you only used a few abbreviations in your thesis or dissertation , you don’t necessarily need to include a list of abbreviations .

If your abbreviations are numerous, or if you think they won’t be known to your audience, it’s never a bad idea to add one. They can also improve readability, minimizing confusion about abbreviations unfamiliar to your reader.

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 .

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.

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.)

A thesis is typically written by students finishing up a bachelor’s or Master’s degree. Some educational institutions, particularly in the liberal arts, have mandatory theses, but they are often not mandatory to graduate from bachelor’s degrees. It is more common for a thesis to be a graduation requirement from a Master’s degree.

Even if not mandatory, you may want to consider writing a thesis if you:

  • Plan to attend graduate school soon
  • Have a particular topic you’d like to study more in-depth
  • Are considering a career in research
  • Would like a capstone experience to tie up your academic experience

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in a sentence ? Here are some examples. of the work was that these leaders generally make decisions based on imprecise readings of the past.
Instead, his central is that the religious extremism which gives rise to some forms of terrorism is born out of political repression.
Unfortunately, even the core data he uses to prove his explain less than he claims.
Nor can I accept the that his long statement was a police concoction.
The you put forward equating leftist parties has the same credibility as the joke about Hitler and Stalin.
Abelard defends his that universals are nothing but words by arguing that ontological realism about universals is incoherent.
For India's great realizers, the primary evidence in support of their is revealed scripture, such as the Vedanta-sutras.
One of the main contributions of this concerns the analysis of denominative variation causes in specialised texts.
Unfortunately for Hoppe's , I have no a priori theoretical reason for dichotomizing the results in the way I did.
She is famous, not for the work of her but, rather, for her later experiments to slow down light.
I heard a lot of radio yesterday because I had to drive to and from South Caulfield twice in as many days to get my MA bound.
An interesting is wasted on a far too superficial script with some decent make-up effects.
This is because of the difficulties they present for the of explanatorial pellucidity.
The time-worn argument that conservatives have authoritarian personalities is, more or less, a nasty way of recasting my .
In other words, relying on the continued stupidity of central bankers is not the most tenable investment .
My is that Galatians is Paul's first sustained attempt to deal with the issue of covenantal nomism.
The was published at Jena in the same year that he was awarded his doctorate.
This ends our direct quotation from Fisher's , and his description of his machine.
While pursuing his theological studies he prepared a doctoral on geometry.
I was grading for a real curmudgeon, the grump who wound up being my advisor.
His doctoral , submitted to the University of Nancy, was on continuity of functions of a complex variable.
The first is that much neurotic symptomatology and indeed much so-called normal behaviour has a psychotic core.
She states her early on, and proceeds to document it with chapter and verse, in a dense, brilliant, eloquent argument.
Critics have argued that the work's regarding the advent of the totally administered society is overdrawn.
Paul returned to Paris briefly to defend his doctoral in October 1930, and then went back to Hamburg.
The is that in traditional Aboriginal societies, women were equal to men and treated with respect.
Discussing savings and investment, his was directed toward the demand for capital goods.
She is using the as an excuse to write up all of her unpublished data, but she has no experience with this.
Some thirty students have done investigations for a doctoral or a master's degree in paleopathology.
In 1929 Wittgenstein returned to Cambridge where he submitted the Tractatus as his doctoral .
Could you sum up in your own words, for the benefit of our readers who are maybe not as esoterically educated, what the central is?
Instead of explicating a , the immediacy of photography in motion seizes us and renders products of fancy as real.
His first class doctoral was on the place of sacrifice in the Ibo religion.
Like other members of your cult, you have swallowed the neo-Darwinian hook line and sinker.
The faculty even discussed with a student the possibility of coordinating a clinical externship with research.
Research proposals submitted for a Masters or doctoral will not be accepted.
This has led to the that dominating the politics of the mythical Middle Englander is the only strategy to retain power.
This book, developed from a doctoral , belongs to the Oxford Historical Monographs series.
Six years later he was awarded a doctorate for a which studied double stars, in particular studying their orbits.
It was 1942 before he was able to defend his doctoral on Hermitian operator theory and the generalised moment problem.
My final year involved studying the interactions between bees and plants in a very biodiverse area of Mexico.
The of the momentariness of human existence has had a recent defender in Derek Parfit.
For her , she investigated how Verreaux's sifakas rear their infants.
His doctoral , and all his earlier publications, concerned applications of analysis to mechanics.
After leaving Italy in 1922, Cech wrote his habilitation , becoming a docent at the Charles University of Prague.
Most evangelicals will respond to this basic with hesitation, if only because of its novelty.
It's a literary mystery, an English with the heart of a bodice-ripper.
In his , he described in detail the places and tribal groups where slavery is still practiced.
She had plenty of opportunity to study him at close quarters, for she had agreed to go through his with him, correcting his German.
He connects it with the that only universal propositions can be known.
Wigner's contains the first theory of the rates of association and dissociation of molecules.
I'd love to be able to say I was dissertating, but somehow a 12,000 word undergrad isn't quite the same.
However, it is not clear if this was the reality, and there were many dissentients from this .
No of theology escapes criticism, and no edict is exempt from conscientious dissent.
This is a substantially weaker , and I shall assume for purposes of argument that it is defensible.
His is a that Celts, Bretons, and Galicians had more in common with one another than they did with their inland kin.
He wrote his doctoral on algorithms for continued fractions which he submitted to the University of St Petersburg.
This requires daily travelling to those companies for in-service training and for consultations with supervisors.
What started out as her morphed into a lauded feature-length documentary.
I had written my final on mysticism and shamanism, complete with illustration and tipped in plates.
No doubt Brenner wishes that the 1990s had never happened, since the economic optimism in that decade seems to make a nonsense of his .
His work combined algebra and combinatorics into the new field of matrix theory.
A few years later, Carnap realized that this was untenable because a phenomenalistic language is insufficient to define physical concepts.
This argument has parallels with Illich's of clinical iatrogenesis and related theories of commerciogenic illness.
She wrote her medical on the preventive approaches she had learned from hydropathists.
I think it takes a combination of growing older and enduring significant objurgation by your advisor and committee to precipitate change.
I was taking it pass-fail, along with a , a graduate course, and an upper level undergraduate course.
Not a single fact in that plagiarised was untrue, a former Campbell acolyte averred in coy defense of his one-time master.
Did you ever consider approaching your linguistics department with a master's solely dedicated to onomatopoeia?
The second option includes writing and presenting an oral defense of a graduate .
The defense is probably just like a more terrifying, more stringent form of orals.
If theology is indeed faith seeking understanding, then Eberhard's charts the way forward toward a new kind of via media.
The author elaborates upon this in five chapters, and the first two add substantively to the debate.
A charming and pleasant man, open and warm, he had been kind enough to read my and like it.
The increasing homogamy of sons and daughters of unskilled workers does not per se contradict the sexual revolution .
The begins by examining the role of technological enthusiasm in the early growth of hot rodding.
She is currently working on her Ph.D. concerning vestimentary body techniques during the Cultural Revolution decade.
This work led to a on algebraic geometry in which he introduced rings which are now named after him.
His is undoubtedly better presented in person rather than in the context of a dry academic paper.
The chapter acknowledges the compelling explanatory power of the declinist .
They operate with so much psychological projection that they would make a great case for a person to use to study for a doctoral !
Now foundationalism is best construed, I think, as a about rational noetic structures.
Alon's idea, which became his master's , was to feed the birds directly, by scattering corn near the lake with a mechanical sower.
Recently a flutter of books have been published in America which advance different variations of this .
Only then does the audience have its brief opportunity to launch incisive ripostes into the heart of the .
This is crucial to our and provides a rationale for our distinct approach to reading the Solomonic narrative.
The soft copy of our eight-page proposal is missing, and I will have to retype it again.
As someone who thought of anti-Americanism as a temporary perturbation, I do think he is massaging the evidence and overstating his a bit.
My Masters , written under the guidance of a neo-Marxist economist, deplored New Zealand's dependence on foreign capital.
His objection to this is that we should reject the relativist's assumption that there is a plurality of mutually untranslatable languages.
A book echoing this wouldn't ordinarily be required reading for a sports fan or anyone else.
In the process, it undermines its own of female empowerment, and is guilty of underutilizing a vast pool of talent.
It's back, therefore, to doing some odd jobs such as emailing people, tidying my pinboard and creating the bibliography for my .
However, this is only sketchily developed, and sometimes defies common sense.
And it also makes me worry, because he was starting his postdoc when I was barely in my lab.
Advanced degree programs include classroom and fieldwork, laboratory research, and a dissertation or .
He continued collecting for several more years, but apparently put off monographic treatment until after his was completed.
There may well have been shortcomings in the doctoral Dr King submitted.
The here proposed is that he was confronted in Galatia with accusations brought against him by some of his own victims.
After submitting a on abelian functions, he received his doctorate in 1895 from the University of Strasbourg.
In his Master's , Shannon showed that these binary digits can be represented by electrical switches.
She was traumatised when her doctoral was failed outright, apparently because one examiner was biased against her.
If the book has a , it is that a functional analyst is an analyst, first and foremost, and not a degenerate species of a topologist.
According to this , there just aren't enough stably employed men in the ghetto for women to marry.
In this work he coined the now familiar term topological algebra but the is memorable in other ways too.
We were to underline the in the first paragraph and put brackets around the topic sentence of each body paragraph.
The aim of the is to produce quantifications of the behaviour of the models.
It was definitely a challenge to find enough time to train, race, and work on my .
Perhaps, too, the came too early to compete against the certainties of the 1960s, and finds a more natural place today.
Few things are a stronger motivation to get your done than an aching back.
There are quotes from him, often obscured by the broadest contours of his myth, which question the consumerist .
Can you identify a clear topic sentence that acts as the paragraph's statement?
The designer, Ruth Gill, created the concept for her master's , and describes it thusly.
Vitalism is opposed to mechanistic materialism and its that life emerges from a complex combination of organic matter.
Elton's stout defence of his parallels the tenacity of his beliefs regarding the practice of history.
Second, as can happen with the forceful statement of any , Oz's argument is subject to a certain one-sidedness, as illustrated by this.
You could, of course, write a about Wodehouse but the endeavour would be like trying to preserve thistledown between sheet glass.
When he was done barraging me with his senior , he left this erudite comment.
His was done on the embryology of the Pycnogonidae, the sea spiders, based on material collected here at Woods Hole.
Then, under the supervision of theological scholar Paul Tillich from Harvard University, she wrote a doctoral .
The propagator of the is the founding editor of an irregularly published journal of socioeconomic commentary.
The or dissertation is your original research written with the guidance of a group of faculty known as your committee.
The writer is an environmental lawyer from Sydney who is currently based in Jakarta writing a doctoral on environmental law in Indonesia.
The was on the theory of probability, and in it he developed the main results of the theory in a rigorous but elementary way.
She submitted a for her habilitation to the University of Berlin but it was not immediately accepted.
If you are a graduate student, you may be moving toward completing your master's or doctoral dissertation.
This work was based on his doctoral and is written in the form of a discussion between a teacher and a group of students.
The synthesis is a previously unrecognized direction that contains elements of both the and antithesis.
And nothing proves my more than comparing Spielberg's movies to the deluge that comes after him.
You feel Mamet is proving a about the white American male and his channelling of sexual insecurity into racial hatred.
For all the narrative time-shifting and interweaving threads, it is brilliantly readable and its central is compelling.
It is a testament to the book's quality that one can disagree with its while thoroughly enjoying its argument and prose.
His doctoral is an important contribution to conformal mappings of multiply connected plane domains.
The title is fashionably silly, in the manner of Flaubert's Parrot, while the subtitle suggests a imperfectly converted into a book.
It was a that chimed in seamlessly with the awakening consciousness of women's liberation.
After receiving his doctorate, Neumann studied for his habilitation and he submitted his to the University of Halle.
She is a perpetual graduate student writing a on the women in the Iliad, and is ludicrously neurotic in every way.
I ask her if she had maybe used another floppy to save her to and she told me no, she took only that one with her.
Kneale's is that hauntings and ghosts are particularly intense phenomena that are literally recorded by matter, by the stone of the room.
It is a case of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face, defending one's at the cost of the matter under investigation.
He presents a powerful counterexample to the that networks are structurally fixed.
The received respectful attention, but it did not win assent or committed followers.
The floating pads, created for a Princeton architecture school , harvest the energy of waves.
In any case, the first gets the lion's share of sustained historical and sociological argument.
But apart from creating suspense, the novel also foregrounds dialogical questions, handling them dialogically rather than propounding any .
Sarah Monette is writing her doctoral on ghosts in English Renaissance revenge tragedy.
Judd's augured the inevitable evolution of Modern art into pure formalism and object-ness.
Such a view reconciles free will not with determinism but with the highly plausible of universal event causation.
Such an strategy might work well for testing a or answering a set of questions.
The validity of this was reinforced when the balds began disappearing as they revegetated under National Park Service management.
My MA was in the same kind of anthropology, although my focussed on Andean archaeology and ethnohistory.
The MP3 format was developed by just one guy for his PhD , with 2 fellows helping him.
I was in the jungle in Mexico, doing my undergraduate on how the Zapotec Indians use plants for medical purposes.
Seven of the fourteen cuts in tutorials have already been made, most significantly as the result of the introduction of a compulsory .
If he were to stay at all true to his , that surely would have been the last we heard of him.
Often the synthesis, though adequately reconciling the previous and antithesis, will turn out to be one-sided in some other respect.
Then, by weighing arguments and applying rules of logic, the and antithesis are united into a synthesis.
This collection consists of two short story manuscripts, a carbon copy of a , and records of thesis-related expenditures.
While at Queen Square he wrote an MD on the radiology of the aqueduct and fourth ventricle.
This aim makes Frege the first to fully develop the main of logicism, that mathematics is reducible to logic.
She's staying with me while she finishes her biochemical engineering on cryogenics.
While researching my MA , I came across one burial whose mandible showed evidence of having worn two labrets during his lifetime.
In his intentions, this running fire of a provocative and fascinating should provoke a healthy optimism.
After writing a on algebraic functions and equations, he worked on space curves.
It is written with a great deal of intellectual grit, and its is developed with considerable lucidity and eloquence.
The subhead and photo caption announce a clear, succinct , one that gets followed through in detail for the next few dozen pages.
Among other results, he classified simply connected Riemannian 3-manifolds of constant curvature in this .
Now, it seems that these two positions, functionalism about truth and Davidson's , are quite compatible.
Back in Berlin he worked on his doctoral on algebraic number theory under Dirichlet's supervision.
Naimark's first work for his candidate's was on the separation of roots of algebraic equations.
Architecture didn't make his list but the notion implemented in our field is worth a thought, or a .
The book's emphasizes the supremacy of air power in shaping the battlefield.
He treated many infectious diseases, including scrub typhus, the subject of his MD .
Sartori's is interesting for theoretical reasons because it recasts the literature on extended deterrence.
There's enough fodder for a whole on journalistic pragmatics lurking in those memos.
Although ingeniously and entertainingly argued with a wealth of detail, the is not conclusively proven.
Dewey emphasized the pragmatist that our actions have a fundamental role in shaping our understanding of the world.
It is her that theory and practice are linked in classical Chinese medicine by the archive of accumulated medical lore.
While it might seem like an eternity for your to be proven, its fruition is often well worth the wait.
The central of the show is that Zappa wasn't a rock'n'roll weirdo with an iconic mustache and soul patch who wrote funny songs, but an honest-to-goodness composer.
Laidler provided a preview of this book's in The Golden Age.
The entailment would exonerate the necessary ambiguity of a satisfactory reason.
Babinski obtained his doctorate with a meticulous on the topography of lesions and their correlation with symptomatology in multiple sclerosis.
Some philosophers say they do not know what the of determinism is.
This development was important because the rule was meant to be invariable, such that it constituted absolutely reliable support for the proving of the proposition.
Reimer supports Rawlyk's idea that Canadian evangelicalism is more irenic than its U.S. counterpart, but calls for real data to support the .
Its got pop culture and a cheeky little without being too serious.
A third controversy concerns attempts to show that even if the dead cannot be harmed, the harm is correct, since death, and some post-mortem events, harm the living.
The was on thermodynamic potential in physics and chemistry and in it he defined the criterion for chemical reactions in terms of free energy.
He attacked a completely new topic to the one he had studied for his doctoral studying the theory of harmonic functions in spaces of constant curvature.
In this he studied the representation of arbitrary functions by the eigenfunctions of partial differential equations and other given sets of functions.
I haven't read her book with the unambiguous title but, as I understand it, her is that women behaving like frat grrrls does not, in fact, engender empowerment.
Her PhD investigated the role of surfactants and emulsions in the petrochemical industry, and detailed the chemical mechanisms involved in road making.
Opponents of the dismiss this identity label as elitist.
And I didn't want my to be entombed on some library shelf.
Even worse, while typographical errors were maintained, a sprinkling of unfounded exaggerations were inserted to strengthen the claims made in the .
The demonstrates the potential of divorce to threaten individual men's exercise of patriarchal authority and their masculine identities in very concrete ways.
To sustain this , this essay explores three interrelated issues.
Lewontin's is that science works only because there are circumscribed areas in which we can make profitable simplifications.
A black leather-bound catches my eye: an MSc dissertation in cognitive behavioural psychotherapy.
Please select the one category below that best describes the overall subject of your dissertation or .
But there can be no complex concepts without simple concepts, and it is to these latter primitive representational structures that the of this paper is meant to apply.
With a degree of divulgence rare in an introduction, Shlaes lays out her .
The broad sweep of The Sleepwalkers seems at first to belie its central .
In your diploma , you repeatedly emphasize that lack of coordination before guest performances often leads to unsatisfactory surtitles.
Her course was a distinguished one, and she graduated in 1871 with a prizewinning .
The main is of two conflicting civilisations, with the West exemplifying economic decline, international recklessness and moral depravity.
If my of the previous section is accepted, this standard analysis understates the dilemma.
You also wrote a about question period, which perhaps we should go back and read again.
Some authors are diffident about their , burying it in a blizzard of qualifications and footnotes.
Nowadays, published are rare and the shakeout they undergo deprive off the reader from a part of the scientific part that is associated.
They learn to argue by setting forth a , then proving its antithesis.
Our basic is that this cyclical bull market has further to run because bull markets do not end at fair value, they end at overvaluation.
He is currently working on a book, based on his doctoral , on aerial visuality and urban representations in interwar Europe.
This gap is to be filled, according to the pessimist, with the general metaphysical of indeterminism.
I suggest the expression moralistic creationism or deistic creationism to describe the of a supernatural origin of morality.
The actual doctoral degree is awarded by the university, following public defence of the .
It was a trial, and a very tough one at that: 33 were left high and dry, with their aggregation and a on their hands.
Isabel is currently staying at home to work on her masters and look after their one-year-old son Gavin.
This is the working hypothesis of Catherine Aventin who, in her , takes on the double task of theorisation and field observation.
So I could complete a licentiate in Theology as well and work towards a on this subject.
One could define it coarsely in terms of satisfaction or truth conditions, but understood in that way the representationalist seems clearly false.
Above all, Mr Purnell's , that Labour led by Mr Brown has little hope of being re-elected, remains unarguable.
In 1853, Charcot successfully defended his doctoral , presenting original work to differentiate the symptoms of gout from chronic rheumatism.
Regulations of The Institute require that candidates for the licentiateship should ultimately be tested on the submission of an approved or research dissertation.
Yet it is crucial that I demonstrate the ability to teach a wide range of courses in order to look employable when I finish my .
The in this case would be that it is more important to get along with one another than to understand one another.
She began her career at CNET in 1969, working in the Bagneux laboratory, where she produced a postgraduate in quantum physics.
The composition is a visualisation of Fludd's central that there is an analogy between microcosm and macrocosm.
Whether you're working on a , crafting your magnum opus or simply playing a game.
When the subject fits in with our current issues and we can guarantee a good mentorship, we are happy to mentor you diploma .
He needed a topic for his while studying for a Master of Arts.
The method Keegan uses to prove his is also interesting.
He wrote his on the topic of fatherhood by comparing two generations of fathers in relation to their children and their spouses.
Zoology at the University of Western Ontario with graduate research concentrated on small mammal population ecology and dynamics.
Our is that the social sciences and humanities are not merely academic pursuits unconnected to the real economy.
The possibility of supervision depends on the subject matter concerned and our supervising availabilities at the time.
I wrote what I saw, gave it to my teacher and suddenly my was submitted to the communist party.
This episode is the first written by Richard Price, and kicks of with a demonstration of the two Americas – a favoured Simon .
The common these days is that the government has near delivered on its promise at a great cost, of course, to its record on human rights.
In addition he pleads that, by reason of the refusal, he has been unable up until now to complete his doctoral .
He had been serving as a Bishop for two years when he submitted his doctoral to the Faculty of Science of Laval University, Quebec City.
Students are also required to write a master's on a topic related to the major chosen.
The is, that this kind of transfer processes of texts is the basis of the development of a number of cultural overlappings.
Yet the experiments give a direction, and it certainly does not support the cyclist's .
The Henri de Lubac Prize is intended to reward the best written in French and presented in a Pontifical University.
Students are expected to write a substantial based on original research.
To reduce the chance of overpaying, Kanko ensures he has an investment that is not shared by others.
These two objectives, far from being contradictory, are in fact mutually reinforcing and consistent with the objective and of this report.
Our has always been to own great assets, in great locations, with great tenants.
Instead, I want to use it to revisit the Shavian that the professional press has a higher claim than bloggers to the First Amendment and its subsidiary protections.
In contrast, central to Vardaman's is the claim that most of these inscriptions were created by the minters and thus reflect official records.
This notion of a complex unity of the book leads us to a second .
Eventually, these hopes were fulfilled, and in 1863 Raoult gained a doctorate from the University of Paris, for a on the electromotive force of voltaic cells.
His doctoral studied orthogonal systems of functions.
Arora, who was awarded a teaching grant at Amherst, created for her piece an installation called Mandir Masjid that echoed the trauma of partition.
Hence, used as a symbol of intellectual life, or a standard of what real intellectualism entails, his obfuscates issues of access, privilege and accountability.
Most mathematicians do not accept the constructivist's .
Unfortunately, the entire of continental drift was also thrown out.
The doctoral of Louis de Broglie was presented which extended the particle-wave duality for light to all particles, in particular to electrons.
This larger study subsequently became the subject of my doctoral .
He is particularly good on the Fischer that was at one time popular, of the war as the outcome of a premeditated program of German expansionism.
There were a bunch of people hanging around the outside of the consultation room, and we all started talking and comparing answers for the questions.
Dr. Emily Nagoski contributed an academically illustrated on the brain science of desire.
Not only do I not classify myself as a birther, I specifically repudiate the birther with two books and the film.
If the book were reducible to a , it might be the simple claim that some things exceed our capacity for comprehension.
This provocative elicits flat denials from both governments.
Opposing either form of reductionism would be the that both species of causation exist but that neither is analysable in terms of the other.
He turned his into the book Geometric Perturbation Theory in Physics on the new developments in differential geometry.
Her doctoral , says Ramin Takloo at the University of Illinois, was simply outstanding.
Even Rachel Maddow, who wrote her doctoral on AIDS reform in prisons, seemed surprised by the seemingly magnanimous move.
Hazel wrote all her work by hand and on Sundays would retreat to the quiet of the nearly empty computer laboratory at Massey University to type up her .
Our research supports the in the draft Communications Bill that localness is one of the most important factors driving local commercial radio.
And given Friedman's , how will we muster the social capital to welcome all these strangers with open arms?
Curiously, he never engages with the central tenet of the .
My master's looks at the careers of Antonio Brico, Margaret Hillis, and Sarah Caldwell, three women conductors whose careers started in the early to mid 20th Century.
Her is merely that free will and determinism are incompatible.
He has recently completed a doctoral at the University of Exeter.
Another chapter is devoted entirely to writing a doctoral .
Such verses often have a pause after the of the second foot also.
The senses of dislocation and loss found when we attempt to narrativise history are embodied in the structure of the creative component of my .
The fact that Keynesian ideas were correct as well as popular simply made my stronger.
We needed Keynesian policies again, which completely ruined my nice rise-and-fall .
The most beguiling aspect of the report was its two-part .
In 1908 Einstein became a lecturer at the University of Bern after submitting his habilitation which followed from the energy distribution law of black bodies.
After the award of her doctorate she earned some money by tutoring but also continued to work hard on her mathematics, continuing to develop the ideas from her .
Note that those like Mack, who can be awarded respect for their hypotheses of documents otherwise unattested, are not at an advantage over our .
Although much of his is useful for analyzing ethnicity and its consequences in Africa, Mwakikagile's book is full of unbacked, unproven assumptions.
Though this record is fun, with some neat twists and turns, it remains unconvincing and sounds too much like a on white funk rather than the real thing.
Such uncritical reasoning, particularly toward the end of his book, where he increasingly focuses on human society, weakens Ryan's overall .
Dalits would like the support to negativist because it ultimately absolves their ideal from neglecting the real interests of his followers.
Atkinson elaborates upon Kirby's by making all of these post-nineteenth-century interpretations into extensions of the via media way of understanding Hooker.
Even older is the that Insular Celtic in its turn has been structurally influenced in its historical development by Hamito-Semitic substrata.
This is hardly the place to rehearse the errors and elisions in his original article, or the way it allows its like a steamroller to flatten the facts.
We belong to the last group: our is that the behavioural changes made necessary by the ecological crisis will be untenable without concern for social justice.
In 1928 he received his doctorate with a on the geology of the seabed of the English Channel.
Bjerknes tapped Ekman, who presented his results in 1902 as his doctoral .
In her diploma at the Zurich University of the Arts, she also examined whether surtitles can be more than simply an aid to comprehension, and actually become an aesthetic element of theatre in their own right.
Every liturgiological student is or should be familiar with the , laid down by Dr. Probst as fundamental.
According to Tellenbach's , the dukes created the duchies during Conrad's reign.
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Thesis in a Sentence  🔊

Definition of Thesis

a statement that is discussed and debated

Examples of Thesis in a sentence

The student’s experiments helped her formulate a thesis to share with her professor and classmates.  🔊

During the next two weeks, students will be asked to defend their thesis statements in class.  🔊

The lab results prove the scientist’s thesis on energy conversion.  🔊

Before I can write the paper supporting my thesis, my topic must be approved by the teacher.  🔊

The researcher’s thesis revolves around the media’s influence on race relations.  🔊

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Word of the day

Word of the Day: scalable

This word has appeared in 31 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence?

An illustration of a student saying the word "scalable."

By The Learning Network

scalable \ ˈskeɪləbəl \ adjective

1. capable of being scaled, climbed or ascended; possible to scale, climb or ascend 2. able to be expanded in size, scale, or capability

Listen to the pronunciation.

The word scalable has appeared in 31 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Aug. 14 in “ Meet a Family That’s Betting the Farm on a Wild Idea. Literally ” by Cara Buckley:

Transfarmation awarded the Faaborgs a $15,000 grant for a pilot project cultivating reishi, lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms inside tents in one of the farm’s outbuildings. It provided another $200,000 toward redesigning and converting one of the Faaborgs’ hog barns, Mr. Whitley said. Mr. Whitley said that of the hundreds of farmers that have reached out, his team was working with 12 farms, seven of which have successfully transitioned out of factory farming, including the Faaborgs. Most of the farmers it has helped raised hogs or chickens on an industrial level using the same style of animal confinement. That uniformity enables the nonprofit group to offer blueprints for repurposing animal barns, Mr. Whitley said. “We try to bring a systemization to it so it’s scalable ,” he said.

Daily Word Challenge

Can you correctly use the word scalable in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

If you want a better idea of how scalable can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com . You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try our vocabulary quizzes .

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

The Word of the Day is provided by Vocabulary.com . Learn more and see usage examples across a range of subjects in the Vocabulary.com Dictionary . See every Word of the Day in this column .

COMMENTS

  1. Examples of 'Thesis' in a Sentence

    But the main thesis is: Any pause and later, cuts, in interest rates will be good for the cloud economy. — R. Scott Raynovich, Forbes, 23 Mar. 2023. That was her senior thesis, her first pass at a story about life with Viva. — Penelope Green, New York Times, 28 Apr. 2023.

  2. What is a Thesis Statement: Writing Guide with Examples

    The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Thesis Statement

  3. How to Write a Thesis Statement

    How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples

  4. How to Write a Thesis Statement (Full Guide + 60 Examples)

    A thesis statement is a concise summary of the main point or claim of an essay, research paper, or other piece of academic writing. It presents the topic of your paper and your position on the topic, ideally in a single sentence. Think of it as the roadmap to your paper—it guides your readers through your arguments and provides a clear direction.

  5. Creating a Thesis Statement, Thesis Statement Tips

    Tips and Examples for Writing Thesis Statements - Purdue OWL

  6. How To Write A Strong Thesis Statement

    The thesis statement is the most imporant part of your essay because it tells the reader everything they can expect. Here's a guide to writing a strong one.

  7. Thesis Statements

    Thesis Statements - UNC Writing Center

  8. How to write a thesis statement + Examples

    How to write a thesis statement + Examples

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

    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 ...

  10. How To Write a Thesis Statement: Effective & Expert Tips

    Wondering how to write a thesis statement? Our guided tips can help. Dictionary Thesaurus Sentences Grammar Vocabulary Usage Reading & Writing ... A thesis statement is a single sentence that identifies the main idea or argument of the paper, including an overview of what you'll specifically talk about in your essay. ...

  11. Thesis

    Thesis | Harvard College Writing Center

  12. Thesis Statement Examples

    Compare good and poor thesis statement examples to find out just what a strong thesis statement should be. Dictionary ... A thesis statement is one sentence that expresses the main idea of a research paper or essay, such as an expository essay or argumentative essay. It makes a claim, directly answering a question.

  13. The Thesis Sentence

    The promises that a thesis sentence makes to a reader are important ones and must be kept. It's helpful sometimes to explain the thesis as a kind of contract between reader and writer: if this contract is broken, the reader will feel frustrated and betrayed. Accordingly, the writer must be very careful in the development of the thesis.

  14. Developing Strong Thesis Statements

    Developing Strong Thesis Statements - Purdue OWL

  15. How to write a thesis statement (with examples)

    How to write a thesis statement (with examples)

  16. Literature

    Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis. by Erik Simpson. 1. A thesis says something a little strange. A: By telling the story of Westley and Buttercup's triumph over evil, The Princess Bride affirms the power of true love. B: Although the main plot of The Princess Bride rests on the natural power of true love, an examination of the way that fighting ...

  17. 25 Thesis Statement Examples That Will Make Writing a Breeze

    25 Thesis Statement Examples That Will Make ...

  18. How to Format a Thesis for a Research Paper

    How to Format a Thesis for a Research Paper

  19. Examples of "Thesis" in a Sentence

    14. 9. According to him, the Ego posits first itself (thesis); secondly, the non-Ego, the other, opposite to itself (antithesis); and, thirdly, this non-Ego within itself (synthesis), so that all reality is in consciousness. 9. 5. His main thesis is that the actions of men cannot be divided into lower and higher. 4.

  20. What Is a Thesis?

    What Is a Thesis? | Ultimate Guide & Examples

  21. PDF Topic Sentences and Thesis Statements

    With the prompt as a guide, here are the topic sentences for each body paragraph: Topic Sentence #1: The repeated characterization of Lilith as "too spirited" highlights her tenacity and pride, which are unusual traits for the enslaved characters to possess. Topic Sentence #2: The term "spirited" also connects Lilith to the spiritual ...

  22. How to use thesis in a sentence

    Here are some examples. Sentence Examples. But the central thesis of the work was that these leaders generally make decisions based on imprecise readings of the past. Instead, his central thesis is that the religious extremism which gives rise to some forms of terrorism is born out of political repression.

  23. Thesis in a Sentence

    Definition of Thesis. a statement that is discussed and debated. Examples of Thesis in a sentence. The student's experiments helped her formulate a thesis to share with her professor and classmates. During the next two weeks, students will be asked to defend their thesis statements in class. The lab results prove the scientist's thesis on ...

  24. Word of the Day: scalable

    Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today's Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and ...