How to Write a Thesis Statement for an Academic Essay

(Excerpts from my book “Essay Writing, Composition Writing Handbook: A Complete Guide to Writing Academic Compositions, with Examples”)

Table of Contents

Introduction

A thesis statement is an important document that breaks down the focus of your argument.

It states what you are going to argue for, and against, in your paper.

It helps readers know what your paper is about and what they are going to learn from reading it.

A thesis statement provides direction and focus for the rest of your research and writing.

In this guide, I will explain the purpose and function of a thesis statement as well as give guidelines for writing one that will help support your claims with relevant evidence.

I hope this post helps you craft an argument that is concise, accurate, and compelling.

What is a Thesis Statement?

Writing your thesis statement for an academic essay is nothing more than summarizing your purpose, your goal in a single clear sentence.

A thesis statement is especially important for academic essays that discuss an argument and support one claim over the other. If you can’t get the thesis statement right, your essay will be a collection of meandering sentences.

A thesis statement is a sentence that summarizes the whole point of an essay. It summarizes the argument, the specific central question that the rest of the essay tries to support and prove. It usually comes at the end of the first paragraph, right after the description of the general topic of the research paper or essay.

What is an example of a thesis statement?

Here is an example:

“To increase the GNP growth rate by 1% a year, you must have low inflation under 6%, business credit available for small businesses, and slow decrease in Central Bank’s prime rate, no faster than 50 base points a year.”

The thesis statement should be

specific
present just one single idea or claim, and
state something worth pondering and caring about. At the very least, it should state something that is intellectually engaging; something that triggers our curiosity and propels us to read the rest of the essay.
Another feature of the thesis statement is that it should address a question that can reasonably and adequately be addresses within the six, seven, or eight pages allowed for an essay.
The scope of the thesis statement should lend itself to an analysis that can be concluded within the average length of an essay.

How Do You Write a Thesis Statement If You’re a beginner?

In sum, a thesis statement should have the following 4 characteristics:

1) SPECIFICITY. Stating a specific relationship between at least two variables or entities.

2) SIGNIFICANCE. Addressing an issue that’s worth caring about.

3) FOCUS. Raising only one central issue; not two or more.

4) SCOPE. Having a scope that can be analyzed and concluded within the limited time allowed for a research paper (usually a semester).

Let’s study each of these characteristics one by one:

1) SPECIFICITY

“In this paper we’re going to look at the ways in which people live happy lives” is not specific enough. You need to further narrow down general terms like “happy,” “people,” etc.

Here is a more specific version of the same thesis statement:

BETTER: “In this paper we’ll research the thesis that couples who are married fourteen years or longer live on the average ten years longer than their non-married counterparts, at all education and income levels, and have less medical bills.”

2) SIGNIFICANCE

Here is a very specific thesis statement:

“In this paper we’ll examine the way the post-WW2 New York and London stock market price fluctuations have affected the worldwide sales of Haiku poetry books.”

Yes, the statement is specific enough but it’s not clear why we should care about it. Its significance is not clear. An average reader may easily say “who cares about the impact of stock price fluctuations on sales of Haiku poetry?”

Here is a more significant version of the same thesis statement:

BETTER: “In this paper we’ll examine the way the post-WW2 New York and London stock market price fluctuations have affected the number of students enrolled in major business schools in the world and the core classes these schools offered.”

Now you have something that more than just a few people might be interested in.

3) FOCUS

Here is an unfocused statement:

“We’ll study the development of beauty as a social value in contemporary Europe while looking to see if the happiness of an average Italian or German has anything to do with rising levels of medical care, literacy, or four weeks of annual vacation.”

This statement is so unfocused you can bet this research paper will never be done. Among other questions, how are you going to measure “development of beauty as a social value”, for example?

Here is a more focused version of the same thesis statement:

BETTER: “We’ll study the ways in which expanded medical care, literacy, and leisure time have affected the “happiness” of an average European, as evidenced by EU survey data.”

4) SCOPE

Here is a thesis statement that is specific, significant, and focused but cannot be studied within a semester due to its gigantic scope:

“Children born to couples with prior exposure to lead paint have a statistically significant chance of becoming autistic within the first five years of their lives, regardless of race, gender, family’s socioeconomic status or the country of birth.”

You can easily see that studying all births in the world (anytime!) is not a research project that can be concluded within a semester and within the 20 to 30-page limits of a standard research paper.

Here is another version of the same thesis statement with a more realistic scope:

BETTER: “Children born to couples with prior exposure to lead paint in New York City in the post-1990 period have a statistically significant chance of becoming autistic within the first five years of their lives, regardless of race, gender, or the family’s socioeconomic status.”

Now this research project has a better chance of getting completed in time due to its much narrower scope, forming a “tree view” with the main trunk splitting into thick branches which in turn taper off into even thinner branches and leaves.

How to Write a Thesis Statement in 5 Simple Steps

1. Introduce your argument or point of view with a word or phrase.

2. Introduce the key terms you’re using in your argument and give an overview of how they relate to your thesis statement.

3. Indicate the stance you’re taking, which is called “thesis” in this context (e.g., “I believe that _____ is important”).

4. State what position opposite of yours you disagree with (i.e., the “anti-thesis”). Since this is the opposite of what you think, it should be easy for you to refute it by providing evidence or examples that prove it wrong (or at least not as right).

5. At the end, summarize your position and indicate how others can read more about it in order to better understand it (“conclusion”).

Conclusion

A thesis statement is a sentence or two that states what the paper will be about. It is the most important sentence in a paper because it tells readers what they can expect from the content.

A good thesis statement does not need to be complicated, but it should be specific and concise. A good thesis statement should answer these questions: