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A good thesis statement is pretty much the Holy Grail of paper-writing. (Source)
Everything we've done up until this point might not have felt very paper-related. It probably felt more like we picked a subject and then danced around it making cool charts and taking screenshots and doing everything except sitting down and actually writing something. I've been telling you that each of these steps is a crucial part of the magical and mysterious process of research, but maybe you're losing a little faith. Maybe you think I have finally led you astray. The horror!
O ye of little faith. This lesson is the moment when the rubber of our research hits the road of writing. We'll formulate a thesis statement and turn a set of nebulous research questions into a solid, clear statement. I don't want to sound intimidating, but a good thesis statement can make or break your entire research paper. In the immortal words of Ron Burgundy, they're kind of a big deal.
But how do you make the magical leap from a research subject to a serious thesis? And how do you distill all your searching and background information into a real opinion? We'll talk about the main characteristics of a thesis statement, and then go over several different techniques that can help lead you to the best possible thesis statement.
WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE AND WHERE TO FIND THEM
WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE AND WHERE TO FIND THEM
Before we dive head first into thesis writing, we should probably define what one is. A thesis statement is a sentence (or possibly two) that does two things simultaneously: 1) it introduces the overall topic of your paper, but 2) also tells readers what conclusions you've come to or what opinions your evidence supports. For a paper on the Endangered Species Act, a good thesis statement might go something like this:
While the 1973 Endangered Species Act is credited with preventing the extinction of several species, the Act also has a record of notable failures. This inability to prevent extinctions indicates that stronger enforcement measures are necessary to render the Act truly effective.
Thesis statement = the main, most important, overall argument of your research paper. It doesn't even have to be one nice, tidy sentence. Mine is two.
Let's break that statement down a little bit and read over a few of their basic characteristics. Luckily, the clever people at the Purdue Writing Lab have already written that up for us. Check out the page below and read the entire thing carefully. When you're done, answer the questions!
TOOLS TO CREATE A THESIS STATEMENT
TOOLS TO CREATE A THESIS STATEMENT
So...how'd that go? Knowing what a thesis statement should look like, and being able to write your own statement are two very different things, aren't they? Check out this list of different techniques for drafting a good thesis statement, and pay special attention to the part on "question-to-assertion" drafting. Because, uh, we did start with research questions, and drafting a thesis statement is basically an attempt to answer those questions.
So, if my original research questions were these:
How did the British Empire affect the natural environment over time? Was the British Empire environmentally detrimental, or helpful? What were the major natural resources that the growth of the Empire consumed?
Maybe my draft thesis statement looks like this:
Overall, the expansion of the British Empire contributed to the commodification of natural resources, and encouraged the degradation of the environment based on new and more global markets.
Or maybe this:
Because the British Empire required increasing amounts of raw materials to fuel its military and economic expansion, the Empire was ultimately detrimental to the natural environment. In particular, the Empire negatively affected the tropical regions of the world.
There's one more thing I want to add about writing a thesis statement this early in the paper-writing game: It will probably change a little bit. It won't change from "The comic book industry of the 1940s was a crucial part of building America's current science-fiction and fantasy fandom" to "The California Redwoods must be harvested immediately to ensure maximum profit," but it's probably going to get tweaked along the way.
At this point, you're writing your thesis based on your impressions and ideas from some pretty light research. As you more seriously delve into your research, you might uncover new information and theories that change your conclusions. Be prepared, scouts.
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