What is the meaning of the thesis statement?

Try to remember that almost any type of essay necessarily contains a strong thesis statement. In turn, it covers not only the information that is discussed in your paper itself but also often includes the author’s individual opinion about the topic being studied.

Most often, a thesis can be found in the first paragraph, which is located in the introduction section. Why is the thesis used in the introduction? The fact is that it is intended to inform the readers at least about the discussion that will take place in the central part of the work, as well as about the author’s opinion on the main arguments in the paper.

That is why you need to use catchy phrases in your thesis in order for the readership to sincerely want to read the whole work and see how exactly you prove your arguments and defend your point of view.

In order to better understand the meaning of the term, it is also worth mentioning what characteristics this concept has when writing an essay. A thesis should:

• Necessarily expresses the author’s personal position;
• Help to focus research on a specific goal;
• Establish a logical chain of arguments listed in the paper;
• Take a position which will be further argued and proved in the framework of the central part of your essay;
• Not be a simple statement of fact;
• Always contain elements of discussion and debate.

How do your readers understand a thesis

Agree that reading a text you are interested in is quite natural and even exciting. That is why you need to make your thesis statement more specific and at the same time, debatable. However, many students still make a widespread mistake and, instead of a thesis, write a simple statement of fact.

Of course, this is done unintentionally and with the aim that the facts are much easier to prove. Nevertheless, evidence of evidence already is uninteresting and in no way attracts the attention of readers.

In fact, if you simply describe the events in your thesis, you will in no way be able to demonstrate to your teacher such qualities as:

• Writing skills;
• Critical thinking skills;
• Analytic skills;
• Focus on the question;
• Deep understanding of the topic.

Besides, the situation when a student writes already known facts in a thesis is considered to be another mistake. Therefore, when readers look through the introductory part of the paper and read the argument, they will notice if the information is already well-known, or the question has previously been entirely disclosed by someone else. Therefore, citing the evidence and well-known facts in the thesis is meaningless.

Why is the usage of abstracts important?

In order for your essay to be interesting to read, you need to come up with a thesis that will make the reader likely disagree with you and decide to challenge your arguments. Indeed, you must agree when a person tries to prove his case to you, first of all, he/she will need to read your work in order to understand with what arguments you can argue in the future.

Therefore, if you were able to introduce an element of discussion into your abstract, and the reader is interested in exactly how you were able to prove your point of view, this will be an excellent reason not only to read your work but also to do it with great interest.

You should answer the question in your abstract

In fact, one of the essential functions of an argument is an answer to a specific question that sounds in the subject of your work. For example, if your topic is: ‘Do you believe in the existence of King Kong?’ You need to argue either in favor of what you believe or in support of the fact that this is just a character of a movie.

Thus, already in the first paragraph you should give a direct answer to this question and it may look like this: ‘I believe in the existence of King Kong because last week I read about it in the relevant geographic magazines and also primarily because I saw on my own eyes how King Kong eat a neighbor’s cow’.

Four keys to writing a good thesis

To write a strong thesis statement use the following tips. It should be:

• Strong and affirmative. The harder and more convincing your argument sounds, the more apparent it is to convey to the reader that you intend to prove your judgment with the help of specific facts. Even if you describe some dubious ideas in which you are not 100% sure, your thesis should sound very convincing, but in the conclusions section, you can be more careful and not so definite.
• Using a key idea. In order for the thesis to really turn out strong, you need to use a specific idea that will talk about the main direction of the article.
• Containing specifics. Regardless of the essay type, these abstracts should be as specific as possible and clearly show your personal position on the issue under study. If you are writing a short essay, the thesis, in turn, should be as brief and specific as possible.
• Properly located in the structure of your writing. Remember that the thesis must be placed in the introductory part of an essay, and most often, this is the last or penultimate sentence in this section.

Is it possible to change a statement in the process of writing?

If you write a research work, then choosing a specific idea and sticking to it throughout the paper will be quite straightforward. The fact is that you already know in advance the hypothesis that you need to prove and you will base your thesis on this.

However, when writing an essay, you, first of all, need to decide on the purpose and direction of your work and collect the maximum information. After you get comprehensive knowledge on the chosen topic, you can write a preliminary or essentially a draft version of your ideas.

Try to remember that as you learn more and more information and re-read a large number of sources on the topic under study, your initial conviction or opinion may change. Accordingly, the thesis that you may have hastened to write may be adjusted regarding the new information that you could find out.

In fact, professional writers recommend regularly reviewing if the argument corresponds to the logic and fundamental idea of your work as you write it. That is why changes in the formulation of the thesis is an entirely natural process. Even after you have written a draft version of the work, re-read it again and make sure that the information you wrote corresponds to your initial statement.