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HOW TO WRITE A STRONG THESIS STATEMENT A WRITING CENTRE HANDOUT 1. UNDERSTAND THE ACADEMIC WRITING TASK ‘You can begin to formulate a good thesis statement only after you have got a solid grasp ofthe purpose of the assignment. If you're asked to write a paper in response to a specific assignment question, then your first task is malce sure that you clearly understand the academic writing task. Determine which of the following critical thinking skills you are primarily being asked to apply to your object(s) of study: © analysis comparison + evaluation © argumentation + interpretation * reflection ‘Your thesis statement, then, should take a form that reflects the goal of the writing task. 2. BECOME FAMILIAR WITH THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF THESIS STATEMENTS Almost all forms of academic writing conform to a thesis-support structure—a structure in which we find the main claim near the beginning of the essay, followed by evidence and analysis in support of this claim in the body of the essay. Your thesis statement serves as the main argument that drives your paper forward. Students are for the most part well accustomed to writing essays that follow this top-down structure, however, they usually have a much harder time adapting their thesis statements to match the purpose of the specific writing task, Never assume that you don’t need a thesis statement just because you're not asked to write a traditional academic essay. The following table lists some of the most common assignments and their corresponding thesis forms Type of Assignment Form of the Thesis Statement Analytical Essay ‘Statement ofmain clam about the topicin relation to the abject of study Book Review Statement of enitical evaluation about the book Critical Review (-e review ofan academic journal article) Statement of ci ical evaluation about the journal article Position Paper Statement of position > reasons Comparative Essay Statement of main argument + main points of comparison Research Paper Statement ofmain claim about the topic, issue, or problem Research Proposal Tentative statement of main clam about the topic, issue, or problem Personal Rell ‘Statement of main focus or direction Case Study Statement of problem + recommendations Lab Report Statement of main purpose 3. FORMULATE A RESEARCH QUESTION Students often have a hard time distinguishing between the thesis statement and the research question. These two components of an academic paper are closely related, but not interchangeable. Sometimes the research question is given to you as a part of the assignment question, at other times, you will have to come up with the research question on your own. The research question can be defined in the following ways ‘© The question that focuses your research on a significant problem, issue, controversy or contradiction ‘© The main question outlined in your assignment, or the final question you have arrived at after having asked questions to narrow your topic ‘© The question that your thesis statement will answer in the form of a specific Example of research question: “What was the most important cause of Ame War during the 1960s?” (Avery et al. 22 's increased involvement in the Vietnam Example of a th “The escalation of the Vietnam War during the 1960s was caused primarily by America’s * (Avery et al. 22 is statement in response to a research question: anti-Communist foreign pa + Tips on coming up with a good research question: + Ask the joumalistic questions (who, what, when, where, why) about your topic until you get down to a single question that is both specific and substantive * Consider how your question relates to published literature on your topic «Use apurpose-statement prompt to help you come up with a research question: “The purpose of this paperis to 4, FORMULATE A TENTATIVE THESIS STATEMENT Coming up with a good thesis statement can seem like a very perplexing task in the early stages of the writing process, particularly if you're asked to submit aresearch proposal that requires a tentative thesis statement, Remember that a fentative thesis statement is not something set in stone, rather, it is something meant to help you focus your analysis and research so that the writing task becomes manageable, You should not attempt to start collecting and analyzing evidence until you have an idea of the main argument you ‘would like make in your paper. Generating the thesis statement, then, can be thought of as arecursive process. In the early stages of planning and writing, the tentative thesis helps you focus on the evidence in a certain way, but as you get further along in the ‘wniting process the analysis of evidence should also help you clarify the thesis statement (Rosenwasser et al. 132). ‘The writers of Writing Analytically recommend that you ask yourself the following questions as you go through the process of generating a main claim for your essay