How to Write a Thesis Statement

Roughly speaking, a thesis statement is a single and specific claim of your paper. But if you consider the subject of the paper you can observe that it is the unifying aspect of the paper. It states the specific idea or opinion that you discuss in the paper. Hence, there is a definite method of writing the thesis statement. If you learn the idea of how to write a thesis statement, you can make your thesis more attractive for the readers.

While writing the thesis statement you need to consider the kind of paper you are writing so that you can develop the statement accordingly. Generally, there are analytical, explanatory, argumentative or narrative papers. As the function of a thesis statement is to support the paper, it should reflect the basic idea of the paper. It should represent your clear views about the subject. Hence, it’s better to spend time over writing a presentable thesis statement.
For shorter paper (1-2 pages), the first statement of the paper is the thesis statement. However, for long paper, the thesis statement can be a part of a paragraph.
A presentable thesis statement is not just anything that represents your paper; but it’s an idea or opinion that represents your research work. Hence, make sure to develop your statement after you conduct your research thoroughly. Otherwise it may weaken the foundation of your paper.
Infuse your views or opinion in the thesis statement instead of simply developing an idea that is found with the research.
The thesis statement should be precise and specific. It should be developed only on the basis of specific evidence. And, most important is, it should cover only the subject that you are going to discuss in the paper. It should also summarize the principal points of the paper.
With your presentation and style you can make your thesis statement weak, working or strong. A strong thesis statement is able to grab readers’ attention by showing your clear views on the subject. However, a strong thesis statement is always based on evidence. Hence, you need to have a command over your research before develop the thesis statement.
A strong and appealing thesis statement is more than just a question, promise or an opinion. Rather, it should include a topic, reasoning and a precise opinion to define a clear idea.
There are basically three parts of the thesis statement: limited subject, exact opinion and outline of the reasons.

The subject reveals about on what or whom the article is based on.
With the precise opinion you can provide an answer to a question about the topic. An ideal precise opinion is crucial to build the readers’ idea about the objective of the paper.
An outline of the reasons allows you to see the complete shape of your presentation before you start developing the whole paragraphs.

Tips

Usually, the thesis statement appears at the end of the first paragraph of the paper.
In due course of writing the paper, there are chances of changing the topic of your paper. Hence, it is essential to revise the thesis statement after you complete the paper and if required do necessary modification to it to present what exactly you have discussed in the paper.

Watch a video instruction on how to write a thesis statement