Forming a Thesis

The thesis is the main idea that you want to express in your essay. More than a statement of fact or an announcement of your topic, your thesis represents your unique individual approach to or opinion or conclusion about the material you are working on.

The thesis must be an arguable claim. A claim is your position or your opinion on an issue or topic. The claim answers the question "what is your position?" It should not be something that most people agree with, i.e. "Murder is immoral." While this example makes a claim, it's not one that is up for debate. The vast majority of people would agree, therefore it's not worth arguing. A better example is:

"Capital punishment should be made illegal"

Many people agree with this claim, but many also disagree. Therefore, it is appropriate for a research argument. The goal is for you to convince your readers that your perspective is the best one.

Once you have a claim, then add the scope - a summary of your supporting evidence. The scope answers the question(s) "why do you make this claim? and/or how will you prove this claim?" You're limited by time and page length so you can't talk about all the evidence out there. Instead, choose what you feel are the most important ideas that support your claim and are available through research. For the previous example, the scope could be:

"…because it does not effectively deter violent crime."

Think about organizing your thesis by this simple equation:

Claim + Scope = Thesis

Therefore, our completed example is:

Capital punishment should be made illegal because it does not effectively deter violent crime.


Now apply this model to your own papers. Start with your opinion and make sure it is an arguable claim. Then ask yourself why do you feel this way and how will you convince readers that your perspective is right. I'll also give you some sample thesis statements for reference.

Good luck!

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