What is a thesis statement?

A thesis is a one sentence statement about your topic.   It's an assertion about your topic, something you claim to be true. Love vs. Hate is a topic. Love is more impactful than hate is a thesis. Notice that a topic doesn’t make a claim; it merely defines an area to be covered. The topic is seldom stated as a complete sentence with a subject and predicate. To make your topic into a thesis statement, you need to make a claim about it.

 For instance, if your topic for a school paper is: Selecting curriculum for high school students, then your thesis might be something like, “Students should play a bigger part in selecting the classes offered to them”. Or if your investigations led you to a different belief, you might write a thesis like: Washington High School provides students with a complete, well-rounded education and gives students many choices of classes from which to choose. Notice, though, that a sentence stating an obvious and indisputable truth won't work as a thesis: Washington High School offers many classes. That's a complete sentence, and it asserts something to be true, but as a thesis it's a deadend. It's a statement of fact, pure and simple, and is proven simply by looking at the school’s class schedule. No other proof is needed.   Of course, if Washington only offers a few electives and you still want to prove that the school provides students with all that they need, then you have a thesis. It’s all about proving something that isn’t obvious.

A great thesis engages the reader and challenges the reader’s own perceptions. It demands some proof. Your job is to show your reader that your thesis is true, so that in end the reader will say, "Ah yes, now that it's been explained, I can see that students need a greater choice in the classes that they are required to take.”

So, let’s get started. Look back over your materials and think about what you believe to be true. If you need any help, please sign up for a FREE 30 minute session with me and I’ll walk you through it!