Thesis Statements

What this handout is about

This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, and
how you can craft or refine one for your draft.

Introduction
Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion—convincing others that you have an
interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill you practice
regularly in your daily life. You persuade your roommate to clean up, your parents to let you borrow
the car, your friend to vote for your favorite candidate or policy. In college, course assignments often
ask you to make a persuasive case in writing. You are asked to convince your reader of your point of
view. This form of persuasion, often called academic argument, follows a predictable pattern in
writing. After a brief introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the topic directly and
often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it serves as a summary of the
argument you’ll make in the rest of your paper.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement:

 tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.
 is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of
the paper.
 directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or
subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II or
Moby Dick; a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war or the novel.
 makes a claim that others might dispute.
 is usually a single sentence near the beginning of your paper (most often, at the end of the
first paragraph) that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body
of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of
your interpretation.

If your assignment asks you to take a position or develop a claim about a subject, you may need to
convey that position or claim in a thesis statement near the beginning of your draft. The assignment
may not explicitly state that you need a thesis statement because your instructor may assume you
will include one. When in doubt, ask your instructor if the assignment requires a thesis statement.
When an assignment asks you to analyze, to interpret, to compare and contrast, to demonstrate
cause and effect, or to take a stand on an issue, it is likely that you are being asked to develop a
thesis and to support it persuasively. (Check out our handout on understanding assignments for
more information.)

How do I create a thesis?

A thesis is the result of a lengthy thinking process. Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do
after reading an essay assignment. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to
collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts (such as
surprising contrasts or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you
do this thinking, you will probably have a “working thesis” that presents a basic or main idea and an
argument that you think you can support with evidence. Both the argument and your thesis are likely
to need adjustment along the way.

Writers use all kinds of techniques to stimulate their thinking and to help them clarify relationships or
comprehend the broader significance of a topic and arrive at a thesis statement. For more ideas on
how to get started, see our handout on brainstorming.

How do I know if my thesis is strong?

If there’s time, run it by your instructor or make an appointment at the Writing Center to get some
feedback. Even if you do not have time to get advice elsewhere, you can do some thesis evaluation
of your own. When reviewing your first draft and its working thesis, ask yourself the following:

 Do I answer the question? Re-reading the question prompt after constructing a working
thesis can help you fix an argument that misses the focus of the question.
 Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? If your thesis simply
states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it’s possible that you are
simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument.
 Is my thesis statement specific enough? Thesis statements that are too vague often do
not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like “good” or “successful,” see if
you could be more specific: why is something “good”; what specifically makes something
“successful”?
 Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? If a reader’s first response is likely to be “So
what?” then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue.
 Does my essay support my thesis specifically and without wandering? If your thesis
and the body of your essay do not seem to go together, one of them has to change. It’s
okay to change your working thesis to reflect things you have figured out in the course of
writing your paper. Remember, always reassess and revise your writing as necessary.
  Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? If a reader’s first response is “how?” or
“why?” your thesis may be too open-ended and lack guidance for the reader. See what you
can add to give the reader a better take on your position right from the beginning.

Examples
Suppose you are taking a course on 19th-century America, and the instructor hands out the
following essay assignment: Compare and contrast the reasons why the North and South fought the
Civil War. You turn on the computer and type out the following:

The North and South fought the Civil War for many reasons, some of which were the same
and some different.

This weak thesis restates the question without providing any additional information. It does not
tell the reader where you are heading. A reader of this weak thesis might think “What reasons? How
are they the same? How are they different?” Ask yourself these same questions and begin to
compare Northern and Southern attitudes (perhaps you first think “The South believed slavery was
right, and the North thought slavery was wrong”). Now, push your comparison toward an
interpretation—why did one side think slavery was right and the other side think it was wrong? You
look again at the evidence, and you decide that you are going to argue that the North believed
slavery was immoral while the South believed it upheld the Southern way of life. You write:

While both sides fought the Civil War over the issue of slavery, the North fought for moral
reasons while the South fought to preserve its own institutions.

Now you have a working thesis! Included in this working thesis is a reason for the war and some
idea of how the two sides disagreed over this reason. As you write the essay, you will probably begin
to characterize these differences more precisely, and your working thesis may start to seem too
vague. Maybe you decide that both sides fought for moral reasons, and that they just focused on
different moral issues. You end up revising the working thesis into a final thesis that really captures
the argument in your paper:

While both Northerners and Southerners believed they fought against tyranny and
oppression, Northerners focused on the oppression of slaves while Southerners defended
their own right to self-government.

Compare this to the original weak thesis. This final thesis presents a way of interpreting evidence
that illuminates the significance of the question. Keep in mind that this is one of many possible
interpretations of the Civil War—it is not the one and only right answer to the question. There isn’t
one right answer; there are only strong and weak thesis statements and strong and weak uses of
evidence.
Let’s look at another example. Suppose your literature professor hands out the following assignment
in a class on the American novel: Write an analysis of some aspect of Mark Twain’s novel
Huckleberry Finn. “This will be easy,” you think. “I loved Huckleberry Finn!” You grab a pad of paper
and write:

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.

Why is this thesis weak? Think about what the reader would expect from the essay that follows:
most likely a general, appreciative summary of Twain’s novel. But the question did not ask you to
summarize; it asked you to analyze. Your professor is probably not interested in your opinion of the
novel; instead, she wants you to think about why it’s such a great novel—what do Huck’s adventures
tell us about life, about America, about coming of age, about race, etc.? First, the question asks you
to pick an aspect of the novel that you think is important to its structure or meaning—for example,
the role of storytelling, the contrasting scenes between the shore and the river, or the relationships
between adults and children.

Now you write:

In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and life on
the shore.

Here’s a working thesis with potential: you have highlighted an important aspect of the novel for
investigation. However, it’s still not clear what your analysis will reveal. Your reader is intrigued but is
still thinking, “So what? What’s the point of this contrast? What does it signify?” Perhaps you are not
sure yet, either. That’s fine—begin to work on comparing scenes from the book and see what you
discover. Free write, make lists, jot down Huck’s actions and reactions. Eventually you will be able to
clarify for yourself, and then for the reader, why this contrast matters. After examining the evidence
and considering your own insights, you write:

Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn suggests that to
find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must leave “civilized” society
and go back to nature.

This final thesis statement presents an interpretation of a literary work based on an analysis of its
content. Of course, for the essay itself to be successful, you must now present evidence from the
novel that will convince the reader of your interpretation.

Works consulted
We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources
on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find the latest publications
on this topic. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it
may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see
the UNC Libraries citation tutorial.

Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers. 6th
ed. New York: Longman, 2011.
Ruszkiewicz, John J., et al. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers. 9th ed. New York:
Longman, 2010.
Lunsford, Andrea A. The St. Martin’s Handbook. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2015.
Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing. 8th ed.
New York: Pearson, 2018.

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