To know how to start a Thesis statement….Read on this article….!
A thesis statement can be a part of an article, debate speech, classroom lecture etc., however, it is more pronounced in an essay, and this will be the context of this article.
How to Start a Thesis Statement
Thesis statement start with stating your topic, after which you take a central position in the topic and give reasons which support your central idea. Also, there is a need to provide counter positions to your idea as essays are by nature controversial. All these will be made clear subsequently.
Phases Involved in Starting a Thesis Statement
Have you ever been stuck when attempting to generate a thesis statement? Do you feel discouraged to start your thesis statement because you do not know how to go about it? You need not worry henceforth. This article is here to serve as a guide for you. There are various steps and methods involved in establishing a good thesis statement. Some of these steps presupposes another, such that you can assume that without some basic steps, other steps will not be actualized. These steps include:
I) State your topic and make it clear and make a central position – Thesis Statement
II) Provide concrete reasons to support your claim
III) Provide counter testimonies to test the validity of your evidences
Now, go through the subsequent paragraphs , and carefully create a mental comparison of what you have been doing before, with what you are reading now.
State Your Topic and Make a Central Position – Thesis Statement
To start your thesis statement, you first have to state a clear topic. You can get your topic from areas you have interest in, from popular opinions, or even from matters involving societal concerns. In working out a thesis statement, presenting a topic is not enough, you have to state your idea or what you think of such a topic. Whatever topic you are going to work on, depending on the kind of essay, will definitely generate different opinions, and your idea will only be one out of maybe a thousand. For instance, an argumentative essay with the topic, “Technology has done more harm than good” is one with diverse opinions, so, making a central position would require you giving a high level of substantial and logical reasons.
Making a central position generates your thesis statement, and summarizes the position you intend taking during the course of your essay. Making a central position is subjective to you, so you can assume that your thesis statement is not an epistemic island, and this is why you must make your work open to criticism. We will dive into this in later paragraphs.
Taking central positions in essays varies. The kind of essay you are working on determines the type of thesis statement you generate. If your area of interest is an “Argumentative Essay”, you have to hold a strong position as your thesis statement, as you have to convince your readers with logical reasons on why they should key into your idea. An example is an argumentative essay with the topic “Globalization has led to more diverse development than underdevelopment.” This kind of topic demands that you take a strong position, as you have one aim – convince your readers.
An expository essay does not demand that you hold strong positions in your thesis statements, it is more informative than it is argumentative. In this kind of essay, you need to state your opinion, and highlight key factors and specific areas you want to discuss. Here, your position is not impositional or argumentative, rather its sole aim is to inform its readers. A good example of an expository essay has the topic, “Benefits of protein in the body system”. It has no argumentative expression, it is purely informative.
Provide Concrete Reasons to Support Your Claim
Supporting details have various sources. They can be gotten from your personal experiences and observations, from facts, from expert opinions, from statistics, and from relevant examples which can be real or made-up. Each of these sources will be explained in subsequent paragraphs.
When you back up your thesis using personal experience and observations, you make your essay work more real, and this elicits a level of emotions from your readers, which by implication, gain their confidence and trust in your position. Although, personal opinions in themselves are weak, and this why they must be supported by generally accepted facts.
Facts are independent of opinions. For instance, if you cited a personal experience supporting detail of having produced an excellent academic result through the aid of “Tick Tick” app, this might not in itself be seen as a strong support for your thesis, but if you start highlighting relevant facts on how “Tick Tick” app can aid an excellent academic performance, then your reasons become more credible. You must note that both fact and personal experiences work hand in hand, they should be used simultaneously to produce efficient and effective results.
Expert opinions can also be used to prove your thesis as being authentic. Quality opinions lend credibility to any case study, thesis statements not excluded. However, whatever external testimony you cite must have been thoroughly investigated, as expert opinions can also be error filled.
Statistics are facts expressed in numbers. They can provide excellent support for your thesis. Humans are moved by the fact that a lot of other people find something useful, and when it is something you are trying to justify, they automatically key into it. Stating a statistics that over 70% of people who use the “Tick Tick” app have excellent academic performance would increase your chance of having your point driven home – the mind of your readers.
Examples have been known to fascinate individuals of diverse age, careers, interests etc. It has a way of supporting facts, opinions, and statistics. It gives your readers a mental display of your idea, and this subsequently immerses them in your work, gaining their attention and trust. What more do you need if you have the attention of your readers? Don’t say nothing”, you need to keep up with the energy that captivated them.
Having successfully supported your thesis with various pieces of evidence, you have yet another responsibility to presuppose counter claims and address them, and this would be explained in the next section.
Provide Counter Testimonies to Test the Validity of Your Evidence.
Do not assume that your support details are enough and can shield your work from any counter opinion. You must always bear in mind especially if you are writing to inform and not to persuade, that you must create room for counter opinions. Do not be afraid to raise them. Bring them up, and further show how their answers can still be resolved into your initial claims and positions. This way, you show your readers that the information you are passing across to them is one that wasn’t shaken after it was tested and countered. It only portrays the credibility and reliability of your work.
What Does it Take to Write a Good Thesis Statement?
All it takes to write a good thesis is your interest, since that’s a major factor that drives your passion. Your interest determines how consistent, committed, disciplined, and time conscious you would be. If your interest lies in something, you would dedicate enough time to do extensive research, which in turn fills you with the knowledge you need for your essay, and subsequently, the thesis statement you come up with. Also, remember not to go about your thesis with a rigid mind, be open minded and be flexible in your thought processes. You can use this to your advantage by making all your arguments, those that support and negate alike, to validly fit into your thesis without contradictions.
Conclusion
Writing a thesis statement especially in an informative style of essay requires a lot of delicate and deliberate effort, because you are writing for your readers, literates and illiterates alike. So, you have to be intentional about your research and the information you relay to them, as well as the evidence you provide to justify your thesis statement.
Frequently Asked Questions
1) Must every essay contain a thesis statement?
Answer
Yes, every essay should have a thesis statement as they give to the flow of the work some sense of focus, and to the reader a sense of direction.
2) Can an essay assume a neutral position?
Answer
Although philosophical essays take neutral positions at times, it is however not advisable to write essays without taking a position. This can leave your readers confused, or make them assume you are not sure of the content of your work.
3) What amount of time should I spend writing a good thesis statement?
Answer
This absolutely depends on the nature of your topic. The more voluminous or technical your topic is, the more research you have to do, and the more time you have to spend.
4) How do I confirm the credibility of my source details?
Answer
One way to do this is by ensuring that the particular evidence you are trying to validate can be found in at least two sources, with information that in no way contradicts each other.
