Writing a Thesis Statement in Your Introduction
Your thesis statement is the most important component of an
introduction, so it’s vital that you get this part right, even if you make some
mistakes with the two other components. We have a full guidebook on writing a
good thesis statement with many more examples that you can download at the
Academic Coaching website: http://www.writeyourthesis.com/p/resources.html.
For now, we’ll cover all of the basics here so that you can understand how to write
a thesis statement for your essay introduction.
A thesis statement tells the reader the main point that your essay is trying to make. This is not merely
repeating the topic of the essay or giving the field of study, but instead it’s
giving a contention, argument or
perspective that you will take on the field of study. A thesis statement
needs to be something that is disputable
or debatable, meaning that it’s something that requires support or evidence and isn’t just an obvious, vague, or
indisputable fact.
For example, the following would be a weak thesis statement:
This essay will show that Nelson Mandela was the first democratic
president of South Africa.
This sentence can’t be a thesis statement, and it instead
would fit much better as context since it is giving background information. The
point isn’t disputable, since it’s a
fact that Nelson Mandela was the first democratic president of South Africa.
There is no debate, and your essay won’t need to provide any support or
evidence for this point.
However, if you change it into a unique perspective,
something that is debatable, your essay becomes much more interesting and you
are providing a thesis statement:
This essay will show that Nelson Mandela’s leadership style
helped to prevent social upheaval after the first democratic elections, and
that without the symbolic fatherhood that he provided, the country was in
serious danger of going into a civil war.
This is now a thesis statement. You’re not just stating a
fact, but you’re stating a perspective which incorporates many different ideas
and synthesizes them into a thesis, a contention
which is debatable. Someone else
could disagree with you here, and provide their own support for why Nelson
Mandela was actually a weak president. But no one could disagree with the first
statement that he was the first president; this statement is self-evident and
not debatable.
Your thesis statement needs to build on your context. Your context shows the basic arena that your
discussion takes place in, and your thesis statement shows the angle you will
take and the main contention that you will support throughout your essay.
Your thesis statement needs to provide an answer to the question which was asked
in your essay topic, and shouldn’t just rephrase your essay topic. For example,
imagine that your professor assigns you the following essay topic:
Write an essay of 5000 words in which you analyze the impact of
climate change on rural agriculture in Puerto Rico.
You are being asked to do one main thing in this essay.
There might be many extra parts to the question that your professor adds to this
main point, but you are essentially being asked to answer the following
question:
How does climate change impact rural agriculture in Puerto Rico?
Your thesis statement now needs to directly answer that question. It can’t just rephrase the question.
For example, the following thesis statement merely gives the topic again in a
slightly different form, but doesn’t actually answer the question:
In this essay, I will analyze the impact of climate change on
rural agriculture in Puerto Rico.
This might look like a complete thesis statement, and it’s
the type of thesis statement I get a million times from my students who don’t
yet fully grasp what a thesis statement is supposed to do. In this sentence,
you’re just telling me that you will eventually answer the question, but I want
to know what your answer is, right
at the start, in your introduction.
A better thesis statement would look as follows:
In this essay, I will show that climate change has drastically
affected rural agriculture in Puerto Rico due to the fact that 15% of arable
land has been rendered useless by rising sea levels. However, my analysis will
also show that farmers have had to introduce more innovation such as different
soil types, which ultimately could result in greater crop yields.
You are answering the question quite directly here. You’re
telling me how rural agriculture was affected by climate change, not just
saying that you’ll answer this question at some point in your essay and the
reader will just have to hold out hope that the answer will come eventually.
From the start, I know that there have been negative effects, but there has
also been greater innovation, and that there is some hope for agriculture in
the country. Now, I’ll be interested to read the rest of your essay to see how
you support your claims.
The points are again debatable, and not merely statements of
fact. You’ll have to clearly show the reader why climate change was to blame
for rising sea levels, citing professionals in the field. Another researcher
might argue that it wasn’t climate change that caused it, but instead changes
in farming styles the produced more waste. You’re taking a perspective on the
topic, and you have a contention which you need to support with evidence. You’re
not simply parroting facts, but you’re using your critical thinking skills to show the reader something they might
not have thought about before.
Your thesis statement should be very short and clear. Try
and aim for one to three sentences, but no more than that. You’re only giving
your main point, and there’s still some room in your introduction for a bit
more information, so don’t squeeze it all into your thesis statement.
Remember that you can learn much more about writing a good
thesis statement in the free workbook available at www.writeyourthesis.com, but for now,
let’s move on to the final part of your introduction so that we can see what an
entire introduction looks like in an academic essay.
Review Your Learning:
·
A thesis statement steers the course of your
essay
·
Have one argument or main point in your thesis
statement
·
Your thesis statement builds on the context
·
Make your thesis statement disputable
·
Create interest
·
Your thesis statement is one to three sentences
long