Hey there, are you struggling with writing a thesis statement?
Don’t frown, Scribbr to the rescue!
Hi, I'm Jessica from Scribbr, here to help you achieve your academic goals.
Are you ready to get things done? I’ll show you how to write an awesome thesis statement in 3 steps.
It’s good to point out what a thesis statement does.
It sums up the main point of your paper, just one or two sentences long
and usually appears at the end of your introduction.
Once you’ve established a thesis statement, you can keep it in mind throughout the writing process
and say goodbye to going off-topic.
Sounds good?
Now, you only need 3 simple ingredients to cook up a great thesis statement.
You need to: mention the main topic of your paper, take a position and state your argument,
and summarize the evidence you’ll use to support your argument.
Here we go, 3 steps to write a thesis statement.
Step 1, we need to come up with a research question, so our question would be:
What were the main factors that led to the result of the 2016 Brexit referendum?
If you want to know how to formulate a strong research question, I have a video on that as well!
Step 2, find a tentative answer to the research question you came up with in step 1.
Since we’re taking an argumentative approach here, the answer should take a strong position on the topic.
So something like this:
Brexit was driven by political frustration.
And this will be the initial thesis statement.
Next, as we keep on researching, we discover more evidence and sources.
So keep developing and refining your thesis statement.
The final thesis statement should be elaborate, and also summarizes the overall argument.
The Brexit referendum result was driven by working-class frustration with the political elite
caused by austerity policies that have eroded public services and fragmented communities;
the referendum offered an alternative to the status quo.
Let’s examine how strong our thesis statement is.
The best thesis statements are concise, disputable and coherent.
Our thesis statement is concise.
It builds up to a central argument, which is Brexit was driven by political frustration
and leaves out other information like the consequences of Brexit.
To keep it concise, avoid general and vague wordings, keep it in a sentence or two.
It's also disputable.
The thesis statement took a position that some might argue the other way around.
It’s not a simple fact the readers will easily accept, as it requires further evidence
and persuasion which encourages readers to keep reading.
Our thesis statement is coherent as well.
The three parts of a thesis statement; topic, position and the evidence were all well-connected
and presented in a logical manner.
Depending on the aim of your paper, there are different types of thesis statement you can choose from.
The first type is argumentative, which is the example we used earlier.
An argumentative thesis statement should take a clear position, since the goal is to persuade
your reader of a claim.
If you want to analyze, interpret and evaluate different aspects of a topic, then, your thesis
statement should map out the key points of your analysis, and briefly introduce the conclusions
you will draw from it.
For example,
The history of the UK’s relationship to the EU is complicated; from the beginning
Britain has been reluctant to fully integrate into Europe, both economically and culturally
but the politics of EU membership has changed throughout the past 50 years.
Of course, your paper also could aim to explain and discuss the facts of a topic.
In this case, the thesis statement should summarize the main points you’ll cover. For example,
Polling and surveys shed light on the demographics of the Brexit vote, which can be broken down
in terms of age, ethnicity, region, and educational level.
After going through this video, you should be able to come up with a strong thesis statement
for your paper now!
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just ask away in the comments!
See you in our next video!