Today we'll talk about how to write a thesis statement for a presentation.
I have thought a lot about this topic and I kept putting it off. But I think I've
come up with a great video for you to help move your thesis statements to the
next level. So let's unpack the details.
Welcome back to the channel. If you've never tuned in before, Communication
Coach does weekly videos on communication and leadership. Question
for this video is what are your tips for making a thesis more effective? I would
love to hear your feedback in that section below the video. First we'll do
an overview of what a thesis statement is to begin with then we'll give some
examples and I'll finish up with some pro tips to take it to the next level.
In terms of overview, a thesis statement should be one concise sentence in the
introduction of your presentation. You have to be really clear about leading
with a strong thesis statement in your introduction. It should be specific to
your presentation. It shouldn't be a general statement about the topic you're
talking about. It should be customized to exactly what you're going to say
during the rest of the presentation. A thesis statement answers the question.
What is the bottom line of your presentation? If a friend of yours said,
Oh, what are you presenting on? You would give them in one sentence, the bottom
line. That's when you know you're getting at a thesis statement. The thesis
statement does not merely introduce or announce your topic. A thesis statement
summarizes your point of view that you are offering during this presentation.
Some people call it your central idea, your argument, you might say it's your
judgment on the particular topic, your informed opinion. It's your position. A
thesis statement should also be debatable. Since this is your argument,
your point of view, in theory people should be able to say well I don't know
if I agree with that. That's not my point of view. So you want to make sure that
you have something that is a position that you're going to argue even if
you're doing a regular old informative presentation where you're just teaching
somebody how to do something, you should have a point of view on that to make
sure you drive it home during the presentation. So let's talk about some
examples. Let's say you're gonna talk about financial planning for college
students. That's your topic. Well a lot of people might just stop there and think
that if I just announced my topic, that's the same as a thesis statement.
But it's not quite there yet. In fact, it's not even really a statement. It's
just a description of what you're going to talk about. A thesis would sound like
this. The best time to invest for retirement is in your first job after
college. That is arguable. That's your point of view and it's going to take a
little convincing, even if you're doing just a regular old informative
presentation about investing for college students. By offering a point of view
you're going to be much more convincing and your listeners are much more likely
to put your suggestions into practice. Let's take another example. Let's say
we're going to talk about health and fitness. Now if I only said today I'm
going to talk about health and fitness. That's not really a thesis statement yet.
I've simply announced the topic. A thesis would sound like this. The most effective
way to lose weight is by eating less not exercising more. What I've done there
is I've narrowed down to my particular viewpoint that I am going to explain in
detail in the rest of this presentation. That's how you know you have a thesis
statement. So, let's add some details to this. A lot of people ask should I say "I
argue" before I state my thesis? I don't think you have to use that phrase but I
do 100% support making your thesis statements stand out in some way. And so
you could use that phrase to help it stand out. You could say I argue that the
most effective way to lose waves by eating less not exercising more.
If you said that phrase, even though it might sound a little overused, it
definitely will help your listeners know that that's your argument.
So anything that helps them know what your argument is then I think it's a
great idea. There are certainly other more natural ways to phrase it. And you
can look for your own ways. Here are some suggestions. You can say
any of these phrases right before you would state your actual thesis. My point
is this. What I hope you take away today is. I am
convinced that. I would like you to consider this point. Or, the bottom line
is. And again after each of those phrases you would simply pick one and then state
your thesis. But I encourage you to come up with your own wording but whatever it
is it should help your thesis statements stand out a little bit more. I'd like to
give you four pro tips now to take your thesis statements to the next level.
The first one is to non-verbally emphasize your thesis. Let's say you've crafted
your words, you can use nonverbal communication to
add emphasis. You might add pauses for example right before and right after
your thesis statement to help it pop out a little more. The bottom line is this.
(pause) The best time to invest for retirement is when you get your first
job after college. (pause) So you pause right before and after and that one
sentence will stand out just a little bit more. You can also emphasize your key
words in your thesis statement a little more by just hitting them harder. You can
say the bottom line is this the best time to invest for retirement is when
you get your first job after college. And by slowing down and emphasizing the key
words a little more, it'll help your argument stand out as well. Another pro
tip is you should thread your thesis through your whole presentation. You
shouldn't just mention it in the introduction. You want to make sure once
you have your argument that you reiterate it over and over again. You
should at least do it in your introduction, in the first second and
third main point, whatever those main points are in your presentation. And then
mention it one last time in the conclusion. And you can certainly vary
your wording a little bit for style but you want to make sure you emphasize that
argument as often as possible without being repetitive. Another pro tip is to
create a theme around your thesis. So let's say you want to do that by using
an analogy or a metaphor to further emphasize your thesis. For example, if I'm
talking about long term investing, I might use the metaphor of farming to
make that idea stick just a little bit more. Farmers plant seeds early in the
season and then over time that food grows in the ground until it sprouts up
and then in the end you have a large harvest. That's a great metaphor for
investing. You can also create a visual theme by using visual aids for example
to emphasize it. Maybe you can find some appropriate pictures that somehow
associate farming with growth and money and then you could use those as your
slide backgrounds or integrate those pictures in some way. Any kind of visual
aids like that would help. The fourth pro tip is to use artful language. Once you
have a good thesis statement, you can actually craft it just a little bit more
using certain strategies to make it more memorable. For example you might use
alliteration, where a number of the words start with
the same first letter. That'll make it more memorable. You might say for example,
sow the seeds for your retirement savings in the first season of your
career. Now that might be a little much for some people and I personally like
alliteration because I think it's much more subtle than you realize. That's a lot
of "S" there but if I hadn't been emphasizing them and telling you that we
were doing it, you might just hear this as a nice sounding memorable sentence.
Another way to use artful language is to rhyme. Now I have never been a rhymer. I
don't think I've ever rhymed in any of my presentations, but I have seen many
people do it effectively. For example you might say exercise is great but it's
that food on your plate that changes your weight. Now that's a lot of rhyming
and again I couldn't pull it off. And if you like rhyming but you don't want to do too
much of it, maybe you could change one of those words like exercise is "wonderful"
instead of exercise it's "great" and that would downplay it just a little bit but
then you still get the food on your plate that changes your weight, which is
memorable and it helps it stick. So these four Pro tips if you add them to what
you're already doing, your thesis statement will certainly give you a
strong thesis. To recap, we did a little overview about what a thesis
statement is in the first place, we gave some concrete examples, and then we gave
some pro tips to take them to the next level.
And as I mentioned question of the day what are your tips for making a thesis
statement more effective? I would love to hear your comments in that section below
the video. I hope you got something out of this video on how to do it thesis
statement for a presentation. If you have not yet subscribed to this channel,
Communication Coach, I invite you to do so. Thanks. God bless and I will see
you in the next video.