What’s Your Point?

Crafting a Thesis Statement

Defining “Thesis Statement”

A thesis statement is the foundation of an academic argument. It is the sentence that indicates the topic you’ll focus on and the specific argument you want to make concerning that topic. All content you include in your argument should clearly and logically tie back to and support your thesis statement. Think of the thesis statement as the Beyonce of your paper.

A thesis statement is central to making a persuasive argument in any field or discipline. Even though the precise structure and placement of a thesis statement varies slightly based on your context and audience, there are common elements to be mindful of.

A thesis statement should:

• Focus on a specific topic (e.g. Facebook)
• State a clear point of view on the topic (e.g. Facebook has had the greatest negative impacts on adolescents.)
• Be debatable or open to discussion (e.g. Facebook has had the greatest negative impact on adolescents over any other age demographic.)

A thesis statement should NOT:

• Pose a question (e.g. What are Facebook’s impacts on society?)
• Be a statement of facts (e.g. Facebook was first only available to college students.)
• Be too broad to cover in a traditional academic argument (e.g. Facebook is bad.)

Structuring a Thesis Statement

As you write more for academic and professional audiences, you will develop your own way to stylize your thesis statement that reflects your voice as a writer. Regardless of your own writing style, a thesis statement can be seen as a formula.

Thesis statement = Topic + Point of View

This makes it more likely that your reader will know what your argument focuses on and what your actual argument is.

Examples

• Facebook has had the greatest negative impact on adolescents.
• While some studies suggest that Facebook’s impact has been most detrimental on older user demographics, its negative impacts have had the worst impacts on adolescent users.