Okay, but why?

Reasons for Developing a Thesis Statement

You Better Have a Good Reason for This

While the thesis statement serves as the focus and guiding idea for an academic argument, much of its success rests on the reasons you provide to support and develop your thesis statements. Reasons reflect more specific discussions or concerns related to the overall topic of your paper and the specific argument you’re making. They also can serve as an organizational tool to help your reader navigate the various ideas and sources you include to support your thesis statement. Reasons also give you as the writer an opportunity to consider why an audience may be interested in your topic and provide specific ideas that they may find more immediately persuasive.

Crafting Reasons

Imagine you’re in a conversation and present the thesis statement:

“All AI programs should be under strict regulation by the U.S. government.”

You would likely anticipate the others in the conversation to ask:

“Why? Why would that be a good idea? Why would that be the best possible approach?”

To which you would respond:

“Because it would ensure that all companies are held to the same standards, it would make the functions more democratic, and it would help prevent the spread of mis- and disinformation.”

Everything that follows “because” in that conversation is a reason to support your argument. Reasons act as a tether to unpack and support your thesis statement in more specific detail, increasing the chances that you persuade your reader.

Each reason you include should have a clear connection to your thesis statement. For example, an irrelevant reason to the thesis statement above could be “because social media sites are harmful to teenagers.” While social media sites may use AI technologies, this reason’s connection to the thesis statement is unclear and would likely require more work to explain its connection to your reader.

Example

Thesis statement: Companies that manufacture and sell digital devices should be required to provide repair manuals for all items they sell.

Reasons

1. Providing repair manuals would allow consumers to more confidently repair smaller breaks or malfunctions in their device.
2. Providing repair manuals would reduce the need for consumers to purchase new devices unnecessarily.
3. Providing repair manuals would help reduce e-waste.