How to Write a Thesis Statement

Before you can formulate a thesis statement, you must start with a topic question. You cannot skip this essential step. If your instructor has assigned you an essay question (we call it a topic question), then you are ready to write a thesis statement. If you are writing a research paper, we suggest that you review Chapter 2, How to Identify a Topic Question.  

you must find the courage to form an opinion and to state it, clearly and unequivocally. You might be wrong. But no one will fault you if you back up your opinion with authoritative evidence and logical reasoning. 

Finally, you must (a) be sure that you have approached your evidence in an unbiased manner and (b) be sure that you consider both sides of a controversial question before making up your mind. These steps are very important. The point of writing an essay is to convince readers that your opinion or judgment on an issue is sound. You cannot do that if your readers distrust your handling of evidence or if they think that you have ignored opposing points of view. 

Once you have established your topic question, courage, and objectivity, you are ready to write a thesis statement. 

A THESIS STATEMENT IS THE ANSWER TO YOUR TOPIC QUESTION. 

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If you are in school, your teachers often will present you with a topic question in the form of an essay question. Your job is to answer that query and to organize an argument using the available sources. In this case, you may turn directly to Chapter 3, How to Write a Thesis Statement. However, if you are writing a research paper in which you have to determine your own topic question, read Chapters 1 and 2. 

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