what is the thesis
- Unless you’re writing a technical report, avoid technical language. Always avoid jargon, unless you are confident your audience will be familiar with it.
- Avoid vague words such as “interesting,” “negative,” “exciting,” “unusual,” and “difficult.”
- Avoid abstract words such as “society,” “values,” or “culture.”
Tips:
A thesis statement is powerful on two fronts. First, it allows the reader to get excited about what, specifically, is coming their way. Second, it stands as the point of reference for your entire paper.
A good thesis statement is developed from the point of view of the reader. Be very careful you’re not developing a topic that is of interest to you alone. This is a harsh yet necessary question to ask yourself: will my readers have any reason to care about what I’m writing?
Because the thesis is what youre trying to prove, it must be possible to express it in the form of a statement or assertion (e.g., the sky is blue). It is not a question (what color is the sky?) or a topic (the color of the sky). Notice that The sky is blue is a complete declarative sentence, while the topic (the color of the sky) is notit does not say anything about the skys color.
In some cases a descriptive thesis may strongly imply a prescriptive argument as well (as in most of the examples above). However, note that one can agree or disagree with the descriptive thesis regardless of how one feels about the moral question. For example, some people agree that global warming is real and caused by human activity, but they do not believe it is a bad thing.
State ment of fact:
The amount of foul language in movies is disproportionate to the amount of foul language in real life.
Some Caveats and Some Examples
A thesis is never a list. “For political, economic, social and cultural reasons, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe” does a good job of “telegraphing” the reader what to expect in the essay—a section about political reasons, a section about economic reasons, a section about social reasons, and a section about cultural reasons. However, political, economic, social and cultural reasons are pretty much the only possible reasons why communism could collapse. This sentence lacks tension and doesn’t advance an argument. Everyone knows that politics, economics, and culture are important.
References:
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/thesis-statement-examples.html
http://app.shoreline.edu/doldham/102/HTML/What%20is%20a%20Thesis.html
http://rasmussen.libanswers.com/faq/32467
http://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/developing-thesis
http://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-writingskillslab-2/chapter/argumentative-thesis-statements/