Steps to Thesis Generation

Let's say you're interested in the topic of children with HIV-positive mothers.

1. Brainstorming. You write the following statement: Children with HIV+ mothers.

This is not a thesis, because it only indicates a general subject. Furthermore, your reader doesn't know what you want to say about children with HIV+ mothers.

2. Narrow the Topic In your research, you discover that 1 in 11 South African adults are HIV+. Many children die of neglect because the parents are too sick to care for them, or, often, of AIDS-related illnesses themselves. You think there should be programs to help these children. You change your thesis to say:

Programs for children of HIV+ parents in South Africa.

This fragment not only announces your subject, but it focuses on one main idea: programs. Furthermore, it raises a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree, because while most people might agree that something needs to be done for these children, not everyone would agree on what should be done or who should do it. You should note that this fragment is not a thesis statement because your reader doesn't know your conclusions on the topic.

3. Take a position on the topic. After reflecting on the topic a little while longer, you decide that what you really want to say about this topic is that in addition to programs for children of HIV+ parents, the government should develop programs to help take care of these kids' basic needs. You revise your thesis to say:

More attention should be paid to the environment the children of HIV+ parents grow up in.

This statement asserts your position, but the terms "more attention" and "the environment" are vague

4. Use specific language. You decide to explain what you mean about "the environment," so you write:

Experts estimate that more than 10,000 South African children born to HIV+ parents die each year of starvation and neglect, because the parents are too sick to provide for their children.

This statement is specific, but still isn't a thesis. It just reports a statistic, instead of making an assertion.

5. Make an assertion based on clearly stated support You finally revise your thesis statement one more time to look like this:

Because thousands of South African children of HIV+ parents die from a lack of basic care, the South African government should create and finance programs to provide food, clean water, and medical attention to the children of HIV+ parents.

Notice how the thesis answers the question, "Why should anything be done for these kids, and who should do it?" When you started thinking about the paper, you may not have had a specific question in mind, but as you became more involved in the topic, your ideas became more specific. Your thesis changed to reflect your new insights. Bad Thesis Statements, Listed By Type The “Discussion Thesis” The purpose of this essay is to discuss the failure of the Roanoke colony.

Statements like this are bland, boring, and utterly pointless. They say nothing. Improve the thesis by taking a position and finding something to say.

The Roanoke colony failed because of inadequate leadership on the part of the colony's founders.

The Vague Comparison and Contrast Thesis There were many similarities and many differences between Roman government and Greek government.

Again, the problem here is that this is obvious, dull, and uninteresting. There are many similarities and differences between my two cats, but I'm not going to make anyone read a paper about it. Improve the thesis by getting specific:

While both forms of government were similar in that they shared power amongst members of all classes, Athenian democracy allocated real power to the poor and middle classes. In the Roman Republic, by contrast, power was always located in the aristocratic Senate.

Note how easy it will be to organize a paper with this thesis as a guide. First, the writer will briefly discuss the structures of both governments. Then, he or she will move on to the ways in which the Athenian government shared power amongst the various classes. Finally, the author will show how the Roman Republic held power in the Senate, and then will tie all this together with a (hopefully) witty and perceptive conclusion.

The Grandiose Generalization Without the Roman family, Western Civilization as we know it would not exist, and the democratic freedoms we cherish would never have come into being.

William Shakespeare was the greatest writer ever to live in human history, and his achievements will never be surpassed.

Sentences such as these might qualify one for a job writing for A&E, but they will not get anyone through college. These are impossible to prove logically. The amount of research necessary to demonstrate a causal relationship between the Roman family and American democracy can simply not be done in a three-page paper. Secondly, it is unlikely that the average college undergraduate really knows enough about all of the achievements of all of the writers in human history to definitively declare that Bill Shakespeare is the greatest. After you have finished your literature Ph.D. and spent twenty or so years doing research, then maybe you might start to be qualified to say such things (and even then it's unlikely). Statements like these are essentially value judgements. Narrow the focus and stick to things that can be proven:

Because of the hereditary nature of Senate membership and of the patron-client relationship, the Roman family was the fundamental unit of Roman political power.

William Shakespeare's innovations in the staging and poetic language enabled him to develop plays that were highly popular in his day.

The Desperately Hoping to Get on the Professor's Good Side Thesis I really enjoyed writing this paper and attending your class, even though I didn't really understand everything I read.

There is nothing on earth that makes a professor happier than to hear that a student enjoys their class, especially when the student is being sincere. However, if you did not understand the material, the thing to do is to make an appointment to come see me during office hours to get help. That's what your tax dollars are paying us professors for, remember.