Writing a thesis, or more specifically wanting to formulate a statement, is something that may seem rather complex to you, but in reality all students are faced with it, and this should not be a pitfall for you because it is not insurmountable.
However, this is a critical step in your preparation, which is why taking advice and reading this article may be appropriate. This is why we will offer you here a methodology to understand how it is good to determine your thesis statement, that is to say the way in which you will declare the position taken by you, and which you intend to explain throughout your document.
To fully understand the method, we have imagined for you four phases or steps to follow, which are both relevant whatever your field of study and which allow you to guide your steps in this process.
I. Understanding the nature of the thesis
Before anything else, and especially before diving into an attempt at writing or research, it is absolutely essential that you correctly represent what a thesis is. Because it is in no way a statement, a basic dissertation or even a short essay; it is quite different to make a statement, by which we mean to represent your arguments, the evidence that you have gathered, and this in order to prove that the idea that you support is the right one.
All of this of course remains theoretical, but to get into more concrete elements, we must imagine that an effective thesis is both the result of a statement that is specific and that is contestable, which means in practice that it immediately presupposes debate and does not imply that a single position can absolutely be the right one.
Let's take a simple example to demonstrate the above-mentioned point: a bad thesis could be "Cell phones are popular", because this statement is too general a fact. Conversely, a good thesis could be like "The use of cell phones by young people poses significant social challenges that require targeted political solutions", because it presents a position that the author will have to defend in the body of the text.
Your thesis statement is more than a simple introduction, it is the keystone of your text, it is what provides the justification for your writing, and which allows you to tell the reader what you are going to propose as a field of reflection.
II. Our four steps
1. Choose a specific topic
The choice of a topic is crucial, and you might be tempted to take a statement that is broad enough to rely on the work already done in your academic environment.
However, it seems to us that this is a very bad calculation, because it does not correspond at all to the research work that you should be doing yourself. Indeed, relying on what exists is normal and coherent, however it is necessary that you be sufficiently precise, because you are supposed to bring something innovative, even if it is only an interpretation of a concept.
In this respect, you will avoid your statement resembling a generality, and will prefer a statement that immediately asks the question of where you are going with this.
2. Analyze and organize your ideas
When you manage to detach one or two fundamental ideas that allow you to answer the statement you have chosen, it will be necessary to confront them. This means that you will have to make sure that the ideas you retain do indeed allow you to answer the provisional statement that you have established. So it is not a question of relying on an intuition, you must force yourself in your thinking process to approach the question with an external perspective.
It is practically a question of proving that each of your arguments is well-founded, that each of your ideas is linked to your statement, and that together they allow you to provide an answer to the assertion or even the question that you have imagined.
3. Formulate the thesis
When you have finally organized your thoughts, you will be able to formulate your final thesis statement!
This step is crucial because it is not just a question of presenting your project succinctly in 5 or 6 words. On the contrary, a thesis statement can be allowed to be significantly longer, and it must be punchy, some would even say impactful.
Let's imagine that you are writing an essay on the impact of social networks on mental health. A too general thesis could be: "Social networks affect mental health".
To make it more effective, you could write: "Social networks, although they facilitate interactions, exacerbate anxiety and depression in adolescents, which requires intervention from parents and educational institutions".
4. Revise and adjust the thesis
Revising your thesis is sometimes a painful step, because you may realize that it needs to be adjusted, and that one word or another is important to you. But you must avoid any feeling at this stage, it is about being objective, and why not call on an external service, whether friendly, professorial or even the services of mystudies tutors.
The goal of this step is to make sure that your writing and your statement remain aligned with your initial position, it is in fact to make sure that the stylistic effects that you have put in place to make your text more convincing have not been harmful to the development of your thought. If this is the case, it is essential to repeat the previous steps, because a statement that does not make a connection with the body of the text will cost you many points.
Conclusion
Writing a thesis and before anything else determining the statement according to which you intend to work, requires in-depth reflection, and a technical mastery of your file that is perfect.
Thus, you will have to strive to be clear, coherent, and to devote a significant amount of time to everything concerning the formulation, because by reading it alone, an uninformed reader will have to understand the ideas that you present.