How to Write a Thesis Help (page 2)

Practice Makes Perfect

It is not always easy to consolidate and narrow down the entire essence of your paper or your research into a single sentence. But don't worry. Just as you allowed yourself to brainstorm for your outline, take a blank sheet of paper and write down a full, flowing, practice paragraph that includes several sentences about why you are writing your paper and why you think the topic is important. This gives you plenty of material to draw from and sentences to edit that are already about your topic. For example, a preliminary thesis paragraph might look like this:

Example A

Now that you have a lot of sentences to work with, highlight information or words that are important. Later, you have your entire paper to explain your theories and detail your research, but for the moment, try to connect the two most important sentences together and then narrow them down further or fuse them into one sentence. If you were to highlight the key or essential information in the paragraph you wrote, the sentences or words that you highlighted might look like this:

Example B

Practicing Your Thesis Out Loud

If you are still having trouble narrowing your ideas down on paper, another way to refine your ideas is to practice saying your thesis out loud to a friend or relative. A good way to think of this is to pretend that you are a Hollywood director and you are "pitching" your film idea to an influential producer. If you want a producer to invest millions of dollars and make a big budget movie, you've got to get him or her interested in your idea, or "pitch," immediately. As a writer, you are the "director" of your paper and you've got to get your "audience," or reader, interested immediately. Most often, you will only have sixty seconds to run your idea past a producer, so you need to sum up your movie and your idea very neatly and succinctly. Maybe you want Brad Pitt or Julia Roberts to star in your movie, but you are a newcomer to Hollywood and this is your first movie. How would you convince a producer to invest in your idea? Similarly, how do you convince a reader to spend time reading your paper? A powerful thesis statement will do the trick. For example, if you say to the Hollywood producer:

Example A

Are you still reading? Is the Hollywood producer still listening? How about another pitch that might say:

Example B

Again, even if the Hollywood producer does not agree with you, he or she might be intrigued by your theory. You haven't taken up all his or her time; you have been direct in your wording and purpose; and he or she might be willing to invest money in your idea. For fun, consider your thesis to be a pitch. Pretend that you only have a maximum of 60 seconds to state your idea. Have a friend time you. If you cannot summarize your thesis statement within that time frame and you cannot narrow down your thesis statement into one sentence, odds are that you still need to rework it. The more you practice, the easier it will become and you will find yourself saying it out loud in no time. Hearing your thoughts out loud is a good way to recognize whether or not they make sense. Many times, having a friend or relative summarize your words will guide you in this process.

Summary

Perfecting your thesis to make it as convincing and succinct as possible is important. Although it might take a little bit of practice before you are able to narrow down your thoughts and condense your thesis into a single sentence, a short, strong thesis statement will save you a lot of time later on. A bold declaration at the beginning of your paper assures your reader that you are in control of your material.