What is a good thesis?
Theses are a slippery and often confusing aspect of essay writing, which figures because they're also basically the most important part.
Why are they slippery? In school, every teacher/TA/prof will have a slightly different idea of what your theses should be. That's something else they don't tell you in high school. So your job is to become a chameleon, to adapt to every new set of expectations. If it's an assignment, you need to carefully read and re-read the instructions until you know exactly what you're doing. If you don't, you need to ask questions until you do. I was on the shy side in high school, so I didn't do much of that. Big mistake.
Basically, your thesis should be three things:
From an essay about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: "Camelot's youthful immaturity is reinforced when it is not altered by Gawain's experience."
From an essay about Robinson Crusoe: "Crusoe evinces pro-colonial sentiment for the English empire."
So, in summary, keep your thesis short, to the point and firmly phrased, but debatable.
Why are they slippery? In school, every teacher/TA/prof will have a slightly different idea of what your theses should be. That's something else they don't tell you in high school. So your job is to become a chameleon, to adapt to every new set of expectations. If it's an assignment, you need to carefully read and re-read the instructions until you know exactly what you're doing. If you don't, you need to ask questions until you do. I was on the shy side in high school, so I didn't do much of that. Big mistake.
Basically, your thesis should be three things:
- Specific: Your thesis needs to talk about a particular aspect of a particular topic; broad statements should be avoided at all costs.
- Concise: Your thesis should be one sentence unless your instructor/whoever specifically says otherwise for some reason, and by that, I don't mean a 5-line sentence. Boil it down to its simplest terms.
- Argumentative: When you're coming up with a thesis, you should always ask if there is room for debate on your topic. If there's not, there's a good chance that you're being too obvious. Think of your thesis as a debate.
From an essay about Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: "Camelot's youthful immaturity is reinforced when it is not altered by Gawain's experience."
From an essay about Robinson Crusoe: "Crusoe evinces pro-colonial sentiment for the English empire."
So, in summary, keep your thesis short, to the point and firmly phrased, but debatable.
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