A work in progress

Suit your purpose (to inform or persuade) Specify your topic Make a defensible claim or assertion Engage your reader

As you develop your ideas in the prewriting stage, and beyond, your thesis will evolve. As you explore your topic, draft, and revise, your thesis may change several times, becoming stronger each time.

 As you read, look for ideas that go together, or for different articles that express similar ideas. Highlight or note those in some way. Look at the details you have highlighted and try to group them into subtopics. Then write a word or phrase that describes each group. Evaluate your groups and decide which one or ones should be the focus of your paper. At this point, you may decide you need to do more research or even find a different topic. Use the subgroups to answer a question, either from the assignment, or one developed from your research.

An example: Used with supervision, social media can offer adolescents many benefits.
Although this is a good start, it is not as effective as it could be. Lets work on it.

 Does it suit the purpose of persuading or informing? Does it specify the topic? Does it make a defensible claim? Does it engage the reader?

So what can be done to improve out statement? We should make it more specific. This will ensure that we explore our subject in depth, rather than just scratching the surface of a topic that is too broad. It will also help in the organization of the rest of the paper.

What kinds of benefits? Some may include:

Building social ties Strengthening existing friendships Maintaining long distance relationships Extending social network Working with classmates

Spelling out two or three of these specific benefits in the thesis will give readers an idea of what is to follow and set up the organization. For example:

Used with supervision, social media can offer adolescents the benefits of building social ties, extending their social network, and even working with classmates.

 Your thesis should change what readers know, think, or believe. Although a thesis statement may sometimes be longer than one sentence, many instructors prefer you limit it to one. It is best to ask. In academic writing, a thesis statement is usually not implied. It is expected that you will state your main idea clearly and directly in the first paragraph.

 Make sure your assertion is one that can be disputed. Avoid making an announcement such as This paper will discuss or The subject of my essay is Write in third person.