Introduction

A thesis statement is a sentence in a paper or essay (in the opening paragraph) that introduces the main topic to the reader. As one of the first things your reader sees, your thesis statement is one of the most important sentences in your entire paper—but also one of the hardest to write! 

In this article, we explain how to write a thesis statement in the best way possible. We look at what to include and the steps to take for writing your own, along with plenty of thesis statement examples to guide you. 

What is a thesis statement?

The goal of a thesis statement is to let your reader know what your paper or essay is about. It helps your reader understand the greater context and scope of your topic, plus it lets your readers know what to expect from the rest of the work. 

A secondary benefit of a thesis statement is that it makes it easier to search for papers on a particular topic, especially in the realm of academic writing like research papers and thesis papers (which are sometimes known as dissertations when written for doctoral degrees). For example, if you’re writing a paper of your own, you’ll want to look up other papers to use as evidence and sources. You can simply scan the thesis statements of several papers to see which match your topic and could be worthwhile sources to cite. 

The thesis statement is located at the beginning of a paper, in the opening paragraph, making it an essential way to start an essay. A thesis statement isn’t necessarily the first sentence in an essay; typically you’ll want to hook the reader in an engaging way in the opening sentence before inserting your central idea or argument later in the first paragraph. A thesis statement is often confused with a topic sentence, the first sentence in a paragraph, because they both introduce the central idea of what follows. You can think of thesis statements as the topic sentence of your entire paper.  

What to include in a thesis statement (with examples)

Thesis statements are a necessary part of paper and essay writing, but different formats have different rules and best practices. Below, we break down how to write a thesis statement for the most common types of papers. 

How to write a thesis statement for expository and argumentative essays

Expository and argumentative essays are some of the most common types of academic papers. Because they don’t have a formal abstract like research papers, they rely on their thesis statements to provide an overview of what’s discussed. 

Thesis statements for argumentative and expository essays should use strong and decisive language; don’t be wishy-washy or uncertain. You want to take a stand right in the opening so that your readers understand what your paper is trying to show. 

Moreover, thesis statements for these essays should be specific, with some minor details to hint at the rest of the paper. It’s not enough to merely make your point; you also want to provide some basic evidence or background context to paint a full picture. 

If your paper dives into different subtopics or categories, try to fit them into the thesis statement if you can. You don’t have to get into details here, but it’s nice to mention the different sections at the top so that the reader knows what to expect. 

 Thesis statement examplesDespite the taboo, insects make an excellent food source and could stem humanity’s looming food shortage, based on both their protein output and the sustainability of farming them. The backlash to rock ’n’ roll music in the ’50s by religious groups and traditionalists actually boosted the genre’s popularity instead of diminishing it as intended.

How to write a thesis statement for persuasive essays

Similar to argumentative essays, persuasive essays follow many of the same guidelines for their thesis statements: decisive language, specific details, and mentions of subtopics. 

However, the main difference is that, while the thesis statements for argumentative and expository essays state facts, the thesis statements for persuasive essays state clear opinions. Still, the format is the same, and the opinions are often treated like facts, including conclusive language and citing evidence to support your claims. 

Furthermore, unlike with other essays, it’s appropriate to make emotional connections in a thesis statement in persuasive essays. This can actually be a clever strategy to start your essay off on a more personal, impactful note. 

Thesis statement examplesAdvertising should not be allowed in public schools because it’s a distraction from studies and may lead to misguided priorities among the school board, to say nothing of the materialist culture it promotes. Exotic pets provide the same love and companionship as conventional pets, so the laws regulating which animals can and cannot be kept as pets should be more relaxed. 

How to write a thesis statement for compare-and-contrast essays

Thesis statements for compare-and-contrast essays are tricky because you have at least two topics to touch on instead of just one. The same general guidelines apply (decisive language, details, etc.), but you need to give equal attention to both your topics—otherwise, your essay will seem biased from the start. 

As always, your thesis statement should reflect what’s written in the rest of your essay. If your essay spends more time comparing than contrasting, your thesis statement should focus more on similarities than differences. 

It sometimes helps to give specific examples as well, but keep them simple and brief. Save the finer details for the body of your essay. 

 Thesis statement examplesSean Connery and Daniel Craig are the two most popular actors to portray James Bond, but both have their own distinct and at times contradictory interpretations of the character. While capitalism and communism are often viewed as diametric opposites, the truth is that, in practice, both ideologies tend to “borrow” principles from one another. 

How to write a thesis statement in 3 steps

Now that you know what you’re aiming for, it’s time to sit down and write your own thesis statement. To keep you on track, here are three easy steps to guide you. 

1 Brainstorm the best topic for your essay

You can’t write a thesis statement until you know what your paper is about, so your first step is choosing a topic. 

If the topic is already assigned, great! That’s all for this step. If not, consider the tips below for choosing the topic that’s best for you:

• Pick a topic that you’re passionate about. Even if you don’t know much about it, it’ll be easier to learn about it while writing if you’re genuinely interested. 
• Narrow down your topic to something specific; otherwise, your paper will be too broad and perhaps too long. Just make sure it’s not too specific, or you won’t have enough to write about. Try to find a happy medium. 
• Check beforehand that there are enough strong, credible sources to use for research. You don’t want to run out of referential material halfway through. 

Once you’ve chosen a topic—and the angle or stance you want to take—then it’s time to put the idea for your thesis sentence into words. 

2 Phrase your topic as a question and then answer it

It’s not always easy to fit your entire thesis into just one sentence, let alone one that’s written clearly and eloquently. Here’s a quick technique to help you get started. 

First, phrase your topic as a question. For example, if you want to write about Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy, ask yourself, “What influences did Gandhi have on society after his death?” 

If you already know the answer, write it down—that’s a good start for your thesis statement. If you don’t know the answer, do some preliminary research to find out; you can certainly use what you discover as evidence and sources in your essay’s body paragraphs. 

3 Add some polish

Chances are, your first attempt at a thesis statement won’t be perfect. To get it to its best, try revising, editing, and adding what’s missing. 

Remember the core traits for thesis statements we mentioned above: decisive language, a happy medium of specific but not too specific details, and mention of subtopics. If you’re struggling to contain everything in a single sentence, feel free to move the secondary information to the following sentence. The thesis statement itself should only have what’s most necessary. 

If you’re in doubt, read your thesis statement to a friend and ask them what they think your paper is about. If they answer correctly, your thesis statement does its job. 

Next comes the hard part—writing the rest! While the bulk of the writing lies ahead, at least you’ve nailed down your central idea. To plot out your supporting argument, follow our advice on essay structure and let your ideas flow. 

Methodology

Published on 25 February 2019 by Shona McCombes. Revised on 13 December 2021.

In your dissertation or thesis, you will have to discuss the methods you used to undertake your research. The methodology or methods section explains what you did and how you did it, allowing readers to evaluate the reliability and validity of your research. It should include:

• The type of research you did
• How you collected and/or selected your data
• How you analysed your data
• Any tools or materials you used in the research
• Your rationale for choosing these methods

The methodology section should generally be written in the past tense.

Table of contents

1. Explain your methodological approach
2. Describe your methods of data collection and/or selection
3. Describe your methods of analysis
4. Evaluate and justify your methodological choices
5. Tips for writing a strong methodology
6. Frequently asked questions about methodology

Step 1: Explain your methodological approach

Begin by introducing your overall approach to the research. What problem or question did you investigate, and what kind of data did you need to answer it?

• Quantitative methods (e.g. surveys) are best for measuring, ranking, categorising, identifying patterns and making generalisations
• Qualitative methods (e.g. interviews) are best for describing, interpreting, contextualising, and gaining in-depth insight into specific concepts or phenomena
• Mixed methods allow for a combination of numerical measurement and in-depth exploration

Depending on your discipline and approach, you might also begin with a discussion of the rationale and assumptions underpinning your methodology.

• Was your aim to address a practical or a theoretical problem?
• Why is this the most suitable approach to answering your research questions?
• Is this a standard methodology in your field or does it require justification?
• Were there any ethical or philosophical considerations?
• What are the criteria for validity and rigorousness in this type of research?

In a quantitative experimental study, you might aim to produce generalisable knowledge about the causes of a phenomenon. Valid research requires a carefully designed study with controlled variables that can be replicated by other researchers.

In a qualitative participant observation, you might aim to produce ethnographic knowledge about the behaviours, social structures and shared beliefs of a specific group of people. As this methodology is less controlled and more interpretive, you will need to reflect on your position as researcher, taking into account how your participation and perception might have influenced the results.

Step 2: Describe your methods of data collection and/or selection

Once you have introduced your overall methodological approach, you should give full details of the methods you used to conduct the research. Outline the tools, procedures and materials you used to gather data, and the criteria you used to select participants or sources.

Quantitative methods

 Surveys
Describe where, when and how the survey was conducted.

• How did you design the questions and what form did they take (e.g. multiple choice, rating scale)?
• How did you find and select participants?
• Did you conduct surveys by phone, mail, online or in person, and how long did participants have to respond?
• What was the sample size and response rate?

You might want to include the full questionnaire as an appendix so that your reader can see exactly what data was collected.

 Experiments
Give full details of the tools, techniques and procedures you used to conduct the experiment.

• How did you design the experiment (e.g. between-subjects or within-subjects)?
• How did you find and select participants?
• What tools or technologies did you use in the experiment?

In experimental research, it is especially important to give enough detail for another researcher to reproduce your results.

 Existing data
Explain how you gathered and selected material (such as publications or archival data) for inclusion in your analysis.

• Where did you source the material?
• How was the data originally produced?
• What criteria did you use to select material (e.g. date range)?

Quantitative methods example

The survey consisted of 5 multiple-choice questions and 10 questions that the respondents had to answer with a 7-point Lickert scale. The aim was to conduct the survey with 350 customers of Company X on the company premises in The Hague from 4-8 July 2017 between 11:00 and 15:00. A customer was defined as a person who had purchased a product from Company X on the day of questioning. Participants were given 5 minutes to fill in the survey anonymously, and 408 customers responded. Because not all surveys were fully completed, 371 survey results were included in the analysis.

Qualitative methods

 Interviews or focus groups
Describe where, when and how the interviews were conducted.

• How did you find and select participants?
• How many people took part?
• What form did the interviews take (structured, semi-structured, unstructured)?
• How long were the interviews and how were they recorded?

 Participant observation
Describe where, when and how you conducted the observation.

• What group or community did you observe and how did you gain access to them?
• How long did you spend conducting the research and where was it located?
• How did you record your data (e.g. audiovisual recordings, note-taking)?

 Existing data
Explain how you selected case study materials (such as texts or images) for the focus of your analysis.

• What type of materials did you analyse?
• How did you collect and select them?

Qualitative methods example

In order to gain a better insight into the possibilities for improvement of the product range, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 8 returning customers from the main target group of Company X. A returning customer was defined as someone who usually bought products at least twice a week from Company X. The surveys were used to select returning customer participants who belonged to the target group (20-45 years old). Interviews were conducted in a small office next to the cash register, and lasted approximately 20 minutes each. Answers were recorded by note-taking, and seven interviews were also filmed with consent. One interviewee preferred not to be filmed.

Step 3: Describe your methods of analysis

Next, you should indicate how you processed and analysed the data. Avoid going into too much detail—you should not start presenting or discussing any of your results at this stage.

Quantitative methods

In quantitative research, your analysis will be based on numbers. In the methods section you might include:

• How you prepared the data before analysing it (e.g. checking for missing data, removing outliers, transforming variables)
• Which software you used to analyse the data (e.g. SPSS or Stata)
• Which statistical methods you used (e.g. regression analysis)

Quantitative methods example

Before analysis the gathered data was prepared. The dataset was checked for missing data and outliers. For this the “outlier labeling rule” was used. All values outside the calculated range were considered outliers (Hoaglin & Iglewicz, 1987). The data was then analysed using statistical software SPSS.

Qualitative methods

In qualitative research, your analysis will be based on language, images and observations. Methods might include:

• Content analysis: coding and categorising themes and ideas
• Narrative analysis: looking at storytelling structures and tropes and interpreting their meaning
• Discourse analysis: looking at communication and meaning (including language, images, and nonverbal interactions) in relation to their social context

Qualitative methods example

The interviews were transcribed and open coded to categorise key themes and identify patterns. Each theme was analysed to gain a deeper understanding of participants’ perceptions and motivations.

Step 4: Evaluate and justify your methodological choices

Your methodology should make the case for why you chose these particular methods, especially if you did not take the most standard approach to your topic. Discuss why other methods were not suitable for your objectives, and show how this approach contributes new knowledge or understanding.

You can acknowledge limitations or weaknesses in the approach you chose, but justify why these were outweighed by the strengths.Lab-based experiments can’t always accurately simulate real-life situations and behaviours, but they are effective for testing causal relationships between variables.Unstructured interviews usually produce results that cannot be generalised beyond the sample group, but they provide a more in-depth understanding of participants’ perceptions, motivations and emotions.

Tips for writing a strong methodology

Remember that your aim is not just to describe your methods, but to show how and why you applied them and to demonstrate that your research was rigorously conducted.

Focus on your objectives and research questions

The methodology section should clearly show why your methods suit your objectives and convince the reader that you chose the best possible approach to answering your problem statement and research questions. Throughout the section, relate your choices back to the central purpose of your dissertation.

Cite relevant sources

Your methodology can be strengthened by reference to existing research in the field, either to:

• Confirm that you followed established practices for this type of research
• Discuss how you evaluated different methodologies and decided on your approach
• Show that you took a novel methodological approach to address a gap in the literature

Write for your audience

Consider how much information you need to give, and don’t go into unnecessary detail. If you are using methods that are standard for your discipline, you probably don’t need to give lots of background or justification. But if you take an approach that is less common in your field, you might need to explain and justify your methodological choices.

In either case, your methodology should be a clear, well-structured text that makes an argument for your approach, not just a list of technical details and procedures.

Discuss obstacles

If you encountered difficulties in collecting or analysing data, explain how you dealt with them. Show how you minimised the impact of any unexpected obstacles. Pre-empt any major critiques of your approach and demonstrate that you made the research as rigorous as possible.