Thesis Statements

Questions to ask yourself about your thesis statement:

1.       Is it in the right place?

2.       Is it in the form of a question?  (Hint:  It should not be a question, nor should it be more than one sentence.)

3.       Does it give the direction of your paper?

4.       Is it narrow enough?  Is it focused?  Is it clear?

5.       Can you deal with the subject matter in the assigned number of pages? Do you have enough information, enough supporting evidence?

6.       Is it too broad?  Is there too much to say to deal with it effectively, given the assigned number of pages?

7.       Is it too obvious?  Will your reader say, “duh”?

8.       Is it debatable?  Could reasonable people disagree about it?

9.       Is it an over-arching statement, rather than a laundry list?

10.   If it is a literary analysis paper, does is reference the title of the work you are discussing, as well as the author?

11.   Is it directly linked to that piece of literature?

12.   Have you crafted your thesis statement so that it flows beautifully without extraneous words and phrases?  Is it pretty?  Have you used your best academic language?  Is it a well-crafted sentence?  Is it polished?