Valuable Information for Students on How to Create Thesis Statements for Research Papers
As it is known, each research paper has a thesis statement. It expresses the main idea of work, captures the scientific point of view of the author, and contains materials that have not been published before. Thanks to a well-written thesis, the author has the opportunity to create a reputation as a specialist who is able to logically and convincingly, clearly, and easily express the results of own work.
It is important to master the technique of writing a statement in a timely manner. It must meet the requirements of the genre and be perceived by readers and listeners accordingly. This makes certain demands on the logic of the thesis, its form, and style.
Writing a Thesis for a Research Paper: Tips from Professional Writers
A good thesis is a consequence of well-done research. It is unlikely that you will be able to create a good unique thesis for research work, which is written at a low level and does not meet the established requirements for content and design. Therefore, get ready for active work.
Consider the tips from professional writers about the organization of your research work and the specificity of writing a perfect thesis statement:
- Take responsibility for the formulation of the theme of your work. Do not miss the opportunity to consider the issue in lectures, seminars, or practical classes. Write down those aspects of the issue that arise in your colleagues during the discussion so that you can take time to analyze them later. Consider scientific publications and check if there are already similar studies on the selected topic;
- Think about the basic design of your paper. Avoid bringing many questions in work, it is better to present the material logically, consistently revealing the topic. Simple presentation schemes are more effective than complex ones;
- Take the time to think about your hypothesis. The indication that differences will be found between groups is too general. According to the law of individuation, differences will always be observed. Therefore, you need to think about what they will be and specify expectations;
- Work tirelessly. Any gaps in your knowledge will appear in the way you describe the processing of your data and present the results obtained;
- Study the guidelines that set out the basic rules for the design of research work and strictly follow them. Today it is very important to complete the work, clearly observing the requirements for line spacing, margins, font, link design, etc. Papers that do not meet the established requirements are not accepted by teachers;
- Direct citation in a statement is undesirable. If the citation is very important in your research, it confirms and argues for certain positions, then most likely, you cannot avoid it. Then be sure to correctly cite the borrowed passage, citing information about the author and publication in brackets after completing the quotation;
- You will most likely be using some well-known techniques in your research. Do not forget that they should always be accompanied by a link to the author, title, and place of publication;
- The thesis statement can partially or completely repeat the title of a paper. But the thesis cannot consist only of the title of work, and it should be broader and highlight the main idea of the research;
- The main idea may include an answer to one of the following questions: what was studied? (determination of the main problem, characteristic of its novelty and level of relevance, identification of the theoretical and practical value of the research); how was the research conducted? (the research methodology is described, the characteristics of the sampling and the methods used are given); what conclusions can be drawn? (the main conclusions are provided, and the results that have been obtained are described);
- The main idea of your work (that is, the thesis statement) should not repeat one of the fragments of the completed work. The idea should not be written from some fragment but follow from the research as a whole. Use other words and phrases (but not that are already used in a particular section of your paper) to formulate your thesis. At the same time, try to maintain logical connections.
Role and Importance of the Thesis Statement for Research Work
You, perhaps, have already understood that the thesis is a visual-logical combination of scientific material with a common idea. It has the character of a short affirmative opinion or conclusion, the regularity of the discovered scientific facts. But what is its role? Read below about this.
The main purpose of a statement in research work is to:
- Acquaint readers with the general content of the study;
- Represent the main information about your investigation to readers in an accessible and convenient form;
- Describe the results of scientific work and make it the property of specialists interested in obtaining relevant information;
- Set author priority;
- Certify personal contribution as a researcher in the solution of a scientific problem;
- Confirm the reliability of the basic results and findings of the research, its novelty, and level;
- Settle the fact of approbation and implementation of results and conclusions of scientific work;
- Display the main content of scientific work and the completion of a certain stage of research.
Typical Structures of the Thesis Statement
The statement has a certain normative, content-compositional structure. There are three typical structures:
- Statement of a problem or task;
- Results of the research;
- New methods of work.
Basic Aspects of Writing a Thesis Related to “Problem Statement”
When writing a thesis according to the structure “Statement of a problem or task”, you can provide the following blocks of information:
- The actuality of theme;
- Review of existing points of view on the problem or description of the situation in the scientific field;
- Own thoughts on this topic;
- Expected research;
- The task or problem that is posed for further solution.
It is inadmissible to include in scientific work unsubstantiated statements such as: “In connection with the anti-people policy of N government, a situation has arisen in the country that leads to complete socio-economic decadence”. It is better to rephrase as follows: “According to V research, social tensions in our country have grown significantly as a result of economic transformations in the first stage of the transition process”.
Do not try to convince the reader of anything by appealing to moral and ethical categories. Consider an interesting example: “It’s our purpose to give the students the best we have!”. You also should not put too many exclamation marks in your statement.
Basic Aspects of Writing a Thesis Describing the “Research Results”
The following blocks of information can be presented in the thesis of this type:
- Basic provisions or hypothesis;
- Applied methods;
- Sampling parameters;
- Intermediate results (if necessary);
- Main results;
- Interpretation and conclusions.
You should not repeat other people’s experiments. Before publishing results, it is necessary to check whether they have been published before. This is especially necessary if you are making an obvious hypothesis. If you find similar data, then mention them in work and compare them with your own results. One of the most common mistakes is the lack of indication of the research method. That is, the author writes in a statement: “The level of knowledge and skills of students has increased, which contributed to…”. Without mentioning the research method, these words are insignificant because no one will be able to repeat these data, and it will also be difficult to understand them. After all, the essence of the results obtained by a person depends on what method he/she uses.
It is recommended to interpret the results obtained in connection with the hypotheses stated at the beginning of the text and the objectives of the study.
Basic Aspects of Writing a Thesis Representing the “New Methods of Work”
In the thesis describing the “New methods of work,” it is recommended to present:
- Characteristic of existing methodology;
- Characteristic of the new method;
- Description of application results;
- Evaluation of the advantages and limitations of the new methodology.
This can be a methodology of practical work developed by the author or a description of the results of testing the existing method in new conditions.
How to Start a Thesis?
If you have difficulty defining a thesis and you do not know how to start writing, then try to identify as clearly as possible the main problem of your research, unambiguously formulate your idea. This will allow you to formulate a good start.
Persuasive or Informative Thesis Statement?
Before formulating the statement, you need to determine what is the general aim of your work: to persuade the reader of something or provide enough informative data, based on which the reader can draw his/her own conclusion. So, you need to choose what will be the thesis: persuasive or informative.
The persuasive thesis is usually based on the following levels: the logic of evidence and the sequence of their linguistic presentation, the relevance of arguments, their specificity, and diversity.
The informative thesis well reveals the content of the whole paper, conveys important factual and theoretical information.
2 Different Styles of Thesis Statement
There are two styles of statements:
- Written on the content of scientific material;
- Written before the study.
The first style is characterized by a significant reduction in the volume of the text of scientific material with maximum preservation of its content. If the author does not have enough material, it is difficult for him/her to express thoughts briefly. There is often a situation of the second style – first of all, a thesis is written, which over time expands to the size of research work. The main difficulty of the second style is that the author has not fully formulated own idea of what he/she wants to cover. Although, in scientific research – this is the norm. First comes the idea that needs to be written down.
Successful Formula for Creating a Strong Thesis Statement
No matter how much we explain how to write a strong statement, it will be ineffective if do not provide a general formula. Therefore, below we want to represent a formula that you can use as a basis for writing your thesis:
The subordinate clause referring to the opposing side claims the central idea.
Consider the below example:
The integration of the school uniform can lead to a violation of the individual self-expression of students. However, the introduction of school uniforms will contribute to the formation of positive discipline and lead to a decrease in the burden on those parents who are hampered due to unnecessary costs, which as a result will be a good experience for all participant’s educational process.
Good Thesis Statement Examples
Within the framework of this review, it also seems appropriate to consider good examples of a thesis for research work.
College Education
Here are some examples of theses on college education:
- Independent work is needed not only for a student to master the content of a particular discipline but also for the formation of his ability to take responsibility, solve problems independently, find constructive solutions and solutions to problem situations;
- The organization of the educational process in a modern college should be based on the principles of the adequacy of scientific, cognitive, informational, and methodological support, which is the basis for independent acquisition and understanding of knowledge and expression of creative and research initiative of each;
- The development of distance learning will continue and improve with the development of Internet technologies and the improvement of distance learning methods.
Health and Medicine
Examples of theses on health and medicine:
- One of the most difficult problems in diagnostic, treatment, and economic relations in the structure of cardiovascular diseases is hypertension;
- Low health of student youth, the prevalence of drug addiction, alcoholism, smoking, epidemic spread of HIV / AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis, deterioration of reproductive health requires the development of a culture of student health as an important factor in preventing and overcoming such negative phenomena in society.
Social Services
Pay attention to the following examples:
- Improving the quality of social services should be done by informing the public about social services; introducing state standards of social services; determining criteria for the activities of entities providing social services; introducing case management technology and a mechanism for monitoring and quality control of social services;
- An important element in the formation of the market for social services should be the development of the private sector by introducing a social procurement mechanism, determining the cost of social services, and introducing the mechanism of social partnership.
So, writing a thesis for research is not such an easy assignment as it might seem at first glance. However, this article’s examples and recommendations will surely help you cope with the task successfully.
