Ideas: From Topic to Thesis

Almost all academic English papers are argumentative: they are designed to advance a thesis. A thesis, therefore, is the heart of a paper: without one, there is only trouble. There are three quick tests to tell if you have a thesis. Do you have a claim that someone might reasonably disagree with? Does your claim answer a question an intelligent reader might legitimately have? Is your claim likely to be new to your intended audience?

A thesis is a claim that can be debated, so a quick test of whether you have a thesis is whether someone can disagree with it or not. "Imagery of light and darkness in Macbeth" is not a thesis -- no one can argue that it is not true. "Light is associated with hypocrisy in Macbeth" is a thesis. Note well: theses do not appear out of thin air. One chooses a topic first and then works to develop a thesis. If you realize the subject of your paper is still a topic and not a thesis, don't throw it out -- just do the work to develop a specific argument about some aspect of your topic.

Not all theses are interesting. "Hamlet is a tragedy" has the form of a thesis (someone could theoretically disagree with it), but no one would, and so no one would want to read a paper on this. To come up with an interesting thesis, you need to think what you can add to a discussion. If you're doing a research paper, you'll know what discussions are going on by looking at what people are publishing about. If you're not, take what you find an interesting question and write on that. Very often, you can find an interesting thesis by revising or refining a commonly held idea (for instance, "Although Hamlet is a tragedy, it is not an Aristotelian tragedy: Shakespeare is more interested in the psychology of fall than in assessing guilt").

Coming up with an interesting thesis takes time and work. If you sit down to write and say, "All right, in five seconds I need to decide what my thesis is going to be," you're likely to end up only with obvious theses. Ask questions and try to answer them. Start by reading attentively, looking for points of interest -- a minor character whose purpose is not clear, elaborate metaphors that may suggest a theme or a subtle judgment, repeated images or motifs. Ask why these might be in the text, what theme might tie them together. If your first answer doesn't work, don't abandon it completely. Investigate why it doesn't work; that might lead to a more interesting and nuanced thesis. If, for instance, you're going to argue that Ophelia goes mad because (sane) women have no power to say what they think in early modern culture, you may think your argument is ruined when you realize that Gertrude does speak. Instead of abandoning the thesis immediately, think about why Gertrude is able to speak. Is the queen any woman? to what extent do feminist analyses need to consider class? You may come up with a more nuanced and interesting argument this way.

Beware of theses that generate lists. "Gawain is not the same character in Chretien's writings as he is in Malory's" may seem like a thesis (if you're not too precise about what kind of question would really motivate it) , but the paper produced by that 'thesis' will just be a list of differences. Very often, papers on symbolism can fall into this trap, listing occurences of a symbol. What is needed to turn these pseudo-theses into real theses is a motivating question, which is usually "why?" Why does Malory transform Gawain's character? How does Tennyson use the symbolism he sets up?

In general, your test for a good thesis consists of three questions: is it a statement that can be disagreed with? will it teach a knowledgeable reader something new? is it responding to a question an interested reader might have?

For more on generating and assessing good theses, see Erik Simpson's discussion.