The Question: Every good essay is an argument for–that defends–a particular answer to an overarching question. But before defending an answer, it’s important to have a clear and precise question. Reflecting on sources assigned for the course, formulate a question that your essay will seek to answer. Usually a good research question involves a general question as well as subordinate questions that you need to answer in order to answer the more general question. For instance, suppose your question is this: Is Hobbes’s claim that sovereign power is or must be absolute correct? In order to answer that question, we must first know what it means to call sovereign power absolute. Next, we must know the argument for the claim that sovereign power must be absolute. After that, we need to know what the arguments against the claim might be.
The Answer: The thesis of an essay is the answer to the overarching question. In the essay itself, the thesis is stated up front (in the Introduction, usually in the first paragraph, and perhaps immediately after stating the overarching question the essay seeks to answer.). The main text of the essay is an argument for the thesis. In The Thesis Statement or Statement of the Question, however, you provide either a tentative answer to the overarching question (an answer you will defend at length in the completed essay)—we call this tentative answer a hypothesis—or you consider multiple tentative answers/hypotheses that are, at this initial stage, plausible answers to the main question. The goal of your research would then be to arrive at a determination as to which hypothesis provides the best answer to the overarching question. At this stage of your work on the essay, you should keep in mind that good research might result in rejecting a hypothesis that you originally thought you would defend or affirming a hypothesis that you initially thought you would reject.
Composing the Thesis Statement: The thesis statement should include at least two parts. The first part of the thesis statement includes a clear and precise statement of the main question you wish to answer (the overarching question of the essay). A statement of the question also involves framing subordinate questions that must be answered in order to answer the overarching question. Your statement of the question should show how the subordinate questions relate to the overarching question by helping to answer it.
The second part should include a tentative answer you think you might defend or multiple hypotheses that you will examine. But even in the case where you think you will defend a particular answer, you should make clear that you affirm this answer in light of other possible answers and should say what those are.
Instructions
Your thesis statement (or statement of the question) must address one of the prompts below. Include identifying information–your name, date, course, assignment information, word count–at the top and on the left of the page. The thesis statement /statement of the question should be 300-500 words. The statement should be double-spaced. Use 12-point, Times New Roman font and 1 inch margins all around. To receive credit the statement must be uploaded to Canvas as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf. Please note that you your thesis or statement of the question can be tentative. If in the course of your research the thesis for which you plan to argue or the question (or answer to the question) changes, that’s both acceptable and expected in the process of research.
