Question

Is this a decent thesis?

Once the Jazz Age set its course, the ideas of confidence, disillusionment, and isolation became characteristics that embodied this generation.

Answer 1

If your paper is going to tell me all about the ideas of confidence, dissillusionment, and isolation with some reference to Jazz, then it's great.
If that's not what you are talking about, lmk, and we can reword it a bit to be more clear.

Answer 2

I disagree I don't think it captres the readers attention enough if you start out a paper like that people will get bored fast

Answer 3

^captures^

Answer 4

I agree with @ALYSSSA_Irene_Keeton. It didn't capture my attention and I felt lost and confused as I was reading it. Maybe try rewording it. Remember that your thesis states the main idea of your writing.

Answer 5

Grabbing the reader's attention isn't the primary job of the thesis--the introduction as a whole should do that. The thesis just needs to clarify what the essay is about and the direction the argument will go. So I'd tend to judge this thesis on clarity, rather than "sparkle."

To me, this this thesis could be clearer if the wording were cleaned up a bit.

"Once the Jazz Age set its course, the ideas of confidence, disillusionment, and isolation became characteristics that embodied this generation."

I'm not exactly sure what "set its course" means: Does "its" refer to the Jazz Age? If so, how does an "age" set its own course? Wouldn't some other factors be at work here? Oh well, I'll just have to give that one the benefit of the doubt because I'm reading this thesis out of context. Maybe the introductory sentences that precede the thesis would lend some explanation.
I have a problem with a couple more words: "ideas" and "embodied;" another problem for me is that one of your items contrasts with the other two.
The three items listed aren't really "ideas;" I think they're really characteristics (your word). The fact that they're rather abstract characteristics makes me wonder how they "embodied" anything. Abstract characteristics (or even ideas) aren't concrete or physical. Maybe a generation could embody some characteristics, but I have a hard time seeing such characteristics embodying a generation. So, one way to get rid of "embodied" is to make characteristics the verb "characterize." Just a suggestion. And I think you need to recognize that the last two characteristics are something alike (negative), while the first one is different (positive). Just grouping them should do that.

So maybe try this:
Once the Jazz Age took hold in American culture, confidence, as well as disillusionment and isolation, characterized this generation.

Answer 6

@LizP I have ALWAYS been told a thesis should grab a readers attention

Answer 7

here is the introduction with the thesis:

At the conclusion of World War 1, the United States and its people entered into a period of Carpe Diem. Men who came back home from war adopted a carefree and seize-the-day attitude, thoughts which manifested itself into the mindset of the American people. Countless Americans decided to live life by its fullest because the atrocities of war gave many a wakeup call as to how precious lives were. With these perspectives in mind, the Jazz Age was born. A term coined by author F. Scott Fitzgerald, this time period from the end of World War 1 to the beginning of the Great Depression was the time when American culture reached its apex. Along with the birth of Jazz, cinema, and American heroes, the period also presented an emergence of the modern society. Once the Jazz Age set foot, the ideas of confidence, disillusionment, and isolation became characteristics that embodied this generation.