Question

What are good pointers on developing a thesis statement ( a strong one)?

Answer 1

Well for starters, think of how you would explain the entire paper to someone - the entire idea in one or two sentences. This will form the foundation of the thesis statement which should be around 4-7 sentences and a paragraph long. I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Are you writing about literature?

What helps me the most is "writing to discover." What this means is that you should take a look at the text and underline, write notes in the margins, and make note of the main idea and sub-ideas of the text. After making your notes, see if you can make connections through your observations. You do not want to start writing your paper with a thesis because you don't want to make your evidence fit your thesis. You want to make your thesis fit your evidence.

Your thesis typically should contain three parts, or sub-ideas. You can get these sub-ideas from the notes/observations you make with your literature. What three things are the most interesting/engaging about the literature you need to analyze? Can you come up with something overarching that will cover all these three things and make sense? Lastly, is it argumentative? Is it something that someone will want to read more about or simply accept as true from the get go?

That arrangement of your three sub-ideas, in one basic statement, is your thesis :)