by George Brosi

Only the research question is more important to the research paper than the thesis. The importance of the thesis is emphasized by the fact that the research paper which is required of most candidates for the M.A. or M.S. degree is actually called a "thesis!"

Your thesis is your answer to your research question. Your paper is an argument paper arguing that your thesis answers that research question better than any other answer. Thus it is easy to see that a good thesis can "make" a research paper and that a faulty thesis can render practically any research paper almost meaningless.

Your thesis must make sense. It should answer the question in a meaningful way. Thus, for example, your thesis cannot state the obvious. Remember, as a scholar your task is to push back the frontiers of human understanding, not to restate the obvious. Thus, if your topic is child abuse, there is no point in doing a paper with the thesis, "child abuse is bad." Everybody already knows that. "Child abuse should be stopped" is no better. A good thesis statement answers the how and why questions. It answers questions like "what causes child abuse?" and "what can be done about it?"

A good thesis should be as specific as you can make it. Depth is always a positive value in scholarship! Furthermore, be sure your thesis is always positive. It may be tempting to use a negative thesis, but a positive thesis always represents a dramatic improvement. For example, instead of writing around the thesis that children should be removed from an abusive home, write around your particular alternative to the home environment. Sure it is more difficult to solve a problem than point out that another solution is inadequate, but the positive thesis is much more worthwhile. To be as specific as possible, a thesis statement proposing a solution to a political problem is best stated in terms of support for a specific piece of national or state or local legislation. That makes for a very impressive thesis statement indeed.

In the process of writing a research paper, it is important to rethink your thesis statement periodically. Just as your auto mechanic may have to try several diagnostic attempts to find out what is wrong with your car, as you gain information and knowledge about your topic, you will find that you may want to adjust and refine your thesis statement. This is fine and good. Never hesitate to refine and improve your thesis statement right down to the last draft of your research paper.