a working thesis

Think of yourself as a member of a jury, listening to a lawyer who is presenting an opening argument. You'll want to know very soon whether the lawyer believes the accused to be guilty or not guilty, and how the lawyer plans to convince you. Readers of academic essays are like jury members: before they have read too far, they want to know what the essay argues as well as how the writer plans to make the argument. After reading your thesis statement, the reader should think, "This essay is going to try to convince me of something. I'm not convinced yet, but I'm interested to see how I might be."

An effective thesis cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no." A thesis is not a topic; nor is it a fact; nor is it an opinion. "Reasons for the fall of communism" is a topic. "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" is a fact known by educated people. "The fall of communism is the best thing that ever happened in Europe" is an opinion. (Superlatives like "the best" almost always lead to trouble. It's impossible to weigh every "thing" that ever happened in Europe. And what about the fall of Hitler? Couldn't that be "the best thing"?)

A good thesis has two parts. It should tell what you plan to argue, and it should "telegraph" how you plan to argue—that is, what particular support for your claim is going where in your essay.

Steps in Constructing a Thesis

First, analyze your primary sources.  Look for tension, interest, ambiguity, controversy, and/or complication. Does the author contradict himself or herself? Is a point made and later reversed? What are the deeper implications of the author's argument? Figuring out the why to one or more of these questions, or to related questions, will put you on the path to developing a working thesis. (Without the why, you probably have only come up with an observation—that there are, for instance, many different metaphors in such-and-such a poem—which is not a thesis.)

Once you have a working thesis, write it down.  There is nothing as frustrating as hitting on a great idea for a thesis, then forgetting it when you lose concentration. And by writing down your thesis you will be forced to think of it clearly, logically, and concisely. You probably will not be able to write out a final-draft version of your thesis the first time you try, but you'll get yourself on the right track by writing down what you have.

Keep your thesis prominent in your introduction.  A good, standard place for your thesis statement is at the end of an introductory paragraph, especially in shorter (5-15 page) essays. Readers are used to finding theses there, so they automatically pay more attention when they read the last sentence of your introduction. Although this is not required in all academic essays, it is a good rule of thumb.

Anticipate the counterarguments.  Once you have a working thesis, you should think about what might be said against it. This will help you to refine your thesis, and it will also make you think of the arguments that you'll need to refute later on in your essay. (Every argument has a counterargument. If yours doesn't, then it's not an argument—it may be a fact, or an opinion, but it is not an argument.)

This statement is on its way to being a thesis. However, it is too easy to imagine possible counterarguments. For example, a political observer might believe that Dukakis lost because he suffered from a "soft-on-crime" image. If you complicate your thesis by anticipating the counterargument, you'll strengthen your argument, as shown in the sentence below.

Some Caveats and Some Examples

A thesis is never a question.  Readers of academic essays expect to have questions discussed, explored, or even answered. A question ("Why did communism collapse in Eastern Europe?") is not an argument, and without an argument, a thesis is dead in the water.

A thesis is never a list.  "For political, economic, social and cultural reasons, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" does a good job of "telegraphing" the reader what to expect in the essay—a section about political reasons, a section about economic reasons, a section about social reasons, and a section about cultural reasons. However, political, economic, social and cultural reasons are pretty much the only possible reasons why communism could collapse. This sentence lacks tension and doesn't advance an argument. Everyone knows that politics, economics, and culture are important.

A thesis should never be vague, combative or confrontational.  An ineffective thesis would be, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because communism is evil." This is hard to argue (evil from whose perspective? what does evil mean?) and it is likely to mark you as moralistic and judgmental rather than rational and thorough. It also may spark a defensive reaction from readers sympathetic to communism. If readers strongly disagree with you right off the bat, they may stop reading.

An effective thesis has a definable, arguable claim.  "While cultural forces contributed to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of economies played the key role in driving its decline" is an effective thesis sentence that "telegraphs," so that the reader expects the essay to have a section about cultural forces and another about the disintegration of economies. This thesis makes a definite, arguable claim: that the disintegration of economies played a more important role than cultural forces in defeating communism in Eastern Europe. The reader would react to this statement by thinking, "Perhaps what the author says is true, but I am not convinced. I want to read further to see how the author argues this claim."

A thesis should be as clear and specific as possible.  Avoid overused, general terms and abstractions. For example, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because of the ruling elite's inability to address the economic concerns of the people" is more powerful than "Communism collapsed due to societal discontent."

Copyright 1999, Maxine Rodburg and The Tutors of the Writing Center at Harvard University

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6.5: Writing a Working Thesis

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• Page ID 6500

• Steven D. Krause
• Eastern Michigan University

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The next step, developing a “working thesis,” can be a difficult and time-consuming process. However, as was the case when considering different ideas for research in the first place, spending the time now on devising a good working thesis will pay off later.

For our purposes here (and for most college classes), a thesis advocates a specific and debatable issue. In academic writing (including the writing done by your professors), the thesis is often stated fairly directly in the first third or so of the writing, though not usually at the end of the first paragraph where students are often told to place it. The sentence or two that seems to encapsulate the issue of the essay is called a “thesis statement.”

Frequently, theses are implied—that is, while the piece of writing clearly has a point that the reader understands, there may not be a specific sentence or two that can easily be identified as the “thesis statement.” For example, theses are often implied in newspapers and magazines, along with a lot of the writing that appears on Web pages.

The point is a thesis is a point.

Theses are not statements of facts, simple questions, or summaries of events. They are positions that you as the writer take on and “defend” with evidence, logic, observations, and the other tools of discourse. Most kinds of writing—and particularly academic writing—have a thesis, directly stated or implied. Even most of the writing we largely think of as “informational” has a directly stated or implied thesis.

Theses also tend to lend a certain organization to written arguments since what you include (or exclude) in a written text is largely controlled by the thesis. The main goal of the thesis (either as a specific statement or as an implied statement) is to answer two key questions that are concerns of all readers: “what’s your point?” and “why should I care?”

Now, a working thesis is more or less a temporary thesis you devise in the beginning of the research process in order to set some direction in your research. However, as I wrote in the beginning of this chapter, you should remember:

Your working thesis is temporary and should change as you research, write, and learn more about your topic.

Think of the working thesis as the scaffolding and bracing put up around buildings when they are under construction: these structures are not designed to forever be a part of the building. Just the opposite. But you couldn’t build the building in the first place if you didn’t have the scaffolding and bracing that you inevitably have to tear away from the finished building.

Here’s another way of thinking of it: while the journey of 1000 miles begins with just one step (so the saying goes), you still have to pick some kind of direction in the beginning. That’s the purpose of a working thesis. You might change your mind about the direction of your research as you progress through the process, but you’ve got to start somewhere.

What does a working thesis look like? Before considering some potentially “good” examples of working theses, read through these BAD examples of statements, ones that ARE NOT theses, at least for the purposes of academic writing:

• Computer crime is bad.
• Fisheries around the world are important.
• The Great Gatsby is an American novel.

None of these sentences would make effective theses because each of these is more or less a statement of fact. Of course, we could debate some of the details here. But practically speaking, most people would assume and believe these statements to be true. Because of that, these statements don’t have much potential as working theses.

These statements ARE NOT really theses either:

• There are many controversial ways of dealing with computer crime.
• There are many things that could be done to preserve fisheries around the world.
• The Great Gatsby is a wonderful novel for several different reasons.

These revised working thesis statements are better than the previous examples, but they are not quite working theses yet. The problem with these possible working theses is that they are hopelessly vague and give no idea to the reader where the essay is going. Also, while these statements are a bit more debatable than the previous group of examples, they are still statements that most people would more or less accept as facts.

While this next group of statements is yet another step closer, these statements ARE NOT really good working theses either:

• This essay will be about the role computer hackers play in computer crime committed on the Internet.
• This essay will discuss some of the measures the international community should take in order to preserve fisheries around the world.
• My essay is about the relevance today of The Great Gatsby’s depiction of the connection between material goods and the American dream.

Each of these statements is close to being a working thesis because each is about an idea that has been focused into a specific topic. However, these statements are not quite working thesis statements because they don’t offer a position or opinion that will be defended in some way. To turn these topics into working theses, the writer needs to take a side on the issues suggested in the statements.

Now, these revised statements ARE examples of possible working theses:

• While some computer hackers are harmless, most of them commit serious computer crimes and represent a serious Internet security problem.
• The international community should enact strict conservation measures to preserve fisheries and save endangered fish species around the world.
• The Great Gatsby’s depiction of the connection between material goods and the American dream is still relevant today.

If you compare these possible working theses with the statements at the beginning of this section, you will hopefully see the differences between the “bad” and “good” working theses, and hopefully you can see the characteristics of a viable working thesis.

Each of the “good” working thesis statements:

• takes a stand that is generally not considered a “fact;”
• is specific enough to give the writer and potential reader some idea as to the direction the writing will take; and
• offers an initial position on the topic that takes a stand.

Another useful characteristic of a good working thesis is that it can help you as writer to determine what your essay will NOT be about. For example, the phrasing of the working thesis on computer hackers suggests to both the reader and the researcher that the essay will NOT be about the failure of “dot com” business, computer literacy, or computer software. Certainly these issues are related to the issue of computer hackers and computer crime, but these other issues will not become the focus of the essay.

Exercise 5.4

• Working with the topic you’ve chosen, create a working thesis similar to the above examples. Try to ensure that your working thesis is focused and to the point by keeping it to only one sentence. Creating a working thesis can be tricky, so be sure to devote some time to try out different possible working thesis statements. And don’t forget: a working thesis is the temporary scaffolding that will help you build your essay. It will and should change in the process of writing, so it doesn’t need to be “perfect” at this stage.
• After you have individually formed working theses, get together with a small group of classmates to share and revise them.

Thesis Statements

What this handout is about.

This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, and how you can craft or refine one for your draft.

Introduction

Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion—convincing others that you have an interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill you practice regularly in your daily life. You persuade your roommate to clean up, your parents to let you borrow the car, your friend to vote for your favorite candidate or policy. In college, course assignments often ask you to make a persuasive case in writing. You are asked to convince your reader of your point of view. This form of persuasion, often called academic argument, follows a predictable pattern in writing. After a brief introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it serves as a summary of the argument you’ll make in the rest of your paper.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement:

• tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.
• is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper.
• directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II or Moby Dick; a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war or the novel.
• makes a claim that others might dispute.
• is usually a single sentence near the beginning of your paper (most often, at the end of the first paragraph) that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.

If your assignment asks you to take a position or develop a claim about a subject, you may need to convey that position or claim in a thesis statement near the beginning of your draft. The assignment may not explicitly state that you need a thesis statement because your instructor may assume you will include one. When in doubt, ask your instructor if the assignment requires a thesis statement. When an assignment asks you to analyze, to interpret, to compare and contrast, to demonstrate cause and effect, or to take a stand on an issue, it is likely that you are being asked to develop a thesis and to support it persuasively. (Check out our handout on understanding assignments for more information.)

How do I create a thesis?

A thesis is the result of a lengthy thinking process. Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do after reading an essay assignment. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts (such as surprising contrasts or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you do this thinking, you will probably have a “working thesis” that presents a basic or main idea and an argument that you think you can support with evidence. Both the argument and your thesis are likely to need adjustment along the way.

Writers use all kinds of techniques to stimulate their thinking and to help them clarify relationships or comprehend the broader significance of a topic and arrive at a thesis statement. For more ideas on how to get started, see our handout on brainstorming .

How do I know if my thesis is strong?

If there’s time, run it by your instructor or make an appointment at the Writing Center to get some feedback. Even if you do not have time to get advice elsewhere, you can do some thesis evaluation of your own. When reviewing your first draft and its working thesis, ask yourself the following :

• Do I answer the question? Re-reading the question prompt after constructing a working thesis can help you fix an argument that misses the focus of the question. If the prompt isn’t phrased as a question, try to rephrase it. For example, “Discuss the effect of X on Y” can be rephrased as “What is the effect of X on Y?”
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? If your thesis simply states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it’s possible that you are simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like “good” or “successful,” see if you could be more specific: why is something “good”; what specifically makes something “successful”?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? If a reader’s first response is likely to  be “So what?” then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue.
• Does my essay support my thesis specifically and without wandering? If your thesis and the body of your essay do not seem to go together, one of them has to change. It’s okay to change your working thesis to reflect things you have figured out in the course of writing your paper. Remember, always reassess and revise your writing as necessary.
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? If a reader’s first response is “how?” or “why?” your thesis may be too open-ended and lack guidance for the reader. See what you can add to give the reader a better take on your position right from the beginning.

Suppose you are taking a course on contemporary communication, and the instructor hands out the following essay assignment: “Discuss the impact of social media on public awareness.” Looking back at your notes, you might start with this working thesis:

Social media impacts public awareness in both positive and negative ways.

You can use the questions above to help you revise this general statement into a stronger thesis.

• Do I answer the question? You can analyze this if you rephrase “discuss the impact” as “what is the impact?” This way, you can see that you’ve answered the question only very generally with the vague “positive and negative ways.”
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not likely. Only people who maintain that social media has a solely positive or solely negative impact could disagree.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? No. What are the positive effects? What are the negative effects?
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? No. Why are they positive? How are they positive? What are their causes? Why are they negative? How are they negative? What are their causes?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? No. Why should anyone care about the positive and/or negative impact of social media?

After thinking about your answers to these questions, you decide to focus on the one impact you feel strongly about and have strong evidence for:

Because not every voice on social media is reliable, people have become much more critical consumers of information, and thus, more informed voters.

This version is a much stronger thesis! It answers the question, takes a specific position that others can challenge, and it gives a sense of why it matters.

Let’s try another. Suppose your literature professor hands out the following assignment in a class on the American novel: Write an analysis of some aspect of Mark Twain’s novel Huckleberry Finn. “This will be easy,” you think. “I loved Huckleberry Finn!” You grab a pad of paper and write:

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.

You begin to analyze your thesis:

• Do I answer the question? No. The prompt asks you to analyze some aspect of the novel. Your working thesis is a statement of general appreciation for the entire novel.

Think about aspects of the novel that are important to its structure or meaning—for example, the role of storytelling, the contrasting scenes between the shore and the river, or the relationships between adults and children. Now you write:

In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and life on the shore.

• Do I answer the question? Yes!
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not really. This contrast is well-known and accepted.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? It’s getting there–you have highlighted an important aspect of the novel for investigation. However, it’s still not clear what your analysis will reveal.
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? Not yet. Compare scenes from the book and see what you discover. Free write, make lists, jot down Huck’s actions and reactions and anything else that seems interesting.
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? What’s the point of this contrast? What does it signify?”

After examining the evidence and considering your own insights, you write:

Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must leave “civilized” society and go back to nature.

This final thesis statement presents an interpretation of a literary work based on an analysis of its content. Of course, for the essay itself to be successful, you must now present evidence from the novel that will convince the reader of your interpretation.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. 2010. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers , 6th ed. New York: Longman.

Lunsford, Andrea A. 2015. The St. Martin’s Handbook , 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 2018. The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing , 8th ed. New York: Pearson.

Ruszkiewicz, John J., Christy Friend, Daniel Seward, and Maxine Hairston. 2010. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers , 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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University writing center, university writing center blog, the working thesis.

by Alexandra Makris, Peer Consultant, University Writing Center

One of my favorite conventions in writing that I have learned in college is the concept of the working thesis.

What is a thesis, you ask?

I will explain, happily (is there any other emotion to have when explaining a thesis statement? Considering it is about 30% of my job as a writing consultant, no).

A thesis statement is a claim that you are going to back up throughout your paper. It should be something with which someone else can plausibly disagree without sounding silly. For instance, if you begin an argumentative essay with the sentence “Chicago is located in Illinois, which is a state in the United States of America,” the main response you would get is “Yes, yes it is.”

The claim is something other than mere facts. It is a stance, a view, a flag upheld in a battlefield of contrary forces.

A working thesis is a beautiful concept that should find a comfortable place in your academic vocabulary. Properly considered, it will save you both time and stress. It is essentially a work-in-progress thesis, which is helpful because often we do not know exactly what we want to say until we have gotten further into the research and the writing process.

It is perfectly acceptable to have your working thesis loose, with imprecise and general language. I often find in a tutoring session that one of the first steps is reassuring the student that getting a perfect thesis statement the first time you write it is utterly unrealistic. It does not happen to us mere mortals, and revision is a necessary part of improving your writing.

The purpose of the working thesis is to give structure to your writing as you begin, rather than trying to create a unifying thesis after finishing your paper entirely. This way, as you write, you can constantly return to the thesis and ask yourself, “Does it fit with the purpose of my paper?” Writing, whether academic or not, has specific purposes, and all details and support ought to relate to that purpose. If you are writing a persuasive paper on the topic of gun control on school campuses in Indiana, including commentary on rising school tuition or the lack of parking on campuses does not help your cause. Those topics could potentially overlap, but you would have to make that overlap an intentional action rather than a tangential detour. If, as you are writing, a brilliant point of analysis comes to fruition that is not covered by your working thesis, consider reworking the thesis to include it.

Happy writing, and feel free to come see us in the writing center any time.

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• 1. The Writing Process
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Developing a Working Thesis

• Starting Techniques

Developing a working thesis   can serve to tell you what further information you need to provide in the essay and help you decide on the order of your ideas, or what further arguments you need to support the working thesis.  

After a few cycles of stating, working with and revising a working thesis, you will have created the actual thesis   or central idea of your essay.

As you write, keep returning to the question that you hope your essay will answer. Don’t hesitate to revise this question as your understanding of the topic develops. Each time you do so, consider what your possible or probable answer is at that point. This answer can be written out in sentence form and serve as a working thesis, something like a hypothesis that you are testing.  

Your working thesis should state your position on your topic and not simply present a topic. One way to generate a working thesis is to complete the following sentence in relation to the question you hope your essay will answer:

            At this point I think I am going to argue that ….

  To learn more about a working thesis, see Developing a Working Thesis under Resources.

Objectifs du module

Ce module sur la compréhension des travaux fournit des stratégies pour :

• vous familiariser avec les exigences générales d’un travail de recherche universitaire;
• déterminer le but d’un travail afin de vous guider dans le processus de rédaction;
• reconnaître les différents types de travaux de recherche et les mots-indicateurs qui y sont associés;
• appliquer noter des approches disciplinaires différentes
• identifier le public cible et tenir compte de son rôle dans le travail.

Writing Process: Prewriting

Working thesis statement, parts of a thesis sentence.

The thesis sentence is the key to most academic writing. This is important and worth repeating: The thesis sentence is the key to most academic writing.

The purpose of academic writing is to offer your own insights, analyses, and ideas—to show not only that you understand the concepts you’re studying, but also that you have thought about those concepts in your own way, agreed or disagreed, or developed your own unique ideas as a result of your analysis. The thesis sentence is the one sentence that encapsulates the result of your thinking, as it offers your main insight or argument in condensed form.

A basic thesis sentence has two main parts:

• Topic:  What you’re writing about
• Angle:  What your main idea is about that topic

Thesis: A regular exercise regime leads to multiple benefits, both physical and emotional.

Topic: Regular exercise regime

Angle: Leads to multiple benefits

Thesis Angles

Most writers can easily create a topic: television viewing, the Patriot Act, Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The more difficult part is creating an angle. But the angle is necessary as a means of creating interest and as a means of indicating the type and organization of the information to follow.

Click on each of the thesis angles in the box below that you want to learn more about.

So what about this thesis sentence? Adult college students have different experiences than traditionally-aged college students.

As a reader, you understand intuitively that the information to come will deal with the different types of experiences that adult college students have. But you don’t quite know if the information will deal only with adults, or if it will compare adults’ experiences with those of typical college students. And you don’t quite know what type of information will come first, second, third, etc.

Realize that a thesis sentence offers a range of possibilities for specificity and organization. As a writer, you may opt to pique reader interest by being very specific or not fully specific in your thesis sentence. The point here is that there’s no one standard way to write a thesis sentence.

Sometimes a writer is more or less specific depending on the reading audience and the effect the writer wants to create. Sometimes a writer puts the angle first and the topic last in the sentence, or sometimes the angle is even implied. You need to gauge your reading audience and you need to understand your own style as a writer. The only basic requirements are that the thesis sentence needs a topic and an angle. The rest is up to you.

Common Problems

Although you have creative control over your thesis sentence, you still should try to avoid the following problems, not for stylistic reasons, but because they indicate a problem in the thinking that underlies the thesis sentence.

Thesis Sentence too Broad

Hospice workers need support.

The sentence above actually is a thesis sentence; it has a topic (hospice workers) and an angle (need support). But the angle is very broad. When the angle in a thesis sentence is too broad, the writer may not have carefully thought through the specific support for the rest of the writing. A thesis angle that’s too broad makes it easy to fall into the trap of offering information that deviates from that angle.

Thesis Sentence too Narrow

Hospice workers have a 55% turnover rate compared to the general health care population’s 25% turnover rate.

The above sentence really isn’t a thesis sentence at all, because there’s no angle idea to support. A narrow statistic, or a narrow statement of fact, doesn’t offer the writer’s own ideas or analysis about a topic. A clearer example of a thesis statement with an angle of development would be the following:

The high turnover rate in hospice workers (55 percent) compared to the general health care population (25 percent) indicates a need to develop support systems to reverse this trend.

Where to Place a Thesis?

In the U.S., it’s customary for most academic writers to put the thesis sentence somewhere toward the start of the essay or research paper. The focus here is on offering the main results of your own thinking in your thesis angle and then providing evidence in the writing to support your thinking.

A legal comparison might help to understand thesis placement. If you have seen television shows or movies with courtroom scenes, the lawyer usually starts out by saying, “My client is innocent!” to set the scene, and then provides different types of evidence to support that argument. Academic writing in the U.S. is similar; your thesis sentence provides your main assertion to set the scene of the writing, and then the details and evidence in the rest of the writing support the assertion in the thesis sentence.

As a writer, you have the option of placing the thesis anywhere in the writing. But, as a writer, you also have the obligation to make the thesis sentence idea clear to your readers. Beginning writers usually stick with “thesis sentence toward the start,” as it makes the thesis prominent in the writing and also reminds them that they need to stick with providing evidence directly related to that thesis sentence’s angle.

Thesis Creation

At what point do you write a thesis sentence? Of course, this varies from writer to writer and from writing assignment to writing assignment. You’ll usually do some preliminary idea development first, before a thesis idea emerges. And you’ll usually have a working thesis before you do the bulk of your research, or before you fully create the supporting details for your writing.

Think of the thesis as the mid-point of an hourglass.

You develop ideas for writing and prewriting, using various strategies, until a main idea or assertion emerges. This main idea or assertion becomes your point to prove—your working thesis sentence.

Once you have a working thesis sentence with your main idea, you can then develop more support for that idea, but in a more focused way that deepens your thinking about the thesis angle.

Realize that a thesis is really a working thesis until you finalize the writing. As you do more focused research, or develop more focused support, your thesis may change a bit. Just make sure that you retain the basic thesis characteristics of topic and angle.

Thesis Checklist

When you draft a working thesis, it can be helpful to review the guidelines for a strong thesis. The following checklist is a helpful tool you can use to check your thesis once you have it drafted.

• Parts of a Thesis Sentence. Provided by : Excelsior OWL. Located at : https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-process/thesis-sentence/ . License : CC BY: Attribution

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How to write a thesis statement, what is a thesis statement.

Almost all of us—even if we don’t do it consciously—look early in an essay for a one- or two-sentence condensation of the argument or analysis that is to follow. We refer to that condensation as a thesis statement.

Why Should Your Essay Contain a Thesis Statement?

• to test your ideas by distilling them into a sentence or two
• to better organize and develop your argument
• to provide your reader with a “guide” to your argument

In general, your thesis statement will accomplish these goals if you think of the thesis as the answer to the question your paper explores.

How Can You Write a Good Thesis Statement?

Here are some helpful hints to get you started. You can either scroll down or select a link to a specific topic.

How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is Assigned How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is not Assigned How to Tell a Strong Thesis Statement from a Weak One

How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is Assigned

Almost all assignments, no matter how complicated, can be reduced to a single question. Your first step, then, is to distill the assignment into a specific question. For example, if your assignment is, “Write a report to the local school board explaining the potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class,” turn the request into a question like, “What are the potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class?” After you’ve chosen the question your essay will answer, compose one or two complete sentences answering that question.

Q: “What are the potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class?” A: “The potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class are . . .”

A: “Using computers in a fourth-grade class promises to improve . . .”

The answer to the question is the thesis statement for the essay.

[ Back to top ]

How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is not Assigned

Even if your assignment doesn’t ask a specific question, your thesis statement still needs to answer a question about the issue you’d like to explore. In this situation, your job is to figure out what question you’d like to write about.

A good thesis statement will usually include the following four attributes:

• take on a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree
• deal with a subject that can be adequately treated given the nature of the assignment
• express one main idea
• assert your conclusions about a subject

Let’s see how to generate a thesis statement for a social policy paper.

Brainstorm the topic . Let’s say that your class focuses upon the problems posed by changes in the dietary habits of Americans. You find that you are interested in the amount of sugar Americans consume.

You start out with a thesis statement like this:

Sugar consumption.

This fragment isn’t a thesis statement. Instead, it simply indicates a general subject. Furthermore, your reader doesn’t know what you want to say about sugar consumption.

Narrow the topic . Your readings about the topic, however, have led you to the conclusion that elementary school children are consuming far more sugar than is healthy.

You change your thesis to look like this:

Reducing sugar consumption by elementary school children.

This fragment not only announces your subject, but it focuses on one segment of the population: elementary school children. Furthermore, it raises a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree, because while most people might agree that children consume more sugar than they used to, not everyone would agree on what should be done or who should do it. You should note that this fragment is not a thesis statement because your reader doesn’t know your conclusions on the topic.

Take a position on the topic. After reflecting on the topic a little while longer, you decide that what you really want to say about this topic is that something should be done to reduce the amount of sugar these children consume.

You revise your thesis statement to look like this:

More attention should be paid to the food and beverage choices available to elementary school children.

This statement asserts your position, but the terms more attention and food and beverage choices are vague.

Use specific language . You decide to explain what you mean about food and beverage choices , so you write:

Experts estimate that half of elementary school children consume nine times the recommended daily allowance of sugar.

This statement is specific, but it isn’t a thesis. It merely reports a statistic instead of making an assertion.

Make an assertion based on clearly stated support. You finally revise your thesis statement one more time to look like this:

Because half of all American elementary school children consume nine times the recommended daily allowance of sugar, schools should be required to replace the beverages in soda machines with healthy alternatives.

Notice how the thesis answers the question, “What should be done to reduce sugar consumption by children, and who should do it?” When you started thinking about the paper, you may not have had a specific question in mind, but as you became more involved in the topic, your ideas became more specific. Your thesis changed to reflect your new insights.

How to Tell a Strong Thesis Statement from a Weak One

1. a strong thesis statement takes some sort of stand..

Remember that your thesis needs to show your conclusions about a subject. For example, if you are writing a paper for a class on fitness, you might be asked to choose a popular weight-loss product to evaluate. Here are two thesis statements:

There are some negative and positive aspects to the Banana Herb Tea Supplement.

This is a weak thesis statement. First, it fails to take a stand. Second, the phrase negative and positive aspects is vague.

Because Banana Herb Tea Supplement promotes rapid weight loss that results in the loss of muscle and lean body mass, it poses a potential danger to customers.

This is a strong thesis because it takes a stand, and because it's specific.

2. A strong thesis statement justifies discussion.

Your thesis should indicate the point of the discussion. If your assignment is to write a paper on kinship systems, using your own family as an example, you might come up with either of these two thesis statements:

My family is an extended family.

This is a weak thesis because it merely states an observation. Your reader won’t be able to tell the point of the statement, and will probably stop reading.

While most American families would view consanguineal marriage as a threat to the nuclear family structure, many Iranian families, like my own, believe that these marriages help reinforce kinship ties in an extended family.

This is a strong thesis because it shows how your experience contradicts a widely-accepted view. A good strategy for creating a strong thesis is to show that the topic is controversial. Readers will be interested in reading the rest of the essay to see how you support your point.

3. A strong thesis statement expresses one main idea.

Readers need to be able to see that your paper has one main point. If your thesis statement expresses more than one idea, then you might confuse your readers about the subject of your paper. For example:

Companies need to exploit the marketing potential of the Internet, and Web pages can provide both advertising and customer support.

This is a weak thesis statement because the reader can’t decide whether the paper is about marketing on the Internet or Web pages. To revise the thesis, the relationship between the two ideas needs to become more clear. One way to revise the thesis would be to write:

Because the Internet is filled with tremendous marketing potential, companies should exploit this potential by using Web pages that offer both advertising and customer support.

This is a strong thesis because it shows that the two ideas are related. Hint: a great many clear and engaging thesis statements contain words like because , since , so , although , unless , and however .

4. A strong thesis statement is specific.

A thesis statement should show exactly what your paper will be about, and will help you keep your paper to a manageable topic. For example, if you're writing a seven-to-ten page paper on hunger, you might say:

World hunger has many causes and effects.

This is a weak thesis statement for two major reasons. First, world hunger can’t be discussed thoroughly in seven to ten pages. Second, many causes and effects is vague. You should be able to identify specific causes and effects. A revised thesis might look like this:

Hunger persists in Glandelinia because jobs are scarce and farming in the infertile soil is rarely profitable.

This is a strong thesis statement because it narrows the subject to a more specific and manageable topic, and it also identifies the specific causes for the existence of hunger.

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• Arriving at a Working Thesis

Once you have chosen and refined a topic, you will need to form a set of research questions about that topic, and next form a working thesis to answer the research questions. But what exactly is a working thesis? It is a proposed answer to a focused research question, and it is the main point of your argument that you develop throughout your paper. A working thesis is "working" because it guides your research at the same time that your research tweaks it. A working thesis is far enough along to serve as a viable research question-and-answer-pair, but it is still pliable and open to being altered or refined further as your research progresses and as you discover other, related research questions and answers.

Read through the following sections on topic development, and follow the advice given to watch your topic grow and develop into a working thesis (like a research Chia Pet):

The Research Question The Working Thesis The "So What?" Test Lather, Rinse, Repeat

The research question

Your central research question is the driving force of your paper. You are not simply reporting on a topic, such as "treehouses." While such a report might be informative for you or a handful of treehouse novices, it would not produce anything new in the repertoire of treehouse literature, and therefore would simply be repeating information that has already been established.

Instead, you are trying to find out something new relating to that topic (e.g., how does a treehouse contribute to the emotional development of a child?) that will also make a contribution to the scholarly community. In other words, the answer (i.e., your paper) to your central research question needs to matter in your field and to contribute new knowledge to the existing pool. This last part is most important, and you should constantly keep it in the forefront of your mind.

Evaluating the Quality of Your Central Research Question

Your central research question not only needs to be interesting and relevant, but also practical in terms of time and resources available. Ask the following eight questions to evaluate the quality of your research question and the feasibility that you can answer it in the time that you have:

• Does the question deal with a topic or issue that interests me enough to spark my own thoughts and opinions?
• Is the question easily and fully researchable in the time I have to complete the paper?
• What type of information do I need to answer the research question? For example, the research question "What impact has deregulation had on commercial airline safety?" will obviously require certain types of information: + statistics on airline crashes before and after + statistics on other safety problems before and after + information about maintenance practices before and after + information about government safety requirements before and after
• Is the scope of this information reasonable? (e.g., can I really research 30 on-line writing programs developed over a span of 10 years?)
• Given the type and scope of the information that I need, is my question too broad, too narrow, or just right? If you have appropriately narrowed your topic before coming up with a research question, you shouldn't have too much trouble with this one.
• What sources will have the type of information that I need to answer the research question (journals, books, internet resources, government documents, people)?
• Can I access these sources? (e.g., if the bulk of your sources reside in an archive in Newfoundland, you may wish to rethink your question)
• Given my answers to the above questions, do I have a good quality research question that I actually will be able to answer by doing research?

Back to Top

The working thesis - your stand on the research question.

After you come up with a viable research question on your topic, it's time to formulate the working thesis. What does a working thesis say and do?

Defining Features of a Working Thesis

* for most student work, it's a one- or two- sentence statement that explicitly outlines the purpose or point of your paper. A thesis is to a paper what a topic sentence is to a paragraph * it should point toward the development or course of argument the reader can expect your argument to take, but does not have to specifically include 'three supporting points' as you may have once learned * because the rest of the paper will support or back up your thesis, a thesis is normally placed at or near the end of the introductory paragraph. * it is an assertion that a reasonable person could disagree with if you only gave the thesis and no other evidence. It is not a fact or casual observation; it must beg to be proved. And someone should be able to theoretically argue against it (how successfully will depend, of course, on how persuasive you are) * it takes a side on a topic rather than simply announcing that the paper is about a topic (the title should have already told your reader your topic). Don't tell a reader about something; tell them what about something. Answer the questions "how?" or "why?" * it is sufficiently narrow and specific that your supporting points are necessary and sufficient, not arbitrary; paper length and number of supporting points are good guides here * it argues one main point and doesn't squeeze three different theses for three different papers into one sentence

Most importantly, it passes the "So What?" Test...

the "so what?" test

No one wants to write a paper that doesn't matter, much less read one. Choose a topic worth arguing about or exploring. This means to construct a thesis statement about a problem that is still debated, controversial, up in the air. So arguing that treehouses can be dangerous-- while you could find a ton of evidence to support your view --would be pretty worthless nowadays. Who would want to read something they already knew? You wouldn't be persuading them of anything and all your work would be pretty meaningless.

We like to refer to this as the "So what?" factor. Good research questions (and their corresponding working theses) pass the "so what?" test. This means that during the topic-formulating stage and again now, always keep asking "SO WHAT?", "WHO CARES?" or, to paraphrase the famous Canadian journalist Barbara Frum, "Tell me something new about something I care about." That will automatically make your paper significant and interesting both for you to write and the reader to study.

Now let's apply this test to a sample thesis about the relationship between treehouses and child development:

Sample Thesis: "Having a treehouse is beneficial to a child's self-confidence because it allows a child to have a place of her own. "

Now we ask, who cares? So what if treehouses are beneficial to a child's self-confidence - so are lots of things? Why treehouses? Oh! Because they allow a child to have a place of her own! Well, what do you mean by "a place of her own"? That's pretty vague. A place to do what? Hmmmm...

Maybe we need to clarify our thesis a bit. First, let's think about what we mean by "a place of one's own." Do we mean a place owned by an individual? Not exactly. I think that we mean a place in which a person is not under the direct supervision and authority of another person, or a place in which a person can be in charge of herself and act as she wishes, like a domain. So, how might you reword this phrase to clarify this meaning to yourself and the reader? Let's try this revision:

"Having a treehouse is beneficial to a child's self-confidence because a treehouse provides a place of one's own - a place to be independent and feel 'in charge.' "

Okay. That's a little better. Our readers will now know that we are arguing that a place of one's own provides independence and a sense of power (and maybe even responsibility), and that such places benefit a child's self-confidence.

But wait......What's so special about a treehouse? Plenty of places offer a "place of one's own."

Good question. Your paper should explain what is unique about treehouses if you wish to make a strong argument. Otherwise, you might as well just argue that any old "place of your own" benefits self-confidence. How can our thesis statement communicate to our readers that treehouses are significant places?

Once again, let's reword our thesis statement for enhanced clarity and strength:

"A treehouse is beneficial to a child's self-confidence because it provides a child with a place to be independent and 'in charge,' and a treehouse fosters imagination and appreciation for nature that other play spaces cannot duplicate."

Congratulations! You've asked and answered So What? and Who Cares? It's a thesis that looks at what treehouses could be doing, and people would certainly be interested in following your development on this issue. After all, you're not writing a paper trying to convince others that children like treehouses. Few would be interested in reading that. Now you can keep developing your working thesis until you have pinned down any question that might remain: e.g., What is the connection between "independence" and "imagination" and "appreciation for nature"? And so on...

In summary, if you can provide a good case, with evidence, that treehouses give a child a place of her own that improves self-confidence in a unique way, you could be making a good contribution to those interested in child-development (or treehouse manufacturers - they'd love to advertise this!). Moreover, you will need to satisfactorily argue the specific benefits of treehouses. Good enough for now (this is a working thesis, after all).

The process we just went through to arrive at our working thesis might seem tedious, but it is actually very typical for writers to continually revise their working theses. In fact, our treehouse thesis is probably an exceptionally easy example. In reality, you will be revising, clarifying, revising, and clarifying throughout the writing process as your ideas develop and you add more evidence from research that shapes and reshapes your project.

We like to call this whole process of developing the working thesis the "lather, rinse, repeat" process - you are constantly refining your working thesis to make it "cleaner" and more effective. The link below takes you to a rather handy, printable synopsis of what is on this page.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat Handout

A final note - FEAR NOT! The best thing you can remember when at this stage of the writing process is to remain fearless of your topic and your research. You might stumble at points when your research forces you to question your own argument. This is good! It does NOT mean that your argument is not good - it simply means that you have an opportunity to clarify your ideas and increase your knowledge.

Next Topic: Managing Your Research

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Tips and Examples for Writing Thesis Statements

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Tips for Writing Your Thesis Statement

1. Determine what kind of paper you are writing:

• An analytical paper breaks down an issue or an idea into its component parts, evaluates the issue or idea, and presents this breakdown and evaluation to the audience.
• An expository (explanatory) paper explains something to the audience.
• An argumentative paper makes a claim about a topic and justifies this claim with specific evidence. The claim could be an opinion, a policy proposal, an evaluation, a cause-and-effect statement, or an interpretation. The goal of the argumentative paper is to convince the audience that the claim is true based on the evidence provided.

If you are writing a text that does not fall under these three categories (e.g., a narrative), a thesis statement somewhere in the first paragraph could still be helpful to your reader.

2. Your thesis statement should be specific—it should cover only what you will discuss in your paper and should be supported with specific evidence.

3. The thesis statement usually appears at the end of the first paragraph of a paper.

4. Your topic may change as you write, so you may need to revise your thesis statement to reflect exactly what you have discussed in the paper.

Thesis Statement Examples

Example of an analytical thesis statement:

The paper that follows should:

• Explain the analysis of the college admission process
• Explain the challenge facing admissions counselors

Example of an expository (explanatory) thesis statement:

• Explain how students spend their time studying, attending class, and socializing with peers

Example of an argumentative thesis statement:

• Present an argument and give evidence to support the claim that students should pursue community projects before entering college

What is a thesis? Meaning and definition

Derived from the Greek word, “thesis” means “putting forward”. Thesis plays a vital role in completing a degree. For students planning to study abroad, it is crucial to understand what a thesis is.

As per diverse institutions and educational systems, the thesis obtains different meanings. For the British education system, the word thesis means the longest piece of writing that is completed at the end of a PhD. It often expresses the writer’s exceptional research and analyses.

For the US and other educational systems, the word thesis signifies the content created as the final step of one’s master’s and bachelor’s degrees.

Regardless of the educational system, the meaning of a thesis is a writing document that allows students to choose a topic and include research. It is important for them to conduct thorough research based on their chosen topic.

As you know the meaning of thesis, let’s understand ‘what is a thesis paper?’, ‘what is a college thesis?’ and ‘what does a thesis consist of?

What is a thesis paper? Understand its meaning!

A thesis paper is a type of document that is based on your original research. It is generally completed by students in the last year of a degree program, on a chosen topic.

The thesis paper is the longest piece of writing that expresses the topic. It depends on the students’ capability of how they do research, choose a relevant topic, create a proposal, gather data, establish a strong analysis, generate impactful conclusions and write a precise, clear and well-defined thesis.

A thesis is generally found at the end of the introduction of a thesis paper. In all research papers, it’s important to include a strong, concise thesis in order to grab the attention of readers.

Now, read ahead to know ‘what is a college thesis?’

Understanding a college thesis

A college thesis is a type of research project that students need to generate in their last year of graduation. Generally, students have to choose a topic they studied.

After choosing a topic, they need to share it with an advisor. Then, students can begin their research about the selected topic and start writing after the meeting with an advisor. Later, when they complete their thesis paper, college lecturers check it and decide if the paper is accurate and has all the required points and instructions for graduating from school.

Key components of a thesis

Now, you may ask ‘what does a thesis consist of?’ So, here are some major components that a thesis consists of, which include:

• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methodology
• Discussion and Conclusion

We hope that now you know the answer to the question ‘what is thesis?’. A thesis usually expresses the chosen topic in a structured way, providing thorough research.

So, to write a clear and precise thesis, you must determine your thesis topic, do thorough research, create a draft, check the structure, and edit and proofread your paper, to ensure your final project is accurate.

For any assistance, connect with Edvoy . The expert team will help you get answers to all your queries.

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Hoopes and henderson prizes honor undergraduates for outstanding thesis work.

• May 21, 2024

Five seniors in MCB , CPB , and Neuro have been awarded prestigious prizes for their thesis work. Neuroscience concentrator Daniel Kwon, MCB and Computer Science concentrator Michelle Lu, and MCB concentrator Tomi Siyanbade were recognized by the university-wide Hoopes Prize . The Hoopes celebrates excellence in undergraduate research and thesis projects across all disciplines. Meanwhile, CPB concentrator Jorge Guerra and MCB concentrator Brandon Kwon received the Henderson Prize from the Board of Tutors in Biochemical Sciences . Founded in 1926, the Board of Tutors organizes tutorials and mentoring opportunities for students in MCB and CPB. The Board of Tutors’ membership includes several MCB faculty and prominent researchers in cellular biology and biochemistry. 

Jorge Guerra ( CPB with Secondary in Statistics)

Jorge Guerra conducted his thesis research in the Gaudet Lab . He looked into the structures of metal-transporting proteins called Nramps in the bacteria Eggerthella lenta . “Natural resistance-associated macrophage proteins (Nramps) help cells maintain homeostasis by transporting essential transition metal cations, such as iron and manganese, into the cell,” Guerra explains. “These proteins achieve this using a highly-conserved metal-binding-site motif consisting of aspartate, asparagine, and methionine residues.” Eggerthella lenta ’s Nramp-like proteins contain an evolutionary divergent binding site motif, which led Guerra to wonder if these sites changed how the protein interacts with metals. “To answer this question, I used X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of an Nramp-like protein in E. lenta and compare it to the structure of canonical Nramps,” he says. “I also conducted in vitro proteoliposome-based transport assays to test the metal selectivity of this Nramp-like protein.” Guerra found that mutations in the binding sites did, in fact, alter metal transport by the Nramp-like protein. These results could shed light on how the bacteria uses its Nramp-like proteins to maintain a healthy state. 

 Guerra is motivated by science’s potential to save lives and bolster human health. “During my freshman year at Harvard, I became interested in learning how scientists leverage their understanding of protein structure and function to discover and design therapeutics that save lives,” he says. “I saw this project as a perfect opportunity to explore interesting questions and begin building a strong foundation in structural biology.”

Receiving the Henderson Prize is an honor, Guerra says. “I have no doubt that this will motivate me to continue putting my heart into my work as a scientist.” 

He adds that he is grateful to his support system. “First, I would like to thank Dr. Rachelle Gaudet and Dr. Shamayeeta Ray . I could not have asked for better mentors,” he says. “Their mentorship has been instrumental to my development as a scientist, and I am grateful I had the opportunity to work alongside them. I would also like to thank the rest of the Gaudet Lab for creating such an enjoyable work environment, and for lending a helping hand when I needed one. Lastly, I would like to thank my family for their unwavering love and support.” 

Brandon Kwon ( MCB with a Secondary in Global Health & Health Policy)

MCB concentrator Brandon Kwon says that receiving the Henderson Prize was a “huge, unexpected surprise.” 

Kwon conducted his research in Alessandro Alessandrini’s lab at MGH, which specializes in immune response to organ transplants. “My initial interest in transplant immunology began with a conversation I had with an elderly Spanish-speaking couple while volunteering at St. Jude Hospital in high school,” Kwon says. “I was helping at the rehabilitation facility when a simple request for water turned into a conversation about their son’s struggle to save his failing kidney. They expressed their dismay over the long transplant waitlist, and I could sense their growing hopelessness. The husband lamented, “¿Por qué es tan difícil? La vida es más importante.” (Why is it so difficult? Life is the most important.) This encounter made me reflect on the organ shortage crisis and inspired me to contribute to research aimed at improving the transplant process so that these limited resources aren’t wasted and patients don’t continue to struggle post-surgery.”

In his thesis work, Kwon studied B cells, which are known for producing antibodies that neutralize pathogens and for playing a regulatory role in reining in the immune system. He wanted to find out if the B cells go through a transition from contributing to transplant rejection to a regulatory state that stops the attacking immune cells. To find out, he performed single cell RNA-sequencing and flow cytometric analyses to catalog cells expressing particular genes. “From these experiments, I observed a temporal shift toward B cells expressing Siglec-G and FcγR2b, both markers indicative of a regulatory phenotype,” Kwon explains. In further experiments, he knocked out the gene FcγR2b, and all of the mice died after their transplant surgeries. Kwon concludes that the gene plays an important role in shifting the immune system from an attacking state to a regulatory tolerance state. 

Kwon expressed appreciation for a number of academics who have helped him during his undergraduate journey. “First and foremost, I’m deeply grateful to my principal investigator, Dr. Alessandro Alessandrini, who took me under his wing as an inexperienced freshman and patiently guided me in my academic endeavors,” he says. “I also want to thank Ed Szuter for his mentorship, from training me in lab techniques to supporting my summer projects. Additionally, I extend my gratitude to Dr. Takahiro Yokose for his assistance with my projects, ranging from performing mouse surgeries to teaching me RStudio data analysis. On campus, my thanks go to Dr. Dominic Mao and Dr. Monique Brewster for their support within the Molecular and Cellular Biology department, making sure I was always on track and providing help whenever needed.”

Daniel Kwon ( Neuro , MBB) Neuroscience concentrator Daniel Kwon was honored with a Hoopes Prize for research he conducted in Evan Macosko’s lab at the Broad Institute. He focused on a gene called XPO7. Previous studies have suggested that XPO7 is a risk factor for schizophrenia. Kwon wanted to know whether mutations in XPO7 alter stress response. “To investigate, I studied mouse models with XPO7 mutations, focusing on how they respond to stress, a known environmental factor that exacerbates schizophrenia symptoms,” Kwon explains. “To observe biological differences, I measured their corticosterone, a stress hormone, levels. For behavioral differences, I captured depth recordings of their behavior and analyzed them with unsupervised machine learning algorithms to identify sub-second behaviors that differ between genotype and condition.” 

He found that mice with broken XPO7 proteins had slower response times and exhibited fewer adaptations to stress. Their corticosterone response also appeared blunted. These findings indicate that XPO7 may regulate stress responses through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis.

Doing behavioral experiments with mice proved to be a challenge, as mice are nocturnal. Kwon had to work around the animals’ schedules, sometimes spending all night in the lab and only leaving at dawn. “Grappling with the interpretation of my data posed an additional hurdle,” he adds. “Notably, the absence of prior literature linking the cellular and molecular functions of XPO7 with schizophrenia compounded the challenge. This lack of established groundwork necessitated a comprehensive exploration and analysis of the data, requiring innovative approaches to discern meaningful patterns and correlations within the findings.”

“I feel immensely grateful to receive the Hoopes Prize and be recognized for the culmination of my undergraduate thesis work,” Kwon adds. “This recognition serves as a reminder of the invaluable support and guidance I received along the way.” He expressed gratitude to his PI Evan Macosko, his postdoctoral mentor Alyssa Lawler , and his family and friends. 

Michelle Lu ( MCB -Computer Science) 

For her Hoopes-winning thesis, MCB concentrator Michelle Lu developed a computational platform that opens up new applications for nanopore sequencing. “Nanopore sequencing is a fourth-generation sequencing technology that has only become practically feasible for tRNAs in the past year,” Lu explains. “The cost and time efficiency of tRNA nanopore sequencing would be improved by the ability to sequence multiple samples simultaneously, and then computationally separate the data from each sample.” Her project focused on the separation of data or “demultiplexing.”

She applied her computational tool to the sequencing of tRNAs, or transfer RNAs, which are shorter RNAs that serve as links between the messenger RNA and the growing chain of amino acids during protein synthesis. Using a barcode system of unique genetic sequences, she was able to analyze modifications to tRNAs. 

When Lu’s “demultiplexer” is released, it will be the first such computer program for tRNA nanopore sequencing. 

Lu sees her thesis as a capstone to her joint concentration in MCB and computer science. “This was certainly the first time in my life that I have tackled a project of this scope and timescale,” she says. “Any long scientific project is bound to be riddled with unexpected roadblocks – experimental equipment that breaks and needs to be replaced, a computational platform that takes over a month of fiddling with package dependencies to be able to install, etc. These hurdles challenged me to be agile in my long-term planning, one of the most valuable skills I’ve improved during my thesis.” 

Lu adds, “I truly have so many people I’d like to thank. My research advisors, Prof. George Church and Dr. Russel Vincent , as well as all members of the Church Lab. My MCB advisors and tutor – Monique, Dominic, and Prof. Léger-Abraham . My advisors in the CS department. And of course, my friends and family. Thank you all for making this thesis possible!”

Tomi Siyanbade ( MCB with a Secondary in Global Health and Health Policy and a Language Citation in French)

MCB concentrator Tomi Siyanbade teamed with the Sabeti Lab to pursue a project with real-world ramifications. “My thesis focuses on developing accessible (which I defined as low-cost, user-friendly, and implementable in low-resource settings) and accurate diagnostic tests to detect Lassa Fever, a serious viral disease found across West Africa,” she says. “I was primarily concerned with accuracy and accessibility to the target end-users: the community health professionals at the front lines of outbreaks.” 

“I wanted to work on something with a tangible impact in the next 1-2 years rather than 10-20,” she adds. “The impact-driven nature of the Sabeti lab was one of its key draws to me, and I wanted to participate in a thesis project that could ultimately benefit real people and wouldn’t just end once I left. Personally, I also realized that diagnostics are one of the most impactful tools for improving human health, and as a Nigerian, I was aware of the immense burden that Lassa posed to health.” To address the Lassa Fever diagnostic gap, Siyanbade developed a CRISPR-based test that could recognize key sequences from the viral genome. The final test reads out on a strip of paper, similar to how over-the-counter COVID tests do. “It was ultimately challenging to assess my test’s accuracy and clinical significance,” Siyanbade says. “The initial literary review, as well as the final test validation, was difficult with the relative deficit incomparable Lassa diagnostics that are approved in the world today, coupled with my lack of access to sequences for such a potentially dangerous pathogen. Overall, this made it more difficult not to “move the goalpost” and collect data that could convince me of the test’s true potential impact in the field.”

Siyanbade adds that she is glad to receive the Hoopes Prize and grateful to everyone who has helped her throughout her thesis journey. 

Congratulations to these Hoopes and Henderson Prize winners!

(top l to bottom r) Daniel Kwon, Michelle Lu, Tomi Siyanbade, Jorge Guerra, and Brandon Kwon 

THE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING AND PERFORMANCE OF COMPOSITE GUN PROPELLANTS

Reason: The sponsor (SERDP) does not rerquire embargo and the work is fundamental university work. However, the work represents the best work in this area and the Army Research Lab (our partner) has suggested we embargo it. We want to be responsible partners and have agreed with SERDP (sponsor) ARL (partner) and Dr. Steve Son (committee chair) to embargo the thesis. Note that this thesis is not considered export control, it is agreed to only embargo it. Feel free to look at the contract number for confirmation or contact Dr. Steve Son.

FROM THEORY TO APPLICATION: THE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING AND COMBUSTION PERFORMANCE OF HIGH ENERGY COMPOSITE GUN PROPELLANTS AND THEIR SOLVENTLESS ALTERNATIVES

Additive manufacturing (AM) of gun propellants is an emerging and promising field which addresses the limitations of conventional manufacturing techniques. Overall, this thesis is a body of work which serves to bridge the gap between fundamental research and application of additively manufactured gun propellants.

SERDP Grant W912HQ19C0063

Degree type.

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Mechanical Engineering

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• West Lafayette

Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair

Advisor/supervisor/committee co-chair, additional committee member 2, additional committee member 3, usage metrics.

• Theoretical quantum chemistry
• Organic chemical synthesis
• Aerospace materials
• Aerospace engineering not elsewhere classified
• Powder and particle technology
• Reaction engineering (excl. nuclear reactions)
• Composite and hybrid materials
• Polymers and plastics
• Solid mechanics

Beyond the False Work v. Home Dichotomy with Regina Bethencourt GIRLBOSS, INTERRUPTED

• Society & Culture

Last week, I spoke with Tim Carney, author of Family Unfriendly, on the ways in which the corporate life and culture of America has made it difficult for – especially big – families to thrive. His thesis stuck with me, and it changed the way I’ve been thinking about the work-home dichotomy. Following this train of thought, this week, I brought Regina Bethencourt on to explain how she has organized her life and company to accommodate big families. Regina is a mom of four and founder and CEO of Tenuto Consulting, a company that provides research-based branding solutions for higher education and mission-based organizations. In this episode, she shares how she believes it is in fact possible to be a stay-at-home mom and a working professional – given you have a little courage and creativity to spare.  As always, leave me a five star review, share this episode with your friends, and never forget to subscribe and leave me a comment here on Substack. . This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit helenroy.substack.com

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Uttarakhand junior doctor found dead, parents claim suicide, blame professors

The junior doctor's family has alleged that continued harassment by his professors drove him to suicide, while his batchmates blamed the "toxicity" that involved junior doctors working 20 hours a day..

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• Divesh Garg, 26, found dead on May 17
• His father alleged professor even demanded Rs 5 lakh to pass him
• Post-mortem examination hasn't revealed exact cause of death

A junior doctor at a private medical college and hospital in Uttarakhand was found dead in his hostel, days after a professor rejected his thesis twice. His family has alleged that continued harassment by his professors drove him to die by suicide, while his batchmates blamed the "toxicity" that involved junior doctors working 20 hours a day.

Dr Divesh Garg, a 26-year-old first-year paediatric student at the Shri Guru Ram Rai Institute of Medical and Health Sciences in Dehradun, was found dead inside his hostel room on May 17. The police have filed an FIR against Dr Utkarsh Sharma, head of department of Paediatrics, as well as professors Ashish Sethi and Bindu Agarwal under section 306 of the IPC in connection to Garg's death.

The FIR was based on a complaint lodged by Divesh's father, Ramesh Garg, in which he accused Sharma, Sethi and Agrawal, as well as the management committee of the college, of driving his son to suicide.

"My son joined college in October 2023. A few days later, Utkarsh Sharma, Ashish Sethi, Bindu Agrawal and the management committee started harassing him. They made him work 36-hour shifts even with a 104-degree fever. My son told me, 'Utkarsh Sharma rejected my thesis twice and demanded 500,000 rupees for passing. He insulted me in front of patients, and Bindu Agrawal mentally tortured me'."

"He had called me at 10 am on the morning of May 17 and said, 'take me away, or I'll commit suicide'. We assured him that we would come to get him the next day and urged him not to take any wrong step," he said.

Ramesh Garg said he received a call on May 17 night and the caller, claiming to be Utkarsh Sharma, said that his son had been admitted at the emergency ward.

"At about 10:40 pm, I received another call that informed us that his body was in the mortuary. When we reached there, students gathered \told us that the lights of his hostel room were switched off for 15-20 mins and had been cleaned up," he said, alleging that his son's death was the result of a conspiracy.

Speaking to India Today TV, Divesh's uncle Mohan Dutt Garg said his nephew was "a very simple, quiet, and humble boy who had completed his MBBS from Mathura".

"He had informed us about being harassed earlier as well, including the denial of leave for his mother's treatment. Divesh's thesis was rejected, and he was pressured with repeated demands for Rs 5 lakh."

Umesh Bansal, Divesh's cousin, told India Today, "We submitted an application to the police on May 20. We were made to wait for hours at the station and asked for video evidence. Some even suggested to forget about the FIR."

While Divesh's family awaits more details surrounding the cause of his death, Dehradun SSP Ajay Singh told India Today TV on Wednesday that the post-mortem examination of his body did not reveal the exact reason.

"The viscera has been sent for further examination. We have recorded the statements of students, faculty and family, but nothing has come to light so far to determine whether the death was a suicide or due to other reasons. After the viscera examination, we will proceed with the investigation based on the evidence and witness statements," he added.

Meanwhile, the management of the Shri Guru Ram Rai Institute of Medical and Health Sciences said they have demanded an "impartial" investigation into the matter, adding that it was fully cooperating with the police investigation.

In a statement, the institute also called for a thorough enquiry from all angles to uncover the truth, which also includes investigation of Divesh Garg's phone call records, WhatsApp chats, and social media activities.

It further said that it has formed an interim enquiry committee, which will conduct a thorough investigation of all aspects related to the junior doctor's death and prepare a report.

India Today has approached officials for their statement on allegations of extortion and tampering with evidence. There has been no response yet.

Divesh Garg's death sparked protests at the hospital premises staged by PG doctors, which disrupted patient care services. The protests, however, ended on Wednesday after talks with the hospital management.

A hashtag #JusticeForDrDiveshGarg also started doing the rounds on social media.

Dr Rishabh, a senior of the victim, told India Today TV, "The toxicity that took Divesh's life involved working 20 hours a day. There's no time to eat. All PG students are suffering from this."

Another classmate, Pavitra said, "There is toxicity everywhere here. We are all humiliated. Divesh was very troubled. We had previously asked for someone to look after him... The administration needs to pay attention to our mental health too."

On his part, Dr Anupam, also a batchmate, said, "Divesh was very cheerful. He even worked with a 103-degree fever. The work culture was making him despondent. The last time I met him, he was not happy; he was crying and distressed." Published By: Karishma Saurabh Kalita Published On: May 23, 2024