Drafting a working thesis

Academic and professional writing in the United States often contains an explicit thesis statement. The thesis functions as a promise to readers, letting them know what the writer will discuss.

Explicit and implicit thesis statements

Your readers may (or may not) expect you to craft the thesis as a single sentence near the beginning of the text. If you want to suggest a thesis implicitly rather than stating one explicitly, if you plan to convey your main argument somewhere other than in your introduction, or if you prefer to make your thesis longer than a single sentence, consider whether the rhetorical situation allows such flexibility. For an academic project, also consult with your instructor about how to meet expectations.

Whether you plan to use an implicit or explicit thesis statement in your text, you should establish a tentative working thesis early in your writing process. The word working is important here because your thesis may well change as you write—your final thesis may be very different from the working thesis you begin with. Even so, a working thesis focuses your thinking and research and helps keep you on track.

Topic and comment in a working thesis

A working thesis should have two parts: a topic, which indicates the subject matter the writing is about, and a comment, which makes an important point about the topic.

In the graphic novel Fun Home, illustrations and words combine to make meanings that are more subtle than either words alone or images alone could convey.

A successful working thesis has three characteristics:

  1. It is potentially interesting to the intended audience.

  2. It is as specific as possible.

  3. It limits the topic enough to make it manageable.

You can evaluate a working thesis by checking it against each of these characteristics, as in the following examples:

Graphic novels combine words and images.

INTERESTING? The topic of graphic novels could be interesting, but this draft of a working thesis has no real comment attached to it; instead, it states a bare fact, and the only place to go from here is to more bare facts.

In graphic novels, words and images convey interesting meanings.

SPECIFIC? This thesis is not specific. What are “interesting meanings,” exactly? How are they conveyed?

Graphic novels have evolved in recent decades to become an important literary genre.

MANAGEABLE? This thesis would not be manageable for a short-term project because it would require research on several decades of history and on hundreds of texts from all over the world.

Sample: A student’s working thesis

After getting an assignment for her first-year writing class and exploring her topic, Emily Lesk wrote this preliminary thesis: “Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola have shaped our national identity.” When she analyzed this thesis, she concluded that it was indeed interesting; however, she decided that the two brands were not trying to do exactly the same thing, so her thesis was probably not specific enough. In addition, both Coke and Pepsi had existed for more than a century, and she realized that just investigating the advertising for the two brands would probably take more time than she had available—so the thesis was probably not manageable. After talking with her instructor, Emily decided to focus on a single advertising icon, the world-famous Coca-Cola logo. Her revised working thesis became “Coca-Cola is a cultural icon that shapes American identity.”