Once you have read a variety of sources, considered your issue from different perspectives, and chosen an entry point in the research conversation, you are ready to form a working thesis: a one-sentence (or occasionally a two-sentence) statement of your central idea. Because it is a working, or tentative, thesis, it is flexible enough to change as your ideas develop.

In a research paper, your thesis will answer your central research question. Here, for example, are the research question and working thesis statement that student Sophie Harba wrote as she began to research her paper on the role of government in legislating food choices.

HARBA’S RESEARCH QUESTION

Should the government enact laws to regulate healthy eating choices?

HARBA’S WORKING THESIS

Government has the responsibility to regulate healthy eating choices because of the rise of chronic diseases.

After you have written a rough draft and perhaps done more reading, you may decide to revise your tentative thesis, as Harba did.

HARBA’S REVISED THESIS

In the name of public health and safety, state governments have the responsibility to shape health policies and to regulate healthy eating choices, especially since doing so offers a potentially large social benefit for a relatively small cost.

The thesis usually appears at the end of the introductory paragraph.

Harba, “What’s for Dinner? Personal Choices vs. Public Health”