is a thesis statement a fact or opinion

Developing a Thesis Statement

Many papers you write require developing a thesis statement. In this section you’ll learn what a thesis statement is and how to write one.

Keep in mind that not all papers require thesis statements . If in doubt, please consult your instructor for assistance.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement . . .

• Makes an argumentative assertion about a topic; it states the conclusions that you have reached about your topic.
• Makes a promise to the reader about the scope, purpose, and direction of your paper.
• Is focused and specific enough to be “proven” within the boundaries of your paper.
• Is generally located near the end of the introduction ; sometimes, in a long paper, the thesis will be expressed in several sentences or in an entire paragraph.
• Identifies the relationships between the pieces of evidence that you are using to support your argument.

Not all papers require thesis statements! Ask your instructor if you’re in doubt whether you need one.

Identify a topic

Your topic is the subject about which you will write. Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic; or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper.

Consider what your assignment asks you to do

Inform yourself about your topic, focus on one aspect of your topic, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts, generate a topic from an assignment.

Below are some possible topics based on sample assignments.

Sample assignment 1

Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II.

Identified topic

Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis

This topic avoids generalities such as “Spain” and “World War II,” addressing instead on Franco’s role (a specific aspect of “Spain”) and the diplomatic relations between the Allies and Axis (a specific aspect of World War II).

Sample assignment 2

Analyze one of Homer’s epic similes in the Iliad.

The relationship between the portrayal of warfare and the epic simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64.

This topic focuses on a single simile and relates it to a single aspect of the Iliad ( warfare being a major theme in that work).

Developing a Thesis Statement–Additional information

Your assignment may suggest several ways of looking at a topic, or it may name a fairly general concept that you will explore or analyze in your paper. You’ll want to read your assignment carefully, looking for key terms that you can use to focus your topic.

Sample assignment: Analyze Spain’s neutrality in World War II Key terms: analyze, Spain’s neutrality, World War II

After you’ve identified the key words in your topic, the next step is to read about them in several sources, or generate as much information as possible through an analysis of your topic. Obviously, the more material or knowledge you have, the more possibilities will be available for a strong argument. For the sample assignment above, you’ll want to look at books and articles on World War II in general, and Spain’s neutrality in particular.

As you consider your options, you must decide to focus on one aspect of your topic. This means that you cannot include everything you’ve learned about your topic, nor should you go off in several directions. If you end up covering too many different aspects of a topic, your paper will sprawl and be unconvincing in its argument, and it most likely will not fulfull the assignment requirements.

For the sample assignment above, both Spain’s neutrality and World War II are topics far too broad to explore in a paper. You may instead decide to focus on Franco’s role in the diplomatic relationships between the Allies and the Axis , which narrows down what aspects of Spain’s neutrality and World War II you want to discuss, as well as establishes a specific link between those two aspects.

Before you go too far, however, ask yourself whether your topic is worthy of your efforts. Try to avoid topics that already have too much written about them (i.e., “eating disorders and body image among adolescent women”) or that simply are not important (i.e. “why I like ice cream”). These topics may lead to a thesis that is either dry fact or a weird claim that cannot be supported. A good thesis falls somewhere between the two extremes. To arrive at this point, ask yourself what is new, interesting, contestable, or controversial about your topic.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times . Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Derive a main point from topic

Once you have a topic, you will have to decide what the main point of your paper will be. This point, the “controlling idea,” becomes the core of your argument (thesis statement) and it is the unifying idea to which you will relate all your sub-theses. You can then turn this “controlling idea” into a purpose statement about what you intend to do in your paper.

Look for patterns in your evidence

Compose a purpose statement.

Consult the examples below for suggestions on how to look for patterns in your evidence and construct a purpose statement.

• Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis
• Franco turned to the Allies when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from the Axis

Possible conclusion:

Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: Franco’s desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power.

Purpose statement

This paper will analyze Franco’s diplomacy during World War II to see how it contributed to Spain’s neutrality.

• The simile compares Simoisius to a tree, which is a peaceful, natural image.
• The tree in the simile is chopped down to make wheels for a chariot, which is an object used in warfare.

At first, the simile seems to take the reader away from the world of warfare, but we end up back in that world by the end.

This paper will analyze the way the simile about Simoisius at 4.547-64 moves in and out of the world of warfare.

Derive purpose statement from topic

To find out what your “controlling idea” is, you have to examine and evaluate your evidence . As you consider your evidence, you may notice patterns emerging, data repeated in more than one source, or facts that favor one view more than another. These patterns or data may then lead you to some conclusions about your topic and suggest that you can successfully argue for one idea better than another.

For instance, you might find out that Franco first tried to negotiate with the Axis, but when he couldn’t get some concessions that he wanted from them, he turned to the Allies. As you read more about Franco’s decisions, you may conclude that Spain’s neutrality in WWII occurred for an entirely personal reason: his desire to preserve his own (and Spain’s) power. Based on this conclusion, you can then write a trial thesis statement to help you decide what material belongs in your paper.

Sometimes you won’t be able to find a focus or identify your “spin” or specific argument immediately. Like some writers, you might begin with a purpose statement just to get yourself going. A purpose statement is one or more sentences that announce your topic and indicate the structure of the paper but do not state the conclusions you have drawn . Thus, you might begin with something like this:

• This paper will look at modern language to see if it reflects male dominance or female oppression.
• I plan to analyze anger and derision in offensive language to see if they represent a challenge of society’s authority.

At some point, you can turn a purpose statement into a thesis statement. As you think and write about your topic, you can restrict, clarify, and refine your argument, crafting your thesis statement to reflect your thinking.

As you work on your thesis, remember to keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Sometimes your thesis needs to evolve as you develop new insights, find new evidence, or take a different approach to your topic.

Compose a draft thesis statement

If you are writing a paper that will have an argumentative thesis and are having trouble getting started, the techniques in the table below may help you develop a temporary or “working” thesis statement.

Begin with a purpose statement that you will later turn into a thesis statement.

Assignment: Discuss the history of the Reform Party and explain its influence on the 1990 presidential and Congressional election.

Purpose Statement: This paper briefly sketches the history of the grassroots, conservative, Perot-led Reform Party and analyzes how it influenced the economic and social ideologies of the two mainstream parties.

Question-to-Assertion

If your assignment asks a specific question(s), turn the question(s) into an assertion and give reasons why it is true or reasons for your opinion.

Assignment : What do Aylmer and Rappaccini have to be proud of? Why aren’t they satisfied with these things? How does pride, as demonstrated in “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” lead to unexpected problems?

Beginning thesis statement: Alymer and Rappaccinni are proud of their great knowledge; however, they are also very greedy and are driven to use their knowledge to alter some aspect of nature as a test of their ability. Evil results when they try to “play God.”

Write a sentence that summarizes the main idea of the essay you plan to write.

Main idea: The reason some toys succeed in the market is that they appeal to the consumers’ sense of the ridiculous and their basic desire to laugh at themselves.

Make a list of the ideas that you want to include; consider the ideas and try to group them.

• nature = peaceful
• war matériel = violent (competes with 1?)
• need for time and space to mourn the dead
• war is inescapable (competes with 3?)

Use a formula to arrive at a working thesis statement (you will revise this later).

• although most readers of _______ have argued that _______, closer examination shows that _______.
• _______ uses _______ and _____ to prove that ________.
• phenomenon x is a result of the combination of __________, __________, and _________.

What to keep in mind as you draft an initial thesis statement

Beginning statements obtained through the methods illustrated above can serve as a framework for planning or drafting your paper, but remember they’re not yet the specific, argumentative thesis you want for the final version of your paper. In fact, in its first stages, a thesis statement usually is ill-formed or rough and serves only as a planning tool.

As you write, you may discover evidence that does not fit your temporary or “working” thesis. Or you may reach deeper insights about your topic as you do more research, and you will find that your thesis statement has to be more complicated to match the evidence that you want to use.

You must be willing to reject or omit some evidence in order to keep your paper cohesive and your reader focused. Or you may have to revise your thesis to match the evidence and insights that you want to discuss. Read your draft carefully, noting the conclusions you have drawn and the major ideas which support or prove those conclusions. These will be the elements of your final thesis statement.

Sometimes you will not be able to identify these elements in your early drafts, but as you consider how your argument is developing and how your evidence supports your main idea, ask yourself, “ What is the main point that I want to prove/discuss? ” and “ How will I convince the reader that this is true? ” When you can answer these questions, then you can begin to refine the thesis statement.

Refine and polish the thesis statement

To get to your final thesis, you’ll need to refine your draft thesis so that it’s specific and arguable.

• Ask if your draft thesis addresses the assignment
• Question each part of your draft thesis
• Clarify vague phrases and assertions
• Investigate alternatives to your draft thesis

Consult the example below for suggestions on how to refine your draft thesis statement.

Sample Assignment

Choose an activity and define it as a symbol of American culture. Your essay should cause the reader to think critically about the society which produces and enjoys that activity.

• Ask The phenomenon of drive-in facilities is an interesting symbol of american culture, and these facilities demonstrate significant characteristics of our society.This statement does not fulfill the assignment because it does not require the reader to think critically about society.

Drive-ins are an interesting symbol of American culture because they represent Americans’ significant creativity and business ingenuity.

Among the types of drive-in facilities familiar during the twentieth century, drive-in movie theaters best represent American creativity, not merely because they were the forerunner of later drive-ins and drive-throughs, but because of their impact on our culture: they changed our relationship to the automobile, changed the way people experienced movies, and changed movie-going into a family activity.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast-food establishments, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize America’s economic ingenuity, they also have affected our personal standards.

While drive-in facilities such as those at fast- food restaurants, banks, pharmacies, and dry cleaners symbolize (1) Americans’ business ingenuity, they also have contributed (2) to an increasing homogenization of our culture, (3) a willingness to depersonalize relationships with others, and (4) a tendency to sacrifice quality for convenience.

This statement is now specific and fulfills all parts of the assignment. This version, like any good thesis, is not self-evident; its points, 1-4, will have to be proven with evidence in the body of the paper. The numbers in this statement indicate the order in which the points will be presented. Depending on the length of the paper, there could be one paragraph for each numbered item or there could be blocks of paragraph for even pages for each one.

Complete the final thesis statement

The bottom line.

As you move through the process of crafting a thesis, you’ll need to remember four things:

• Context matters! Think about your course materials and lectures. Try to relate your thesis to the ideas your instructor is discussing.
• As you go through the process described in this section, always keep your assignment in mind . You will be more successful when your thesis (and paper) responds to the assignment than if it argues a semi-related idea.
• Your thesis statement should be precise, focused, and contestable ; it should predict the sub-theses or blocks of information that you will use to prove your argument.
• Make sure that you keep the rest of your paper in mind at all times. Change your thesis as your paper evolves, because you do not want your thesis to promise more than your paper actually delivers.

In the beginning, the thesis statement was a tool to help you sharpen your focus, limit material and establish the paper’s purpose. When your paper is finished, however, the thesis statement becomes a tool for your reader. It tells the reader what you have learned about your topic and what evidence led you to your conclusion. It keeps the reader on track–well able to understand and appreciate your argument.

Writing Process and Structure

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Getting Started with Your Paper

Interpreting Writing Assignments from Your Courses

Generating Ideas for

Creating an Argument

Thesis vs. Purpose Statements

Architecture of Arguments

Working with Sources

Quoting and Paraphrasing Sources

Using Literary Quotations

Citing Sources in Your Paper

Drafting Your Paper

Generating Ideas for Your Paper

Introductions

Paragraphing

Developing Strategic Transitions

Conclusions

Revising Your Paper

Peer Reviews

Reverse Outlines

Revising an Argumentative Paper

Revision Strategies for Longer Projects

Finishing Your Paper

Twelve Common Errors: An Editing Checklist

How to Proofread your Paper

Writing Collaboratively

Collaborative and Group Writing

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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Writing a Paper: Thesis Statements

Basics of thesis statements.

The thesis statement is the brief articulation of your paper's central argument and purpose. You might hear it referred to as simply a "thesis." Every scholarly paper should have a thesis statement, and strong thesis statements are concise, specific, and arguable. Concise means the thesis is short: perhaps one or two sentences for a shorter paper. Specific means the thesis deals with a narrow and focused topic, appropriate to the paper's length. Arguable means that a scholar in your field could disagree (or perhaps already has!).

Strong thesis statements address specific intellectual questions, have clear positions, and use a structure that reflects the overall structure of the paper. Read on to learn more about constructing a strong thesis statement.

Being Specific

This thesis statement has no specific argument:

Needs Improvement: In this essay, I will examine two scholarly articles to find similarities and differences.

This statement is concise, but it is neither specific nor arguable—a reader might wonder, "Which scholarly articles? What is the topic of this paper? What field is the author writing in?" Additionally, the purpose of the paper—to "examine…to find similarities and differences" is not of a scholarly level. Identifying similarities and differences is a good first step, but strong academic argument goes further, analyzing what those similarities and differences might mean or imply.

Better: In this essay, I will argue that Bowler's (2003) autocratic management style, when coupled with Smith's (2007) theory of social cognition, can reduce the expenses associated with employee turnover.

The new revision here is still concise, as well as specific and arguable.  We can see that it is specific because the writer is mentioning (a) concrete ideas and (b) exact authors.  We can also gather the field (business) and the topic (management and employee turnover). The statement is arguable because the student goes beyond merely comparing; he or she draws conclusions from that comparison ("can reduce the expenses associated with employee turnover").

Making a Unique Argument

This thesis draft repeats the language of the writing prompt without making a unique argument:

Needs Improvement: The purpose of this essay is to monitor, assess, and evaluate an educational program for its strengths and weaknesses. Then, I will provide suggestions for improvement.

You can see here that the student has simply stated the paper's assignment, without articulating specifically how he or she will address it. The student can correct this error simply by phrasing the thesis statement as a specific answer to the assignment prompt.

Better: Through a series of student interviews, I found that Kennedy High School's antibullying program was ineffective. In order to address issues of conflict between students, I argue that Kennedy High School should embrace policies outlined by the California Department of Education (2010).

Words like "ineffective" and "argue" show here that the student has clearly thought through the assignment and analyzed the material; he or she is putting forth a specific and debatable position. The concrete information ("student interviews," "antibullying") further prepares the reader for the body of the paper and demonstrates how the student has addressed the assignment prompt without just restating that language.

Creating a Debate

This thesis statement includes only obvious fact or plot summary instead of argument:

Needs Improvement: Leadership is an important quality in nurse educators.

A good strategy to determine if your thesis statement is too broad (and therefore, not arguable) is to ask yourself, "Would a scholar in my field disagree with this point?" Here, we can see easily that no scholar is likely to argue that leadership is an unimportant quality in nurse educators.  The student needs to come up with a more arguable claim, and probably a narrower one; remember that a short paper needs a more focused topic than a dissertation.

Better: Roderick's (2009) theory of participatory leadership  is particularly appropriate to nurse educators working within the emergency medicine field, where students benefit most from collegial and kinesthetic learning.

Here, the student has identified a particular type of leadership ("participatory leadership"), narrowing the topic, and has made an arguable claim (this type of leadership is "appropriate" to a specific type of nurse educator). Conceivably, a scholar in the nursing field might disagree with this approach. The student's paper can now proceed, providing specific pieces of evidence to support the arguable central claim.

Choosing the Right Words

This thesis statement uses large or scholarly-sounding words that have no real substance:

Needs Improvement: Scholars should work to seize metacognitive outcomes by harnessing discipline-based networks to empower collaborative infrastructures.

There are many words in this sentence that may be buzzwords in the student's field or key terms taken from other texts, but together they do not communicate a clear, specific meaning. Sometimes students think scholarly writing means constructing complex sentences using special language, but actually it's usually a stronger choice to write clear, simple sentences. When in doubt, remember that your ideas should be complex, not your sentence structure.

Better: Ecologists should work to educate the U.S. public on conservation methods by making use of local and national green organizations to create a widespread communication plan.

Notice in the revision that the field is now clear (ecology), and the language has been made much more field-specific ("conservation methods," "green organizations"), so the reader is able to see concretely the ideas the student is communicating.

Leaving Room for Discussion

This thesis statement is not capable of development or advancement in the paper:

Needs Improvement: There are always alternatives to illegal drug use.

This sample thesis statement makes a claim, but it is not a claim that will sustain extended discussion. This claim is the type of claim that might be appropriate for the conclusion of a paper, but in the beginning of the paper, the student is left with nowhere to go. What further points can be made? If there are "always alternatives" to the problem the student is identifying, then why bother developing a paper around that claim? Ideally, a thesis statement should be complex enough to explore over the length of the entire paper.

Better: The most effective treatment plan for methamphetamine addiction may be a combination of pharmacological and cognitive therapy, as argued by Baker (2008), Smith (2009), and Xavier (2011).

In the revised thesis, you can see the student make a specific, debatable claim that has the potential to generate several pages' worth of discussion. When drafting a thesis statement, think about the questions your thesis statement will generate: What follow-up inquiries might a reader have? In the first example, there are almost no additional questions implied, but the revised example allows for a good deal more exploration.

Thesis Mad Libs

If you are having trouble getting started, try using the models below to generate a rough model of a thesis statement! These models are intended for drafting purposes only and should not appear in your final work.

• In this essay, I argue ____, using ______ to assert _____.
• While scholars have often argued ______, I argue______, because_______.
• Through an analysis of ______, I argue ______, which is important because_______.

Words to Avoid and to Embrace

When drafting your thesis statement, avoid words like explore, investigate, learn, compile, summarize , and explain to describe the main purpose of your paper. These words imply a paper that summarizes or "reports," rather than synthesizing and analyzing.

Instead of the terms above, try words like argue, critique, question , and interrogate . These more analytical words may help you begin strongly, by articulating a specific, critical, scholarly position.

Read Kayla's blog post for tips on taking a stand in a well-crafted thesis statement.

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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

Reference management. Clean and simple.

How to write a thesis statement + examples

What is a thesis statement?

Is a thesis statement a question, how do you write a good thesis statement, how do i know if my thesis statement is good, examples of thesis statements, helpful resources on how to write a thesis statement, frequently asked questions about writing a thesis statement, related articles.

A thesis statement is the main argument of your paper or thesis.

The thesis statement is one of the most important elements of any piece of academic writing . It is a brief statement of your paper’s main argument. Essentially, you are stating what you will be writing about.

You can see your thesis statement as an answer to a question. While it also contains the question, it should really give an answer to the question with new information and not just restate or reiterate it.

Your thesis statement is part of your introduction. Learn more about how to write a good thesis introduction in our introduction guide .

A thesis statement is not a question. A statement must be arguable and provable through evidence and analysis. While your thesis might stem from a research question, it should be in the form of a statement.

Tip: A thesis statement is typically 1-2 sentences. For a longer project like a thesis, the statement may be several sentences or a paragraph.

A good thesis statement needs to do the following:

• Condense the main idea of your thesis into one or two sentences.
• Answer your project’s main research question.
• Clearly state your position in relation to the topic .
• Make an argument that requires support or evidence.

Once you have written down a thesis statement, check if it fulfills the following criteria:

• Your statement needs to be provable by evidence. As an argument, a thesis statement needs to be debatable.
• Your statement needs to be precise. Do not give away too much information in the thesis statement and do not load it with unnecessary information.
• Your statement cannot say that one solution is simply right or simply wrong as a matter of fact. You should draw upon verified facts to persuade the reader of your solution, but you cannot just declare something as right or wrong.

As previously mentioned, your thesis statement should answer a question.

If the question is:

What do you think the City of New York should do to reduce traffic congestion?

A good thesis statement restates the question and answers it:

In this paper, I will argue that the City of New York should focus on providing exclusive lanes for public transport and adaptive traffic signals to reduce traffic congestion by the year 2035.

Here is another example. If the question is:

How can we end poverty?

A good thesis statement should give more than one solution to the problem in question:

In this paper, I will argue that introducing universal basic income can help reduce poverty and positively impact the way we work.

• The Writing Center of the University of North Carolina has a list of questions to ask to see if your thesis is strong .

A thesis statement is part of the introduction of your paper. It is usually found in the first or second paragraph to let the reader know your research purpose from the beginning.

In general, a thesis statement should have one or two sentences. But the length really depends on the overall length of your project. Take a look at our guide about the length of thesis statements for more insight on this topic.

Here is a list of Thesis Statement Examples that will help you understand better how to write them.

Every good essay should include a thesis statement as part of its introduction, no matter the academic level. Of course, if you are a high school student you are not expected to have the same type of thesis as a PhD student.

Here is a great YouTube tutorial showing How To Write An Essay: Thesis Statements .

While Sandel argues that pursuing perfection through genetic engineering would decrease our sense of humility, he claims that the sense of solidarity we would lose is also important.

This thesis summarizes several points in Sandel’s argument, but it does not make a claim about how we should understand his argument. A reader who read Sandel’s argument would not also need to read an essay based on this descriptive thesis.  

Broad thesis (arguable, but difficult to support with evidence) 

Michael Sandel’s arguments about genetic engineering do not take into consideration all the relevant issues.

This is an arguable claim because it would be possible to argue against it by saying that Michael Sandel’s arguments do take all of the relevant issues into consideration. But the claim is too broad. Because the thesis does not specify which “issues” it is focused on—or why it matters if they are considered—readers won’t know what the rest of the essay will argue, and the writer won’t know what to focus on. If there is a particular issue that Sandel does not address, then a more specific version of the thesis would include that issue—hand an explanation of why it is important.  

Arguable thesis with analytical claim 

While Sandel argues persuasively that our instinct to “remake” (54) ourselves into something ever more perfect is a problem, his belief that we can always draw a line between what is medically necessary and what makes us simply “better than well” (51) is less convincing.

This is an arguable analytical claim. To argue for this claim, the essay writer will need to show how evidence from the article itself points to this interpretation. It’s also a reasonable scope for a thesis because it can be supported with evidence available in the text and is neither too broad nor too narrow.  

Arguable thesis with normative claim 

Given Sandel’s argument against genetic enhancement, we should not allow parents to decide on using Human Growth Hormone for their children.

This thesis tells us what we should do about a particular issue discussed in Sandel’s article, but it does not tell us how we should understand Sandel’s argument.  

Questions to ask about your thesis 

• Is the thesis truly arguable? Does it speak to a genuine dilemma in the source, or would most readers automatically agree with it?  
• Is the thesis too obvious? Again, would most or all readers agree with it without needing to see your argument?  
• Is the thesis complex enough to require a whole essay's worth of argument?  
• Is the thesis supportable with evidence from the text rather than with generalizations or outside research?  
• Would anyone want to read a paper in which this thesis was developed? That is, can you explain what this paper is adding to our understanding of a problem, question, or topic?
• picture_as_pdf Thesis

Introduction

Goals and Goal Setting

Goals Common to All RST Writers

Other Goals to Consider

Defining My Own Goals

Advice about Assignments

Getting Started: Listing Topics to Write about in the Tutorial

Narrative One: Personal Piece on a Significant Experience

Narrative Two: Academic Piece on a Significant Experience

Summary/Response One

Summary/Response Two

Tutorial Evaluation Postscript

On Using the Resources for Writers

Generating and Developing Ideas

Finding/Expressing Main Ideas

Showing v. Telling Sentences

Focusing Topic Sentences

Thesis Statements

Reading Strategies

Assessing Your Reading Strategies

Summarizing

Writing Effective Summary and Response Essays

Discourse Analysis Worksheet

Trade Magazines

Selecting Readings

1. A good thesis states the writer's clearly defined opinion on some subject. You must tell your reader what you think. Don't dodge the issue; present your opinion specifically and precisely. However, don't just make your thesis an announcement of your subject matter or a description of your intentions.

Poor : The subject of this theme is my experience with a pet boa constrictor. [This is an announcement of the subject, not a thesis.] Poor : I'm going to discuss boa constrictors as pets. [This is a statement of intention, but not a thesis.] Better : Boa constrictors do not make healthy indoor pets. [The writer states an opinion that will be explained and defended in the essay.] Better : My pet boa constrictor, Sir Pent, was a much better bodyguard than my dog, Fang. [The writer states an opinion that will be explained and illustrated in the essay.]

2. A good thesis asserts one main idea. Many essays get into trouble because the writer tries to explain two different large issues in one essay. Pick one main idea and explain it in convincing detail.

Poor : High school athletes shouldn't have to maintain a certain grade-point average to participate in school sports, and the value of sports is often worth the lower academic average. [This essay moves in two different directions.] Better : High school athletes shouldn't have to maintain a certain grade-point average to participate in school sports. [This essay will focus on one issue: reasons why a particular average shouldn't be required.]

3. A good thesis has something worthwhile to say. Some thesis statements are boring and predictable from the start ("Dogs have always been man's best friends."). Even if you are asked to write about yourself or your own experiences, you can usually universalize the essay's thesis so your readers can also identify with, or learn something about, the general subject.

Poor : The four children in my family have completely different personalities. [This statement may be true, but would anyone but the children's parents really be fascinated with this essay topic?] Better : Birth order can influence children's personalities in startling ways. [The writer is wiser to offer this controversial statement, which is of more interest to readers than the one above; the writer can illustrate her claims with examples from her family, and from other families, if she wishes.

Also, don't merely state a fact. A thesis is an assertion of opinion that leads to discussion; don't select an idea that is self-evident or dead-ended.

Poor : Child abuse is a terrible problem in our country. [Yes, of course; who wouldn't agree that child abuse is terrible?] Better : Child abuse laws in this state are too lenient for repeat offenders. [This thesis will lead to a discussion in which supporting arguments and evidence will be presented.]

4. A good thesis is limited to fit the assignment. Your thesis should be focused enough to adequately explore and develop in one essay.

Poor : The parking permit system at this university should be completely revised. [An essay calling for revision of the parking permit system would probably involve discussion of permits for various kinds of students, faculty, administrators, staff, visitors, etc. Therefore, the thesis is probably too broad for a short essay.] Better : Because of the complicated application process, the parking permit system at this university penalizes disabled students.

5. A good thesis is clearly stated in specific terms. A vague thesis will lead to vague, undeveloped, fuzzy writing. Try to avoid imprecise words ("interesting," "good"); use clear, direct, meaningful words. Also, don't clutter your thesis with expressions such as "in my opinion" or "in this essay I'll argue that ..."

Poor : My opinion is that the federal government should devote more money to solar energy research. Better : The federal government should devote more money to solar energy research.

6. A good thesis is clearly located, often in the first or second paragraph.

Revise the following, thesis statements to make them more effective according to the criteria above.

What is a thesis statement? I need some examples, too.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement clearly identifies the topic being discussed, includes the points discussed in the paper, and is written for a specific audience. Your thesis statement belongs at the end of your first paragraph, also known as your introduction. Use it to generate interest in your topic and encourage your audience to continue reading.

You can read chapter four of Schaum's Quick Guide to Writing Great Research Papers an eBook in our online collection, click the title to open: "How Do I Write a Thesis Statement?" .

Another option is to think of a thesis statement as one complete sentence that expresses your position .

• Narrows the topic down to a specific focus of an investigation.
• Establishes a direction for the entire paper.
• Points forward to the conclusion.
• Always stated in your introduction. (Usually at the end of the first paragraph).
• Always take a stand and justify further discussion.

A thesis statement is not a statement of fact.

Your readers—especially your instructors—want to read writing that engages them. Consequently, you must write thesis statements that are arguable, not factual. Statements of fact seem easy to write about because, well, they are easy to prove. After all, they’re facts. The problem is that you cannot write engaging papers around statements of fact. Such theses prevent you from demonstrating critical thinking and analytical skills, which you want to show your instructor. If you were to write a paper around the next two statements, your writing would probably be quite dull because you would be restating facts that the general public already knows.

Thesis Statements always take a stand and justify further discussion.

In order to make your writing interesting, you should develop a thesis statement that is arguable. Sometimes you will be writing to persuade others to see things your way and other times you will simply be giving your strong opinion and laying out your case for it.

Take a look at the following examples:

Statement of fact:

Small cars get better fuel mileage than 4x4 pickup trucks.

Arguable thesis statement:

The government should ban 4x4 pickup trucks except for work-related use.

Foul language is common in movies.

The amount of foul language in movies is disproportionate to the amount of foul language in real life.

State ment of fact:

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease.

Arguable thesis statement/opening paragraph:

Researchers think the incidence of celiac disease is increasing in the USA not only because of an increase in the ability and awareness to diagnose it, but also because of changes in the agricultural system. In particular, they are looking at the increased use of pesticides, insecticides, and genetically modified wheat as culprits. Some of these theories are more likely to be valid than others.

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Comments (6)

• this is really helpful by rita on Nov 14, 2021
• Yes, thank you. This is really helpful. It's been YEARS since I have encountered the term "thesis statement", and I needed a refresher on what it was before beginning my final presentation for a college course. This page answered all of my questions! by Brigitte on Dec 06, 2021
• Thank You. This helped by Deborah Smith on Mar 23, 2022
• Great explanation. This will definitely help my writing, by Jack on Dec 15, 2022
• This a very helpful website for me. Thank you by Catie on Jan 09, 2023
• This is very helpful. Thank you by George Wilson on Jan 31, 2024

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What Makes a Thesis Statement Spectacular? — 5 things to know

Table of Contents

What Is a Thesis Statement?

A thesis statement is a declarative sentence that states the primary idea of an essay or a research paper . In this statement, the authors declare their beliefs or what they intend to argue in their research study. The statement is clear and concise, with only one or two sentences.

Thesis Statement — An Essential in Thesis Writing

A thesis statement distills the research paper idea into one or two sentences. This summary organizes your paper and develops the research argument or opinion. The statement is important because it lets the reader know what the research paper will talk about and how the author is approaching the issue. Moreover, the statement also serves as a map for the paper and helps the authors to track and organize their thoughts more efficiently.

A thesis statement can keep the writer from getting lost in a convoluted and directionless argument. Finally, it will also ensure that the research paper remains relevant and focused on the objective.

Where to Include the Thesis Statement?

The thesis statement is typically placed at the end of the introduction section of your essay or research paper. It usually consists of a single sentence of the writer’s opinion on the topic and provides a specific guide to the readers throughout the paper.

6 Steps to Write an Impactful Thesis Statement

Step 1 – analyze the literature.

Identify the knowledge gaps in the relevant research paper. Analyze the deeper implications of the author’s research argument. Was the research objective mentioned in the thesis statement reversed later in the discussion or conclusion? Does the author contradict themselves? Is there a major knowledge gap in creating a relevant research objective? Has the author understood and validated the fundamental theories correctly? Does the author support an argument without having supporting literature to cite? Answering these or related questions will help authors develop a working thesis and give their thesis an easy direction and structure.

Step 2 – Start with a Question

While developing a working thesis, early in the writing process, you might already have a research question to address. Strong research questions guide the design of studies and define and identify specific objectives. These objectives will assist the author in framing the thesis statement.

Step 3 – Develop the Answer

After initial research, the author could formulate a tentative answer to the research question. At this stage, the answer could be simple enough to guide the research and the writing process. After writing the initial answer, the author could elaborate further on why this is the chosen answer. After reading more about the research topic, the author could write and refine the answers to address the research question.

Step 4 – Write the First Draft of the Thesis Statement

After ideating the working thesis statement, make sure to write it down. It is disheartening to create a great idea for a thesis and then forget it when you lose concentration. The first draft will help you think clearly and logically. It will provide you with an option to align your thesis statement with the defined research objectives.

Step 5 – Anticipate Counter Arguments Against the Statement

After developing a working thesis, you should think about what might be said against it. This list of arguments will help you refute the thesis later. Remember that every argument has a counterargument, and if yours does not have one, what you state is not an argument — it may be a fact or opinion, but not an argument.

Step 6 – Refine the Statement

Anticipating counterarguments will help you refine your statement further. A strong thesis statement should address —

• Why does your research hold this stand?
• What will readers learn from the essay?
• Are the key points of your argumentative or narrative?
• Does the final thesis statement summarize your overall argument or the entire topic you aim to explain in the research paper?

5 Tips to Create a Compelling Thesis Statement

A thesis statement is a crucial part of any academic paper. Clearly stating the main idea of your research helps you focus on the objectives of your paper. Refer to the following tips while drafting your statement:

1. Keep it Concise

The statement should be short and precise. It should contain no more than a couple of sentences.

2. Make it Specific

The statement should be focused on a specific topic or argument. Covering too many topics will only make your paper weaker.

3. Express an Opinion

The statement should have an opinion on an issue or controversy. This will make your paper arguable and interesting to read.

4. Be Assertive

The statement should be stated assertively and not hesitantly or apologetically. Remember, you are making an argument — you need to sound convincing!

5. Support with Evidence

The thesis should be supported with evidence from your paper. Make sure you include specific examples from your research to reinforce your objectives.

Thesis Statement Examples *

Example 1 – alcohol consumption.

High levels of alcohol consumption have harmful effects on your health, such as weight gain, heart disease, and liver complications.

This thesis statement states specific reasons why alcohol consumption is detrimental. It is not required to mention every single detriment in your thesis.

Example 2 – Benefits of the Internet

The internet serves as a means of expediently connecting people across the globe, fostering new friendships and an exchange of ideas that would not have occurred before its inception.

While the internet offers a host of benefits, this thesis statement is about choosing the ability that fosters new friendships and exchange ideas. Also, the research needs to prove how connecting people across the globe could not have happened before the internet’s inception — which is a focused research statement.

*The following thesis statements are not fully researched and are merely examples shown to understand how to write a thesis statement. Also, you should avoid using these statements for your own research paper purposes.

A gripping thesis statement is developed by understanding it from the reader’s point of view. Be aware of not developing topics that only interest you and have less reader attraction. A harsh yet necessary question to ask oneself is — Why should readers read my paper? Is this paper worth reading? Would I read this paper if I weren’t its author?

A thesis statement hypes your research paper. It makes the readers excited about what specific information is coming their way. This helps them learn new facts and possibly embrace new opinions.

Writing a thesis statement (although two sentences) could be a daunting task. Hope this blog helps you write a compelling one! Do consider using the steps to create your thesis statement and tell us about it in the comment section below.

Great in impactation of knowledge

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Identifying Thesis Statements, Claims, and Evidence

Thesis statements, claims, and evidence, introduction.

The three important parts of an argumentative essay are:

• A thesis statement is a sentence, usually in the first paragraph of an article, that expresses the article’s main point. It is not a fact; it’s a statement that you could disagree with.  Therefore, the author has to convince you that the statement is correct.
• Claims are statements that support the thesis statement, but like the thesis statement,  are not facts.  Because a claim is not a fact, it requires supporting evidence.
• Evidence is factual information that shows a claim is true.  Usually, writers have to conduct their own research to find evidence that supports their ideas.  The evidence may include statistical (numerical) information, the opinions of experts, studies, personal experience, scholarly articles, or reports.

Each paragraph in the article is numbered at the beginning of the first sentence.

Paragraphs 1-7

Identifying the Thesis Statement. Paragraph 2 ends with this thesis statement:  “People’s prior convictions should not be held against them in their pursuit of higher learning.”  It is a thesis statement for three reasons:

• It is the article’s main argument.
• It is not a fact. Someone could think that peoples’ prior convictions should affect their access to higher education.
• It requires evidence to show that it is true.

Finding Claims.  A claim is statement that supports a thesis statement.  Like a thesis, it is not a fact so it needs to be supported by evidence.

You have already identified the article’s thesis statement: “People’s prior convictions should not be held against them in their pursuit of higher learning.”

Like the thesis, a claim be an idea that the author believes to be true, but others may not agree.  For this reason, a claim needs support.

• Question 1.  Can you find a claim in paragraph 3? Look for a statement that might be true, but needs to be supported by evidence.

Finding Evidence. 

Paragraphs 5-7 offer one type of evidence to support the claim you identified in the last question.  Reread paragraphs 5-7.

• Question 2.  Which word best describes the kind of evidence included in those paragraphs:  A report, a study, personal experience of the author, statistics, or the opinion of an expert?

Paragraphs 8-10

Finding Claims

Paragraph 8 makes two claims:

• “The United States needs to have more of this transformative power of education.”
• “The country [the United States] incarcerates more people and at a higher rate than any other nation in the world.”

Finding Evidence

Paragraphs 8 and 9 include these statistics as evidence:

• “The U.S. accounts for less than 5 percent of the world population but nearly 25 percent of the incarcerated population around the globe.”
• “Roughly 2.2 million people in the United States are essentially locked away in cages. About 1 in 5 of those people are locked up for drug offenses.”

Question 3. Does this evidence support claim 1 from paragraph 8 (about the transformative power of education) or claim 2 (about the U.S.’s high incarceration rate)?

Question 4. Which word best describes this kind of evidence:  A report, a study, personal experience of the author, statistics, or the opinion of an expert?

Paragraphs 11-13

Remember that in paragraph 2, Andrisse writes that:

• “People’s prior convictions should not be held against them in their pursuit of higher learning.” (Thesis statement)
• “More must be done to remove the various barriers that exist between formerly incarcerated individuals such as myself and higher education.” (Claim)

Now, review paragraphs 11-13 (Early life of crime). In these paragraphs, Andrisse shares more of his personal story.

Question 5. Do you think his personal story is evidence for statement 1 above, statement 2, both, or neither one?

Question 6. Is yes, which one(s)?

Question 7. Do you think his personal story is good evidence?  Does it persuade you to agree with him?

Paragraphs 14-16

Listed below are some claims that Andrisse makes in paragraph 14.  Below each claim, please write the supporting evidence from paragraphs 15 and 16.  If you can’t find any evidence,  write “none.”

Claim:  The more education a person has, the higher their income.

Claim: Similarly, the more education a person has, the less likely they are to return to prison.

Paragraphs 17-19

Evaluating Evidence

In these paragraphs, Andrisse returns to his personal story. He explains how his father’s illness inspired him to become a doctor and shares that he was accepted to only one of six biomedical graduate programs.

Do you think that this part of Andrisse’s story serves as evidence (support) for any claims that you’ve identified so far?   Or does it support his general thesis that “people’s prior convictions should not be held against them in pursuit of higher learning?” Please explain your answer.

Paragraphs 20-23

Andrisse uses his personal experience to repeat a claim he makes in paragraph 3, that “more must be done to remove the various barriers that exist between formerly incarcerated individuals such as myself and higher education.”

To support this statement, he has to show that barriers exist.  One barrier he identifies is the cost of college. He then explains the advantages of offering Pell grants to incarcerated people.

What evidence in paragraphs 21-23 support his claim about the success of Pell grants?

Paragraphs  24-28 (Remove questions about drug crimes from federal aid forms)

In this section, Andrisse argues that federal aid forms should not ask students about prior drug convictions.  To support that claim, he includes a statistic about students who had to answer a similar question on their college application.

What statistic does he include?

In paragraph 25, he assumes that if a question about drug convictions discourages students from applying to college, it will probably also discourage them from applying for federal aid.

What do you think about this assumption?   Do you think it’s reasonable or do you think Andrisse needs stronger evidence to show that federal aid forms should not ask students about prior drug convictions?

Supporting English Language Learners in First-Year College Composition Copyright © by Breana Bayraktar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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9.1 Developing a Strong, Clear Thesis Statement

Learning objectives.

• Develop a strong, clear thesis statement with the proper elements.
• Revise your thesis statement.

Have you ever known a person who was not very good at telling stories? You probably had trouble following his train of thought as he jumped around from point to point, either being too brief in places that needed further explanation or providing too many details on a meaningless element. Maybe he told the end of the story first, then moved to the beginning and later added details to the middle. His ideas were probably scattered, and the story did not flow very well. When the story was over, you probably had many questions.

Just as a personal anecdote can be a disorganized mess, an essay can fall into the same trap of being out of order and confusing. That is why writers need a thesis statement to provide a specific focus for their essay and to organize what they are about to discuss in the body.

Just like a topic sentence summarizes a single paragraph, the thesis statement summarizes an entire essay. It tells the reader the point you want to make in your essay, while the essay itself supports that point. It is like a signpost that signals the essay’s destination. You should form your thesis before you begin to organize an essay, but you may find that it needs revision as the essay develops.

Elements of a Thesis Statement

For every essay you write, you must focus on a central idea. This idea stems from a topic you have chosen or been assigned or from a question your teacher has asked. It is not enough merely to discuss a general topic or simply answer a question with a yes or no. You have to form a specific opinion, and then articulate that into a controlling idea —the main idea upon which you build your thesis.

Remember that a thesis is not the topic itself, but rather your interpretation of the question or subject. For whatever topic your professor gives you, you must ask yourself, “What do I want to say about it?” Asking and then answering this question is vital to forming a thesis that is precise, forceful and confident.

A thesis is one sentence long and appears toward the end of your introduction. It is specific and focuses on one to three points of a single idea—points that are able to be demonstrated in the body. It forecasts the content of the essay and suggests how you will organize your information. Remember that a thesis statement does not summarize an issue but rather dissects it.

A Strong Thesis Statement

A strong thesis statement contains the following qualities.

Specificity. A thesis statement must concentrate on a specific area of a general topic. As you may recall, the creation of a thesis statement begins when you choose a broad subject and then narrow down its parts until you pinpoint a specific aspect of that topic. For example, health care is a broad topic, but a proper thesis statement would focus on a specific area of that topic, such as options for individuals without health care coverage.

Precision. A strong thesis statement must be precise enough to allow for a coherent argument and to remain focused on the topic. If the specific topic is options for individuals without health care coverage, then your precise thesis statement must make an exact claim about it, such as that limited options exist for those who are uninsured by their employers. You must further pinpoint what you are going to discuss regarding these limited effects, such as whom they affect and what the cause is.

Ability to be argued. A thesis statement must present a relevant and specific argument. A factual statement often is not considered arguable. Be sure your thesis statement contains a point of view that can be supported with evidence.

Ability to be demonstrated. For any claim you make in your thesis, you must be able to provide reasons and examples for your opinion. You can rely on personal observations in order to do this, or you can consult outside sources to demonstrate that what you assert is valid. A worthy argument is backed by examples and details.

Forcefulness. A thesis statement that is forceful shows readers that you are, in fact, making an argument. The tone is assertive and takes a stance that others might oppose.

Confidence. In addition to using force in your thesis statement, you must also use confidence in your claim. Phrases such as I feel or I believe actually weaken the readers’ sense of your confidence because these phrases imply that you are the only person who feels the way you do. In other words, your stance has insufficient backing. Taking an authoritative stance on the matter persuades your readers to have faith in your argument and open their minds to what you have to say.

Even in a personal essay that allows the use of first person, your thesis should not contain phrases such as in my opinion or I believe . These statements reduce your credibility and weaken your argument. Your opinion is more convincing when you use a firm attitude.

On a separate sheet of paper, write a thesis statement for each of the following topics. Remember to make each statement specific, precise, demonstrable, forceful and confident.

• Texting while driving
• The legal drinking age in the United States
• Steroid use among professional athletes

Examples of Appropriate Thesis Statements

Each of the following thesis statements meets several of the following requirements:

• Specificity
• Ability to be argued
• Ability to be demonstrated
• Forcefulness
• The societal and personal struggles of Troy Maxon in the play Fences symbolize the challenge of black males who lived through segregation and integration in the United States.
• Closing all American borders for a period of five years is one solution that will tackle illegal immigration.
• Shakespeare’s use of dramatic irony in Romeo and Juliet spoils the outcome for the audience and weakens the plot.
• J. D. Salinger’s character in Catcher in the Rye , Holden Caulfield, is a confused rebel who voices his disgust with phonies, yet in an effort to protect himself, he acts like a phony on many occasions.
• Compared to an absolute divorce, no-fault divorce is less expensive, promotes fairer settlements, and reflects a more realistic view of the causes for marital breakdown.
• Exposing children from an early age to the dangers of drug abuse is a sure method of preventing future drug addicts.
• In today’s crumbling job market, a high school diploma is not significant enough education to land a stable, lucrative job.

You can find thesis statements in many places, such as in the news; in the opinions of friends, coworkers or teachers; and even in songs you hear on the radio. Become aware of thesis statements in everyday life by paying attention to people’s opinions and their reasons for those opinions. Pay attention to your own everyday thesis statements as well, as these can become material for future essays.

Now that you have read about the contents of a good thesis statement and have seen examples, take a look at the pitfalls to avoid when composing your own thesis:

A thesis is weak when it is simply a declaration of your subject or a description of what you will discuss in your essay.

Weak thesis statement: My paper will explain why imagination is more important than knowledge.

A thesis is weak when it makes an unreasonable or outrageous claim or insults the opposing side.

Weak thesis statement: Religious radicals across America are trying to legislate their Puritanical beliefs by banning required high school books.

A thesis is weak when it contains an obvious fact or something that no one can disagree with or provides a dead end.

Weak thesis statement: Advertising companies use sex to sell their products.

A thesis is weak when the statement is too broad.

Weak thesis statement: The life of Abraham Lincoln was long and challenging.

Read the following thesis statements. On a separate piece of paper, identify each as weak or strong. For those that are weak, list the reasons why. Then revise the weak statements so that they conform to the requirements of a strong thesis.

• The subject of this paper is my experience with ferrets as pets.
• The government must expand its funding for research on renewable energy resources in order to prepare for the impending end of oil.
• Edgar Allan Poe was a poet who lived in Baltimore during the nineteenth century.
• In this essay, I will give you lots of reasons why slot machines should not be legalized in Baltimore.
• Despite his promises during his campaign, President Kennedy took few executive measures to support civil rights legislation.
• Because many children’s toys have potential safety hazards that could lead to injury, it is clear that not all children’s toys are safe.
• My experience with young children has taught me that I want to be a disciplinary parent because I believe that a child without discipline can be a parent’s worst nightmare.

Writing at Work

Often in your career, you will need to ask your boss for something through an e-mail. Just as a thesis statement organizes an essay, it can also organize your e-mail request. While your e-mail will be shorter than an essay, using a thesis statement in your first paragraph quickly lets your boss know what you are asking for, why it is necessary, and what the benefits are. In short body paragraphs, you can provide the essential information needed to expand upon your request.

Thesis Statement Revision

Your thesis will probably change as you write, so you will need to modify it to reflect exactly what you have discussed in your essay. Remember from Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” that your thesis statement begins as a working thesis statement , an indefinite statement that you make about your topic early in the writing process for the purpose of planning and guiding your writing.

Working thesis statements often become stronger as you gather information and form new opinions and reasons for those opinions. Revision helps you strengthen your thesis so that it matches what you have expressed in the body of the paper.

The best way to revise your thesis statement is to ask questions about it and then examine the answers to those questions. By challenging your own ideas and forming definite reasons for those ideas, you grow closer to a more precise point of view, which you can then incorporate into your thesis statement.

Ways to Revise Your Thesis

You can cut down on irrelevant aspects and revise your thesis by taking the following steps:

1. Pinpoint and replace all nonspecific words, such as people , everything , society , or life , with more precise words in order to reduce any vagueness.

Working thesis: Young people have to work hard to succeed in life.

Revised thesis: Recent college graduates must have discipline and persistence in order to find and maintain a stable job in which they can use and be appreciated for their talents.

The revised thesis makes a more specific statement about success and what it means to work hard. The original includes too broad a range of people and does not define exactly what success entails. By replacing those general words like people and work hard , the writer can better focus his or her research and gain more direction in his or her writing.

2. Clarify ideas that need explanation by asking yourself questions that narrow your thesis.

Working thesis: The welfare system is a joke.

Revised thesis: The welfare system keeps a socioeconomic class from gaining employment by alluring members of that class with unearned income, instead of programs to improve their education and skill sets.

A joke means many things to many people. Readers bring all sorts of backgrounds and perspectives to the reading process and would need clarification for a word so vague. This expression may also be too informal for the selected audience. By asking questions, the writer can devise a more precise and appropriate explanation for joke . The writer should ask himself or herself questions similar to the 5WH questions. (See Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” for more information on the 5WH questions.) By incorporating the answers to these questions into a thesis statement, the writer more accurately defines his or her stance, which will better guide the writing of the essay.

3. Replace any linking verbs with action verbs. Linking verbs are forms of the verb to be , a verb that simply states that a situation exists.

Working thesis: Kansas City schoolteachers are not paid enough.

Revised thesis: The Kansas City legislature cannot afford to pay its educators, resulting in job cuts and resignations in a district that sorely needs highly qualified and dedicated teachers.

The linking verb in this working thesis statement is the word are . Linking verbs often make thesis statements weak because they do not express action. Rather, they connect words and phrases to the second half of the sentence. Readers might wonder, “Why are they not paid enough?” But this statement does not compel them to ask many more questions. The writer should ask himself or herself questions in order to replace the linking verb with an action verb, thus forming a stronger thesis statement, one that takes a more definitive stance on the issue:

• Who is not paying the teachers enough?
• What is considered “enough”?
• What is the problem?
• What are the results

4. Omit any general claims that are hard to support.

Working thesis: Today’s teenage girls are too sexualized.

Revised thesis: Teenage girls who are captivated by the sexual images on MTV are conditioned to believe that a woman’s worth depends on her sensuality, a feeling that harms their self-esteem and behavior.

It is true that some young women in today’s society are more sexualized than in the past, but that is not true for all girls. Many girls have strict parents, dress appropriately, and do not engage in sexual activity while in middle school and high school. The writer of this thesis should ask the following questions:

• Which teenage girls?
• What constitutes “too” sexualized?
• Why are they behaving that way?
• Where does this behavior show up?
• What are the repercussions?

In the first section of Chapter 8 “The Writing Process: How Do I Begin?” , you determined your purpose for writing and your audience. You then completed a freewriting exercise about an event you recently experienced and chose a general topic to write about. Using that general topic, you then narrowed it down by answering the 5WH questions. After you answered these questions, you chose one of the three methods of prewriting and gathered possible supporting points for your working thesis statement.

Now, on a separate sheet of paper, write down your working thesis statement. Identify any weaknesses in this sentence and revise the statement to reflect the elements of a strong thesis statement. Make sure it is specific, precise, arguable, demonstrable, forceful, and confident.

Collaboration

Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.

In your career you may have to write a project proposal that focuses on a particular problem in your company, such as reinforcing the tardiness policy. The proposal would aim to fix the problem; using a thesis statement would clearly state the boundaries of the problem and tell the goals of the project. After writing the proposal, you may find that the thesis needs revision to reflect exactly what is expressed in the body. Using the techniques from this chapter would apply to revising that thesis.

Key Takeaways

• Proper essays require a thesis statement to provide a specific focus and suggest how the essay will be organized.
• A thesis statement is your interpretation of the subject, not the topic itself.
• A strong thesis is specific, precise, forceful, confident, and is able to be demonstrated.
• A strong thesis challenges readers with a point of view that can be debated and can be supported with evidence.
• A weak thesis is simply a declaration of your topic or contains an obvious fact that cannot be argued.
• Depending on your topic, it may or may not be appropriate to use first person point of view.
• Revise your thesis by ensuring all words are specific, all ideas are exact, and all verbs express action.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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7: Identifying Thesis Statements, Claims, and Evidence

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Learning Objectives

This chapter teaches you how to identify the elements of argumentative writing: a thesis statement, claims, and evidence.

Thesis Statements, Claims, and Evidence

Introduction.

The three important parts of an argumentative essay are:

• A thesis statement is a sentence, usually in the first paragraph of an article, that expresses the article’s main point. It is not a fact; it’s a statement that you could disagree with. Therefore, the author has to convince you that the statement is correct.
• Claims are statements that support the thesis statement, but like the thesis statement, are not facts. Because a claim is not a fact, it requires supporting evidence.
• Evidence is factual information that shows a claim is true. Usually, writers have to conduct their own research to find evidence that supports their ideas. The evidence may include statistical (numerical) information, the opinions of experts, studies, personal experience, scholarly articles, or reports.

Each paragraph in the article is numbered at the beginning of the first sentence.

Paragraphs 1-7

Identifying the Thesis Statement. Paragraph 2 ends with this thesis statement: “People’s prior convictions should not be held against them in their pursuit of higher learning.” It is a thesis statement for three reasons:

• It is the article’s main argument.
• It is not a fact. Someone could think that peoples’ prior convictions should affect their access to higher education.
• It requires evidence to show that it is true.

Finding Claims. A claim is statement that supports a thesis statement. Like a thesis, it is not a fact so it needs to be supported by evidence.

You have already identified the article’s thesis statement: “People’s prior convictions should not be held against them in their pursuit of higher learning.”

Like the thesis, a claim be an idea that the author believes to be true, but others may not agree. For this reason, a claim needs support.

• Question 1. Can you find a claim in paragraph 3? Look for a statement that might be true, but needs to be supported by evidence.

Finding Evidence.

Paragraphs 5-7 offer one type of evidence to support the claim you identified in the last question. Reread paragraphs 5-7.

• Question 2. Which word best describes the kind of evidence included in those paragraphs: A report, a study, personal experience of the author, statistics, or the opinion of an expert?

Paragraphs 8-10

Finding Claims

Paragraph 8 makes two claims:

• “The United States needs to have more of this transformative power of education.”
• “The country [the United States] incarcerates more people and at a higher rate than any other nation in the world.”

Finding Evidence

Paragraphs 8 and 9 include these statistics as evidence:

• “The U.S. accounts for less than 5 percent of the world population but nearly 25 percent of the incarcerated population around the globe.”
• “Roughly 2.2 million people in the United States are essentially locked away in cages. About 1 in 5 of those people are locked up for drug offenses.”

Question 3. Does this evidence support claim 1 from paragraph 8 (about the transformative power of education) or claim 2 (about the U.S.’s high incarceration rate)?

Question 4. Which word best describes this kind of evidence: A report, a study, personal experience of the author, statistics, or the opinion of an expert?

Paragraphs 11-13

Remember that in paragraph 2, Andrisse writes that:

• “People’s prior convictions should not be held against them in their pursuit of higher learning.” (Thesis statement)
• “More must be done to remove the various barriers that exist between formerly incarcerated individuals such as myself and higher education.” (Claim)

Now, review paragraphs 11-13 (Early life of crime). In these paragraphs, Andrisse shares more of his personal story.

Question 5. Do you think his personal story is evidence for statement 1 above, statement 2, both, or neither one?

Question 6. Is yes, which one(s)?

Question 7. Do you think his personal story is good evidence? Does it persuade you to agree with him?

Paragraphs 14-16

Listed below are some claims that Andrisse makes in paragraph 14. Below each claim, please write the supporting evidence from paragraphs 15 and 16. If you can’t find any evidence, write “none.”

Claim: The more education a person has, the higher their income.

Claim: Similarly, the more education a person has, the less likely they are to return to prison.

Paragraphs 17-19

Evaluating Evidence

In these paragraphs, Andrisse returns to his personal story. He explains how his father’s illness inspired him to become a doctor and shares that he was accepted to only one of six biomedical graduate programs.

Do you think that this part of Andrisse’s story serves as evidence (support) for any claims that you’ve identified so far? Or does it support his general thesis that “people’s prior convictions should not be held against them in pursuit of higher learning?” Please explain your answer.

Paragraphs 20-23

Andrisse uses his personal experience to repeat a claim he makes in paragraph 3, that “more must be done to remove the various barriers that exist between formerly incarcerated individuals such as myself and higher education.”

To support this statement, he has to show that barriers exist. One barrier he identifies is the cost of college. He then explains the advantages of offering Pell grants to incarcerated people.

What evidence in paragraphs 21-23 support his claim about the success of Pell grants?

Paragraphs 24-28 (Remove questions about drug crimes from federal aid forms)

In this section, Andrisse argues that federal aid forms should not ask students about prior drug convictions. To support that claim, he includes a statistic about students who had to answer a similar question on their college application.

What statistic does he include?

In paragraph 25, he assumes that if a question about drug convictions discourages students from applying to college, it will probably also discourage them from applying for federal aid.

What do you think about this assumption? Do you think it’s reasonable or do you think Andrisse needs stronger evidence to show that federal aid forms should not ask students about prior drug convictions?

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

2-Types of Sources

3. Fact or Opinion

Thinking about the reason an author created a source can be helpful to you because that reason was what dictated the kind of information he/she chose to include. Depending on that purpose, the author may have chosen to include factual, analytical, and objective information. Or, instead, it may have suited his/her purpose to include information that was subjective and therefore less factual and analytical. The author’s reason for producing the source also determined whether he or she included more than one perspective or just his/her own.

Authors typically want to do at least one of the following:

• Inform and educate
• Sell services or products

Combined Purposes

Sometimes authors have a combination of purposes, as when a marketer decides he can sell more smartphones with an informative sales video that also entertains us. The same is true when a singer writes and performs a song that entertains us but that she intends to make available for sale. Other examples of authors having multiple purposes occur in most scholarly writing.

In those cases, authors certainly want to inform and educate their audiences. But they also want to persuade their audiences that what they are reporting and/or postulating is a true description of a situation, event, or phenomenon or a valid argument that their audience must take a particular action. In this blend of scholarly authors’ purposes, the intent to educate and inform is considered to trump the intent to persuade

Why Intent Matters

Authors’ intent usually matters in how useful their information can be to your research project, depending on which information need you are trying to meet. For instance, when you’re looking for sources that will help you actually decide your answer to your research question or evidence for your answer that you will share with your audience, you will want the author’s main purpose to have been to inform or educate his/her audience. That’s because, with that intent, he/she is likely to have used:

• Facts where possible.
• Multiple perspectives instead of just his/her own.
• Little subjective information.
• Seemingly unbiased, objective language that cites where he/she got the information.

The reason you want that kind of source when trying to answer your research question or explaining that answer is that all of those characteristics will lend credibility to the argument you are making with your project. Both you and your audience will simply find it easier to believe—will have more confidence in the argument being made—when you include those types of sources.

Sources whose authors intend only to persuade others won’t meet your information need for an answer to your research question or evidence with which to convince your audience. That’s because they don’t always confine themselves to facts. Instead, they tell us their opinions without backing them up with evidence. If you used those sources, your readers would notice and would be less likely to believe your argument.

Fact vs. Opinion vs. Objective vs. Subjective

Need to brush up on the differences between fact, objective information, subjective information, and opinion?

Fact – Facts are useful to inform or make an argument.

• The United States was established in 1776.
• The pH levels in acids are lower than the pH levels in alkalines.
• Beethoven had a reputation as a virtuoso pianist.

Opinion – Opinions are useful to persuade, but careful readers and listeners will notice and demand evidence to back them up.

• That was a good movie.
• Strawberries taste better than blueberries.
• Timothee Chalamet is the sexiest actor alive.
• The death penalty is wrong.
• Beethoven’s reputation as a virtuoso pianist is overrated.

Objective – Objective information reflects a research finding or multiple perspectives that are not biased.

• “Several studies show that an active lifestyle reduces the risk of heart disease and diabetes.”
• “Studies from the Brown University Medical School show that twenty-somethings eat 25 percent more fast-food meals at this age than they did as teenagers.”

Subjective – Subjective information presents one person or organization’s perspective or interpretation. Subjective information can be meant to distort, or it can reflect educated and informed thinking. All opinions are subjective, but some are backed up with facts more than others.

• “The simple truth is this: As human beings, we were meant to move.”
• “In their thirties, women should stock up on calcium to ensure strong, dense bones and to ward off osteoporosis later in life.” *

*In this quote, it’s mostly the “should” that makes it subjective. The objective version of that quote would read something like: “Studies have shown that women who begin taking calcium in their 30s show stronger bone density and fewer repercussions of osteoporosis than women who did not take calcium at all.” But perhaps there are other data showing complications from taking calcium. That’s why drawing the conclusion that requires a “should” makes the statement subjective.

Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research Copyright © 2015 by Teaching & Learning, Ohio State University Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Praxis Core Reading

Course: praxis core reading   >   unit 1.

• Main idea | Quick guide
• Supporting ideas | Quick guide
• Meanings of words | Quick guide
• Organization | Quick guide
• Inferences | Quick guide
• Evaluation of evidence | Quick guide
• Purpose of component | Quick guide
• Relationship of ideas | Quick guide

Fact or opinion | Quick guide

• Author's attitude | Quick guide
• Recognize similar situations | Quick guide
• Draw conclusions | Quick guide

Is this supported by facts?

• "The author of the passage expresses an opinion about which of the following?"
• "Which of the following sentences from the passage contains an expression of the author’s opinion?"
• Locate emotion words: Is there a point where the author uses emotionally charged words to describe something? Do they characterize something as very negative or very positive? If so, there's a good chance the author is expressing an opinion .
• Says who? Each time a statement is made or a conclusion is drawn, ask yourself "says who?" To be facts , claims need to be supported by evidence and logic , not just the perspective of the author.
• (Choice A)   William Bailey, an American Realist painter, studied at Yale in the 1950s. A William Bailey, an American Realist painter, studied at Yale in the 1950s.
• (Choice B)   His still lifes depict smooth, rounded containers that sit in a field of uniform color. B His still lifes depict smooth, rounded containers that sit in a field of uniform color.
• (Choice C)   Bailey denies a close connection to Giorgio Morandi, an Italian painter of still lifes, but admits that they share "a belief in the power of the mute object." C Bailey denies a close connection to Giorgio Morandi, an Italian painter of still lifes, but admits that they share "a belief in the power of the mute object."
• (Choice D)   While Morandi painted from direct observation, Bailey painted from memory. D While Morandi painted from direct observation, Bailey painted from memory.
• (Choice E)   This difference in method makes Bailey's objects superior to Morandi's, for they are thus purified, immutable, and mysterious. E This difference in method makes Bailey's objects superior to Morandi's, for they are thus purified, immutable, and mysterious.

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What are the distinctions between fact assertion, convention, preference, and opinion? Can you provide examples?

Distinguishing between fact assertion, convention, preference, and opinion is important in understanding the different types of statements we encounter in everyday life. Here are the distinctions between these four categories, along with examples:

Fact Assertion:

• A fact assertion is a statement that can be verified or proven to be true through evidence or research.
• Facts are objective and independent of personal beliefs or opinions.
• Example: "The Earth revolves around the Sun" [1] .

Convention:

• A convention refers to a widely accepted practice or behavior within a particular group or society.
• Conventions are not necessarily based on objective truth but are followed due to social agreement or tradition.
• Example: Shaking hands as a greeting in many Western cultures [1] .

Preference:

• A preference is a personal choice or liking for one thing over another.
• Preferences are subjective and can vary from person to person.
• Example: "I prefer chocolate ice cream over vanilla" [1] .
• An opinion is a judgment or belief based on personal interpretation or evaluation of facts.
• Opinions are subjective and can be influenced by personal experiences, values, or emotions.
• Example: "The government should invest more in renewable energy sources" [1] .

Learn more:

• Distinguishing Fact, Opinion, Belief, and Prejudice

Continue the conversation

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May Contain Lies by Alex Edmans review – fake news rules… and that’s a fact

In our age of misinformation, this unsparing study of the many ways in which we can be deceived and how to counter the pernicious effects couldn’t be more timely

“W hat is truth, said jesting Pilate – and would not stay for an answer.” Thus philosopher Francis Bacon dramatised the opening of his famous Of Truth essay. Every human being alive, he thought, was prey to the bewitching temptation to disregard truth even to the point of deceiving ourselves, and to believe what it pleased us to believe – certainly disregarding truths put to us by others. In Pilate’s view, both Jesus Christ and the high priests urging his crucifixion were no more than partisans of their own particular truths – just like all of us. But, writing more than 400 years ago, Bacon thought that was not good enough. It was crucial, he said, to be honest and have shared truths, and for that he looked to the methodologies being pioneered by science. There were no partisan truths in nature – only immutable laws and facts awaiting discovery.

Today the temptation to believe our own truth to the point of collectively deceiving ourselves, hugely intensified by social media and its accompanying polarisation, has become an everyday talking point – the enemy of democracy and, arguably, civilisation itself. Bacon may have had faith in scientific facts to be the foundations of truth, but alarming proportions of educated people in western democracies do not share his faith even in science, distrusting what it has to say about everything from climate change to vaccination. If a message, especially political or cultural, is uncongenial, retreat to your own truth. Americans approach the 2024 presidential election with mounting foreboding that it will be characterised by industrial-scale misinformation – and there are parallel fears in Britain. Winston Churchill once said a lie can be halfway around the world before the truth can get its pants on – and that was before social media. False stories on X are 70% more likely to be retweeted than true ones – and true stories take six times longer to reach a sample of 1,500 than false ones.

There are a host of proposals in response, usually involving some mix of tougher policing of content by regulators and social media platform providers, supplemented by the creation of a public service digital platform committed to the posting of factual information. But the appetite for change is as yet hardly a tidal wave – and there is much more we as individuals can do to identify lies and facts bent out of kilter to support the advocacy of whatever cause.

Enter Alex Edmans. May Contain Lies is a wonderful litany of the myriad ways in which we can be deceived, and deceive ourselves, including sometimes well-known academic researchers as they try to stand up their theory. There are no sacred cows for Edmans. Whether it’s the authors of 2009’s famous The Spirit Level , which purported to show that inequality drives bad health outcomes, or the 1994 business book Built to Last , which influenced a generation with its apparent proof that visionary companies outlast their non-visionary peers, Edmans is unsparing. To test the famous result that it is inequality rather than poverty that causes bad health outcomes, you must statistically remove poverty from the data and run rigorous comparisons: when you do, says Edmans, you discover that the relationship is much weaker. Poverty remains a formidable cause of bad health. Equally the authors of Built to Last were pulling off the oldest trick in the book – selecting data that proved their point, in this case a collection of companies they knew were enduring, then retrofitting their character to prove their point. Small wonder so many of those visionary businesses have collapsed since the book’s publication.

Edmans is no less hard on himself. He tells the story of how he repeated for some years in his business school lectures the great Malcolm Gladwell statement that perfection requires 10,000 hours of practise. Then he inspected the data behind the statement and found that almost nothing did. (Here I should declare an interest: I know Edmans personally through our work on the Purposeful Company business thinktank and have experienced first-hand the full force of his demands for rigour. He practises what he preaches.)

So it goes on – the unconscious bias, the deceptive quest for statistics and facts that support your pre-rehearsed position, the exacting standards that must be met to prove a thesis and which so rarely are, and the dangers of “groupthink”. Edmans tells an engaging story of how President Kennedy, after the fiasco of the attempted invasion of Cuba in the Bay of Pigs, was determined not to make the same mistake again. So when 18 months later the Soviet Union started sending nuclear missiles to Cuba, he established as wide a group of advisers as possible to examine all the possible options – and not just the military’s favoured one of launching airstrikes. He went for a blockade, secured Khrushchev’s agreement to withdraw on the promise that the US would not invade Cuba, and nuclear war was averted. The more diverse a group you have deliberating whatever decision, the more likely you are to come to the right answer. Thus we escaped a third world war.

Given that we are increasingly engulfed by a sea of misinformation and bad public policy informed by self-deception, Edmans’s message could hardly be more timely. He urges us to follow Aristotle’s maxim: it is the mark of an educated mind to entertain a thought without necessarily accepting it. His advice is to stay open to the notion that you may be wrong, because you find the truth by testing your ideas against those who think differently. Always beware anyone who says they have found the holy grail in any field; they usually haven’t. Look out for the credentials of those spinning whatever line: have they an incentive not to be truth-tellers? Journalists, be vigilant about eye-catching research: it will have been released to achieve impact, so check that it is sound. And social media users, pause and reflect before you retweet. Are you sure this information is right? If we are all more wary, it may start to make a difference.

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The science of 3 Body Problem : what’s fact and what’s fiction?

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Particle physicist Saul Durand (played by Jovan Adepo) and nanotechnology specialist Augustina (Auggie) Salazar (played by Eiza González) look to the sky for a signal from the alien San-Ti civilization. Credit: BFA/Ed Miller/Netflix via Alamy

An alien civilization spying on humans using quantum entanglement. A planet chaotically orbiting three stars. Nanofibres capable of slicing through Earth’s hardest substance, diamond. Despite being chock-full of hardcore science, 3 Body Problem , a television series released on 21 March by the streaming service Netflix, has been a hit with audiences. So far, it has spent five weeks straight in Netflix’s list of the top-three programmes viewed globally.

The science of Oppenheimer: meet the Oscar-winning movie’s specialist advisers

The story follows five young scientists who studied together at the University of Oxford, UK, as they grapple with mysterious deaths, particle-physics gone awry and aliens called the San-Ti who have their sights set on Earth. But how much of the science in the sci-fi epic, based on the award-winning book trilogy Remembrance of Earth’s Past by the Chinese writer Cixin Liu, reflects reality, and how much is wishful thinking? To find out, Nature spoke to three real-world scientists.

Xavier Dumusque is a planetary scientist at the University of Geneva in Switzerland who has studied the three-star system Alpha Centauri. Younan Xia is a materials scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta who has worked with cutting-edge nanotechnologies. Matt Kenzie is a particle physicist at the University of Cambridge, UK — and was the scientific adviser for 3 Body Problem .

Kenzie originally met two of the show’s creators, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, 14 years ago, while the pair were filming the popular fantasy saga Game of Thrones . Kenzie’s father was a director of photography for that series, and Benioff and Weiss chatted to Kenzie on set. “I was doing my PhD at the time,” Kenzie recalls, and they seemed interested in his thesis project. More than a decade later, “they e-mailed me sort of out of the blue, asking about some of the particle-physics stuff” in 3 Body Problem .

Full disclosure: spoilers ahead.

What do you think of the portrayal of scientists and their relationships in the series?

Kenzie: The lazy way of portraying scientists on screen [in other programmes and films] is as lone geniuses. For a lot of modern research, it’s not like that. The fact that the characters all know each other and are very friendly because they did their PhDs together in the same group seems very plausible. I also think most physicists are socially very capable. We work in bigger and bigger teams. You need to be able to communicate, you need to be able to lead if you’re in a successful academic position, you have to be able to basically convince someone to fund your research, whether it’s by hiring you or by giving you funding.

Barbie and body image: a scholar’s take on the research — and the blockbuster film

One thing that’s probably not true to reality is that there are quite a few women — about half women — and a good mix of ethnic backgrounds in the actual cast of the show. The truth, sadly, is that [physics graduates] probably would be 70% white males at a place like Oxford. But, you know, we hope that that is improving. And I don’t think there’s any harm in the show trying to progress standards by displaying something a little bit more diverse.

Dumusque: Something that I liked, and it’s a little bit true, is that there are five former physics PhD students, and, in the end, there are only one or two that are still doing fundamental physics. All the others are doing other things — they are all successful. That’s the reality. I had ten close friends finishing PhDs, and now we are only two left in academia. The others are doing plenty of super-interesting things.

The San-Ti emerge from a planet in the three-body Alpha Centauri system. We’re told this means they’ve had a chaotic existence as their planet was flung between stars. Would aliens actually survive this?

Dumusque: Alpha Centauri is indeed a triple system, which has two bright stars, Alpha Centauri A and B, and a tiny star, Proxima Centauri, which is closest to us [at 1.3 parsecs away]. In fact, it was not clear for a long time if the third star, Proxima, was bound to the system — because it’s very, very far away, really at the limit of the system. The gravitational interaction of Proxima on the two main stars is extremely small. So what they’ve shown in the show — you have all this instability due to the third body — in reality, it doesn’t happen in this system.

There is a planet around Proxima, and it’s an interesting planet because the star is much smaller and cooler than our Sun. So although the planet is orbiting it with a period of just around 15 days, the surface temperature of the planet is more or less 0 °C. In terms of temperature, it could be habitable [although not comfortable]. But small stars like Proxima have a lot of magnetic activity and flares, and give out a lot of X-rays, all of which does not favour life.

The way Earth initially contacts the San-Ti is by amplifying a radio signal using the Sun. Is that possible?

Dumusque: I think it should be possible, but not in the way the 3 Body Problem shows. We can use the effect of gravitational lensing — if there is an object passing behind the Sun, we could use the mass of the Sun to amplify the [radio signal]. But it would be amplified just in one specific direction [rather than in all directions, as shown in the programme].

The San-Ti, called Trisolarans in the books, unleash high-tech particles called sophons that use quantum entanglement to observe and communicate with Earth in real time. Is this feasible?

Kenzie: The mechanism shown has been proven, and I think will soon be deployed in what is known as quantum satellite technology . You’re basically sending signals incredibly fast using entangled particles, where, when you measure the state of one, you immediately know the state of the other. However, there is still a caveat to that, which is that you cannot communicate faster than the speed of light.

[To ‘read’ the distant particle] you still need to send an electromagnetic signal to decode the information [which travels at the speed of light]. Trisolarans circumvent this by knowing about hidden dimensions. They have a way of tunnelling through or exploiting those dimensions. So it appears like they’re communicating faster than light in our three- or four-dimensional Universe (if you include time as the fourth dimension).

Younan, you haven’t seen the series yet, but you’ve watched a clip in which nanofibres made by one character slice through a huge chunk of diamond as if it were cake. Are we there yet?

Xia: First, the size of the diamond you saw in that clip, that’s impossible! If you can make that size of a diamond, I’m sure you can easily become a billionaire. As far as I know, no material has been made that’s harder than diamond. Scientists have dreamt about finding a material to beat diamond for decades. They have even identified some compounds, like [a particular type of] carbon nitride, using computer simulations, that could work, but these materials cannot be synthesized in the lab. Maybe there are some formulations of compounds that would work, materials we just don’t know of yet.

People have also thought a carbon nanotube could be stronger than diamond. But that kind of strength is a ‘stretching’ strength and is not really suitable for cutting applications. Carbon nanotubes are rolled up sheets of graphene. But most of them are pretty short in terms of length. So far, it’s been difficult to make them even a few centimetres long without defects; I don’t know how they could’ve made these fibres [in the programme].

Matt, as the scientific adviser, were you happy with how the series turned out?

Kenzie: The writers of this show really know a lot about science. They’re very well read, and they think about things very carefully. They’re not just asking [me for advice] to make themselves feel better, they really think about things. The level of attention to detail that they showed was something that impressed me. I was not really expecting it, to be honest.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01272-5

These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

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Investor’s Edge: GE spinoffs look to have bright futures.

• Updated: May. 06, 2024, 9:07 a.m. |
• Published: May. 05, 2024, 8:30 a.m.

Logo for General Electric, GE Stock photo

• Jim Burns | J.W. Burns & Company Investment Counsel

“Change before you have to” – Jack Welch, GE CEO 1981 - 2001

General Electric, founded by Thomas Edison in 1892, was once the most iconic business in American history. An original member of the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average, GE’s stock reached a $600 billion market cap in 2000, 24 long years ago.

It would never reach that level again.

Poor management, SEC accounting probes, and the Great Recession tanked GE’s stock price. Despite 15+ years of multiple attempts at restructuring, selling off divisions, and even slashing its dividend in half, GE continued to flounder. The stock was unceremoniously booted from the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2018.

After more than 125 years in business, the old General Electric needed to change – and fast. In November 2021, GE announced plans to split into three public companies: medical devices (GE HealthCare), aviation (GE Aerospace), and power generation (GE Vernova). The company broke into two in 2022 and completed its break into three separate companies on April 2.

Many readers of this column have been asking my opinion on these three interesting companies. Let’s take a look under the hood.

GE Healthcare (GEHC)

GEHC is a global manufacturer and distributor of medical devices, pharmaceutical diagnostics, and medical technologies (“medtech”). GEHC was the first company to spin off from GE and began trading publicly in December 2022. Since then, the stock has grown an impressive 52% -- well ahead of the S&P 500′s 30% gain.

GEHC has seen significant margin expansion and cost efficiencies from operating as a standalone business and has benefited from post-COVID pent-up demand for medical procedures.

In its latest earnings call, the company announced the launch of new medical imaging and diagnostic tools that will incorporate artificial intelligence to help medical professionals “deliver precise, connected, and efficient care across diverse diseases.” These include taking a leading role in developing advanced solutions for Alzheimer’s, breast cancer, cardiac imaging, and radiation therapy.

GE Healthcare will be a long-term winner, and I’m comfortable recommending it.

GE Aerospace

GE Aerospace is a leading provider of jet and turboprop engines as well as integrated aviation systems for both commercial and military aircraft. In fact, 75% of all new single-aisle jets made by both Boeing and Airbus have a GE engine inside them.

The investment thesis for GE Aerospace centers around the massive upgrade and replacement cycle that is sweeping the commercial aircraft industry and militaries. The aircraft engine business has very high barriers to entry, significant pricing power, and recurring, consistent revenue streams. In the coming years, GE will be at the forefront of the industry’s growth trajectory and will be critical to innovating the next generation of aviation engines and systems.

GE Aerospace’s stock has soared more than 60% year to date as investors are clearly bullish on the company’s position in the secular trends mentioned above. The company recently raised its dividend by 250% and projected strong confidence in its latest earnings call.

I believe GE Aerospace is the crown jewel in this breakup, and it is on my watchlist to buy on any 5-10% pullback.

GE Vernova now stands alone as one of the largest energy and power source companies. In fact, approximately 30% of the world’s electricity is generated using GE Vernova’s turbines, across more than 100 countries. The company has three primary segments: gas power, renewable wind power, and electrical grid solutions -- all united under one mission to “electrify and decarbonize the planet.”

The current GE Vernova investment thesis is centered around the company’s leading position in energy and power generation infrastructure where it stands to benefit from the global movement towards decarbonization and renewable energy. It has been projected that worldwide electricity capacity will need to increase by 100% in the coming years to meet both consumer demand and the needs of countries that have taken net zero carbon emission commitments.

This should put GE Vernova in a strong position to enhance its growth and cement its position as the leader in worldwide energy and power generation.

While the fundamental outlook for GE Vernova is good, the company has yet to turn a profit and will face headwinds in a complex and changing industry. So, if you own it, hang onto it. If not, I’d pass for now.

I’ve made a lot of money in my career by buying spinoffs. I believe all three spinoffs have the potential to generate solid gains over the long term.

Jim Burns is a chartered financial analyst and president of J.W. Burns & Co. The opinions expressed here are his and do not necessarily reflect those of The Post-Standard. Readers should do research before deciding on an investment. Contact him at [email protected]

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A Birder’s Guide to Boston University

American goldfinch. Video via iStock/pascalmarchand

Believe it or not, more than 100 bird species visit BU’s urban campuses—whether you’re a beginning bird-watcher or an expert in ornithology, there’s lots to see

Marc chalufour.

Concrete. Asphalt. Brick. The city is not a natural habitat for wildlife, yet birds of all shapes, sizes, and colors can be found in Boston. In fact, more than 100 bird species visit Boston University’s campuses throughout the year. They’re “the last of the truly wild species around us. The last of the great migrations,” says Andrew King, a professor at the Questrom School of Business and an avid birder. And, he says, “urban areas can sometimes be better than rural ones.” If you look closely, BU’s campuses—Charles River, Fenway, and Medical—are home to an incredible array of birds. 

In recent years, peregrine falcons have nested on dorms , red-tailed hawks got cozy atop the School of Law , and wild turkeys have roamed the streets . The waterways that form natural boundaries for the Charles River and Fenway Campuses provide an ideal habitat for waterfowl and migratory songbirds. 

[Birds are] the last of the truly wild species around us. The last of the great migrations. Andrew King

Birding as a hobby has exploded in popularity in recent years—a trend widely attributed to pandemic-forced social distancing and more people working from home. People took notice of the rhythms of the environment around their homes and sought the safety of natural outdoor spaces. Audubon , the National Audubon Society’s magazine, reported that sales of birdseed skyrocketed in the first half of 2020. The Global Big Day , an international birding event held each May, has set participation records four years in a row. BU students, staff, faculty, and alumni have found their own ways to appreciate the wilderness around them.

• Stan Sclaroff, dean of Arts & Sciences, began taking daily walks on the Charles River Esplanade during the pandemic. He often invites colleagues to join him. The birds, he says, “are truly a source of wonderment and help us to pause, focus, and marvel at the natural world that’s right here, near campus.” He recalls watching immature bald eagles and hawks feeding on the river.
• Samantha Casey (CAS’21, SSW’25) finds beauty in one of BU’s most visible species, the common pigeon, and manages a pigeon appreciation Instagram account . 
• Randy Ellis, a professor of economics at the College of Arts & Sciences, created a winter bird bingo card as a pandemic diversion for family and faculty friends.
• Fred Wasserman, an associate professor of biology at CAS, challenged his ornithology students to identify 10 bird species on campus by sound, using the Merlin Bird ID app.
• Chuck Hagner (CAS’82, COM’82), the former editor of BirdWatching magazine and director of the nonprofit Bird City Wisconsin , teaches birding classes in the Milwaukee area. 
• School of Public Health colleagues Anita DeStefano, a professor of biostatistics, and Amparo Ortiz, assistant director of academic partnership, led Celebrate Urban Birds, a summer program for children at Boston’s Blackstone Community Center, for four years. 

Those are just a few of the creative ways the BU community appreciates Boston’s birds. Since 2000, birders on the eBird app have reported 145 bird species on BU campuses, from the common (Canada geese and pigeons) to the rare (Wilson’s warbler and yellow-billed cuckoo), reflecting remarkable biodiversity across the University.

BU Today asked avid BU birders to share tips on when, where, and how to start birding on campus.

• Charles River Campus

The northern edge of BU’s largest campus is defined by its namesake river, which flows past dorms, fields, schools, and the BU Beach. Explore the Esplanade along the Charles River and watch for Canada geese, double-crested cormorants, red-breasted mergansers, and mallards—after all, this is where the stars of Make Way for Ducklings first settled. Herring gulls wander upriver from Boston Harbor and red-tailed hawks often soar overhead. Inland, the most visible wildlife might be pigeons cooing from Comm Ave rooftops, but look a little closer and you may notice some surprising visitors. Find a green space and watch for movement or flashes of color in the trees and bushes. James Johnson, a professor and chair of history at CAS, reports seeing a tree near Kenmore Square filled with cedar waxwings one winter and an irruption of robins on Bay State Road one spring. 

Red-Tailed Hawk

Cedar Waxwing

American Goldfinch

Also look for:.

Common: Canada goose, house sparrow, song sparrow, herring gull, American robin, blue jay, double-crested cormorant, common pigeon, common starling 

Uncommon: red-breasted merganser, northern mockingbird, peregrine falcon, tufted titmouse, common grackle, mute swan, great blue heron, black-capped chickadee, common turkey, house finch, northern cardinal

Rare: American bald eagle, Cooper’s hawk, red-throated diver, hermit thrush, eastern kingbird, red-winged blackbird, American black duck, osprey, dark-eyed junco, warbling vireo, catbird, white-breasted nuthatch, golden crowned kinglet

This data was obtained from the eBird Observational Dataset on GBIF.org and represents a partial list of the 78 species reported from 2000–2023. 

Fenway Campus

Boston’s Riverway , a narrow 34-acre park that follows the Muddy River as it flows from Dorchester to Back Bay, is one of the city’s premier birding locations, and BU’s Fenway Campus borders one of its northernmost stretches. Waterfowl—including mallards, American black ducks, and delightfully colored wood ducks—feed in the water. Watch for great blue herons and black-crowned night herons lurking in the shallows and listen for the drumming of downy, hairy, and red-bellied woodpeckers in the trees. The beginning of May, early in the morning, is perhaps the best time to visit the area because of the migratory birds passing through. Your patience could be rewarded with the sighting of a bright orange Baltimore oriole, the song of a warbling vireo, or any of dozens of tiny, colorful species stopping for a rest on their way north.

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

White-Throated Sparrow

Black-Crowned Night Heron (L) & Great Blue Heron

Also look for.

Common: mallard, black-capped chickadee, common grackle, northern cardinal, red-winged blackbird, tufted titmouse, downy woodpecker, mourning dove, American black duck, hooded merganser, white-breasted nuthatch, American goldfinch, ring-necked duck

Uncommon: catbird, common teal, Baltimore oriole, warbling vireo, northern flicker, northern shoveler, northern parula, northern pintail, yellow-rumped warbler, American crow, American redstart, cedar waxwing

Rare: yellow warbler, black-and-white warbler, Cooper’s hawk, black-throated blue warbler, common yellowthroat, blackpoll warbler, belted kingfisher, northern waterthrush, magnolia warbler, red-eyed vireo, ruby-crowned kinglet

This data was obtained from the eBird Observational Dataset on GBIF.org and represents a partial list of the 136 species reported from 2000–2023. 

Medical Campus

Though landlocked and bordered by the busy Melnea Cass Boulevard and Interstate 93, BU’s Medical Campus still attracts a surprising variety of feathered friends. Raptors and seabirds fly overhead and smaller birds stop to eat and rest on the campus’ green spaces. “I’m always birding as I walk around,” says SPH’s DeStefano. She’s seen a fox sparrow and an ovenbird on those walks, and once spotted peregrine falcons nesting on BU’s Solomon Carter Fuller building. DeStefano recommends the campus’ Talbot Green, Franklin Square, and Blackstone Square for birding. 

Peregrine Falcon

Fox Sparrow

House Finch

Herring Gull

Common: common pigeon, common starling, house sparrow, American robin, American crow

Uncommon: northern mockingbird, American goldfinch, common raven, great black-backed gull, eastern towhee, mourning dove, song sparrow

Rare: hermit thrush, gray catbird, northern cardinal, chipping sparrow, brown-headed cowbird, black-throated blue warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, rose-breasted grosbeak

This data was obtained from the eBird Observational Dataset on GBIF.org and represents a partial list of the 32 species reported from 2000–2023. 

Off Campus 

A short walk or T ride from BU’s campuses opens up all new birding opportunities. Here are some favorites recommended by members of the BU community. 

Hall’s Pond and Amory Woods

This five-acre pond and forest parcel is located just off Beacon Street, about halfway between BU’s Charles River and Fenway Campuses. Watch for great blue herons and black-crowned night herons along the edges of the pond and smaller birds in nearby trees. Emma Parker (CAS’25) recalls spotting a black-and-white warbler here last spring. 

Chestnut Hill Reservoir

This reservoir, easily accessed on the B and C Branches of the Green Line, is a popular stopover for migrating waterfowl. Pack binoculars and enjoy the clear sight lines across the water from the 1.5-mile loop path. Watch for geese, cormorants, loons, and a range of ducks. Venture into the woods along the reservoir’s northern shore to look for songbirds.

Mount Auburn Cemetery

Thousands of trees and shrubs fill this 175-acre cemetery, making it a common resting spot for migratory birds—including the brilliant scarlet tanager and Baltimore oriole—and a popular destination for birders. Questrom’s King has a piece of advice for navigating the maze of winding roads: follow the other birders. “If they are clustered around a tree and pointing, there is something unusual there,” he says. You can reach the cemetery via the MBTA’s 71 and 73 buses. 

Arnold Arboretum

With 271 acres and more than 2,000 different plant species, Arnold Arboretum is another popular spot for birds. Bring a printout of the meticulous checklist of 188 species identified here in the past century and visit the Hunnewell Visitor Center to see a list of recent sightings. Take the Orange Line to Forest Hills or the 35, 38, 39, or 51 MBTA bus to visit the arboretum.

Boston Harbor Islands

Getting out to the islands requires some work—you’ll need to purchase a ferry ticket —but it’s a great way to see something new. Seabirds, rarely seen inland, frequent the islands, including plovers, sandpipers, cormorants, and gulls.

Black & White Warbler

Baltimore Oriole

Double-Crested Cormorant

Marc Chalufour is a senior editor/writer responsible for print and digital magazines for the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Communication. Prior to joining BU in 2018, he spent a decade editing AMC Outdoors, the Appalachian Mountain Club’s magazine, where his feature writing received multiple awards from Association Media & Publishing. Profile

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 6 comments on A Birder’s Guide to Boston University

Thank you for writing this interesting and important article about birds. Bird life on campus is a sign of better ecology practices as well. And it would be good for BU to continue enhancing opportunities for wildlife on campus. Practices that encourage safe nesting and diversity of plants and trees could be improved at BU.

I absolutely love this article! Hope to see some birds around campus soon!

More of this! Put Marc on the “bird beat”!

Fascinating! Thank you for such a great article.

Great to see this!! I am a life long birder and naturalist. There are indeed sometimes what I like to call “visitors from wilder places” here on campus, especially during the Spring and Fall Migration, which we are in the peak of right now. A short walk down by the Charles on the walkway at this time of year might turn up some really interesting birds, like warblers that are stopping here briefly on their way north to much wilder breeding locations in the boreal forest.

One unfortunate artifact of city habitat for birds, especially during the migrations, is the negative impact of light pollution on their ability to navigate. On rare occasions, I find migratory species of birds that have become disoriented by the lights at the base of buildings here on campus. The following link is a good entry into the science and conservation action on this issue being done by Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology and affiliated groups, like the Colorado State University AeroEcology group in the link provided below.

https://aeroecolab.com/lightpollution

Terrific article! Another great spot just across the river from the Charles River campus is Magazine Beach Park along Memorial Drive. Mass Audubon hosts free bird walks there, too. In addition to the birds in the park, you often get a great view of the Peregrine Falcons that nest on top of StuVi II!

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Did South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem break the law by shooting her dog? What legal experts say

Republican south dakota gov. kristi noem’s story about killing her dog cricket ignited a heated debate. did she break the law.

It may be the most controversial dog death since “Old Yeller” — the faithful stray dog turned rabid — that had to be put down in the 1957 Disney  classic film .

Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s story about killing her dog Cricket ignited a heated debate among people of all political persuasions April 26 when The Guardian, a British news outlet,  published an article  excerpting Noem’s upcoming book, “No Going Back,” scheduled for release May 7.

Noem,  widely considered  a contender to be former President Donald Trump’s running mate, described fatally shooting the 14-month-old wirehaired pointer and failed hunting dog, which she later said happened 20 years ago. She wrote that the dog had an “aggressive personality.”

She isn’t the first political candidate to draw heat over treatment of a dog. Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and current Utah senator, similarly felt dog lovers’ wrath during his 2012 presidential run over a story about him  strapping his dog, Seamus , in a dog carrier to the roof of a car for a family road trip.

Although Noem’s story drew widespread backlash, experts told PolitiFact she likely would have faced no charges under South Dakota law, either now or when she said the shooting took place.

Noem described a pheasant hunt with Cricket gone astray and an incident on the way home that sealed the pup’s fate. Noem wrote that she had stopped to speak with a family. The dog escaped from her truck and killed several of the family’s chickens, acting like a “trained assassin,” she wrote, according to the Guardian’s account.

Noem wrote that the female dog tried to bite when Noem grabbed her. She also wrote that she “hated that dog,” which she said was “untrainable” and “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with.” It was then that Noem decided she “had to put her down.” She took the dog to a gravel pit and shot her.

Noem also wrote that she then decided to shoot a “nasty and mean” male goat the same day at the same gravel pit.

Noem’s story drew fury from both liberals and conservatives. “My blood is boiling,”  wrote Catturd , a popular conservative X account. “The View” host Whoopi Goldberg and her colleagues  found common ground  on an April 29 episode. If you can’t train the dog, “give it back,” Goldberg said, adding an expletive.

Noem answered her critics in an  April 26 X post , sharing the Guardian article and writing, “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.”

Noem posted again  April 28 on X,   calling it a 20-year-old story and writing, “South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down. Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did.”

We contacted Noem for comment but received no reply.

I can understand why some people are upset about a 20 year old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book — No Going Back. The book is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons… — Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) April 28, 2024

South Dakota attorney general and governor’s office weigh in

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said in a statement to PolitiFact that his office has received numerous questions about Noem’s story, but the state’s seven-year statute of limitations has lapsed. He did not answer specific questions about how the law would have applied at the time of the shooting.

“There have been requests for the attorney general’s office to look further into the matter. In South Dakota, there is a seven-year statute of limitations on cases of this nature,” Jackley said, referring to  South Dakota Codified Law 23A-42-2 . “Accordingly, the attorney general’s office has no jurisdiction on an incident that occurred a reported 20 years ago and well beyond the seven-year statute of limitations.”

Ian Fury, Noem’s communications chief, was quoted in an  April 29 Guardian article  and referred to two statutes from South Dakota state law  40-34  that cover dog licenses and regulations:

• 40-34-1  says, “It shall be lawful for any person to kill any dog found chasing, worrying, injuring, or killing poultry or domestic animals except on the premises of the owners of said dog or dogs.” The statute doesn’t specify how a dog can be killed.
• 40-34-2  says any person owning such a dog is guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor. However, Leighann Lassiter, the Humane Society of the United States’ policy director for animal cruelty, told us charges would be filed only if the chickens’ owner filed a complaint with law enforcement.

What experts say about those laws

David Favre, a Michigan State University law professor and editor of the  Animal Legal and Historical Web Center , said that 40-34-1 is a law from the 1930s and similar laws are found in many states. They are meant to let farmers protect animals of economic value.

He doesn’t think that particular statute applies in Noem’s case. But he added that he doesn’t believe the killing of a person’s own dog by gunshot is illegal in South Dakota.

Regarding 40-34-1, “in South Dakota, a person would be allowed to kill a dog that comes onto their land and chases their cat,” Favre said. “It is not meant to deal with a person killing their own dog, but I guess an argument might be made if the dog was in the act of doing a bad thing.”

Justin Marceau, a University of Denver law professor and director of the school’s Animal Law Program and Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, also doesn’t think statute 40-34-1, which  the governor’s office cited, authorized Noem to kill the dog.

The law “seems to allow for an animal to be killed if the animal is actively ‘chasing’ or killing an animal considered livestock,” Marceau said, describing Cricket’s chicken assault a “past act” at the time the dog was killed.

“The laws of South Dakota also permit, as do most states, the euthanizing of dangerous animals in certain circumstances,” Marceau said. “But Gov. Noem has failed to note that determinations about whether to euthanize an animal are, by statute, assigned to peace officers and humane officers, not pet owners who determine that it would take extra work or money to properly train a young puppy.”

Conley Wouters, a University of Illinois Chicago assistant law professor who practices animal law, took a different stance. He said he believes 40-34-1 “does seem to permit killing a dog who has injured or killed” another person’s livestock or poultry.” Because the law was enacted in 1939, it was on the books when Noem killed Cricket, he added.

Wouters said such laws are common in Western states and states with a lot of farming and ranching; he cited laws in  Idaho  and  Ohio  that allow dogs to be killed for attacking livestock or people. The laws reflect the long-standing tension between farmers and dog owners, he said.

The laws “tend to favor livestock owners, with some of the laws setting a relatively low bar for when people are permitted to kill a dog.”

“Based on my understanding of the law, (what Noem did) was legal then and it would be legal today in South Dakota, and in many other states,” Wouters said.

Experts say separate animal cruelty laws likely didn’t apply

Anticruelty provisions govern the humane treatment of animals, and experts told us Noem likely didn’t violate those laws, either.

Favre said no section of the  state’s animal cruelty laws  makes the killing by an owner illegal unless pain and suffering is involved.

Under state law, it’s not clear that shooting your own dog would be considered cruel, Favre said. “Assuming the shot produced near instant death or unconsciousness, then the act would not be cruel,” he said.

Lassiter, from the Humane Society of the United States, agreed that South Dakota’s law exempts the humane killing of an animal from its cruelty statute. A shooting that causes instant or near instant death could be considered exempt, at the discretion of local law enforcement, she said.

Many states allow an animal to be killed as long as there is no prolonged suffering and it doesn’t meet the state’s definition of torture, Lassiter said.

James Oppenheimer, the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society’s executive director, said two sections of South Dakota’s animal cruelty laws let people humanely kill animals.

Code  40-1-17 (2)  “permits the humane killing of an animal and exempts people from criminal code,” Oppenheimer said. And  40-1-1 (6)  defines humane killing as “to cause the death of an animal in a manner to limit the pain or suffering of the animal as much as reasonably possible under the circumstances.”

Shooting an animal isn’t explicitly stated in the codes, Oppenheimer said. What Noem did is fairly common in South Dakota, although most people don’t publicize it, he said.

“In a rural setting, farmers and ranchers do euthanize their own animals. That being said, we do wish she had looked at other options,” Oppenheimer said.

Behavior not uncommon for hunting dog

Oppenheimer said Cricket, at 14 months, was very young for a hunting dog and that hunting dogs “exposed to chickens will generally attack the chickens. That is a dog being a dog. If you reach in to get the dog out of there, you might get bitten.”

“Our overall take is that killing an animal with a single gunshot to the head is not illegal in South Dakota. However, this form of euthanasia is designed for large animals that get injured in the field so are difficult to transport,” Oppenheimer said.

Wouters said he empathizes with the outrage about Noem’s admission, but said in the U.S., animals are “legally speaking, personal property.”

“Most of us view our dog or cat as a family member, so it can be easy to forget that by and large, the law does not,” Wouters said. “It sees them as simple property. So, just like you would be free to dispose of your toaster if you weren’t happy with it for some reason, you are often going to be free to destroy your dog.”

Notwithstanding anticruelty provisions, he said, “the dog has the same legal status as the toaster.”

This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact , which is part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this fact check here .

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