CONFUSED BETWEEN ‘THESIS STATEMENT’ AND ‘RESEARCH QUESTION’???

We all are quite familiar with the word ‘thesis statement’ in our class lectures. Our lecturer always asks for clear thesis statement as because it contains the central idea of our topic. In case of essay or report, thesis statement states about the central idea of the topic. Apart from the definition, have you ever asked yourself why are we looking for a relevant thesis statement in our introductory paragraph??!!  Answer may be ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ but as per my opinion, thesis statement is the key parameter to understand and judge the relevance of the subject.

How???

Whenever you are going to write your thesis statement, a rational notion always projected through your writing. Just go back to your paper and look carefully!! your last paragraph of essay or report is bit argumentative. Is not it??? It means you need to inform your readers about the significance of your subject. The main debate of your subject projects in your thesis statement. That's why our lecturer or professor always ask us to write down it at the end of the introductory paragraph that readers can get understand about its central idea and critical point of analysis.

Don’t get confused between thesis statement and research question? Let me explain you these both clearly. Look, thesis statement is your opinion; your analysis, explanation while a research question is always open-ended. It seeks for investigation, market research. Whenever you are going to form your thesis statement, you have investigated its past; your analysis was made on your existing literature. On the other side, research question is formed based on the issue for which you need to investigate or conduct your research.

For example, ‘Decreasing Index of Consumer Sentiment (ICS) after Global Crisis period’ is the current market issue. If you have asked to prepare thesis statement on this topic, your analysis will be argumentative. Your argument will support by various scholarly articles, your investigations, debates and always your personal outlook. On the other hand, your research question will form to understand the reason between decreasing ICS and global crisis period. Research question will always develop to answer the question ‘WHY’. In simple, research question is previous method to investigate the issue while thesis statement is the result to support your argument.

Below we are providing some guidelines that you should follow while writing your thesis statement-

·         Don’t write down your statement in beginning of introduction

·         Avoid long sentences and conjunctions

·         Be specific and clear

·         Avoid academic fillers in your thesis statement i.e. ‘in my point of view’, ‘as per analysing the entire essay’...

·         Make your statement a bit argumentative

·         Project your personal opinion through your statement

Keep in mind, a well-written thesis statement is the replica of your critical reflection, analytical viewpoint, intelligence to the readers. So make your thesis statement insightful to create distinctive impression on your readers.