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ProWritingAid’s Thesis Checker FAQs

1. how do i use the online thesis checker.

Sign up for free, upload your thesis, and run any of ProWritingAid’s 25+ reports. You’ll see a number of suggestions that you can either accept or reject.

2. Does the essay checker work with British English and American English?

The thesis checker works with British English, American English, Australian English, and Canadian English. Just choose the one you’d like to use, and ProWritingAid will tailor its suggestions to match.

3. Is using a thesis checker cheating?

Not at all. The thesis checker won’t ever write the thesis for you. It will only point out possible edits and advise you on changes you need to make. You have full autonomy and can decide which changes to accept.

4. Is there a student discount?

Students who have an eligible student email address can get 20% off ProWritingAid Premium. Email [email protected] from your student email address to access your discount.

5. Can ProWritingAid check my thesis for free?

Absolutely. ProWritingAid offers a free membership to everyone, always, and you can edit up to 500 words at a time. If you need to edit more work, you can upgrade to Premium at any time.

6. Does ProWritingAid have a plagiarism checker?

Yes! ProWritingAid’s plagiarism checker will check your work against over a billion web-pages, published works, and academic papers, so you can be sure of its originality. Find out more about pricing for plagiarism checks here .

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Trinka's advanced thesis grammar checker will remove grammatical and spelling from your thesis or dissertation documents and improve its overall language quality and presentation.

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Developing Strong Thesis Statements

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The thesis statement or main claim must be debatable

An argumentative or persuasive piece of writing must begin with a debatable thesis or claim. In other words, the thesis must be something that people could reasonably have differing opinions on. If your thesis is something that is generally agreed upon or accepted as fact then there is no reason to try to persuade people.

Example of a non-debatable thesis statement:

This thesis statement is not debatable. First, the word pollution implies that something is bad or negative in some way. Furthermore, all studies agree that pollution is a problem; they simply disagree on the impact it will have or the scope of the problem. No one could reasonably argue that pollution is unambiguously good.

Example of a debatable thesis statement:

This is an example of a debatable thesis because reasonable people could disagree with it. Some people might think that this is how we should spend the nation's money. Others might feel that we should be spending more money on education. Still others could argue that corporations, not the government, should be paying to limit pollution.

Another example of a debatable thesis statement:

In this example there is also room for disagreement between rational individuals. Some citizens might think focusing on recycling programs rather than private automobiles is the most effective strategy.

The thesis needs to be narrow

Although the scope of your paper might seem overwhelming at the start, generally the narrower the thesis the more effective your argument will be. Your thesis or claim must be supported by evidence. The broader your claim is, the more evidence you will need to convince readers that your position is right.

Example of a thesis that is too broad:

There are several reasons this statement is too broad to argue. First, what is included in the category "drugs"? Is the author talking about illegal drug use, recreational drug use (which might include alcohol and cigarettes), or all uses of medication in general? Second, in what ways are drugs detrimental? Is drug use causing deaths (and is the author equating deaths from overdoses and deaths from drug related violence)? Is drug use changing the moral climate or causing the economy to decline? Finally, what does the author mean by "society"? Is the author referring only to America or to the global population? Does the author make any distinction between the effects on children and adults? There are just too many questions that the claim leaves open. The author could not cover all of the topics listed above, yet the generality of the claim leaves all of these possibilities open to debate.

Example of a narrow or focused thesis:

In this example the topic of drugs has been narrowed down to illegal drugs and the detriment has been narrowed down to gang violence. This is a much more manageable topic.

We could narrow each debatable thesis from the previous examples in the following way:

Narrowed debatable thesis 1:

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just the amount of money used but also how the money could actually help to control pollution.

Narrowed debatable thesis 2:

This thesis narrows the scope of the argument by specifying not just what the focus of a national anti-pollution campaign should be but also why this is the appropriate focus.

Qualifiers such as " typically ," " generally ," " usually ," or " on average " also help to limit the scope of your claim by allowing for the almost inevitable exception to the rule.

Types of claims

Claims typically fall into one of four categories. Thinking about how you want to approach your topic, or, in other words, what type of claim you want to make, is one way to focus your thesis on one particular aspect of your broader topic.

Claims of fact or definition: These claims argue about what the definition of something is or whether something is a settled fact. Example:

Claims of cause and effect: These claims argue that one person, thing, or event caused another thing or event to occur. Example:

Claims about value: These are claims made of what something is worth, whether we value it or not, how we would rate or categorize something. Example:

Claims about solutions or policies: These are claims that argue for or against a certain solution or policy approach to a problem. Example:

Which type of claim is right for your argument? Which type of thesis or claim you use for your argument will depend on your position and knowledge of the topic, your audience, and the context of your paper. You might want to think about where you imagine your audience to be on this topic and pinpoint where you think the biggest difference in viewpoints might be. Even if you start with one type of claim you probably will be using several within the paper. Regardless of the type of claim you choose to utilize it is key to identify the controversy or debate you are addressing and to define your position early on in the paper.

AP ® Lang teachers: looking to help your students improve their rhetorical analysis essays?

Coach Hall Writes

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How to Write a Rhetorical Analysis Thesis

November 20, 2021 by Beth Hall

One of the first steps of writing a rhetorical analysis essay is knowing how to write a rhetorical analysis thesis.

Rhetorical analysis thesis statements can seem intimidating, but they do not have to be.

While the thesis is a small portion of an essay, it carries significant weight and impact, especially on the AP® Lang exam. For example, on AP® Lang rubric, a defensible thesis is one out of six possible points.

So, what is a defensible thesis and how do you write one for a rhetorical analysis essay?

A defensible thesis means that the thesis or position can be justified, proven, or defended.

You can craft a rhetorical analysis thesis statement with the following steps:

Step 1: As you are reading the passage, look for strategies or choices the author utilizes. Ask: What rhetorical choices does the writer/speaker make? (ie. juxtaposition, allusion, etc) This will be the basis of your thesis statement.

Step 2: Mention the author’s purpose in the thesis. Ask: Why did he/she make these choices? Why did he/she write this?

Step 3: Consider the effect on the audience. This step is not mandatory or always appropriate, but it can strengthen the thesis. The effect is looking at the author’s call to action. Ask: How does he/she want the audience to think/act?

Now that you understand the basis of a thesis statement, let’s talk about where this thesis goes in the essay.

The thesis is best placed in the introductory paragraph. By placing it in the introduction, it gives you a direction for your writing (and often where readers go looking for the thesis). The introduction contains the hook, context, and thesis statement. Often, the context and the thesis are combined together (look at the example below). The context identifies the specific passage you are talking about in your essay.

You can write only a thesis statement for an introductory paragraph if you are short on time, but it is better to have a well-developed introduction. If you want to know more about writing an introduction, you can watch the video here.

Let’s put this information together and look at an example of a thesis statement.

In Leonid Fridman’s passionate article “America Needs its Nerds,” ← context

he defines “geek” and contrasts America with other industrialized nations to develop his argument that America values athletes more than intellectuals. ← thesis

By doing so, Fridman urges readers to reprioritize the current social hierarchy. ← Effect

If you are feeling unsure about thesis statements or need a place to start, sentence frames are a great way to begin a thesis statement. Below are several sentence frames and examples to help you navigate thesis statements.

In SPEAKER/WRITER’S (tone) speech/letter/article (to AUDIENCE), he/she uses ___ and ____ to PURPOSE.

Note: The blanks in this sentence frame should be choices or strategies (nouns). For example, “he uses repetition and juxtaposition to…” Saying “uses” and then a device is rather simple. However, this sentence frame can lead to a defensible thesis. Once you understand this style of thesis writing, you can try more advanced styles.

In SPEAKER/WRITER’S (tone) speech/letter/article (to AUDIENCE), he/she ____ and ____ to PURPOSE.

Example: In his patriotic speech to Congress, President Roosevelt repeats “attacked” and “deliberate” as well as appeals to patriotism in order to convince Congress to declare war on Japan.

Example: In his patriotic speech to Congress, President Roosevelt repeatedly emphasizes the deliberate nature of the attack on Pearl Harbor and appeals to patriotism in order to convince Congress to declare war on Japan.

When you are ready to begin writing thesis statements on your own, remember to keep the following items in mind:

• A thesis identifies the strategies / choices AND purpose. Without both of these, it is not a defensible thesis.
• A thesis does not restate the prompt. Use the prompt as a guide, not as a thesis.
• A thesis answers the prompt. This may seem obvious, but it can be easy to get caught up in writing and lose track of your goal

Looking for more tips about how to write a rhetorical analysis essay, check out this post here.

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Suites argumentative essays

e.g. Keto diet might be beneficial for one’s health

e.g. it encourages weight loss

e.g. Some scholars argue that it can cause nutrient deficiencies

e.g. it encourages weight losss

e.g. Keto diet

e.g. Mediterranean diet

e.g. are low-carb diets

e.g. Keto diet is higher in fat

e.g. Mediterranean diet is not that fatty

Result for argumentative thesis statement

If you need to create a thesis statement from scratch or to check an existing one, consider using our free thesis-generating tool. It will test if your thesis is strong. All you need to do is:

🎓 Thesis Statement Checker: Why Using It?

🏋 formulating a strong thesis, ✅ how do i check my thesis statement, 🔗 references.

A thesis statement is only one sentence in your paper, but its significance can hardly be overestimated. Your thesis outlines the whole text’s essence and communicates your main idea in a reader-friendly manner. Use our free thesis statement generator to nail this task and avoid wasting the essential homework time.

What Is the Purpose of a Thesis Statement?

It is an important part of your college essay or research paper structure, informing the readers about your subject matter and your position on it.

The thesis statement also tells them:

• What will be next in your paper,
• What you will argue,
• What stand you will defend.

What Makes a Good Thesis Statement?

A good thesis statement should:

• Be correctly positioned in the text (coming at the end of your introduction),
• Clearly communicate your central idea,
• Contain the main arguments you will use to prove that central idea.

How to Check if Your Thesis Is Good?

A thesis checker for your statement’s quality should inquire:

• Whether a thesis answers your central research question,
• Whether it communicates your stand on the subject matter,
• Whether it passes the 'so what' test,
• Whether it is fully relevant to the essay content.

How to Make the ‘So What’ Test for a Thesis?

Once you’ve produced a thesis statement, imagine that your readers ask, “ so what? ” This concern relates to your topic's significance and broader implications, so make sure to cover those issues in the text.

A thesis statement is an essential part of your paper, whether an essay or a dissertation, so you need to work hard to make it strong. You can formulate a solid thesis statement by focusing on the following functions it should perform:

• Communicate the main idea you’re planning to examine in the assignment.
• Set the stage for further discussion by familiarizing the readers with your subject matter.
• Include the central research question of your interest asked in the form of an assumption that you'll prove in the body of your paper.
• Make a disputable claim that you will prove with evidence.
• Give readers a roadmap about your main arguments and the focus of your text.

Check your thesis statement for all these components to see whether it will perform its function efficiently. Many readers decide whether to continue with your text or not after studying the thesis statement. So, don’t take the risks of losing your target audience – dedicate enough time to hone the thesis statement to perfection.

Informative Thesis Statement

An informative essay is written to deliver information about a specific person, place, or phenomenon. It doesn't argue any claim and doesn't mean to convince people of anything.

Therefore, the process of informative thesis statement development follows a simple formula:

• The main idea of your essay
• The main argument you have about that subject matter

Let’s consider a simple example to illustrate how this formula works. For instance, you’ve been assigned to write an essay about the economic impact of COVID-19 . Then your thesis statement may include the following idea and argument:

• The COVID-19 pandemic had a disastrous effect on the global economy
• Business bankruptcy, job losses

Using these components, you can formulate a thesis statement as follows:

The impact of COVID-19 on the global economy was disastrous, causing millions of businesses to close because of lockdown and leaving millions of people without jobs.

Compare & Contrast Thesis Statement

The essence of a compare and contrast essay is to compare two or more things and find their differences or similarities. You can write a thesis statement easily if you single out the following components:

• Comparison or contrast
• Similarity/difference 1
• Similarity/difference 2

Following this template, you may write a thesis statement about two things. For example, if you need to compare freelance and full-time work, you can make a thesis statement as follows:

• Full-time work
• Are different
• Work-life balance
• Control over work schedule
• Flexibility

The resulting thesis would look as follows:

Freelance and full-time work are different in the degree of support for work-life balance, employee flexibility, and control over the work schedule.

Analytical Thesis Statement

When assigned an analytical essay, you need to present an in-depth analysis of a particular issue with supporting evidence. You make an argument or claim and then validate it with supporting facts from credible external sources to show why the readers should adopt your viewpoint.

The formula for constructing an analytic thesis is also simple:

• Your topic: Wealth tax
• Your main conclusion about the topic: Won’t improve people’s economic conditions
• Your argument in favor of that conclusion: It causes a greater gap between rich and poor states

The resulting thesis statement would look as follows:

The introduction of wealth tax in the USA won't improve people's economic conditions because it only broadens the gap between rich and poor states.

Argumentative Thesis Statement

Argumentative essays are written to argue a specific point , so they need to be structured to ensure a good persuasive effect. An argumentative thesis statement can strengthen your rhetoric effect and solidify the arguments if it's properly written. So, how to write a powerful thesis for this essay type? Again, you can use the formula from our automatic thesis creator:

• Topic : death penalty
• Conclusion about the topic : should be abolished
• An argument supporting that conclusion : a large number of wrongful accusations
• An argument against that conclusion : adequate means for punishing cruel crimes

The resulting thesis statement will look like this:

Although the death penalty is a reasonable means of punishing cruel crimes, too many cases of wrongful accusations prove that it should be abolished globally.

Now let's consider a simple checklist that you can use to measure the quality of your formulated thesis statement. It's better to double-check everything in advance instead of risking your grades. You can either contact our pros and ask them, "check my thesis statement, please," or follow the step-by-step guide on your own.

Good luck with your writing assignments! Even if you get stuck in the middle of thesis statement work, don't fall into despair. Use our thesis statement checker to validate your direction and apply the suggestions of our automatic algorithms to speed up your writing.

We hope that this thesis checker will be useful for you. Please try other free tools we offer: summarizer , essay rephraser , and paragraph reworder .

• Thesis Statements - UNC Writing Center
• Tips for Writing Your Thesis Statement - Purdue OWL
• Thesis Statement Examples
• Developing A Thesis | - Harvard College Writing Center
• How to Write a Thesis Statement | Grammarly Blog

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Read more about how the sample edit works

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If your document contains a summary in a different language, we will send this part to another editor who is a native speaker of that language. The editor will check your summary, applying our standard Proofreading & Editing service.

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Scribbr specializes in editing study-related documents . We proofread:

• PhD dissertations
• Research proposals
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• Admission essays
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Yes, when you accept all changes and delete all comments your document is ready to be handed in.

How to accept all changes:

• Word for Mac 2011

How to remove all comments:

When you’ve finished this, others will no longer be able to see the changes made by the editor.

• Read your last version one last time to make sure everything is the way you want it.
• Save your document as a .pdf file to come across more professional and to ensure the format of your document doesn’t change.

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If you don’t choose one, your editor will follow the style of English you currently use. If your editor has any questions about this, we will contact you.

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We try our best to ensure that the same editor checks all the different sections of your thesis. When you upload a new file, our system recognizes you as a returning customer, and we immediately contact the editor who helped you before.

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• You send us your text as soon as possible and
• You can be flexible about the deadline.

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The fastest turnaround time is 12 hours.

You can upload your document at any time and choose between four deadlines:

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Our customer support team is here to find the solution that helps you the most, whether that’s a free new edit or a refund for the service.

Every Scribbr order comes with our award-winning Proofreading & Editing service , which combines two important stages of the revision process.

For a more comprehensive edit, you can add a Structure Check or Clarity Check to your order. With these building blocks, you can customize the kind of feedback you receive.

You might be familiar with a different set of editing terms. To help you understand what you can expect at Scribbr, we created this table:

View an example

Scribbr not only specializes in proofreading and editing texts in English , but also in several other languages . This way, we help out students from all over the world.

As a global academic writing proofreading service, we work with professional editors  – all native speakers – who edit in the following languages :

This way, you can also have your academic writing proofread and edited in your second language!

Please note that we do not offer Finnish proofreading, but students can still upload English papers on scribbr.fi .

Yes, regardless of the deadline you choose, our editors can proofread your document during weekends and holidays.

Example: If you select the 12-hour service on Saturday, you will receive your edited document back within 12 hours on Sunday.

The footnotes are not automatically included in the word count.

If you want the language errors in your footnotes to be corrected by the editor, you can indicate this in step 3 of the upload process . The words in the footnotes are then automatically added to the total word count.

Need help with your references?

• If you use the APA reference style, you can use our free APA Citation Generator or the articles about APA in our Knowledge Base.
• If you’d like us to check your references for consistency, you can use our Citation Editing Service .

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After your thesis has been edited , you will receive an email with a link to download the edited document.

The editor has made changes to your document using ‘ Track Changes ’ in Word.  This means that you only have to accept or ignore the changes that are made in the text one by one.

It is also possible to accept all changes at once. However, we strongly advise you not to do so for the following reasons:

• You can learn much by looking at what mistakes you have made.
• The editors do not only change the text, they also place comments when sentences or sometimes even entire paragraphs are unclear. We therefore advise you to read through these comments and take into account your editor’s tips and suggestions.
• Because of the many changes, sometimes there may be double spaces, double periods, or other minor mistakes in a sentence. Checking the changes one by one, you can easily detect these minor errors.

We have written a manual in which we explain step by step how ‘Track Changes’ works.

Check out an example

Our editors are very experienced and will do their utmost to correct all errors in your thesis .

However, with our current rates, an editor can only check your thesis once. This may cause an editor to overlook an error. We can therefore not guarantee that your thesis is 100% error free after you have had your thesis edited.

The editor uses ‘Track Changes’ in Word when editing your thesis.

Don’t know how this works? Then read the following guide  in which we explain step by step how ‘Track Changes’ works.

No, we do not provide you with a clean copy. You will always receive a file edited with tracked changes .

We do this for two main reasons:

• In most papers, there are sentences that the editor cannot edit without additional information from the author. In these cases, your editor will provide guidance but leave you to implement the feedback. If we were to simply accept the changes for you, then these issues would be left unaddressed.
• We believe students should be accountable for their work. Our editors can correct language errors and coach you to be a better writer. However, the end product belongs to you and should reflect your ideas and decisions.

All Scribbr editors are language experts with interests in different subject areas.

You can indicate your field of study when you upload your document . We’ll make sure that the editor who proofreads your work is familiar with your discipline and its specialist vocabulary.

These are the fields of study you can choose from, and examples of the main subjects in each field:

• Business and Management: Business Administration, Hotel Management, Accountancy, Marketing
• Economics: Business Economics, Econometrics, Finance
• IT and Engineering: ICT, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Applied Mathematics, Civil Engineering, Industrial Design, Electrical Engineering
• Natural and Life Sciences: Biomedical Sciences, Biology, Chemistry
• Geography, Agriculture and Environment: Ecology, Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies, Urban Planning
• Health and Medical Sciences: Medicine, Obstetrics, Pharmacy, Nutrition, Dentistry
• Arts and Humanities: Philosophy, History, Literature, Cultural Studies, Theology
• Law and Policy: Law, Political Science, Public Policy, Human Rights
• Social and Behavioral Sciences: Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Communication Sciences

Editors don’t have to be experts in the content of your paper, but they do know how to present it in the best way possible! Our goal is to improve your writing and give you feedback on the readability, structure, logic, and clarity of your text. We know from experience that the most effective editors are specialists in language and academic writing.

We’ve carefully selected and trained all of our editors to proofread theses and other academic documents. Once they’re qualified, we continue to carefully monitor their work to make sure we always deliver the highest quality .

AI Thesis Statement Generator

A Better Way to Get Ideas for Your Thesis Statement

Find inspiration in these thesis statement examples, frequently asked questions, what is a thesis statement, how long should a thesis statement be, how should i start a thesis statement, where does a thesis statement go, academic writing resources, more ai writing assistance from grammarly, paraphrase with ease, zip through citations, ace every essay, improve your writing with ai.

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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.

Top-Level Thesis Checker

Strengthen your writing by combining the key ideas of the paper into a strong thesis statement. Just fll out the form below and get the result in a flash.

Result for thesis statement

Even though some studies show that school uniform’s adoption improves students’ performance, school uniform should not be adopted at schools because it limits students’ individuality, it is a burden for low-income families, and it restricts students’ physical activity.

Whereas some studies show that school uniform’s adoption improves students’ performance, school uniform should not be adopted at schools given that it limits students’ individuality, it is a burden for low-income families, and it restricts students’ physical activity.

How to Make a Good Thesis Statement?

Thousands of students and writers have already tried our thesis statement generator at least once. This is a great option to save time. However, if you want to create a topic sentence on your own, feel free to use this algorithm:

• Make an outline for your paper.
• Consider 2-3 points of the paper that will be presented in paragraph’s topic sentences.
• Carefully pick up a counterargument to add to the paper and thesis.
• Edit thesis to fit into one sentence. Remember: it should be clear and straightforward.

That’s all. Grab the result to insert it right into your writing.

What Is this Thesis Statement Finder for?

Compose a thesis statement for your paper easily using our thesis creator machine. We've combined AI algorithms aligned with the recommendations of the best academic experts and professors.

Argumentative Essay Thesis

Writing a thesis statement for an argumentative essay can be a tricky task. You need to define arguments that will support the paper’s idea. Our thesis creator will handle this task for you quickly.

Informative Essay

Need to write an informative speech or essay? Our claim sentence maker can provide a well-written statement that will benefit your assignment.

Analytical Thesis Statement

Analytical thesis statements differ from other types of claim sentences—you should determine your approach for topic analysis. Lots of thesis statement generators online fail this mission, but not ours. It will create a sophisticated yet powerful topic sentence.

Compare and Contrast Thesis Statement

If you don’t know how to make an argument for a compare/contrast essay, no worries—complete the form above and get the A+ thesis statement without effort. Just pick up the topic, subjects to compare, and complete the form.

How Does a Thesis Statement Finder Work?

Every essay should include a thesis statement. It can contain one or two sentences that clearly explain the topic and your arguments to readers. We know how to make the perfect claim sentence with almost no effort. All you need to do is enter the following information in the fields above:

• An essay topic
• Your main argument for the topic
• Additional supporting arguments for the topic
• The counterargument to the paper’s main idea

That’s all. Press the button and grab the result to insert it right into your writing.

What Is a Thesis?

Even if you use our free thesis statement generator, it's vital to understand a thesis and its role in the text. A thesis statement is a single sentence outlining your main idea and communicating your central message. In other words, this statement condenses the whole text's idea and covers your primary arguments in its favor.

Thesis Statement Functions

A good thesis statement should perform the following functions in a text:

• Lay out the author's interpretation of the topic
• Clarify the argumentation that will follow in the body
• Make a disputable claim with a clear scope
• Offer a well-articulated standpoint on a chosen topic

For example, if your assignment prompt asks you to examine the problem of child obesity in the USA, you need to conduct preliminary research and pick a debatable topic. You may focus on the magnitude of the problem; in this case, your arguments will be directed at proving that the problem is really serious. Otherwise, you can consider the causes of obesity – sedentary lifestyle, sugar-rich diet, absence of exercise, fat-rich nutrition, etc.

Thesis Checklist with Examples

Now, it's time to get down to practice. Do you wonder how to write a solid, persuasive thesis statement? The task gets much easier if you keep the following characteristics in mind.

It's important to organize a thesis statement by the evidence you lay out in the body of your paper.

Contentiousness

The thesis statement shouldn't be self-obvious. Instead, it should offer a debatable topic.

A stellar thesis statement should be brief and clear, without redundancy.

The claim you're making shouldn't be too broad, as the thesis statement should narrow the scope of your research interest.

Website changes are in-progress. Learn more ➜

Preparing for your phd thesis defence.

As you start thinking about the end stages of your PhD, it’s important to understand the processes and timelines related to the thesis defence so that your degree completion is not delayed. Even if your thesis defence seems far away, there are several planning considerations you can consider early on to help the end stages of your PhD go smoothly.

On this page you will find videos, tools, and information about what the PhD thesis defence is , timelines for the PhD thesis defence , and tips for a successful PhD thesis defence .

All PhD students should also ensure that they read the PhD thesis examination regulations and review the thesis preparation guidelines prior to their oral defence. If your thesis defence will be conducted remotely, you should also review the process for a remote thesis defence .

What is the PhD defence?

Understanding the purpose, processes and possible outcomes of the thesis defence can help you feel more prepared for the defence itself. In this video, you’ll learn about what the defence is, who’s there, what happens, and the deliberation and range of possible outcomes.

Transcript - Demystifying the thesis defence at University of Waterloo (PDF)

You may wish to learn more about some of the topics discussed in this video. Here are some helpful links to learn more:

Examination committee members (including the external examiner): Visit the PhD thesis examination regulations section on the  PhD thesis examining committee for more information about the committee members, including information about the external examiner and conflicts of interest.

• Closed thesis defences and non-disclosure agreements: Visit the PhD thesis examination regulations section on guidelines for thesis examination without public disclosure for more information about closed thesis examinations.
• Thesis defence decisions and outcomes: Visit the PhD thesis examination regulations section on  decisions for additional information about decisions and outcomes.
• Thesis submission: Visit the thesis submission webpage for information about the thesis submission process, including approvals that must be obtained before submitting your thesis.
• UWSpace: Visit the Library’s UWSpace webpage for information about what UWSpace is and how to submit, or deposit, your thesis to UWSpace.

Timeline to defence

Early planning considerations.

Well before your defence date, there are several considerations to think about that can help make the end stages of your degree go smoothly and ensure your defence date and degree completion are not delayed:

• Being aware of formatting requirements will save you time on revisions later on – the last thing you want to be doing before submitting your thesis to UWSpace is updating page numbers or your table of contents! Consider using the Microsoft Word or LaTeX thesis template produced by Information Systems & Technology. 
• The Dissertation Boost Camp can help you develop effective writing practices and strategies for completing your thesis, while the three-part Rock Your Thesis workshop series will provide practical guidance for planning, writing, revising, and submitting your thesis project. You can also book an individual appointment to do backwards planning with an advisor. They can help you utilize the planning tools most effectively, while providing hands-on guidance and feedback.  
• If you are using third-party content, including your own previously published work in your thesis, or seeking intellectual property protection (for yourself or another involved party), there may be implications for your thesis or defence. Learn more about copyright for your thesis , and email [email protected] for help with copyright questions related to your thesis.
• Depending on your departmental or discipline’s norms, you may require approval from your entire committee, or just your supervisor. Ensure you talk with your supervisor and/or committee early on to confirm processes and timelines, so you’re not surprised later.
• Depending on your departmental or discipline’s norms, your supervisor may select an external examiner themselves, or they may seek your input. Talk to your supervisor early on about this process, as in some faculties the external examiner may need to be vetted and approved as early as the term before you wish to defend. Remember that there are conflict of interest guidelines around the appointment of the external examiner , and the PhD candidate should not be in communication with the external examiner prior to the defence.
• A PhD thesis must be on display for a minimum of 4 weeks prior to the defence date. To accommodate, you may need to submit your thesis as early as 6-8 weeks prior to your defence. Review your faculty specific backwards planning tool for the thesis submission deadline in your faculty and learn more about the display period in the PhD thesis examination regulations.
• After your successful thesis defence, you will likely have some required revisions to your thesis. It’s important to understand revision timelines , especially if you’re hoping to become “degree complete” before a tuition refund or convocation deadline. Find tuition refund and convocation deadlines in the important dates calendar .
• Following your thesis defence, there are several steps to be taken before your final, approved thesis is accepted in UWSpace. Ensure that you’re aware of these thesis submission steps and timelines in advance.

Backwards planning tools

Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs, in collaboration with the Faculties, have prepared faculty specific backwards planning tools to help PhD candidates map out the timelines related to their thesis defence and degree completion.

Select your faculty below to download a PDF copy of the backwards planning tool. We encourage you to discuss your ideal timelines with your supervisor(s) and your department graduate program co-ordinator.

• Faculty of Health backwards planning tool (PDF)
• Faculty of Arts backwards planning tool (PDF)
• Faculty of Engineering backwards planning tool (PDF)
• Faculty of Environment backwards planning tool (PDF)
• Faculty of Mathematics backwards planning tool (PDF)
• Faculty of Science backwards planning tool (PDF)

Tips for success

The PhD thesis defence is the culmination of years of hard work! The tips outlined in this video, compiled from recent PhD graduates and experienced thesis defence chairs, cover tips for preparing for your defence, day-of logistics, and defending successfully.

Transcript - Your Thesis Defence: Tips for Success (PDF)

Will your PhD thesis defence be held remotely? We’ve compiled additional tips for success specifically related to the remote defence.

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Professional Thesis Tester For Students Online

As a student in college or any other institution of higher learning, thesis papers and dissertations form a major part of your curriculum. With that said, however, writing a thesis paper or a dissertation takes much more than identifying a problem, choosing a unique topic, collecting data, collating the data, and coming up with a conclusion. You need to clearly express your ideas and insights using good grammar, proper punctuation, and accurate spelling. Needless to say, your work needs to be 100% unique and free from any plagiarism.

Combined, all these writing components can overwhelm even the most English-proficient student, translating into lower grades. Luckily for you, our online thesis tester can help you deliver the perfect thesis paper or dissertation.

Unlike the manual proofreading process, our thesis checker free crawls through texts, automatically detects all writing-related mistakes, and offers the most-appropriate suggestion. What’s more, it features a comprehensive plagiarism checker for thesis, letting you catch accidental plagiarism before submitting your papers.

Common Mistakes When Writing Thesis Papers and Dissertations

As a student, there are many potential mistakes that you can make when writing your thesis paper or dissertation. Making these mistakes not only affects your academic career but could also lead to a much bigger problem of missing out on your graduation. Whilst the writing process is frustrating, learning about the potential pitfalls may ease some of your stress. 

In this section, we are going to look at the list of the most common mistakes that students make when composing their thesis papers and dissertations.

Choosing the wrong thesis/dissertation topic

One of the biggest mistakes that students make when writing their thesis papers and dissertations is choosing the wrong topic. Not only does this weaken the entire plot of the thesis but also addresses the wrong problem. When picking up a topic for your papers, ensure you follow the following points:

• Conduct proper background research.
• Conceptualize various concepts. If the concept of your paper doesn’t interest you, chances are you’ll find the writing process boring.
• Phrase your topic in the form of a research question.
• Experiment with different initial approaches to your topic and establish its impact on the different aspects of academics and society.

Writing a weak thesis/dissertation statement

On top of choosing a topic and developing the research question, you need to create a strong thesis statement for your paper. A poorly written thesis statement can turn off the readers, preventing them from going through the entire paper.

A strong thesis statement should be short, precise, bold, and straight to the point. The statement must be reliable and attractive. Here are some things to keep in mind when writing your thesis/dissertation statement;

• Understand, internalize, and analyze your topic.
• Your thesis/dissertation statement must give pointers for further discussion.
• Avoid grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors in your statement.
• Avoid writing anything that isn’t backed by concrete evidence or references.

Disconnect between thesis/dissertation statement and written information

Successful thesis papers and dissertations try hard to make a logical connection between the statement and the supporting information. Unfortunately, many students fail to make this connection due to poor research and limited brainstorming.

To fix this problem, you need to research more about supporting ideas or relevant information to support your main ideas. These supporting statements must come from relevant resources, be properly synchronized, and cite the sources from which they were sourced.

Academic integrity violation

Integrity is one of the fundamental pillars of academic writing, and violating it is not entertained when preparing a thesis paper or dissertation. Here are some instances of academic integrity violations;

• Violating university guidelines.
• Plagiarizing content i.e using content from other sources without referencing the source or giving credit to the author. More than often, plagiarism is accidental rather than intentional.
• False information. Making false statements or claims is not acceptable in academic writing.

Failing to proofread and edit

Editing and proofreading are critical components of thesis/dissertation writing. Silly spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes can compromise the quality of your paper and even lead to lower grades. While at it, you need to ensure that your papers are properly formatted and referenced.

Whilst it’s possible to hire an experienced editor to streamline your work, their services don’t come cheap. Still, you need to engage in the back and forth with the editor to ensure they’re making the necessary changes. 

Luckily for you, our free thesis checker can help make all the necessary grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence construction changes. And with the thesis plagiarism checker online tool, you can catch accidental plagiarism in your work.

Features of Our Thesis Fixer

Although there are multiple online proofreading tools, not all are created equal. Thanks to the versatility of our tool, it is one of the best thesis checker/s for students and teachers currently available on the market.

Here are some of the features of our thesis finder online tool that you can take advantage of:

Thesis grammar checker

This thesis finder tool comes with a comprehensive grammar and spelling functionality, which helps you identify and fix grammar, spelling, poor word choice, & syntax issues in your thesis papers and dissertations. Once done, the dissertation grammar checker offers the most appropriate suggestions depending on the style and context of your texts.

Thesis grader

“How to grade a dissertation” and “how to rate my thesis” are some of the most searched phrases online. Largely because students are always curious to know how well they’re going to perform. Our tool also doubles as a thesis grader online tool, helping you to know your grades before handing in your academic papers. Teachers, on the other hand, can use our thesis rater to grade students’ papers, which is faster compared to manual grading.

Punctuation checker

Writing a thesis paper or a dissertation is a time-consuming and energy-draining process, and it’s common for students to forget to insert commas, periods, or parentheses during the writing process. Our thesis checker online free tool can accurately identify missing and wrongly-used punctuations in your texts. It also suggests the best punctuation choice based on the grammar suggestions it makes.

Headline and spacing checker

On top of its grammar correction functionality, our thesis checker can be used to identify extra spacing between words, proper nouns, and wrong capitalizations. It can also be used to check, capitalize, and improve your headlines and topics.

Thesis plagiarism checker

Of all the writing concerns that you may face, the unethical act of plagiarism is the most revered. Whether accidental or intentional, the ramifications of plagiarism in academic writing are serious and could lead to expulsion from school and a damaged reputation. Our comprehensive dissertation plagiarism checker analyzes your academic papers and compares them against billions of academic databases and web pages to detect plagiarism.

How to Use Our Thesis Finder

Using our thesis identifier is a simple and straightforward process. Simply follow these easy steps;

• Visit our website.
• Copy/paste your typed thesis paper or dissertation in the blank editor field.
• Click the “Check” button and wait for a few seconds for the tool to conduct a thesis check.
• After a few seconds, it will bring feedback with all the errors highlighted.
• Hover over the highlighted mistakes with the mouse and click to accept.
• Finish off by checking your work for plagiarism using the plagiarism checker for thesis free tool.

Benefits of Our Thesis and Dissertation Checker

Whether you are a student or a teacher, using our dissertation grade calculator comes with multiple benefits.

Easy to use

Our online dissertation help checker has an easy-to-use interface, making it ideal for beginners. Anybody, irrespective of their tech know-how can use this tool to grade and identify correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and spelling mistakes.

Better sentence structures

Using our strong thesis checker helps improve your sentence structures, allowing you to convey your ideas efficiently. There is nothing more disheartening for a student to write a great and thoroughly-researched thesis paper/dissertation only for it to confuse the readers.

Instant results

Unlike the time-consuming manual proofreading and editing process, our check my thesis rater provides instant feedback. Simply paste your typed text in the editor, hit the check button, and it will instantly identify what you need to correct and suggest how to do it.

Free to use

It’s common knowledge that most students don’t have the financial wherewithal to hire a professional editor or even invest in a premium thesis checker. For this reason, our tool comes with a free version that has no limitations in terms of use, making it ideal for everyone. What’s more, you don’t need to create an account with us to perform your check.

Tips for Writing the Perfect Thesis and Dissertations

Now that we have seen the common mistakes when writing a thesis paper/dissertation and how our online checker can help, let’s introduce a few tips for writing the best academic papers. 

• Start by identifying a problem or knowledge gap and try to understand it.
• Next, make a brief outline of the important points around the problem.
• Generate a topic and start gathering the appropriate data.
• Start writing your first draft, ensuring every statement is supported by proof and examples.
• Add references and proofread your work. At this point, you can use our thesis checker to identify mistakes in your texts.
• Share the work with your supervisor for feedback. They may recommend amendments or give it a clean bill of health. 

Use our online thesis tester today and improve your thesis papers/ dissertations with ease.

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What is a thesis defense?

A thesis defense has two parts: a thesis and a defense. The second mistake many students make is not knowing what their thesis is. The third mistake is not knowing how to defend it. (The first mistake is described later.)

What is a thesis?

Your thesis is not your dissertation. Neither is it a one-liner about what you are doing. Your thesis is "a position or proposition that a person (as a candidate for scholastic honors) advances and offers to maintain by argument." [Webster's 7th New Collegiate Dictionary] "I looked at how people play chess" is not a thesis; "people adapt memories of old games to play new games" is. A thesis has to claim something.

There are many kinds of claims. Most of the work around here is either design (you built an AI program or learning tool) or modelling (you have a theory of how something works). Such work usually supports one of the following kinds of claims:

where "X" is your model of memory, learning algorithm, authoring tool, learning environment, etc., and "Y" is a task or goal, such as understanding text, learning algebra, writing programs to teach algebra, etc.

Besides being a proposition, a thesis has to have another property: it must say something new . "Understanding natural language requires context" is not a thesis (except maybe in a linguistics department). "Algorithm X is a feasible mechanism for understanding anaphoric references in newspaper text" is. So is "context is not required for visual understanding."

What is a defense?

A defense presents evidence for a thesis. What kind of evidence is appropriate depends on what kind of thesis is being defended. There are very different defenses for each of the kinds of claims given above.

Thesis: X is a feasible way to do Y

One defense for this kind of claim is an analysis of the complexity, or completeness, or whatever, of the theoretical algorithm. In AI, the more common defense is based on empirical results from running a program. A good defense here means more than one example, and answers to questions such as the following. What are the capabilities and limits of your program? How often do the things that your program does come up in the real world? What's involved in extending it? If it's easy to extend, why haven't you? If your program is a piece of a larger system, how realistic are your assumptions about input and output?

Analogous questions arise in the design of learning environments. You should be able to argue that your environment can support learning in more than one specific arena, and what would be involved in implementing it elsewhere. You should be clear and specific about when it would not be a good approach.

Thesis: X is a better way to do Y

The same kind of defense applies here as in the previous case, but now serious comparisons with previous systems are required. In AI, can your program do the same examples the previous programs did, or can you make them do yours? Can you prove they couldn't do your examples? If you claim to be more efficient, what are you measuring?

In the learning sciences, what do you mean by "better" and how are you measuring it? Are you sure the other approaches wouldn't work just as well if they had you spending all that time on them?

Thesis: doing Y requires X

This is usually defended by a logical argument. It is usually very tough to do, even if the argument doesn't have to be formalized.

Thesis: people use X to do Y

Many students in AI make the mistake of picking a cognitive modelling thesis to defend, thinking that something that looks cognitively plausible is therefore OK. Defending a cognitive model requires serious experimental evidence. Selected excerpts from protocols and surveys of your officemates are not psychological evidence, no matter how much they might have inspired your work.

I have lots of theses in my dissertation. Which one should I pick for my defense?

Collecting enough evidence to really defend a thesis is hard. If you think you have a lot of theses, you probably just have a bunch of undefended claims. One good thesis, or two so-so theses, with adequate description and defense, is more than enough to fill up a dissertation.

I have the opposite problem. I don't think I have any thesis by these standards.

Highly unlikely. If you're bright, educated, and have worked hard on a topic for more than a year, you must have learned something no one else knew before.

The first mistake that AI students make is to think that a thesis has to be grander than the theory of relativity. A thesis should be new and interesting, but it doesn't have to change the foundations of all we believe and hold dear.

How do I pick my thesis to avoid these problems?

There's a mistaken view of thesis research that it starts with a thesis and then an investigation to prove or disprove the thesis. That only happens in fields that have matured to "filling in the blanks," and even then it only happens with advisors who like to stick to tried and true questions.

In young fields such as AI and the learning sciences, you'll never start with a claim. Very few of you will even get to start with a question! You start by exploring one or more problems in some task domain. You'll start with some initial ideas, naive or clever, and push them hard for a year or so. Then, you need to stop and think about what you've done and what you've learned. Among your accomplishments and experience, there will be several good candidate theses. Pick one. Test it out on your advisor and other faculty members. Test it out on other students. Watch out for the following flaws:

Once you refined your claim, now you can determine what kind of defense is appropriate for it and what more you need to do. This is where the psychologically hard part comes, because to create a defense for your thesis, you're going to have to attack it harder than anyone else. What happens if the thesis fails? Negate it and defend that! In a year or so of focussed research, you should be ready for a real thesis defense.

See how easy it is, once you know how?

Free Online Paper, Thesis and Essay Checker

Use our essay checker to make your essays, paper and thesis error free. Copy and paste your content to quickly remove misused words, repetition, and formatting errors.

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How to Use This Essay Checker?

The essay checker can be easily used to rectify the errors incurred while writing an essay. You are just required to follow the simple instructions shared below:

Submit Your Essay

Copy and paste the essay or write directly into the above box.

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The mistakes in your essay will be highlighted. You can use the given suggestions to rectify them.

How Does Essay/Paper Checker Work?

The paper checker works on advanced algorithms that deeply examine academic assignments for unclear sentences, grammatical mistakes, and misused words. Its technology is designed to help students overcome difficulties in correcting errors in their papers and essays. The automated nature of this paper checker allows users to detect all types of essay and paper errors and skip the hassle of correcting them. It requires minimal effort, as you are only asked to submit your paper. After receiving your command, it thoroughly checks and highlights the identified errors.

Errors to Correct with Our Essay Checker

Correcting errors made in an essay is crucial for a student to achieve a good grade. Our essay checker helps you in fixing the following errors.

Consistency and Style

When writing an essay, consistency and style matter a lot. Without following the right style and consistent pattern, your writing won’t contain any worth in the eyes of teachers. You can detect such errors with the essay checker free facility. It will help you ensure consistency and style in your essay to make it score a top grade.

Formatting Errors

Formatting an essay is as crucial as writing it. Without proper formatting, your essay won’t be able to make an impact; hence, you need to avoid making errors. But after completing an essay, you might not be able to detect formatting errors independently. So, for this purpose, you can take the assistance of the essay corrector. This tool will help you examine how the formatting of your essay is incorrect and what you can do to resolve it.

You can easily repeat specific ideas and sentences when writing a lengthy academic assignment. This practice must be avoided, as repetition makes your essay look clumsy. It’s understandable that while reading your work, you won’t be able to detect such mistakes alone. Hence, you can try using an essay checker to overcome this problem. It will help you spot the phrases, sentences, or passages that are repeated in your essay, which you can easily remove with a single click.

Misused Words

In essay writing, you need to be careful about your word choice. You cannot opt to use informal or slang words in the essay. Similarly, you need to use contextually correct terms for your essay. If your vocabulary is weak, you don’t need to worry. The free essay checker can easily detect misused words in your paper. Besides detecting incorrect words, it will also provide you with suggestions for better words that can be used in your essay.

Unnecessary Capitalization

Capitalization errors occur when you unnecessarily capitalize a word that shouldn’t start with a capital letter. You can spot this mistake by taking the assistance of an essay checker. This tool thoroughly goes through your essay to analyze the mistakenly capitalised words and allows you to correct them quickly.

Why Should You Use Our Paper Checker Online?

The free paper checker is essential for students, as it eases the process of removing mistakes from academic assignments. It would be best if you used our paper check facility due to its benefits, such as the ones discussed below.

Become a Better Writer

Apart from allowing you to improve your academic performance, free essay checker can also help you become a perfect writer . When you check and correct your mistakes and become able to write flawlessly. It can help you in your writing journey and give you the confidence to excel in the diverse writing field.

Better Grades

Another benefit of using our paper checker is its ability to help you get better grades. The presence of errors in your paper will create a wrong impression in the minds of the teachers and may cost you essential marks. You can prevent this by using a paper grader, which allows you to fix silly paper mistakes that can ruin your efforts.

Save Effort and Time

Being a student, it’s pretty hectic to manage multiple tasks in a short time. As you need to take care of various challenges every day, it might not be possible for you to review your paper, identify mistakes, and fix them accurately. Using a paper check tool helps you save effort and time, which you can invest in other important tasks.

Ensure Clarity in Your Thesis with PlagiarismDetector.net

A thesis is an important academic document that represents the culmination of extensive research and analysis. As an important milestone in one's educational journey, it is crucial to ensure the thesis is clear, coherent and well-structured to convey the necessary message to the readers effectively. Our thesis checker has impressive AI, which can quickly detect even the most minor errors in your thesis. This thesis statement checker helps you to focus on the thesis with an open mind. All you need to do is check the thesis when it is complete and fix the errors found by this thesis grader.

Additional Services Related to Essay Checker

Besides allowing you to check for structural and formatting mistakes in your essay, you can also get your hands on the following services to improve essay quality.

Punctuation Checker

Sentence checker, grammar checker, frequently asked questions (faqs), can i use this essay checker for free.

Yes, you can use the essay checker free for all time. You won't be charged a penny no matter how many essays you wish to check through it.

Is it Safe to Use Essay Fixer Using this Platform?

Yes! The essay fixer is entirely safe and secure to use on our platform. Your essay won’t get published or stored in our databases. Once you have fixed the errors in your file, it will be safely removed from the servers.

How Long Does this Thesis Checker Take to Resolve All Mistakes?

The thesis checker takes a couple of seconds to process your request and identify the mistakes it contains. You can rectify them one by one or ask this paper corrector to do it instantly!

What Can Be Checked by This Essay Corrector?

Our essay corrector can correct any academic work, including class assignments, essays, thesis, and research papers.

How Can I Check My Paper Online?

You can check your paper online by accessing the paper checker offered on Plagiarismdetector.net. Copy and paste or type your text and click the given button to identify the mistakes existing in your paper.

Is it Legal to Use this AI Paper Checker?

Yes! The AI paper checker doesn’t breach any laws or rules of the academic world. It’s just a proofreading assistant that helps students check and correct their thesis, papers, or essays.

What is a Thesis Defense?

Reviewed by David Krug David Krug is a seasoned expert with 20 years in educational technology (EdTech). His career spans the pivotal years of technology integration in education, where he has played a key role in advancing student-centric learning solutions. David's expertise lies in marrying technological innovation with pedagogical effectiveness, making him a valuable asset in transforming educational experiences. As an advisor for enrollment startups, David provides strategic guidance, helping these companies navigate the complexities of the education sector. His insights are crucial in developing impactful and sustainable enrollment strategies.

Updated: March 17, 2024 , Reading time: 21 minutes

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Find your perfect college degree

In this article, we will be covering...

Going into college, students may need to make a lot of decisions. First-year students may have to deal with choosing their degree programs and moving into their dormitories. With the evolving educational system in the U.S., many schools are retrofitting their curriculums and offering more academic options.

Most universities are leaning toward holistic development and incorporating diversity into their programs. With this, according to the U.S. Census Bureau , there’s an upward trend in the number of college graduates in the country every year. 

In terms of academic programs, there are different fields to choose from, including architecture, communications, and business. In addition to the various fields, there are also several majors to choose from, such as computer engineering, public health, and graphic design. Most programs are designed for classroom learning and experiential learning.  

College students may also take up minors that complement their major, or it may be from a different field, such as one that fits their interests or may help them with their future careers. Some minors may include urban planning, creative writing , or different cultural studies. Aside from this, students may also have to choose between a two-year or four-year undergraduate program. 

Undergraduate Programs

After high school, students may either earn a bachelor’s degree or opt for an associate degree. The two degrees vary primarily by the duration of the academic program. Bachelor’s programs typically take four years to finish.

In fact, according to a report , 41% of students earning a bachelor’s degree finish it within four years. This requires the student to finish 120 credit hours, providing a broad education based on various subjects and an academic major. 

Basic subjects, such as history, social sciences, and mathematics are usually covered within the program’s first half. Students are exposed to subjects dealing with their chosen major, like business or engineering majors, towards the second half.

Bachelor’s degree programs may be divided into Bachelor of Science (B.S.) and Bachelor of Arts (B.A.). B.S. degrees usually deal with mathematical sciences, while B.A. degrees may include social sciences and fine arts.

On the other hand, associate degrees are earned by taking up 60 credit hours, which usually takes two years to finish. Most community colleges and state universities offer this degree program. If you’re planning to finish an associate degree, you must complete a program consisting of different subjects under general education, a concentration in a particular field, and different electives based on your interests.

What is a Thesis?

Most bachelor’s degree programs include a thesis during the student’s last year in college or senior year. In most programs, a thesis is primarily designed to ensure students understand their field or major. It serves as a culmination of what they have covered in their curriculum. Students are generally required to think critically about the work they do and answer open-ended questions.

A good thesis may aim to provide solutions to problems from different fields backed by reliable data. It may come in different forms, such as exploratory thesis, development project, and production.

A development project may aim to create or enhance existing standard practices or working methods. This may involve suggesting improvements to maximize certain parameters. For example, students may study the effects of automating businesses to improve their productivity. 

On the other hand, the production thesis involves creating new products or formulating new tools. This may be practiced in advertising or business marketing, where students may be asked to produce marketing tools or new products. 

Lastly, an exploratory thesis may deal with either a development thesis or production. It may involve evaluating certain procedures qualitatively or quantitatively. Additionally, the method may involve the exploration and testing of theoretical ideas. In this type of thesis, students often gather the data to be used in the thesis independently.

Who Needs a Thesis?

Thesis writing isn’t always necessary for completing academic programs. It usually depends on the course track and whether or not making a thesis fits the subject taken. Nowadays, many schools offer both a thesis route and a non-thesis one to fit their students’ preferences. 

For the non-thesis track, students are given the option to take more classes instead of completing a thesis. It also applies to students seeking additional subjects within their field. Alternatively, you can either conduct research or complete supervised fieldwork rather than writing a thesis. 

Students earning an undergraduate degree in a certain field and major may present a topic related to their major. There are many majors to choose from. Some majors requiring a thesis include Philosophy, Business Administration, and Literature. A variety of subtopics may be selected for research and investigation.

For example, a civil engineering student taking up a major in structural design may present a thesis about the effects of an earthquake on the building’s structural safety. In the same way, English majors may tackle topics related to different authors and literary works across different genres.

Business majors may present different proposals to improve production procedures or test out strategies to increase sales turnout.

Thesis Process

Writing a thesis paper is usually the final requirement before graduation. If you’re in your senior year, this is vital in ensuring a diploma. Thesis writing takes a long process and involves a lot of patience since it may involve tedious work such as data collection and research. Here are the different phases involved in creating a thesis: 

Establishing the Thesis Problem 

This also involves knowing your topic and creating the thesis title. By reading current research or theories on your topic, you may check if there is a research problem to be solved. It’s best to formulate a clear research question that identifies all the relevant issues. It’s also best to find a faculty advisor with ample knowledge of the subject you’ll be tackling.

Build a strong working relationship with your chosen advisor from whom you’ll be getting insights. Ask for their teaching schedule so you’ll know when to approach them for consultation. 

Creating a Plan

Some thesis advisers require a project plan at the start. This is to ensure that there’s a proper procedure and thought process followed from research to defense. If you’re struggling with creating a plan, you may start with an outline of your proposal. Then you may slowly build up your research per section. It’s important to know where to find your sources and what topics to research. 

Doing your Research

Students are required to read related literature and previous projects related to your topic. This may help in being more familiar with the subject matter and in establishing your methodology. Setting up the project often takes up a substantial portion of research time for most students.

Writing the Thesis Paper

This doesn’t just involve writing the final output. Thesis writing is done from the start of the project to establishing the research of the topic and gathering needed data. Another important aspect of a thesis paper is the analysis of the result of the experiment and how it can solve the problem stated at the start of the thesis.

Lastly, conclusions and recommendations are crucial in completing a thesis paper. It’s important to relate the conclusion to the statement problem. Then, you may draw recommendations from the conclusion.  

Editing and Submission

After creating your final output, the advisor usually goes over the paperwork and recommends edits to improve the flow and data tabulation. Seek guidance and be open to criticism ! This is important in polishing certain sections of the thesis paper. Certain guidelines may also be set to keep all the reports uniform.

It’s important to follow the prescribed guidelines such as the font size, font style, and cover page. After all the editing is done, most departments require several formal printed copies of the manuscript for submission to the panel.

Defending the Thesis

Students defending their undergraduate thesis usually present their study, along with the results and how they came up with it. If you’re presenting data, prepare illustrations and graphs to organize them and show correlations efficiently. It is advisable to keep your presentation concise based on the limited discussion time given to you.  

To draft an effective presentation, you may start by discussing the background of the study and its problem statement. Then, you may show how you could gather the data needed to solve or support your study’s objectives.

After presenting the methodology, you may present the results effectively by creating graphs and charts. The final part of the presentation would be your study’s conclusion.

The thesis defense is usually presented to a panel consisting of different faculty members knowledgeable about the subject. Following the presentation, the panel will be asking a series of questions that are relevant to the write-up.

Some questions may tackle the research methodology and the significance of the study. That is why it pays to be ready and possess exceptional knowledge of the thesis paper. 

Common Parts of a Thesis

Introduction

With the introduction, it’s important to give a clear overview of what the paper will be about. Aside from stating the subject, this section is also a good start to introducing the purpose of the study and its intended audience.

It’s also the part where you can establish the boundaries for the study, which may help you focus more on getting focal results. Background information is also best discussed in this section. 

Problem Statement

When dealing with the problem statement, it’s important to be specific with the subject and its terms. This is so you can focus on a particular problem and avoid investigating a broad range of problems associated with a topic. This may lead to unmanageable methodologies, and chances are, you’re proposal may be rejected. 

The key is to have a topic that you’re interested in and find a specific problem or subtopic that you want to delve more into. Aside from specifically stating the problem, this section may include a short description of how to solve it. It may also include a summary of the proposal’s purpose and scope.

Literature Review

The literature review may come in a separate section or as part of the introduction. Either way, it’s best to find various sources related to the topic and problem. It’s best to include different sides of the subject and organize them in a structured layout. 

Methodology

This section includes how data is gathered and how it will be analyzed. You may also describe how you chose the research design and formulated the methods. Don’t forget to include the description of each procedure so readers may understand them more.

You may also include certain limitations to the method applied. This may show the readers that you are aware of your constraints and have taken the necessary steps to manage them.

Results and Discussion

This section outlines the results after following the methods in the previous section. Most of the data in the research may be found in this section, and its analysis may be found in the discussion. You may use different graphs and tables to show the data in a more organized manner.

The discussion section shows the interpretation of the illustrations and the correlation of the results to the questions at the start of the thesis. It’s best to cite references while discussing the results, adding more credibility and scientific backing to the claims.

It’s best to summarize the important information obtained in the conclusion since some readers may go to this section right away. To effectively write your conclusion, it’s important to relate the results of your experiment or research to the objective and problem of the study.

You may enumerate and summarize the results when relating them to the study’s objectives. Be sure to include recommendations on improving data-gathering methods and suggest other areas that other researchers may focus on. 

Recommendations

You may also add a section containing recommendations that are related to your topic. This may include suggesting further studies or diving into a similar subtopic to support different claims. It’s important to write this section with the target audience in mind. You may separate each recommendation according to its appropriate audience. 

Citing your sources is an important element in an effective thesis paper. You may organize all your references in one section, alphabetically, to keep them in order. This may help the readers read on research topics and may make your statements more credible.

Footnotes are also beneficial but having a section listing all your sources will make the paper more organized.

Tips for Writing Your Thesis

Writing a thesis paper comes in different parts. In every section, you may face different challenges and hardships. With this, here are some tips to consider when writing your thesis: 

• Simplify and explain the ideas. – You may need to write in a way that a person with little to no idea of the subject can understand the paper. That’s why it’s important to define the terms used in the study in a clear manner. It’s recommended that you provide a section where abbreviations and their meanings may be shown and discussed. 
• Think creatively . – You may need to think out of the box, especially when devising your research methodology. It’s also best to look for different ways to present your data effectively. Brainstorm for different sources and ideas that may be used to improve the overall thesis paper. 
• Go for relevant information. – Don’t just add sources to bulk up the report. It’s important to filter your literature and only use the ones that add value to your study. Avoid repetitive studies or sources that support the same ideas. 
• Choose a good topic. – If you have trouble choosing a topic, consider how passionate you are about the subject. If you’re genuinely interested in a topic, chances are you may be more motivated to do research and find solutions to solve problems related to that field. 
• Close loose ends. – One of the things to consider when writing your conclusion is answering the problem statement. Any loose ends may bring in more questions, especially during the thesis defense. Address unanswered questions by recommending them in future research or a different thesis approach to the same field. 
• Rewrite until you’re satisfied with the outcome. – You may be given ample time to finish your thesis, so it’s best not to rush things. Take your time in drafting every section of the paper. If necessary, write drafts and have them checked by your advisor from time to time. In most cases, you may be given a set schedule to consult with your advisors.
• Be organized. – Starting with an outline may help you stay on track. It may also help you know which areas need to be done next. Aside from this, it’s best to organize your files, such as the gathered data and literature review articles, in a document folder so it may be easy for you to find them. Having disorganized files may cost you more time and leave out important files. 

How to Improve Your Thesis Defense Presentation

Going into a thesis defense can be both challenging and stressful. It’s important to consider it as an opportunity to share your knowledge and understanding of the research. Be sure to discuss your topic and results with your panel in great detail and reconsider simply throwing in arguments for the sake of it. Your presentation will also play a pivotal role during a thesis defense. 

It’s best to look for simple presentation templates since the panel may be distracted by full graphics. Make sure that the colors used in your slides are easy on the eyes and keep the animation minimal. You may prepare a clear presentation structure that starts with a title and a brief introduction to the study. Your introduction may include the field of the topic and its relevance.

Keep it short, as you might need more time to discuss the latter sections of the report. You may include highlights from literature related to the study, followed by the research methodology. 

Aside from showing relevant information, such as its sample population and type of study, make sure to enumerate the steps taken clearly. You may use bullets to create an organized methodology presentation. Also, be sure to include why you chose the specific methodology and how your data was analyzed. 

The next part of your presentation will include the results of your experiment or survey. It’s important to highlight the important data and results . Improve your presentation by showing the collected information in graphs or illustrations such as bar graphs or pie charts.

When presenting data through graphs, make sure to use contradicting colors that may emphasize differences and label them accordingly to avoid any confusion.

In the discussion section, present only the significant findings and how it is relevant to your topic. Make sure that the conclusions are concise and answer the problem statements of the study. You may include the limitations of the study, along with your suggestions, through the recommendations section. You may end your presentation by sharing your conclusion and recommendation. 

Ace your Oral Defense 

Defending your thesis is the last step of your thesis and probably the most nerve-wracking too. Your oral defense may make or break your entire thesis journey, so it’s best to exert effort on acing it. With this, here are some tips to take control of your thesis defense: 

Start with an introduction.

It’s best not to jump into the report right away. Take your time in introducing yourself or your groupmates if you’re working in pairs or threes. You may also acknowledge the members of the panel. This also gives you some time to ease into your place and prepare for the presentation. However, it’s best to make your introductions quick since you may be given a limited time to present.

Calm your nerves.

Getting nervous before a presentation is normal. However, you shouldn’t let it get the best of you and everything you have worked hard for. Being nervous while presenting may lead to you talking fast, which may confuse the panel. It may even cause you to forget and miss the report’s important highlights.

It’s best to take a deep breath and take your time going over the presentation. It’s also alright to pause before answering any question from the panel. This allows you to think and articulate your answer more clearly.

Prepare beforehand.

It’s important to go over the report several times and review the results to understand them fully. Aside from understanding the thesis paper, find time to prepare for the presentation used for the oral defense. Knowing its flow and highlights may help you maintain your confidence during the presentation.

Be sure to practice and prepare what you’ll be saying. Despite sounding scripted, preparing a script may help you finish the presentation within the given time constraint. 

Formulate possible questions. 

One way to effectively prepare for an oral defense is to anticipate the panel’s questions. Take time to think about possible questions and scenarios that may be raised. Take time to list them down and research each one. This may also give you additional insight into your subject that you have missed previously. Understand the questions and formulate your answers in advance.

Keep it short but concise. 

Most students are given a short time to present their thesis. If you’re presenting your thesis, it’s integral only to include the main points and important information. You may include relevant results and organize them through graphs or tables.

Avoid adding unnecessary animations that may take time and go straight to the point in terms of presentations. You may save time by following PowerPoint templates designed for presenting studies. 

Be confident.

Be confident , or at least try to pretend until you finish the whole defense. It’s important to maintain eye contact, especially with the panel. Appearing timid may show that you’re not prepared or knowledgeable of your topic.

Additionally, it’s important to talk clearly and emphasize certain words, which may help you avoid sounding monotonous. You may create an outline and prepare handy notes that you can check from time to time. 

Questions Frequently Asked During Thesis Defense

Answering questions is part of every thesis defense. After sharing your thesis presentation, the panel will be asking various questions to clarify certain areas of the study. To evaluate your understanding of the topic, you may be asked to expound on the different methods applied to the research.

It’s important to be aware of the usual questions so you can prepare in advance. Here are some of the possible questions to be asked in a thesis defense: 

• What’s the significance of the study? Although this may be included in the thesis already, the panel frequently asks to check if you know the importance of your thesis by heart. It’s best to answer why you did the study and how it will contribute to your chosen field or society.
• What are the limitations of the study? – This is rather tricky since panel members might be testing you if there are things that you failed to address or acknowledge. It’s best to go over your thesis and raise your recommendations when answering this. 
• Briefly share with us your study. – You may face this request even after summarizing your thesis report into a twenty-minute presentation. The panelists may be testing you to see if you can explain the thesis more concisely. This will measure how you understand the entire study. An outline of the study will come in handy to answer this.
• Why did you choose this topic? – With this question, you may share your reasons for choosing a certain topic. In addition, you may also highlight the study’s impact as one of the deciding factors. 
• What are the problems that you have encountered? – You may share the problems that you have encountered. However, it’s best to pair them with the solutions that you came up with to solve them. 
• Can you share any significant data? – This may either mean that you’ve shown too much data for them to notice the significant ones or simply to test if you know what data is important to support your results and discussion. It’s important to prepare for this question since this may lead to more follow-up queries. 
• If you had a chance to change anything in your research, what would you do differently? – This question is usually asked towards the end of the defense. You may use your recommendations to answer this. Most of the panelists may ask this to challenge you to think critically of the topic and look at the study’s bigger picture. 

What Happens After the Thesis Defense?

After presenting your thesis through an oral defense, the panel will deliberate on the results and produce amendments to the study. Some may be given a passing mark wherein there are no changes to be made. This takes you a step closer to graduation. However, there are times when panelists may suggest certain revisions to the thesis paper. 

These revisions vary from major to minor amendments. Sometimes, the student will need to redo an oral defense to present the changes to their study. Some revisions may be as small as changing some literature reviews or as big as restructuring the methodology and gathering the data again.

Failure marks are also possible but very rare since there is usually no limit to the revisions to be made. It may take longer than usual to finish the entire thesis process.

The Takeaway

Different undergraduate degrees come with various requirements. One of which is creating a thesis paper. Bachelor’s degree programs typically involve a thesis in the student’s final year of college. It’s a culmination of what the student has covered throughout their course or major.

A thesis paper comprises different sections, such as its introduction, methodology, and conclusion. Each section supports the established main topic and the study’s problem statement.

If you’re finished with editing and submitting your thesis paper, the last part of the process is presenting your study in front of a panel through a thesis defense. This is vital for teachers to understand how you worked with the thesis. It may also help them assess if you’re knowledgeable enough about the topic covered. 

During the thesis defense, it’s best to show a short presentation to allow time for some questions from the panel. In terms of presenting data, be sure to organize them through charts and graphs and label them accordingly. Use slides that are simple and visually pleasing.

When presenting, it’s recommended to come prepared and be confident when addressing the panel. The panel may not expect you to know everything, but they will most definitely watch how you conduct yourself during the thesis defense.

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BIO 1115: Cell Biology

• Research Proposal
• Topic Development
• Proposal Outline
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Testable Hypothesis

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What is a Hypothesis?

From Central Question to Testable Hypothesis

Topic Development:  Two sample questions emerge from the two methods used:

Central Question(s)

In order to transform these questions into working thesis statements, start by simply shifting or reframing the verb  from a point of question to a point of declaration!

By shifting or reframing the  verb , these questions have now become testable Hypotheses  from which an experiment is designed, variables are tested, methods are established, data is gathered, evidence is given, and conclusions are demonstrated.

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Department of English

Best practices: dissertation and defense.

After you have received approval for your post-quals prospectus by your committee, you proceed to research, write, and refine your dissertation, using your approved prospectus as a blueprint for this stage. Your finished dissertation, along with its oral defense, is the final part of your requirements for the PhD degree.

The dissertation defense routing form , has been developed to clarify the program's expectations for you, the committee, the dissertation, and the defense.

The dissertation planning worksheet has also been developed to help you plan and write your dissertation proposal. 

Committee Communications

The TCR program generally expects that the entire committee will work closely with you during your preparation for the qualifying exam and the subsequent period of developing a solid dissertation proposal.

After the proposal has been accepted by the entire committee, the next stage of work will generally involve you and your chair, with periodic progress reports to the entire committee. Every committee may set up its own rules for progress reports, the sharing of text, and communication channels, but the default position of the program is that you and your chair work closely to transition from the post-quals proposal to finished dissertation prose. Further, the faculty expect to receive the first two or three finished chapters midway between quals and the defense as a way of ensuring that the work is progressing according to the proposal. Committee practices may vary, but we generally agree that early approval of the first three chapters helps keep the project on track. For many committees, these chapters include the introduction, literature review, and methods, that is, material that deals with the nature and scope of the project itself, your coverage of the foundations in the pertinent scholarship, and your research methods. Other types of dissertations may proceed in different ways, of course; you should discuss the order of submissions with your committee.

You should plan on submitting brief progress reports to your committee at least every semester, identifying work completed, changes made, proposed changes to the proposal, and work remaining. Be sure to set up good protocols for archiving and version control. Many of the TCR faculty spend hours providing feedback to better your dissertation; please make sure to deal with every comment made before sending in another version. If a committee member feels that his or her earlier comments were not yet dealt with, he or she can refuse to review again until they are.

For the faculty's part, you may expect us to respond to your polished prose within four weeks. Many times, we will be able to read and comment more quickly, of course, but you should factor faculty workload into your expectations for progress.

One of the main reasons for the development of the dissertation routing form  [pdf] is to reaffirm a philosophy about scheduling defenses. It is not acceptable to "plant your flag" on a particular semester of graduation, and then insist that the faculty meet your calendar of deadlines. Doing so creates incredible pressure on both the student and the committee, and almost always results in a weak and unfinished dissertation, not to mention a sometimes contentious defense. To clarify the process, your faculty have written this document to lay out the steps and timing of the dissertation defense. You'll graduate when you are finished with the outlined steps.

These expectations are represented in the dissertation defense routing sheet. As you complete a stage, collect a signature, or check a box, please submit an electronic copy to your committee and the Director of Graduate Studies so that we can all be on the same page (literally). When you have secured your committee's approval of a defensible draft, then you may schedule a date and a room for your defense. Please note: From the time you have finished your dissertation draft, which is as complete and proofread as you know how to make your dissertation, it is 3 months to your defense date. The chair gets four weeks with the dissertation defense draft, the committee receives another four weeks, and when the entire committee says you are ready to defend (at the end of these eight weeks), you can schedule a defense four weeks in the future. There may still be revisions after the defense, too, so keep that in mind when hoping to graduate in a certain semester.

Quality and Completeness of Work

When you submit work to your chair, and when you and your chair are ready to send that work to the rest of the committee, we expect that work to be polished. We expect it to be well-argued, proofread, grammatically and structurally correct, and free from spelling errors. We expect the formatting to be consistent, with page numbers, appendices and other back matter included. Work that needs basic editing will be returned--that's your job, not the committee's. Committee members will send the chapter back if it's full of typos and other basic problems.

What is a defensible draft of a dissertation ? It is all of the above, consistently applied across the entire dissertation. It is as close to a finished document as you are able to produce, understanding that the defense may raise questions that will need to be addressed before the dissertation is finally approved. You have finished everything you know that needs to be done, including completed front matter, bibliography, and appendices.There are no comments about "to be inserted," no missing references. It is as perfect as you alone can make it. The only changes that remain are those that the committee requests, and this may be little or much, depending on how well written the document is and how much of the document the committee has already seen. This is the way academic publishing works for everyone--we produce our best work, submit it to peer review, and make changes to satisfy the reviewers (who represent the values of the field) until the work is deemed finished. The same principle holds for you and your dissertation.

By submitting the advisor-approved dissertation draft to your committee two months before your defense, both you and your committee will experience a productive (and enjoyable) defense that focuses on your ideas, research, process, and significance, rather than dwelling on structure, confusion, and errors. Plus, you will have that month before the defense to incorporate their comments, which means less work for you after the defense.

A good starting point for thinking about the defense is the Graduate School's " Doctoral Oral Defense Guidelines ." Please expect to adhere to these guidelines.

As you can see from the Graduate School's guidelines, the oral defense is an examination, and you should arrive prepared to discuss your dissertation, methods, findings, and significance. The defense is a thorough interrogation of your methods, theories, and findings, and it calls for serious deliberation and a vote by the committee at the end of the exam.

In order to proceed to the examination, we request that you keep your initial remarks brief. In the past, some students have consumed more than 45 minutes, and this length makes it impossible for faculty to participate fully in a thorough exam. Different committees have different expectations, but 20-25 minutes is more than enough time to both refresh the committee's memory and also to introduce the visitors in the room to the exigence of the problem, your research question, your approach, and your findings. In other words, these "introductory remarks" are not a comprehensive lecture, but rather contextualizing remarks to kick off the exam. Please restrict yourself to a short presentation, then sit down for the defense.

You must bring the printed defense copy of your dissertation with you. It should be the same copy the committee received 8 weeks previous, so that the committee can ask you questions about specific sections and pages. When asked a question about your method for generating the figure on page 145, for example, you will be able to turn to that page and answer specific questions.

It is also up to you to bring the signature form for your committee to sign. All relevant forms are available at the Graduate School's website , including dissertation templates.

We strongly encourage PhD candidates to come to Lubbock and be physically present with their committees and the public for their dissertation defenses. But if coming to Lubbock creates too much hardship on the student, and the student's dissertation committee agrees, then the committee can decide to allow the student to defend at a distance (e.g. via video conferencing technology). The committee's decision should be informed by the TTU Graduate School's " Doctoral Oral Defense Guidelines ," which remind us that "the examination is a public affair and the candidate should be prepared to defend his or her work before anyone who may question it."

For students defending from a distance, technological connections must be robust enough that students can explain, discuss, and defend dissertations in a manner equivalent with that of students who are physically present in the defense room.

If a defense is unable to proceed for any reason, the committee will require the student to postpone the defense, which may, in turn, delay graduation.

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Thesis Statement Activities

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Looking for thesis statement activities to help your AP® Lang students better understand what a defensible thesis is?

This quick-and-easy digital resource includes customizable templates and self-checking Google Slides thesis statement activities to help students learn the expectations of a defensible thesis statement for synthesis, rhetorical analysis, and argument essays.

What's included:

• Self-checking Google Slides thesis statement activities for popular AP® Lang topics
• A database of sample thesis statements for synthesis, rhetorical analysis, and argument essays
• Google Slides templates
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Topics Included:

• Eminent Domain
• English Curriculum
• Locavore Movement
• Meatless Monday
• STEM Education
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• Alfred Green
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• Sojourner Truth
• Competition
• Disobedience
• Timely Decisions
• Striving for Perfection

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Published Dissertation or Thesis References

This page contains reference examples for published dissertations or theses.

Kabir, J. M. (2016). Factors influencing customer satisfaction at a fast food hamburger chain: The relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (Publication No. 10169573) [Doctoral dissertation, Wilmington University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

Miranda, C. (2019). Exploring the lived experiences of foster youth who obtained graduate level degrees: Self-efficacy, resilience, and the impact on identity development (Publication No. 27542827) [Doctoral dissertation, Pepperdine University]. PQDT Open. https://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/2309521814.html?FMT=AI

Zambrano-Vazquez, L. (2016). The interaction of state and trait worry on response monitoring in those with worry and obsessive-compulsive symptoms [Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona]. UA Campus Repository. https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/620615

• Parenthetical citations : (Kabir, 2016; Miranda, 2019; Zambrano-Vazquez, 2016)
• Narrative citations : Kabir (2016), Miranda (2019), and Zambrano-Vazquez (2016)
• A dissertation or thesis is considered published when it is available from a database such as ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global or PDQT Open, an institutional repository, or an archive.
• If the database assigns publication numbers to dissertations and theses, include the publication number in parentheses after the title of the dissertation or thesis without italics.
• Include the description “Doctoral dissertation” or “Master’s thesis” followed by a comma and the name of the institution that awarded the degree. Place this information in square brackets after the dissertation or thesis title and any publication number.
• In the source element of the reference, provide the name of the database, repository, or archive.
• The same format can be adapted for other published theses, including undergraduate theses, by changing the wording of the bracketed description as appropriate (e.g., “Undergraduate honors thesis”).
• Include a URL for the dissertation or thesis if the URL will resolve for readers (as shown in the Miranda and Zambrano-Vazquez examples).
• If the database or archive requires users to log in before they can view the dissertation or thesis, meaning the URL will not work for readers, end the reference with the database name (as in the Kabir example).

Published dissertation or thesis references are covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Section 10.6 and the Concise Guide Section 10.5