To plagiarize myself:
A thesis statement expresses the point of your paper in one sentence. You can think of it as a topic sentence for your whole paper. Different instructors want different things from a thesis statement and sometimes you have to experiment with it to get it right for an instructor. Some want super simple thesis statements; "Cats make better pets than dogs." And then some want an all-encompassing thesis statement; "Although dogs are more loyal than cats, cats are less high-strung, and more cuddly." Both of these thesis statement examples could be for the same paper. The simple one simple states that the paper is going to talk about why cats make better pets than dogs. The all-encompassing statement actually tells the reader why I think cats make better pets than dogs. An all-encompassing statement will include the ideas behind the three body paragraphs.
With that said, I have a fairly simple way to develop a thesis statement for any paper. First start by asking yourself and answering 5 simple questions:
1. What is your topic?
2. What is your main opinion on this topic?
3. What is the strongest reason that supports your opinion?
4. What is another strong reason that supports your opinion?
5. What is the main argument against your opinion?
With these five questions answered, you can start developing and refining your thesis statement. I'll show you how using the dog/cat example from above.
1. What is your topic? Cats as pets.
2. What is your main opinion on this topic? Cats make better pets than dogs.
3. What is the strongest reason that supports your opinion? Cats are less high-strung.
4. What is another strong reason that supports your opinion? Cats are more cuddly.
5. What is the main argument against your opinion? Dogs are more loyal than cats.
While you can use your main opinion as a simple thesis statement, you will find many instructors want more than that, in fact more than a few would like to see the three main points in your paper incorporated into your thesis statement. So all you have to do is use the sentences that you used to answer the questions to create compound sentences that illustrate what your paper is about. Don't worry about grammar at this point.
Ex. 1. Even though dogs are more loyal than cats (5), cats make better pets than dogs (2) because cats are less high-strung (3) and cats are more cuddly (4).
As you can see, all I have done here is string together my answers verbatim using connecting words. At this point I can refine it so that it sounds better.
Ex. 2. Even though dogs are more loyal than cats, cats make better pets than dogs because they are less high-strung and more cuddly.
Simple as that. This was obviously a very simplified example, but as long as you know what you are going to be writing about and have your three main topics of your body in mind, you can adapt this strategy for any paper.
By the way, I did not invent this technique. I learned it from the thesis statement generator that I used in college. After a few papers I didn't need the gen anymore, because it was often quicker and easier to just do it manually myself. Eventually I got to the point where I could just write a thesis statement (I think that was after my first 50 or so papers).
Hope this helps.
