Essays: How to Make Sure That Your Essay Answers the Question

In the last post, I mentioned that a thesis statement can be a really useful way of making sure that you understand the essay question you’ve been set. 

People sometimes say that "the best way of making sure that you understand a topic, such as when you’re revising for an exam, is to explain it to someone else". 

This is exactly what a thesis statement does.

What is a Thesis Statement and Why Should I Write One?

A thesis statement is a short summary of the argument you want to make in your essay. 

Let’s take an example question:

“How should crime be dealt with in our society?”

Your thesis statement needs to be:

• debatable: in the example I give above, you can’t just say “Crime is bad and needs to be stopped”, because most people agree on this already (and you also wouldn’t be answering the question!). Instead, you could say, “The government should spend 30% more on crime prevention.” Here, you have an idea that you can argue all the way through your essay with several related ideas:

                    - why should it be the government’s responsibility to prevent crime?

                    - why should they spend 30% of their budget?

• narrow: your essay is always going to have a word count and it’s important to stay within it. Your mark will often be reduced if you write too many (or too few) words so you need to make sure that your topic area is small enough. In the example I gave above, you could say: “The government should increase its crime prevention budget by 30% to employ more police officers.” By focusing on one very specific area - police officers - you can talk about:

                     - why police officers are the best solution for fighting crime, rather than more                            cameras or longer prison sentences, for example.

Hopefully you’re beginning to notice a pattern here: why?. This is probably the most important thing you need to remember when writing an essay:

                      -why is this important?
                      -why is this relevant?

A thesis statement helps you to think about “why?” and to get the reasons into your essay.

When I write essays, I write my thesis statement on a sticky note and stick it to the side of my laptop screen. This helps me to make sure that what I’m writing is answering the question in a relevant way and is adding to my argument. 

If you’re struggling to make your essay question into a thesis statement, it could mean that you don’t understand the question well enough and need to go back to your lecture notes, or your tutor for advice.

COMING NEXT WEEK: 

Essays: How to Read (For an Essay)

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