Handout: Thesis Checklist
Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Thesis
It is your main insight or idea about a text or topic, and the main proposition that your essay demonstrates. It makes an assertion that will be supported in the body of a paper and tells readers what to expect.
It should
- Respond to a true question, tension or problem that derives from the assignment.
- Be a generalization that ties in as much of the available evidence as possible.
- Be true but arguable (not obviously or patently true, but one alternative among several).
- Be limited enough in scope to be argued in a short composition and with available evidence.
- Get to the heart of the text or topic being analyzed (not be peripheral or too vague).
- Be complex, insightful, and if possible, unexpected.
Developed at Brandeis University through a grant from the Davis Educational Foundation