 Most of us aspire to write strong thesis statements with lots of compelling oath, but they can be a struggle to come by. Check out our strategies for enhancing your thesis statement. Common Struggle 1. Thesis lacks a claim. For example, this paper will discuss what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. Now, there's no claim here. It's kind of a snooze fest and the description is so vague that readers won't be able to predict what they'll be reading about. Confused readers are unhappy ones, so a strategy for fixing is to complete one of these sentence frames that helps you articulate your claim and your rationale for holding it. Using the second frame yields a new draft like this. Note how this thesis helps readers anticipate both the claim and the organization. Common Struggle 2. Thesis makes an obvious claim. For instance, plagiarism involves claiming credit yourself for others' ideas or words and students should learn how to avoid it. Well duh, notice this thesis is not really an argument, it's more of a fact, and it is also kind of boring. So a strategy? Why should students learn more about avoiding plagiarism? The answer might lead to a hypothesis like this. Note how this new thesis offers complexity that engages readers in a new angle or two. Common Struggle 3. Thesis makes an overly general claim. For instance, academic honesty is a significant issue in higher education. Again, duh, if the paper is really going to address academic honesty as a whole it'd have to be a thousand pages, so that's just not going to happen. What's the strategy? Well replace weak verbs like is with active ones and generic terms like significant with specific ones, so your sentence could look like this. Note how these substitutions add engaging content. Common Struggle 4. Thesis states unsubstantiated opinion. Now here's one that professors love to hate. So don't do this. Here's an example. Plagiarism is rising in colleges and universities because students are increasingly lazy. Well, students being increasingly lazy is more of a judgment than a supportable claim. So readers may be insulted by your blanket opinions. The strategy here is to explore other points of view by playing what Peter Elba calls the believing doubting game. First believe your opinion. Check for your evidence, amass your support and then doubt your opinion. Is there another explanation? Playing the believing doubting game could yield a sentence like this. Note how using the strategy yields a more balanced thesis. If you want feedback on your thesis idea, contact the studio.