list of action verbs for thesis statements

Best Active Verbs for Research Papers with Examples

What are active verbs.

Active verbs, often referred to as "action verbs," depict activities, processes, or occurrences. They energize sentences by illustrating direct actions, like "run," "write," or "discover." In contrast, linking verbs connect the subject of a sentence to its complement, offering information about the subject rather than denoting an action. The most common linking verb is the "be" verb (am, is, are, was, were, etc.), which often describes a state of being. While active verbs demonstrate direct activity or motion, linking and "be" verbs serve as bridges, revealing relations or states rather than actions.

While linking verbs are necessary to states facts or show connections between two or more items, subjects, or ideas, active verbs usually have a more specific meaning that can explain these connections and actions with greater accuracy. And they captivate the reader’s attention! (See what I did there?)

Why are active verbs important to use in research papers?

Using active verbs in academic papers enhances clarity and precision, propelling the narrative forward and making your arguments more compelling. Active verbs provide clear agents of action, making your assertions clearer and more vigorous. This dynamism ensures readers grasp the research's core points and its implications.

For example, using an active vs passive voice sentence can create more immediate connection and clarity for the reader. Instead of writing "The experiment was conducted by the team," one could write, "The team conducted the experiment."

Similarly, rather than stating "Results were analyzed," a more direct approach would be "We analyzed the results." Such usage not only shortens sentences but also centers the focus, making the statements about the research more robust and persuasive.

Best Active Verbs for Academic & Research Papers

When writing research papers , choose active verbs that clarify and energize writing: the Introduction section "presents" a hypothesis, the Methods section "describes" your study procedures, the Results section "shows" the findings, and the Discussion section "argues" the wider implications. Active language makes each section more direct and engaging, effectively guiding readers through the study's journey—from initial inquiry to final conclusions—while highlighting the researcher's active role in the scholarly exploration.

Active verbs to introduce a research topic

Using active verbs in the Introduction section of a research paper sets a strong foundation for the study, indicating the actions taken by researchers and the direction of their inquiry.

Stresses a key stance or finding, especially when referring to published literature.

Indicates a thorough investigation into a research topic.

Draws attention to important aspects or details of the study topic you are addressing.

Questions or disputes established theories or beliefs, especially in previous published studies.

Highlights and describes a point of interest or importance.

Inspects or scrutinizes a subject closely.

Sets up the context or background for the study.

Articulates

Clearly expresses an idea or theory. Useful when setting up a research problem statement .

Makes something clear by explaining it in more detail.

Active verbs to describe your study approach

Each of these verbs indicates a specific, targeted action taken by researchers to advance understanding of their study's topic, laying out the groundwork in the Introduction for what the study aims to accomplish and how.

Suggests a theory, idea, or method for consideration.

Investigates

Implies a methodical examination of the subject.

Indicates a careful evaluation or estimation of a concept.

Suggests a definitive or conclusive finding or result.

Indicates the measurement or expression of an element in numerical terms.

Active verbs to describe study methods

The following verbs express a specific action in the methodology of a research study, detailing how researchers execute their investigations and handle data to derive meaningful conclusions.

Implies carrying out a planned process or experiment. Often used to refer to methods in other studies the literature review section .

Suggests putting a plan or technique into action.

Indicates the use of tools, techniques, or information for a specific purpose.

Denotes the determination of the quantity, degree, or capacity of something.

Refers to the systematic gathering of data or samples.

Involves examining data or details methodically to uncover relationships, patterns, or insights.

Active verbs for a hypothesis or problem statement

Each of the following verbs initiates a hypothesis or statement of the problem , indicating different levels of certainty and foundations of reasoning, which the research then aims to explore, support, or refute.

Suggests a hypothesis or a theory based on limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.

Proposes a statement or hypothesis that is assumed to be true, and from which a conclusion can be drawn.

Attempts to identify

Conveys an explicit effort to identify or isolate a specific element or relationship in the study.

Foretells a future event or outcome based on a theory or observation.

Theorizes or puts forward a consideration about a subject without firm evidence.

Proposes an idea or possibility based on indirect or incomplete evidence.

Active verbs used to interpret and explain study results

In the Discussion section , the findings of your study are interpreted and explained to the reader before moving on to study implications and limitations . These verbs communicate the outcomes of the research in a precise and assertive manner, conveying how the data aligns with the expectations and hypotheses laid out earlier in the paper.

Shows or unveils findings from the data.

Demonstrates

Clearly shows the result of an experiment or study, often implying evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship.

Illustrates

Shows or presentes a particular result or trend.

Provides evidence in favor of a theory or hypothesis.

Establishes the truth or validity of an anticipated outcome or theory.

Visually presents data, often implying the use of figures or tables.

Active verbs to discuss study implications

In the discussion of study implications, these verbs help to weave the results into a broader context, suggesting relevance, highlighting importance, and pointing out potential consequences within the respective field of research.

Proposes a possible interpretation or implication without making a definitive statement.

Points to broader consequences or significances hinted at by the results.

Indicates a logical consequence or a meaning that is not explicitly stated.

Strengthens the validity or importance of a concept or finding.

Emphasizes certain findings and their broader ramifications.

Underscores

Underlines or emphasizes the significance or seriousness of an implication.

Active verbs to discuss study limitations

Discussing study limitations with these verbs allows researchers to maintain transparency about their study's weaknesses, thus providing a clearer picture of the context and reliability of the research findings.

Acknowledges

Recognizes the existence of potential weaknesses or restrictions in the study.

Directly confronts a specific limitation and often discusses ways it has been mitigated.

Makes an observation of a limitation that could affect the interpretation of the results.

Reflects on or thinks about a limitation in the context of the study's impact or scope.

Points out and describes a specific limitation.

Makes known or reveals a limitation that could have an effect on the study's conclusions.

Active verbs for the Conclusion section

In the Conclusion section , these verbs are pivotal in crystallizing the core findings, implications, and the future trajectory of research initiated by the study.

Signifies drawing a final inference or judgement based on the results.

Provides a brief statement of the main points of the research findings.

States positively or asserts the validity of the findings.

Advises on a course of action based on the results obtained.

Highlights the importance or significance of the research outcomes.

Use an AI Grammar Checker to Correct Your Research Verbs

While lists like these will certainly help you improve your writing in any academic paper, it can still be a good idea to revise your paper using an AI writing assistant during the drafting process, and with professional editing services before submitting your work to journals.

Wordvice’s AI Proofreading Tool , AI Paraphrasing Tool , AI Summarizer , and AI Translator are ideal for enhancing your academic papers. And with our professional editing services, including academic proofreading and paper editing services, you get high-quality English editing from experts in your paper’s subject area.

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Writing Resources

Active verbs for discussing ideas.

This handout is available for download in PDF format .

Active verbs are important components of any academic writing! Just as in other forms of writing, they work as engines, driving the action of your sentences in many potentially vivid, clear, and colorful ways.

Instead of opting for bland, unspecific expressions ("says," "writes about," "believes," "states") consider using more vivid or nuanced verbs such as "argues," "insists," "explains," "emphasizes," "challenges," "agrees," etc. The list below offers dozens of such verbs that will help you communicate your ideas and the ideas of others more clearly, expressively, and powerfully.

• "mentions," unless you mean "refer to something briefly and without going into detail."*
• "notion" as a synonym for "idea" implies "impulsive," "whimsical," not well considered.*

Adapted from a list by Cinthia Gannett by Doug Kirshen and Robert B. Cochran, Brandeis University Writing Program, 2020.

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How to Use Verbs Effectively in Your Research Paper

• Writing Research Papers
• Writing Essays
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• M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
• B.A., History, Armstrong State University

When you conduct a research project, one part of your job is to assert your own original thesis with an effective argument . There are a few ways to enhance your research paper so it sounds more impressive. One method to sound convincing as an authority is to elevate your vocabulary by using strong verbs.

Remember, verbs are action words . The verbs you select for your writing should represent a specific action . This means you should avoid generic verbs to keep your writing interesting and sharp. Your goal is to keep teacher or audience interested.

Try to avoid these less exciting verbs:

How to Choose Your Verbs

No matter what your grade level, you must do your best to come across as an authority on your topic. Think about the noticeable difference in these statements:

• I saw more mold on one piece of bread.
• I observed a distinct difference between the two pieces of bread. Most importantly, one piece of bread displayed a greater density of mold.

The second statement sounds more mature, because we replaced "saw" with "observed" and "had" with "displayed." In fact, the verb "observe " is more accurate. When carrying out a scientific experiment, after all, you use more than mere eyesight to scrutinize your results. You may smell, hear, or feel some results, and those are all part of observing.

Now consider these statements when writing a history essay:

• Historian Robert Dulvany says there were three main causes for the war.
• Historian Robert Dulvany asserted that three events prompted the war.

The second phrase sounds more authoritative and direct. And it's the verbs that make all the difference.

Also, make sure to use active rather than passive structure with your verbs. Active verbs make your writing clearer and more engaging. Review these statements:

• T he war on terror was launched by the United States.
• The United States launched the war on terror. 

The subject-verb construction is a more active and powerful statement.

How to Sound Like an Authority

Each discipline (like history, science or literature) has a distinct tone with certain verbs that appear frequently. As you read over your sources, observe the tone and language. 

While reviewing the first draft of your research paper, conduct an inventory of your verbs. Are they tired and weak or strong and effective? This list of verbs provides suggestions to make your research paper sound more authoritative.

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• Ethos, Logos, Pathos for Persuasion
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• How to Write a Solid Thesis Statement
• How to Narrow the Research Topic for Your Paper
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• What Is a Research Paper?
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II. Getting Started

2.5 Writing Thesis Statements

Kathryn Crowther; Lauren Curtright; Nancy Gilbert; Barbara Hall; Tracienne Ravita; and Kirk Swenson

To be effective, all support in an essay must work together to convey a central point; otherwise, an essay can fall into the trap of being out of order and confusing. Just as a topic sentence focuses and unifies a single paragraph, the thesis statement focuses and unifies an entire essay. This statement is like a signpost that signals the essay’s destination; it tells the reader the point you want to make in your essay, while the essay itself supports that point.

Because writing is not a linear process, you may find that the best thesis statement develops near the end of your first draft. However, creating a draft or working thesis early in the writing project helps give the drafting process clear direction. You should form your thesis before you begin to organize an essay, but you may find that it needs revision as the essay develops.

A thesis is not just a topic, but rather the writer’s comment or interpretation of the question or subject. For whatever topic you select (for example, school uniforms, social networking), 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.

In the majority of essays, a thesis is one sentence long and appears toward the end of the introductory paragraph. It is specific and focuses on one to three points of a single idea—points that are able to be demonstrated in the body paragraphs. 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.

Working Thesis Statements

A strong thesis statement must have the following qualities:

• It must be arguable.  A thesis statement must state a point of view or judgment about a topic. An established fact is not considered arguable.
• It must be supportable.  The thesis statement must contain a point of view that can be supported with evidence (reasons, facts, examples).
• It must be specific. A thesis statement must be precise enough to allow for a coherent argument and remain focused on the topic.

Examples of Appropriate Thesis Statements

• Closing all American borders for a period of five years is one solution that will tackle illegal immigration.
• 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.
• The societal and personal struggles of Troy Maxson in the play Fences symbolize the challenges of black males who lived through segregation and integration in the United States.

Pitfalls to Avoid

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 Example

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.

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.

Advertising companies use sex to sell their products.

A thesis is weak when the statement is too broad.

The life of Abraham Lincoln was long and challenging.

Ways to Revise Your Thesis

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 develop new ideas and reasons for those ideas. Revision helps you strengthen your thesis so that it matches what you have expressed in the body of the paper.

You can cut down on irrelevant aspects and revise your thesis by taking the following steps:

• Pinpoint and replace all non specific words, such as people, everything, society, or life, with more precise words in order to reduce any vagueness.

Pinpoint and Replace Example

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.

Explanation:  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 their research and gain more direction in their writing. The revised thesis makes a more specific statement about success and what it means to work hard.

• Clarify ideas that need explanation by asking yourself questions that narrow your thesis.

Clarify Example

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.

Explanation:  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 and more accurately defines their stance, which will better guide the writing of the essay.

• 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.

Replace with Action Verbs Example

Working thesis:  Kansas City school teachers 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.

Explanation:  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.

• Who is not paying the teachers enough?
• How much is considered “enough”?
• What is the problem?
• What are the results?
• Omit any general claims that are hard to support.

Omit General Claims Example

Working thesis:  Today’s teenage girls are too sexualized.

Revised thesis: Teenage girls who are captivated by the sexual images on the internet and social media are conditioned to believe that a woman’s worth depends on her sensuality, a feeling that harms their self-esteem and behavior.

Explanation:  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?

This section contains material from:

Crowther, Kathryn, Lauren Curtright, Nancy Gilbert, Barbara Hall, Tracienne Ravita, and Kirk Swenson. Successful College Composition . 2nd ed. Book 8. Georgia: English Open Textbooks, 2016. http://oer.galileo.usg.edu/english-textbooks/8 . Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License .

Relating to lines; a way of explaining information logically and/or sequentially; can refer to the chronological relaying of information.

A brief and concise statement or series of statements that outlines the main point(s) of a longer work. To summarize is to create a brief and concise statement or series of statements that outlines the main point(s) of a longer work.

To analyze closely or minutely; to scrutinize every aspect. Unlike the fields of biology, anatomy, or medicine, in rhetoric and writing, dissect does not refer to the cutting apart of a physical body but to the taking apart the body of an argument or idea piece by piece to understand it better.

A logical, rational, lucid, or understandable expression of an idea, concept, or notion; consistent and harmonious explanation.

Assertion or announcement of belief, understanding, or knowledge; a formal statement or proclamation.

Without a defined number or limit; unlimited, infinite, or undetermined.

An altered version of  a written work. Revising means to rewrite in order to improve and make corrections. Unlike editing, which involves minor changes, revisions include major and noticeable changes to a written work.

Not relevant; unimportant; beside the point; not relating to the matter at hand.

Attractive, tempting, or seductive; to have an appealing and charismatic quality.

To influence or convince; to produce a certain or specific result through the use of force.

2.5 Writing Thesis Statements Copyright © 2022 by Kathryn Crowther; Lauren Curtright; Nancy Gilbert; Barbara Hall; Tracienne Ravita; and Kirk Swenson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

190+ Action Verbs: Powerful Words and Examples

Check out our guide with action verbs to add to your next piece of writing; create impactful storylines that keep your readers hooked with these powerful verbs.

Action verbs add an extra “oomph!” to your writing, helping you to describe the many things your characters will achieve throughout the story. Learning how to use action verbs will enhance your writing, help to define your characters, and allow your readers to grasp the plot points with ease.

However, action verbs aren’t just for story writing. They’re also ideal to use in your resume when applying for jobs. Check out what Indeed.com says about using action verbs:

“The action verbs give the reader a clear understanding of what is happening. When used within a resume or cover letter, action verbs help the application package stand out from other submissions.”

So, it’s important to learn the correct action verbs to use in your writing to make a lasting impact on the readers. Whether you’re working on a fiction book, an essay, or sprucing up your resume, we’ve got everything you need to level up your writing. If you’re interested in this topic, check out our list of feeling words for more!

What Are Action Verbs?

Mental action verbs, action verbs denoting personal improvement, action verbs denoting productivity  , action verbs denoting ability, action verbs denoting leadership traits, action verbs denoting initiative, action verbs denoting excellent communication skills, finance action verbs.

Action verbs, a.k.a. dynamic verbs, express an action a person takes. They are one of two major categories of verbs in English (the other one being stative verbs). In other words, active verbs describe what a person is doing or has done and are, consequently, often used in business.

One typical example where action verbs shine is the bullet statement format used when the writer wants to describe their accomplishments using a bare minimum of words. However, remember that not all action verbs are made equal. The words that cement the image of the writer accomplishing something instead of merely being in charge of it are the best choice.

E.g., “handling” is not as illustrative as “executing.” Precision takes precedence and makes a lasting impact. Therefore, pick your verbs carefully. You might also be interested in our list of boring words and phrases to avoid in your writing.

Action Verbs Printable

Mental action verbs describe intellectual or inner dynamic actions. Discerning them can be challenging as many stative verbs describe thoughts and opinions. Therefore, we’re starting with some notable examples of mental action verbs. You might also be interested in our homophones word list .

He was analyzing testimonials all night and was late for work in the morning.

2. Appreciate

He appreciates that cooperation with the sales department is a necessary evil.

3. Consider

Mark considered his roommate’s decisions as foolish but kept silent.

As a child, Anna dreamt of playing the flute, but her parents never allowed it.

5. Evaluate

Nicholas wasn’t able to evaluate the situation properly due to shock.

I fear that the situation is getting out of hand.

Don’t forget to bring the book tomorrow!

The idea is growing on me.

I imagine you’re referring to Star Wars.

The CEO failed to learn anything from employee feedback.

11. Memorize

I try to memorize five new Chinese words every day.

I’m always pondering how to improve my attitude in adversity.  

13. Remember

She could vaguely remember Nick’s face after all those years they’d been apart.

14. Resolve

He resolved to learn Japanese and head the regional branch.

Reviewing for exams can help students join the dots seamlessly.

Don’t you think John was unhappy about the prospect?

To underline success, professional and personal alike, you may use suitable action verbs denoting improvement. Here are some examples: 

17. Accomplish

I think I’ve accomplished much in this short amount of time.

18. Customize

Our IT team has customized the chatbot.

19. Demonstrate

They demonstrated their knowledge during the seminar.

Merging the two start-ups was the best decision they ever made.  

Larry modified his views to meet project requirements.

22. Overhaul

Shareholders have decided to overhaul the training program.

She set to revamp company policies to include hybrid work models.

24. Revitalize

Yoga classes can help you revitalize your body and spirit in no time.

25. Streamline

Mark worked hard to streamline operations to benefit the entire team.

26. Strengthen

She strengthened her resolve to deal with her past trauma.

27. Surpass     

He has truly surpassed himself with his latest whitepaper.

I’m just testing my theory out; is there something wrong with that?

Did you know she trained as a psychologist before becoming a translator?

30. Transform

Transforming my career advancement plans is the best thing I’ve ever done.

31. Translate

My teacher says I must translate this sentence twenty times to grasp synonyms.

We’d appreciate it if you could keep us updated on the procedure.

33. Upgrade

I’ve upgraded my skills! Now, I’m a high-level wizard!

There are many action verbs suitable for business English. Let’s consider some examples of verbs denoting productivity. You might also be interested in our list of describing words .

34. Achieve

I need to work hard to achieve my goals.

Becoming an author can be one of the most creative and rewarding careers.

36. Publish

The feeling of publishing your first novel is like nothing else; the excitement and pride you will feel are unparalleled.

37. Actualize

To actualize your potential, you need to train harder.

He’s adapting the play to suit a wider audience.

39. Address

He addressed the audience with an enthusiasm rarely witnessed before.

Individuals need to adjust their approach to suit the team.

41. Advance

The creditor advanced $100 million to help the business with debt repayments.

42. Amplify

Maria’s vision of the upcoming meeting with shareholders was amplifying her morale.

The initiative aims to boost sales during the peak season.

44. Capitalize

He capitalized on the sudden increase in demand.

45. Collect

I’m going to collect the latest issue of the magazine first thing tomorrow morning.

46. Compute

The management uses feedback to compute the rate of employee performance.

47. Conceive

I simply can’t conceive how you could be so insensitive!

48. Conceptualize

I’m unsure if I’ll be able to conceptualize the bigger picture, but I’ll give it my best shot.

49. Consolidate

The HR department consolidated its processes in an attempt to attract talent.

50. Construct

I’m constructing the argument in my mind and have yet to shape it into words.

51. Co-produce

Good news, everyone: we’ll be co-producing the new car model with Honda!

Hannah curated the exhibit alongside her husband, rumored to be an expert in the field. 

Nina has been tasked with debugging the company’s in-house software.

54. Deliver

Ronaldo rarely fails to deliver a perfect pass.

We’ve hired a wildly popular digital artist to design our holiday brochure.

He’s good at devising out-of-the-box solutions; that’s why we hired him in the first place.

57. Diagnose

Will you be able to diagnose the error by the end of the day?

58. Enhance

Simon is trying to enhance his reputation by demonstrating his unique expertise.

59. Expedite

Teams’ efforts expedited departmental plans.

60. Explore

The brand is exploring collaborating on a new project with the new regional start-up .

61. Further

Mary’s donation furthered her company’s positive outlook.

62. Improve

We need to improve our merger plans.

63. Maximize

Johanna’s superb design skills maximized company impact during the presentation.  

64. Proofread

Nicholas proofreads books for an established publishing company.

65. Reconcile

Reconciling opposing viewpoints may be challenging, but we need to succeed all the same.

66. Stimulate

Her speech stimulated everyone present to perform better.

67. Sustain

Seasonal earnings will sustain our business during the dormant season.

She refused to yield power to the shareholders.

Action verbs can be used to efficiently communicate one’s ability. Here are some examples to help you get started.

69. Administer

They had to administer the revenues to prevent unfair play.

I’m thinking of learning to code programs.

71. Complete

He is working overtime to complete work.

72. Develop

She’s trying to develop empathy in an attempt to reinvent herself.

73. Document

We need to document and report employee feedback before the next meeting.

74. Drive                        

Sadly, Mary can’t drive, although she’s having none of it!

She edits a business magazine that’s becoming more popular by the day.

76. Execute

The higher-ups are set to execute the new strategy.

There’s much I need to learn to expand my views.

78. Implement

We plan to implement a policy allowing all new hires to sign up for benefits.

79. Interpret

We need to interpret the stats as best we can; we’re not getting any help from higher-ups.

80. Operate

Do you know how to operate the machines?

81. Organize

If I wanted you to organize my life, I wouldn’t have looked for a roommate.

82. Perform

I need to study more if I want to perform better than average.

83. Prepare

I am prepared for any eventuality.  

84. Realize

Can you realize the target or not?

Action verbs can be rather impactful when denoting leadership traits. They communicate expertise and willingness to deal with any obstacle. Here are the finest examples of dynamic verbs denoting leadership aspirations and expertise:

85. Arrange

I’ll arrange everything, so the only thing you need to do is follow through.

Management assessed the cost of the latest marketing initiative at ca. £7,000.

I’m assigning this job to you because I find your soft skills quite suitable.

My brother said he’d assist me with the task.

You need to decide on your own how to attain the goal; it’s rather subjective.

90. Authorize

To appeal to the workforce, the CEO authorized additional PTO.  

He’s built his career around his seamless communication skills.

Peculiarly enough, chairing the meeting is a new hire.

She is performing her tasks so seamlessly that I’m wondering if she’s been coached by a professional.

94. Coordinate

We need to coordinate our efforts to get the job done ASAP.

95. Delegate

Shouldn’t she be delegating work faster?

Higher-ups are deploying resources more sparingly due to past grievances.

A police officer is directing the traffic again.

98. Empower

The matter of how to empower remote workers is gaining broad recognition.

Is it right to enable new hires to become workaholics?

100. Encourage

Top brass are encouraging project development as it is expected to make them rich overnight.

101. Enforce

The police are trying to enforce speed limits with varying degrees of success.

102. Engineer

Can we engineer a successful meeting between office employees and remote teams?

103. Examine

They’re examining the cause of the failure with the help of our brand-new AI solution.

104. Exceed

He is exceeding all expectations; he’s truly a marvel!

105. Explain

Joshua explained to his mates that he’d be leaving the band due to personal obligations.

106. Foster

They’re fostering a sense of inclusivity, but I can tell they’re not too happy about the whole affair.

107. Fulfill

He has failed to fulfill his promise and is trying to make amends.

Mr. Smith guided us through all the trials and tribulations of the takeover.

He is heading the meeting regardless of the uproar.

Helping him overcome the divorce was the best thing I ever did.

111. Individualize

Our HR teams are individualizing onboarding programs to allow for better personalization.

112. Inspect

We went to inspect the damage after the flood.

113. Instruct

The management instructed the team to align goals with the brand mission.

114. Invest

He’s invested in his studies and hardly has any spare time for anything else.

115. Investigate

They’ve investigated allegations of corruption and found nothing conclusive.

116. Lecture

Is he lecturing newcomers again?

Businesses are lobbying for proposed changes in the tax laws.

118. Maintain

Jonny is maintaining a healthy lifestyle with a little help from his wife.

119. Manage

He has managed finances for as long as I can remember.

120. Map         

IT teams are mapping all network drives at the moment.

121. Moderate

Mary thinks she needs to moderate her stance as she came across as overly harsh.

Our HR experts mold new hires’ characters with ease.

123. Motivate

I am motivated to help my friends achieve their goals.

124. Network

Company meetings are a good opportunity to network .

125. Orchestrate

He charged us with orchestrating the production.

126. Outperform

Our company will easily outperform our biggest competitor again.

127. Oversee

We need to appoint an engineer to oversee the construction.

128. Participate

We’ll all participate in the upcoming get-along and are fired up.

129. Partner

Mark and Maria partnered for the competition, hoping to place better.

They are planning a project in line with new directives.

131. Preside

The new integrator will preside at tomorrow’s meeting.

Their HR representative probed into my private life, and I’m outraged!

133. Project

The revenue is projected to surge again.

134. Spearhead

He spearheaded the company’s expansion into the U.S.A.

135. Supervise

The logistics department is supervising the distribution of resources.

136. Support

I planned to support her claim, but she’d been lying through her teeth.

By nature, initiative portends action. That’s why dynamic verbs are so illustrative in this regard. Take a look at a couple of examples below:

I’m asking you again: “Will you be joining us tonight?”

138. Balance

Balancing professional and private life can get tricky during the peak season.

139. Budget

An additional $10 million needs to be budgeted for new projects in Q3.

140. Calculate

I’m calculating the total right now.

Mr. Watson is continually charting the progress of each team member, so be careful.

We’ll be able to close the deal tomorrow.

143. Co-author

Maria and her brother have co-authored a vegetarian cookbook.

144. Collaborate

We’ll be collaborating with a Korean firm to develop the new product.

145. Create

Creating new initiatives is going as planned, so don’t worry.

146. Discover

I’m discovering more about the wabi-sabi concept with each passing day.

147. Establish                    

Establishing a new regional branch sounds like a good idea at this point.

148. Facilitate

To facilitate group discussion, project leaders should be inventive.

To form an impactful sentence, you should consider using active verbs.

Who founded the museum, do you know?

151. Formalize

They are planning to formalize the deal, but details have yet to be defined.

152. Formulate

Try as I might, I failed to formulate a proper response.

153. Gather

Everyone should gather here after work as we will throw a welcome party.

154. Initiate

There are several ways to initiate knowledge sharing, and AI is just the tip of the iceberg.

155. Institute

Policymakers are about to institute a number of measures to enforce public safety.

156. Introduce

Today, he’ll be introducing new technological developments in healthcare.

Join us for the outing tonight; it’ll be fun.

Don’t joke around; it’s a serious matter!

The football player kicked his opponent during the match and was removed from the game.

160. Launch

We’re launching the project tomorrow, so prepare for potential inquiries.   

161. Pioneer

He’s regarded as a pioneer in the world of art and literature.

Your son is playing with matchsticks again!

163. Present

I’ll present the latest developments I’ve worked hard to come by.

164. Propose

The judge proposed the establishment of special tribunals for the trial of offenses disturbing the general peace.

He did raise some important questions, but the audience remained silent.

I’ll have reached NY headquarters by 5 PM.

167. Survey

I’m surveying the terrain now, so give me some time, and I’ll get back to you with the findings.

168. Team (up)

They teamed up for the upcoming competition, and their morale is through the roof!

I’ve been tutoring my son, but he’s still as dumb as a brick! It’s infuriating!

170. Visualize

I can visualize my future in the company going forward.

Communication rules supreme, especially in the age of rapid digitalization. Use action verbs to demonstrate your skill! Let’s illustrate best practices.

171. Convince

I am sure I can convince her to share her thoughts.

172. Communicate

We need to communicate the news during the meeting.

173. Compose

It took me some time to compose myself after the incident.

174. Cooperate

My son refuses to cooperate and denies his involvement in the incident.

175. Correspond

He still corresponds with Jamaican friends he met in Germany five years ago.

176. Define

Will you be able to define what’s wrong with this initiative?

Yes, he is drafting the legislation, but he’s taking his time.

178. Illustrate

Let me give you an example to illustrate the point.

179. Outline

The professor outlined his methodology in his latest book.

180. Persuade

Can I persuade you to come with us to the meet-up after work?

181. Promote

Mark was promoted to the First Division after nailing down his previous mission.

182. Publicize

He never did publicize his book, but it was an instant success nevertheless.

We’ve managed to find a volunteer to write our manifest.

Finally, finance experts use action verbs galore and not without a good reason. This hectic industry is best described by dynamic words, but do note that these verbs can be equally impactful in other contexts as well.

Let’s take a look at some notable examples.

184. Appraise

The team is appraising the property , with estimates still being vague.

They audit all accounts annually to ensure they align with company policies.

186. Convert

He keeps converting all his cash from pounds into dollars. Is he planning to visit the States?

187. Decrease

I’m decreasing the revenue forecast due to last month’s unexpected losses.

188. Estimate

Analysts estimate the trend will be reversing any time now.

189. Forecast

Shareholders forecast the profit to grow by 2% in this quarter.

I’ve lowered the assessment to reflect recent data.

191. Measure

Measuring the impact of public involvement in research is never an easy task.

192. Qualify

They seem to think that reading a couple of books on AI qualifies them as experts.

193. Reduce

Team members worked hard to reduce the negative impact the latest marketing initiative had invoked.

194. Report

Reporting with the latest developments is our journalist Mark. Mark, tell us what’s going on!

195. Research

Researching her prior experiences, Viola discovered how to further her goals.

Financial aid is available to help those struggling with essential payments like rent or mortgage fees.

197. Advise

A great accountant will advise you on the best business practices as well as help with your taxes.

Looking for more? Check out our list of adjectives for strong men !

Meet Rachael, the editor at Become a Writer Today. With years of experience in the field, she is passionate about language and dedicated to producing high-quality content that engages and informs readers. When she's not editing or writing, you can find her exploring the great outdoors, finding inspiration for her next project.

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5.1: Developing a Strong, Clear Thesis Statement

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• Athena Kashyap & Erika Dyquisto
• City College of San Francisco via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative

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.

Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis

1. a thesis creates an argument that builds from one point to the next, giving the paper a direction that the audience can follow as the paper develops..

This point often separates the best theses from the pack. A good thesis can prevent the two weakest ways of organizing a critical paper: the pile of information and the plot summary with comments. A paper that presents a pile of information will frequently introduce new paragraphs with transitions that simply indicate the addition of more stuff. (“Another character who exhibits these traits is X,” for instance.) Consider these examples:

A: The Rules and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey both tell women how to act.

B: By looking at The Rules , a modern conduct book for women, we can see how Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is itself like a conduct book, questioning the rules for social success in her society and offering a new model.

Example A would almost inevitably lead to a paper organized as a pile of information. A plot summary with comments follows the chronological development of a text while picking out the same element of every segment; a transition in such a paper might read, “In the next scene, the color blue also figures prominently.” Both of these approaches constitute too much of a good thing. Papers must compile evidence, of course, and following the chronology of a text can sometimes help a reader keep track of a paper’s argument.

The best papers, however, will develop according to a more complex logic articulated in a strong thesis. Example B above would lead a paper to organize its evidence according to the paper’s own logic.

2. A thesis fits comfortably into the Magic Thesis Sentence (MTS).

The MTS: By looking at _____, we can see _____, which most readers don’t see; it is important to look at this aspect of the text because _____.

Try it out with the examples from the first point:

A: By telling the story of Wesley and Buttercup’s triumph over evil, The Princess Bride affirms the power of true love.

B: Although the main plot of The Princess Bride rests on the natural power of true love, an examination of the way that fighting sticks–baseball bats, tree branches, and swords–link the frame story to the romance plot suggests that the narrator’s grandson is being trained in true love, that love is not natural but socialized.

Notice that the MTS adds a new dimension to point number one above. The first part of the MTS asks you to find something strange (“which most readers don’t see”), and the second part asks you to think about the importance of the strangeness. Thesis A would not work at all in the MTS; one could not reasonably state that “most readers [or viewers] don’t see” that film’s affirmation of true love, and the statement does not even attempt to explain the importance of its claim. Thesis B, on the other hand, gives us a way to complete the MTS, as in “By looking at the way fighting sticks link the plot and frame of The Princess Bride , we can see the way the narrator’s grandson is trained in true love, which most people don’t see; it is important to look at this aspect of the text because unlike the rest of the film, the fighting sticks suggest that love is not natural but socialized.” One does not need to write out the MTS in such a neat one-sentence form, of course, but thinking through the structure of the MTS can help refine thesis ideas.

3. A thesis says something about the text(s) exclusively .

If a thesis could describe many works equally well, it needs to be more specific. Let’s return to our examples from above:

Try substituting other works:

A: By telling the story of Darcy and Elizabeth’s triumph over evil, Pride and Prejudice affirms the power of true love.

Sure, that makes sense. Bad sign.

B: Although the main plot of Pride and Prejudice rests on the natural power of true love, an examination of the way that fighting sticks–baseball bats, tree branches, and swords–link the frame story to the romance plot suggests that the grandson is being trained in true love, that it is not natural but socialized.

Um, nope. Even if you have never read Pride and Prejudice , you can probably guess that such a precise thesis could hardly apply to other works. Good sign. The point here is that the thesis needs to be specific enough that its meaning relates to the specific work(s) you are writing about -- be it fiction or nonfiction.

4. A thesis makes a lot of information irrelevant.

If the thesis is specific enough, it will make a point that focuses on only a small part of the text be analyzed or a particular aspect of a larger topic. A writer should ultimately apply that point to the work as a whole, but a thesis will call attention to specific parts of it. Let’s look at those examples again. (This is the last time, I promise.)

One way of spotting the problem with Example A is to note that a simple plot summary would support its point. That is not of true example B, which tells the reader exactly what moments the paper will be discussed and why. The thesis is focused and concentrated.

5. Remember to Address the Work as a Whole: The “So What?”

As you complete your analysis, remember to think about what the effect this will have on the world of academia.

• Does your thesis introduce your topic in a clear way?
• Does the introduction mention what you will be addressing? Social constructs, gender issues, etc.

Writing a Thesis Statement

One legitimate question readers always ask about a piece of writing is “What is the big idea?” (You may even ask this question when you are the reader, critically reading an assignment or another document.) Every nonfiction writing task—from the short essay to the ten-page term paper to the lengthy senior thesis—needs a big idea, or a controlling idea, as the spine for the work. The controlling idea is the main idea that you want to present and develop.

For a longer piece of writing, the main idea should be broader than the main idea for a shorter piece of writing. Be sure to frame a main idea that is appropriate for the length of the assignment. Ask yourself, “How many pages will it take for me to explain and explore this main idea in detail?” Be reasonable with your estimate. Then expand or trim it to fit the required length.

Developing Thesis Statements from Topics

The big idea, or controlling idea, you want to present in an essay is expressed in a thesis statement. A thesis statement is often one sentence long, and it states your point of view. The thesis statement is not the topic of the piece of writing but rather what you have to say about that topic and what is important to tell readers.

Table 5.1 “Topics and Thesis Statements” compares topics and thesis statements.

Table 5.1 Topics and Thesis Statements

The first thesis statement you write will be a preliminary thesis statement, or a working thesis statement. You will need it when you begin to outline your assignment as a way to organize it. As you continue to develop the arrangement, you can limit your working thesis statement if it is too broad or expand it if it proves too narrow for what you want to say.

Using the topic you selected in Section 4.6 “ Prewriting Strategies ”, develop a working thesis statement that states your controlling idea for the piece of writing you are doing. On a sheet of paper, write your working thesis statement.

You will make several attempts before you devise a working thesis statement that you think is effective. Each draft of the thesis statement will bring you closer to the wording that expresses your meaning exactly. Sometimes, this refinement of the thesis statement happens after your write your first draft of the paper.

Guidelines for Drafting a Thesis Statement

It helps to understand why readers value the arguable thesis. What larger purpose does it serve? Readers will bring a set of expectations to an essay. If writers can anticipate the expectations of their readers, the better they will be able to persuade the audience to find the arguments convincing, interesting, and relevant.

Academic readers (and readers more generally) read to learn something new. They want to see the writer challenge commonplaces—either everyday assumptions about the object of study or truisms in the scholarly literature. In other words, academic readers want to be surprised so that their thinking shifts or at least becomes more complex by the time they finish reading an essay. Good essays problematize what we think we know and offer an alternative explanation in its place. They leave their reader with a fresh perspective on a problem.

We all bring important past experiences and beliefs to our interpretations of texts, objects, and problems. Writers can harness these observational powers to engage critically with what they are studying. The key is to be alert to what strikes you as strange, problematic, paradoxical, or puzzling about your topic. If writers can articulate this and a claim in response, they are well on their way to formulating an arguable thesis in the introduction.

How do I set up a “problem” and an arguable thesis in response?

All good writing has a purpose or motive for existing. The thesis is the writer’s surprising response to this problem or motive. This is why it seldom makes sense to start a writing project by articulating the thesis. The first step is to articulate the question or problem your paper addresses.

Here are some possible ways to introduce a conceptual problem in your paper’s introduction.

1. Challenge a commonplace interpretation (or your own first impressions).

How are readers likely to interpret this source or issue? What might intelligent readers think at first glance? (Or, if you’ve been given secondary sources or have been asked to conduct research to locate secondary sources, what do other writers or scholars assume is true or important about your primary source or issue?)

What does this commonplace interpretation leave out, overlook, or under-emphasize?

2. Help the reader see the complexity of your topic.

Identify and describe for the reader a paradox, puzzle, or contradiction in a primary source(s).

What larger questions does this paradox or contradiction raise for readers?

3. If research is part of the assignment, piggyback off another scholar’s research.

4. If research is part of the assignment, identify a gap in another scholar’s or a group of scholars’ research.

Summarize another scholar’s argument about your topic, primary source, or case study and explain to the reader why this claim is interesting. Or, summarize how scholars in the field tend to approach the topic.

Next, explain what important aspect this scholarly representation misses or distorts. Introduce the particular approach to the topic and its value.

5. If research is part of the assignment, bring in a new lens for investigating the case study or problem.

Summarize how a scholar or group of scholars has approached the topic.

Introduce a theoretical source (possibly from another discipline) and explain how it helps to address this issue from a new and productive angle.

Tip : your introductory paragraph will probably look like this:

Testing Your Thesis

Test a thesis statement’s arguability by asking the following questions:

1) Does the thesis only or mostly summarize a source?

If so, try some of the exercises above to articulate the paper’s conceptual problem or question.

2) Is the thesis arguable – can it be supported by evidence, and is it surprising and contentious?

If not, return to the sources and practice the exercises above.

3) Is the thesis about the primary source, or is it about the world?

If it’s about the world, revise it so that it focuses on primary source(s). Remember to include solid evidence to support the thesis.

"THREE-STORY THESIS STATEMENTS" BY AMY GUPTIL

How do you produce a good, strong thesis? And how do you know when you’ve gotten there? Many instructors and writers find useful a metaphor based on this passage by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.: 3

There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three-story intellects with skylights. All fact collectors who have no aim beyond their facts are one-story men. Two-story men compare, reason, generalize using the labor of fact collectors as their own. Three-story men idealize, imagine, predict—their best illumination comes from above the skylight.

One-story theses state inarguable facts. Two-story theses bring in an arguable (interpretive or analytical) point. Three-story theses nest that point within its larger, compelling implications. 4

The biggest benefit of the three-story metaphor is that it describes a process for building a thesis. To build the first story, you first have to get familiar with the complex, relevant facts surrounding the problem or question. You have to be able to describe the situation thoroughly and accurately. Then, with that first story built, you can layer on the second story by formulating the insightful, arguable point that animates the analysis. That’s often the most effortful part: brainstorming, elaborating and comparing alternative ideas, finalizing your point. With that specified, you can frame up the third story by articulating why the point you make matters beyond its particular topic or case.

Thesis: that’s the word that pops at me whenever I write an essay. Seeing this word in the prompt scared me and made me think to myself, “Oh great, what are they really looking for?” or “How am I going to make a thesis for a college paper?” When rehearing that I would be focusing on theses again in a class, I said to myself, “Here we go again!” But after learning about the three story thesis, I never had a problem with writing another thesis. In fact, I look forward to being asked on a paper to create a thesis.

Timothée Pizarro

For example, imagine you have been assigned a paper about the impact of online learning in higher education. You would first construct an account of the origins and multiple forms of online learning and assess research findings about its use and effectiveness. If you’ve done that well, you’ll probably come up with a well considered opinion that wouldn’t be obvious to readers who haven’t looked at the issue in depth. Maybe you’ll want to argue that online learning is a threat to the academic community. Or perhaps you’ll want to make the case that online learning opens up pathways to college degrees that traditional campus-based learning does not. In the course of developing your central, argumentative point, you’ll come to recognize its larger context; in this example, you may claim that online learning can serve to better integrate higher education with the rest of society, as online learners bring their educational and career experiences together. To outline this example:

• First story : Online learning is becoming more prevalent and takes many different forms.
• Second story : While most observers see it as a transformation of higher education, online learning is better thought of an extension of higher education in that it reaches learners who aren’t disposed to participate in traditional campus-based education.
• Third story : Online learning appears to be a promising way to better integrate higher education with other institutions in society, as online learners integrate their educational experiences with the other realms of their life, promoting the freer flow of ideas between the academy and the rest of society.

Here’s another example of a three-story thesis: 5

• First story : Edith Wharton did not consider herself a modernist writer, and she didn’t write like her modernist contemporaries.
• Second story : However, in her work we can see her grappling with both the questions and literary forms that fascinated modernist writers of her era. While not an avowed modernist, she did engage with modernist themes and questions.
• Third story : Thus, it is more revealing to think of modernism as a conversation rather than a category or practice.

Here’s one more example:

• First story : Scientists disagree about the likely impact in the U.S. of the light brown apple moth (LBAM) , an agricultural pest native to Australia.
• Second story : Research findings to date suggest that the decision to spray pheromones over the skies of several southern Californian counties to combat the LBAM was poorly thought out.
• Third story : Together, the scientific ambiguities and the controversial response strengthen the claim that industrial-style approaches to pest management are inherently unsustainable.

A thesis statement that stops at the first story isn’t usually considered a thesis. A two-story thesis is usually considered competent, though some two-story theses are more intriguing and ambitious than others. A thoughtfully crafted and well informed three-story thesis puts the author on a smooth path toward an excellent paper.

The concept of a three-story thesis framework was the most helpful piece of information I gained from the writing component of DCC 100. The first time I utilized it in a college paper, my professor included “good thesis” and “excellent introduction” in her notes and graded it significantly higher than my previous papers. You can expect similar results if you dig deeper to form three-story theses. More importantly, doing so will make the actual writing of your paper more straightforward as well. Arguing something specific makes the structure of your paper much easier to design.

Peter Farrell

Effective Thesis Statements

As mentioned before, a thesis statement is the controlling idea of your essay. It is the main idea that all of the other sentences in the essay relate to. After gathering information about your topic, you need to figure out what you want to say about it.

An effective thesis statement has two major characteristics.

1. An effective thesis statement makes a point about a topic. For this reason, it must do more than state a fact or announce what you plan to write about.

Statement of fact: The military recruits students in high schools.

Announcement: In this essay, I would like to discuss what’s wrong with military recruitment in high schools.

List thesis: We should not allow the military to recruit in high schools because recruiters violate privacy, manipulate naïve young people, and target low-income youth.

Effective thesis: We should end the abusive and discriminatory practice of military recruitment in high schools.

A statement of fact is not an effective thesis statement because it does not take a position, giving you nothing to develop in your essay. Likewise, an announcement of what you plan to write about in your essay does not take a position on the issue, leaving you with nothing to develop. A good thesis statement makes a claim that is arguable.

2. The most effective thesis statements do not list your main points but unite your main points into a larger, central idea. The list thesis above looks strong, but notice how the effective thesis connects the three points with the words “abusive” and “discriminatory.” Now we know how the three points relate to each other; they are more than just a list.

To turn three or four “reasons” or topic sentences into a thesis, consider what they have in common and what your overall point is.

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:

Weak thesis statement: My paper will explain why imagination is more important than knowledge.

Weak thesis statement: Religious radicals across America are trying to legislate their Puritanical beliefs by banning required high school books.

Weak thesis statement: Advertising companies use sex to sell their products.

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 manager 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 manager 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 4 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 their research and gain more direction in their 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 4.6 " Prewriting Strategies " 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: Kansas City 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

In an earlier section you determined your purpose for writing and your audience. You then completed a free writing 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.

Purdue OWL: Thesis Statements . Authored by: OWL Purdue. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube license.

Contributors

• Adapted from Writing for Success . Provided by: The Saylor Foundation. License: CC-NC-SA 3.0 .
• Adapted from " Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis. " Authored by: Erik Simpson. Provided by: LumenLearning. License: CC BY: Attribution
• Adapted from Formulating a Thesis . Authored by: Andrea Scott. Provided by: Princeton University. Project: WritingCommons. License: CC BY-NC-ND:
• Adapted from Writing in College . Authored by Amy Guptill. License: CC-NC-SA 4.0

This page most recently updated on June 8, 2020.

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100+ Research Vocabulary Words & Phrases

The academic community can be conservative when it comes to enforcing academic writing style , but your writing shouldn’t be so boring that people lose interest midway through the first paragraph! Given that competition is at an all-time high for academics looking to publish their papers, we know you must be anxious about what you can do to improve your publishing odds.

To be sure, your research must be sound, your paper must be structured logically, and the different manuscript sections must contain the appropriate information. But your research must also be clearly explained. Clarity obviously depends on the correct use of English, and there are many common mistakes that you should watch out for, for example when it comes to articles , prepositions , word choice , and even punctuation . But even if you are on top of your grammar and sentence structure, you can still make your writing more compelling (or more boring) by using powerful verbs and phrases (vs the same weaker ones over and over). So, how do you go about achieving the latter?

Below are a few ways to breathe life into your writing.

1. Analyze Vocabulary Using Word Clouds

Have you heard of “Wordles”? A Wordle is a visual representation of words, with the size of each word being proportional to the number of times it appears in the text it is based on. The original company website seems to have gone out of business, but there are a number of free word cloud generation sites that allow you to copy and paste your draft manuscript into a text box to quickly discover how repetitive your writing is and which verbs you might want to replace to improve your manuscript.

Seeing a visual word cloud of your work might also help you assess the key themes and points readers will glean from your paper. If the Wordle result displays words you hadn’t intended to emphasize, then that’s a sign you should revise your paper to make sure readers will focus on the right information.

As an example, below is a Wordle of our article entitled, “ How to Choose the Best title for Your Journal Manuscript .” You can see how frequently certain terms appear in that post, based on the font size of the text. The keywords, “titles,” “journal,” “research,” and “papers,” were all the intended focus of our blog post.

2. Study Language Patterns of Similarly Published Works

Study the language pattern found in the most downloaded and cited articles published by your target journal. Understanding the journal’s editorial preferences will help you write in a style that appeals to the publication’s readership.

Another way to analyze the language of a target journal’s papers is to use Wordle (see above). If you copy and paste the text of an article related to your research topic into the applet, you can discover the common phrases and terms the paper’s authors used.

For example, if you were writing a paper on  links between smoking and cancer , you might look for a recent review on the topic, preferably published by your target journal. Copy and paste the text into Wordle and examine the key phrases to see if you’ve included similar wording in your own draft. The Wordle result might look like the following, based on the example linked above.

If you are not sure yet where to publish and just want some generally good examples of descriptive verbs, analytical verbs, and reporting verbs that are commonly used in academic writing, then have a look at this list of useful phrases for research papers .

3. Use More Active and Precise Verbs

Have you heard of synonyms? Of course you have. But have you looked beyond single-word replacements and rephrased entire clauses with stronger, more vivid ones? You’ll find this task is easier to do if you use the active voice more often than the passive voice . Even if you keep your original sentence structure, you can eliminate weak verbs like “be” from your draft and choose more vivid and precise action verbs. As always, however, be careful about using only a thesaurus to identify synonyms. Make sure the substitutes fit the context in which you need a more interesting or “perfect” word. Online dictionaries such as the Merriam-Webster and the Cambridge Dictionary are good sources to check entire phrases in context in case you are unsure whether a synonym is a good match for a word you want to replace. 

To help you build a strong arsenal of commonly used phrases in academic papers, we’ve compiled a list of synonyms you might want to consider when drafting or editing your research paper . While we do not suggest that the phrases in the “Original Word/Phrase” column should be completely avoided, we do recommend interspersing these with the more dynamic terms found under “Recommended Substitutes.”

A. Describing the scope of a current project or prior research

B. outlining a topic’s background, c. describing the analytical elements of a paper, d. discussing results, e. discussing methods, f. explaining the impact of new research, wordvice writing resources.

For additional information on how to tighten your sentences (e.g., eliminate wordiness and use active voice to greater effect), you can try Wordvice’s FREE APA Citation Generator and learn more about how to proofread and edit your paper to ensure your work is free of errors.

Before submitting your manuscript to academic journals, be sure to use our free AI proofreader to catch errors in grammar, spelling, and mechanics. And use our English editing services from Wordvice, including academic editing services , cover letter editing , manuscript editing , and research paper editing services to make sure your work is up to a high academic level.

We also have a collection of other useful articles for you, for example on how to strengthen your writing style , how to avoid fillers to write more powerful sentences , and how to eliminate prepositions and avoid nominalizations . Additionally, get advice on all the other important aspects of writing a research paper on our academic resources pages .

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Categorized List of Action Verbs

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

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This categorized list contains only a few action verbs you can use to compose concise, persuasive , reader-centered resumes, cover letters, or other types of workplace documents. The examples are illustrations that overview the uses of action verbs in professional writing.

The media file above takes you to a sample resume containing action verbs.

Communication Skills

• Negotiated price reductions of up to 30% with key suppliers
• Interpreted financial information from the company's annual report
• Translated all relevant company information into three different languages

Other words: Advocated, Clarified, Corresponded, Encouraged, Interpreted, Negotiated, Persuaded, Presented, Publicized, Solicited, Spoke, Translated

Creative Skills

• Created an interior design layout for a 500 square foot retail venue
• Introduced a new method of navigating through the A Software Program
• Presented a new research project to the managers at the location

Other words: Acted, Applied, Composed, Created, Established, Founded, Improvised, Introduced, Navigated, Originated, Presented

Data / Financial Skills

• Computed and recorded inventory valuation on a monthly basis
• Documented inventory counts at the end of each working day
• Verified the amount owed to the creditor in the Accounts Payable account

Other words: Adjusted, Allocated, Budgeted, Compared, Computed, Counted, Documented, Estimated, Forecasted, Inventoried, Invested, Predicted, Projected, Quantified, Recorded, Retrieved, Verified

Helping Skills

• Assisted customers with choosing appropriate products
• Trained new employees in the plant through demonstration techniques
• Volunteered in the nursing home every weekend to serve the community

Other words: Aided, Assisted, Built, Demonstrated, Facilitated, Familiarized, Helped, Performed, Represented, Solved, Supported, Trained, Upheld, Volunteered, Worked

Management / Leadership Skills

• Administered a variety of surveys to collect data about the employees
• Implemented a safety communication program to promote safety awareness
• Recommended an alternative solution to one of the company's problems

Other words: Achieved, Administered, Assigned, Attained, Challenged, Coordinated, Decided, Delegated, Established, Executed, Handled, Headed, Implemented, Incorporated, Intervened, Launched, Led, Managed, Mediated, Motivated, Organized, Oversaw, Planned, Prioritized, Recommended, Scheduled, Supervised, United

Efficiency Skills

• Eliminated unnecessary cost of each unit of production
• Maximized profits by 15% during the month of July
• Heightened the level of employee moral through program incentives

Other words: Accelerated, Allocated, Boosted, Centralized, Downsized, Edited, Eliminated, Enhanced, Expanded, Expedited, Heightened, Lessened, Leveraged, Maximized, Merged, Optimized, Outlined, Outsourced, Prevented, Prioritized, Reorganized, Reduced, Revised, Simplified, Standardized, Stream-lined, Synthesized, Systematized, Upgraded

Research Skills

• Examined a new mechanism that may reduce sickness on the campus
• Identified a major defect in a microscopic organism last month
• Surveyed a group of Purdue students with regard to Product A

Other words: Analyzed, Collected, Compared, Controlled, Detected, Diagnosed, Evaluated, Examined, Gathered, Identified, Investigated, Located, Measured, Organized, Reported, Replicated, Researched, Reviewed, Searched, Surveyed, Wrote

Teaching Skills

• Defined a new product strategy and discussed how it would be implemented
• Instructed Department B on how to reduce inventory and raise net sales
• Prepared a tutorial manual for an English class last semester

Other words: Aided, Advised, Clarified, Communicated, Defined, Developed, Encouraged, Evaluated, Facilitated, Fostered, Guided, Helped, Incorporated, Informed, Initiated, Instructed, Lectured, Prepared, Supported, Supervised, Stimulated, Taught

Technical Skills

• Assembled an entire computer programming simulation for my CPT course
• Designed a new form of Widget C for a manufacturing facility
• Programmed three new computer programs tailored for a network system

Other words: Analyzed, Assembled, Built, Calculated, Computed, Conducted, Designed, Devised, Engineered, Maintained, Operated, Programmed, Reengineered, Remodeled, Transmitted

Sources/References:

Rosalie Maggio, How to Say It, Webster's Thesaurus .

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