what is a thesis statement for marriage

How to Create a Strong Thesis on Marriage

Lane cummings.

Your thesis statement is the central focus and main argument of an essay or paper, and it is ideally an organic development from your observations and research, as states the University of Texas. Your thesis should lucidly indicate to the reader how you are going to approach the topic, similar to a map or blueprint. It should be debatable, specific and very narrow. For example, if you are writing a paper or article on the subject of marriage, approaching the task of creating a solid thesis strategically is crucial; as with a subject that is as commonly understood as marriage, it would be easy to fall into the trap of creating a thesis that is not truly arguable.

Write down issues and concerns that directly relate to marriage and that you feel strongly passionate about. The more passionate you are about your thesis, the easier it will be to write the paper.

Examine your list. Circle the issues that interest you most of all. Research these issues thoroughly, try to make connections, and look for patterns so that you can create a strong and interesting thesis. For example, if you are researching the background of spouses who get divorces, an interesting fact to examine might be the history of marriage and divorce of the parents of each spouse.

Write your thesis in simple English, based on your findings. A thesis based on the research you have done will be inherently strong, as you will be able to support it. For example, if you discover that divorce is higher in couples where one person has divorced parents, you could state that couples who have had divorced parents have a higher likelihood of separating.

Revise your thesis. Revising is key to creating a strong thesis. Choose more descriptive words and use a declarative tone. For example, you could revise the thesis in step 3 to: Adults who have experienced the divorce of their own parents during childhood have a higher likelihood of terminating their marriage.

Add one adverb to your thesis to give it more of a punch. For example, to the thesis written above, you could write: "Adults who have experienced the divorce of their own parents during childhood have a drastically/dramatically/radically/severely higher likelihood of terminating their marriage."

About the Author

Lane Cummings is originally from New York City. She attended the High School of Performing Arts in dance before receiving her Bachelor of Arts in literature and her Master of Arts in Russian literature at the University of Chicago. She has lived in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she lectured and studied Russian. She began writing professionally in 2004 for the "St. Petersburg Times."

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Thirteen Theses on Marriage

T hirteen theses in defense of so-called heteronormativity and other supposed heresies, from a Christian and specifically Catholic perspective, for the purpose of public debate:

1)Homo sapiens is a sexually dimorphic species that depends for its propagation and socialization on the complementary differences between male and female.

2)Sexual difference, not variation in sexual inclination or “orientation,” is fundamental to the existence and well-being of the human race.

3)A human being comprises body and soul, and human sexual desires are influenced by developments and disorders of both body and soul.

4)Sexual desire, sexual intention, and sexual action must be distinguished, whether for psychological or moral or legal purposes, and each may be well ordered or disordered.

5)Well-ordered sexual intentions have in view goods both of body and of soul, goods that are at once personal and societal.

6)Consideration of these goods ought to respect the conjugal nature and reproductive potential of the most fundamental sexual act.

7)Consideration of these goods ought to respect the highest human good, which is enjoyment of God and of one another in God.

8)All human persons are constitutionally ordered to this highest good and as such are deserving of respect regardless of their desires, intentions, or actions.

9)All persons are capable, by intention or action, of subverting the human vocation and, insofar as they do so, are deserving of disapprobation and well served by appropriate social penalties that do not infringe upon their elemental rights.

10)The full development of a person is possible without sexual intimacy; where sexual intimacy is chosen, the faithful marriage of man and woman provides the only context in which that intimacy can be properly realized and fully expressed.

11)Moreover, the marriage of man and woman, by virtue of the natural law of fecundity, establishes a society more primitive than the state and bears inalienable rights untouchable by the state, which indeed is obligated to offer that society its support.

12)It is therefore right that public policy should encourage the well-being of the natural family unit and discourage activities that fundamentally undermine it, including sexual activities; fornication, for example, whether inter-sex or same-sex, ought to be discouraged in a manner respectful of individual freedom and responsibility.

13)The above claims have public relevance because they concern the public good; they are no more or less discriminatory than other bona fide claims about the public good, and their contraries or alternatives have no greater prima facie claim to public consideration.

Douglas Farrow is professor of Christian Thought at McGill University and a member of First Things ’ advisory council.

By Jonathan Rauch

I admire First Things and Douglas Farrow for asking a secular Jewish homosexual gay-marriage supporter, a “SJHGMS,” to respond to his thirteen theses. That shows the kind of commitment to fair-minded discussion that the marriage debate could use more of. But I find myself at a bit of a loss as to how to respond. From the point of view of this SJHGMS, Farrow’s theses are, as Wolfgang Pauli once said, not even wrong. Most of them lack refutable content (what William James called “cash value”), amounting instead to metaphysical propositions that, for the most part, one must take or leave.

Predictably, I leave them. It’s not even that I choose to leave them; it’s that I’m not sure what they mean or how to get a handle on them. For example, I don’t know what sort of evidence or criticism could be brought to bear on Mr. Farrow’s claim that only sexual difference, and not sexual orientation, is fundamental to human well-being. He will forgive me, and other gay people, for not taking his word for this, and for seeing in it little more than an expression of heterosexual self-congratulation.

The epistemological problem with such propositions is that they provide no common purchase for people of diverse standpoints to discuss public policy. If anything, they excuse the proposer from engaging real-world evidence on marriage and family policy or assessing the equality claims of sexual minorities. This way of talking does not serve “the purpose of public debate” very well, which is why I’m glad the debate generally doesn’t sound like Farrow’s list.

My own way of talking approaches marriage as a social institution, not a Platonic form. Marriage is not infinitely malleable, for sure, but it is also not reducible to one perfect idea. It serves multiple ends and constituencies, and its strength comes from being a hybrid of legal and social, secular and religious, public and private. Attempting to reduce it to a single defining purpose (e.g., male-female, one-flesh union) or constituency (e.g., children) makes it weaker, not stronger, by narrowing its base and its meaning. Insisting that it cannot fundamentally change as the world changes likewise weakens it, by making it brittle or irrelevant or both.

To those epistemological and substantive complaints, I’m sad to add a moral one by noting that Farrow has written homosexuals out of his moral universe. Any sexual expression of love between me and my life partner (now husband), Michael, is mere fornication that should be socially discouraged? Does Farrow have any idea how much gay people have suffered from “social discouragement”? (And, no, there is no “respectful” way to do it.) How much stigma and torment our love has borne? I wish I could help him and others who talk this way to see why, to a gay American in 2012, their approach seems not only unpersuasive but also callous.

Jonathan Rauch is a contributing editor for National Journal and the Atlantic , a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, and a vice president of the Independent Gay Forum.

By Paige Hochschild

D ouglas Farrow’s theses constitute a defense of marriage as an institution that orders persons to the common good, arising from the natural differences of male and female, the complementarity of which is crucial for the fulfillment of the individual’s good. Sexual difference, he claims, and not inclination or desire, is foundational for the “existence and well-being of the human race.”

Some argue for gay marriage as a fundamental political and moral right by essentializing sexual desire, making it the dominant factor determining a person’s being and well-being. The concept of fulfillment intrinsic to that view is not easily integrated with a concept such as the “public good.” Conservative defenders of gay marriage like Jonathan Rauch observe the personal and social stability that comes with legalizing gay relationships.

However, it is not clear how essential sex is to these relationships, now that it serves chiefly to align political identities. The sense of “public good” at work in this conception is at best the laudable, but surely inadequate, coincidence of the romantic fulfillment of many individuals. This essentializing of sexual desire oversimplifies human persons and their proper end, and excludes the possibility that complementarity reveals something basically human.

Catholic thinkers are almost as guilty of essentializing sexual desire when they fail to reject the deep current in the tradition that sees women primarily in terms of sexual utility. As a consequence, sexual complementarity is either distorted or over-simplified. Catholic “New Feminism,” with deep foundations in late-twentieth-century theology, defends the reality of sexual difference, and this is good. But the complementary relation between male and female is explained by layers of metaphor planted in the ground of the essential desire of the woman for her man.

Where should we locate sexual difference in the human person, philosophically speaking? The Catholic philosopher John M. Rist, in his recent book What Is Truth? , summarizes two narratives dominant in the tradition. One locates sex difference in the body and not the soul, giving rise to a dualist ascetical theology; the other locates sex difference in the soul-body composite precisely because of the deep, natural unity of body and soul.

St. Thomas Aquinas prefers the latter, more Aristotelian picture. He therefore says we must look at woman in two ways: in herself (as a spiritual being, made for God) and in relation to man (as a biological entity made for man, in a way that man is not made for her, for the purpose of reproduction).

The “two ways of looking” at woman opens the possibility of real tension between an earthly and a supernatural vocation. For Rist, the more Thomistic narrative is clearly preferable because it allows sexual difference to be more than merely bodily. But he doubts the usefulness of either traditional narrative, given that the worldly ordering of woman to man for the sake of sexual utility is elaborated with reference to her relative weakness, her moral inferiority, her tendency to be ruled by the emotions (thus tending more easily to vice), and above all, her relative passivity.

“New Feminism” avoids the problem by taking the metaphysical language of the tradition—supposing it to be a clear exposition of the biblical complementarity of Christ and the Church—and giving the terms new meanings. Woman is raised up, like Christ himself, precisely in her passivity and receptivity to the Father. What is weakness is, through Christ, moral superiority, even “genius.” Woman becomes, in relation to man, an icon and example of real Christian loving.

We must do good theological anthropology, speaking meaningfully of complementarity in defense of the good of heterosexual marriage. But this must be done with philosophical care and honest examination of the tradition. This will then provide us with a language that allows us to reflect more realistically, more pastorally, on married life.

Paige Hochschild is assistant professor of theology at Mount St. Mary’s University.

By Russell D. Moore

I agree with virtually everything in this fine manifesto, but I would like to amend my “amen” with an “and yet.” Douglas Farrow is certainly right to ground a vision of human sexuality in the created order and to distinguish between the means of human flourishing and individual human desires or orientations. He also is correct to argue that marriage, and the sexual difference on which it is built, is grounded in a natural order bearing rights and responsibilities the state should recognize but does not bestow and thus cannot redefine.

My “and yet” comes with the theses’ limitation to the natural order. I do not, make no mistake, object to natural-law reasoning or argumentation. There is, in C. S. Lewis’ words, a “Tao” recognizable by every person. Indeed, the Holy Scriptures themselves maintain that there are things that we, in J. Budziszewski’s words, “can’t not know.” In his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul writes that “nature itself” teaches certain aspects of sexual differentiation. Moreover, Farrow is right that there is a public good involved in recognizing the dignity of marriage, one that gives, as he puts it, “public relevance” to these arguments regardless of whether one agrees with any claim to revelation.

The theses themselves aren’t limited to merely natural goods, but point to God. In this, Farrow is obviously not using “God” as a generic metaphor for “the Ultimate” but is speaking of a personal Creator who is to be “enjoyed” and through whom enjoyment of others is possible. This being the case, I would want to add to Farrow’s theses a distinctively Christian urgency for why the Christian Church must bear witness to these things.

Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, in his recent work on the dignity of humanity, Man, the Image of God , notes that one of the statements from Vatican II most often quoted by Pope Benedict XVI is this: “It is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man becomes clear.” This is certainly true when it comes to marriage and sexuality. The Torah and Jesus himself ground sexual and marital fidelity in the creation design.

But, in the unveiling of the gospel mystery, the apostles then reveal precisely why this design is so cosmically crucial. The one-flesh union of marriage is patterned after an archetype, that of Christ and his church. A disruption of the marital design harms human flourishing, to be sure, but also defaces the icon of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our neighbors of no religion and of different religions need not respond, of course, to a call to gospel mystery. We can present to them a case, on their own terms, as to why jettisoning normative marriage is harmful. But it seems to me that we harm the cause of public debate and reason if we do not attend to what’s at stake in Christian theology itself as we do so.

We speak publicly of healthy marriages because we love our neighbors and seek their well-being. But we must recognize that at stake is also the very mystery that defines our existence as a church: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Russell D. Moore is the dean of the School of Theology and professor of Christian theology and ethics at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

By Sherman Jackson

D ouglas Farrow’s “Thirteen Theses” presented me with a dilemma of sorts. This was created not so much by any moral ambiguity in his professions per se (though some inspired less certainty than others) but by two features of my own interpretive hardwiring as a Muslim.

The first relates to a certain vigilance vis- -vis any statement that purports to be normative: Is it a statement of fact, morality, or politics? Is “the faithful marriage of man and woman provides the only context in which that [sexual] intimacy can be properly realized and fully expressed” a statement of fact? Or is it a moral claim? Or is it a political platform instructing us on what types of relationships the state should tolerate?

As a statement of fact, I doubt this can be empirically substantiated. I agree, however, as a matter of moral conviction, that marriage is the only context in which sexual intimacy should be enjoyed, and I believe that marriage itself is incapable of legitimating all sexual arrangements. Yet I disagree that the state should refuse to tolerate intimacy expressed through any medium other than monogamous, heterosexual marriage. In Islam, non-Muslims (and, indeed, Muslims) have a qualified “right” to act “immorally.” Similarly, and with appropriate qualification, our liberal democratic American state is supposed to have no morality of its own that it can invoke above and beyond the so-called will of the people.

The second feature of my interpretive hardwiring relates to theology and its ongoing tango with liberalism. Crudely stated, do the dictates of right reason always reflect the concrete will of God? Or is God possessed of “character” and a “sovereign freedom” by virtue of which God might prefer the a-reasonable or less reasonable to the supremely reasonable? When Farrow speaks, for example, of “the public good,” are the dictates of reason so exclusive and univocal that we could not imagine equally reasonable means of serving this interest? Might not less rational or even a-rational arrangements prove equally God-pleasing, or at least capable of averting divine dissatisfaction?

Reason—and, if I understand Farrow correctly, perhaps I should say Rawlsian reason—may demand a public maximum (i.e., that we be most reasonable in our public justifications) while allowing a private minimum (i.e., that we may be as unreasonable as we like in our private preferences). But does religion necessarily proceed on the same calculus? If so, how is it to aid us in reconciling our morally frail, religiously minimalist, private selves with the maximalist moral dictates of a society committed to the supremely rational?

I do not wish to be misunderstood here. It was the rule rather than the exception that I found myself in agreement with Farrow’s assertions (especially theses eleven and thirteen). But I remain hesitant about the implications of giving them full assent as universally valid norms to be uniformly applied to everyone. Ultimately, I suspect, there is no universal morality that all of us will recognize as such, and it is only the legal monism of the modern state that compels us to look for such. I, for one, welcome the day when we are secure enough to abandon this search and open ourselves to the possibility of political structures that can accommodate multiple communal claims to absolute moral truth.

Sherman Jackson is King Faisal Chair of Islamic Thought and Culture at the University of Southern California.

A s a card-carrying member of the secular right, my response to these thirteen theses is necessarily mixed. Given my lack of faith, the key question is whether religious and non-religious supporters of traditional institutions like marriage can find common ground or, indeed, whether there is any coherent non-faith-based case to be made for social conservatism.

These theses suggest a few key features that secular and religious supporters of traditional values share. First is the assumption that man is by nature fallen. Second is an understanding that each living person must sacrifice for the sake of future generations. For the secular traditionalist, man is inherently weak and imperfect. Although capable of high ideals and a transcendent vision, he is sometimes destined to fall short. For the Christian, man is inherently sinful. For both sensibilities, perfection is unattainable, man’s reach will exceed his grasp, and utopia can never be achieved on earth. However idyllic the conditions, evil is lurking.

The question is: What kind of society will bring us closer to the good? Traditionalists of all stripes, I think, believe that clear, coherent, bright-line rules work best. For the religious, commands for living come from God. For non-believers, longstanding practices that have stood the test of time deserve deference. This is especially so in the areas of sexuality, reproduction, and family life, where temptations are strong and our tendency to pursue our desires at others’ expense ever-present. The distinguished British conservative jurist, Lord Patrick Devlin, said that fornication should be regarded as a natural weakness that can never be rooted out, but must be kept within bounds. Devlin knew that sin would never be eliminated. But he also understood that a clear statement of expectations, and common standards of respectable conduct, would help minimize occasions for sin. Categorical precepts best guide our behavior, and thus keep transgression within bounds.

On this view, moral absolutes are necessary and desirable, regardless of whether and when they are broken. Although habitual flouting can weaken rules, the hope is that bad habits never get out of hand. The critical objective is to prevent a lapse from becoming a way of life. Clear commands accomplish this more effectively than the vague precepts of moral individualism.

This vision stands in contrast to the more enlightened position that regular violations argue for doing away with the rule or at least qualifying it significantly. On this view, a rule is only as good as the number of people who keep it, and hypocrisy (espousing a precept while flouting it oneself) is ridiculous and morally bankrupt. Violators forfeit the right to endorse moral rules or impose them on others. On this conception, goodness is achieved not by aspiring to an unattainable ideal but by creating social conditions that remove all occasion for sin. This position secular and religious traditionalists know to be fantastic. Social reform can never eliminate transgression, and sin will always be with us.

What about our vision of the future? Our society is now awash in presentism, evinced by our celebration of a form of marriage that is intrinsically sterile, our diminishing willingness to bear and raise children, and the wanton irresponsibility of reckless entitlement spending and debt.

These trends are antithetical to the traditionalist view, whether secular or religious, which sees present generations as stewards of the future. The covenant between the born and unborn grows weaker, and our sense of responsibility toward lives not yet lived is fading. The principles embodied in these thirteen theses seek to hold back that tide.

Amy Wax is the Robert Mundheim Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania.

By Paul Griffiths

I agree with Douglas Farrow’s first two theses—that homo sapiens is a sexually dimorphic species and so characterized more by differences between male and female than by variation—but with the qualification that these sound like empirical claims, and it is perfectly conceivable that advances in reproductive technology might make sexual dimorphism and difference irrelevant. Better, then, to frame these theses in ?the subjunctive.

I agree without reservation to theses three through five, and I also agree with thesis six (“Consideration of these goods ought to respect the conjugal nature and reproductive potential of the most fundamental sexual act”) but with worries about what “most fundamental” means, and unclarity about what “conjugal nature and reproductive potential” means. Human sexual desire exceeds, radically, interest in and concern for the reproductive, as is evident from the Christian understanding of it as participatory in Christ’s love for the Church, and as is also evident from any superficial study of its phenomenology. It includes, and properly so, interest in receiving oneself as lover by being loved. Hyper-concern with the reproductive runs the serious risk of occluding this. Perhaps “conjugal nature” covers this very large territory, but it’s not clear that it does.

I rejoin Farrow for theses seven through nine, but have a serious reservation about thesis ten. Here he argues that “the faithful marriage of man and woman provides the only context in which [human sexuality] can be properly realized and fully expressed.”

This thesis needs to acknowledge that there are or may be many partial expressions of the goods proper to human sexuality outside the faithful marriage of man and woman and that sexual expression within the context of marriage may be deeply damaged and profoundly improper, up to and including rape and other forms of sexual violence. Not to acknowledge these truths risks a theologically inadequate optimism about sex within marriage, along with a blind denial of sexual goods outside marriage.

I part again from Farrow on the last clause of thesis eleven, in which he states that the political community is obligated to offer its support to marriage. There is, perhaps, in the order of being such an obligation, but it is certainly not apparent to all ordinarily rational people.

Farrow assumes here, and in theses twelve and thirteen, that the views expressed in the first eleven theses are sufficiently evident to the ordinarily rational person today. Yet ours is a pagan late-capitalist democracy ordered to idolatry of the market, and so there is little hope that Farrow’s Christian propositions can be appealed to in support of public-policy positions opposing, say, homosexual marriage.

In such a situation, the claims of twelve and thirteen seem to many arbitrary and ungrounded—much as their contradictories probably seem to Farrow. This has nothing to do with truth; it has to do with what it is prudent and possible to advocate in our situation. To say what twelve and thirteen say to the pagans of our time is to act like the monoglot Englishman traveling abroad who, when faced with incomprehension by the locals, speaks English louder. It doesn’t help. This won’t help, either. It makes the Church look ridiculous.

So I suggest the following thesis: It is time for the Church to treat North American positive law about the contractual form called marriage—a contract dissolvable at the will of either partner—as it already treats North American positive law about the availability of contraception: that is, as something to be tolerated, identified with clarity for what it is, and a golden opportunity for clarifying the truth to the faithful.

Paul Griffiths is Warren Chair of ?Catholic Theology at Duke Divinity School.

By David Blankenhorn

W ith admirable clarity, these theses adumbrate the orthodox Christian, and particularly Catholic, understanding of the goods of sexuality and marriage. They combine natural-law reasoning and theological claims; fully appreciating them likely requires both the cardinal and theological virtues. In my view, their primary utility will be further to educate and motivate those who already in essence agree with them.

But are these formulations likely to encourage skeptics to rethink old positions? I doubt it. Douglas Farrow’s theses both reflect and presuppose a comprehensive system of thought: a philosophy in which all values are rank-ordered and fit seamlessly together, producing a worldview in which each aspect reinforces all others and that is finally at least largely impervious to empirical challenge. Such a comprehensive system of thought does not really invite or even permit the outsider to tinker with it, or to pull out one piece only for closer inspection, or to conclude, “Yes to this, but no to that, please.”

Of course, I bring my own biases to the table. I am a philosophical liberal, a marriage nut, and a wobbly, mostly wannabe, Christian. I agree virtually without reservation with Farrow on theses one, two, four, six, nine, eleven, and twelve. For the others, I have considerable respect and at least some sympathy—but somewhere along the winding trail from natural law to theological doctrine, he and I part company (though I’d happily tag along as what the Communists used to call a fellow traveler, if he’d tolerate the company).

I agree that arguments contrary to Farrow’s “have no greater prima facie claim to public consideration” than do his. But so what? That formally correct fact won’t matter much, so long as Farrow does not adequately trouble himself to translate his particular religious arguments into general public arguments.

An example of a religious argument in favor of Sunday closing laws is “God commands us to honor the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.” An example of translating that belief into a public argument is “Observing the Sabbath is important enough to people of faith to outweigh the objections of some unbelievers.” Substantively, in terms of the practical policy question at hand, the two formulations are nearly identical. But in terms of effective communication in the public square, the second one is better. It’s better because the first formulation is accessible only to believers and does not acknowledge values pluralism, whereas the second is accessible to all persons and acknowledges values pluralism.

Today’s marriage debate is almost entirely about values in conflict, not values in harmony. No one can effectively join that debate without confronting this fact. But Farrow’s propositions sidestep the challenge almost entirely, offering us less a transparent argument than a set of interlocking definitions. The critical mass of skeptics, seekers, and the undecided have little access to this type of presentation. We should not be surprised or disappointed when their main response is “Huh?”

David Blankenhorn is president of the Institute for American Values and author of The Future of Marriage .

By Eve Tushnet

D ouglas Farrow’s “Thirteen Theses” speak of sexual and public morality on the most universal level possible. This may account for a certain antiseptic sting to his words. While we are all called first to relationship with God, and then to a particular vocation, we’re not called as generic-human. We’re called by name. You can tell people that their way of life is wrong, that it’s unsustainable, that it’s damaging, and, even if they agree with you, they will not be able to change if they can’t imagine a different way of life. We are currently suffering from a profound failure of imagination. We do not lack lists of rules. We lack a belief that we can live by these rules without losing the love and care for one another that help us lead fully human lives. Farrow gives us bright black-and-white lines, but they’re lines painted on a deserted highway.

For me, as a lesbian Catholic with no discernible call to monastic life, the absence within the Christian churches of a deep understanding of the human need for vocation is glaringly obvious. Too many gay Christians grow up learning that there’s simply a blank space where God’s vision for their future should be. There’s a list of do-nots and a free-floating sense of shameful disorder, but no image of a path in life on which God might call and lead them. But this void in our culture damages everyone.

Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, in their recent book Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think About Marrying , describe what’s been called the “Second Demographic Transition”: low fertility, plummeting marriage rates, and an increasing percentage of children born out of wedlock. The winners from a secular perspective—mainly the rich and well-educated, who are more likely to marry and to practice a religion—choose their own adventure, reaping the benefits of freedom and mobility. The losers get lost, drifting without familial support. In this world, no one is called to a life of sacrifice; they either choose the life they want and claim it, or long for it and never find it. The purpose and meaning of one’s life in both cases is generated by the individual rather than coming as a call from God.

So here are a few initial theses of my own, on the vocations crisis which has spurred Farrow to write his theses.

A vocation is a call to pour out your life in loving service. Everyone has a vocation in this sense. Some are called to pour out that love directly to God. Most of us, not being hermits, also are called to love and serve others: a parish priest his parishioners, a cloistered nun her community, a wife her husband, a father his children. Beyond these perhaps-obvious vocations, there are vocations to serve those in need, to serve one’s friends with the depth of love Christ showed to his own friends, to care for aging parents, perhaps even an artistic vocation to serve God and one’s audience by presenting beauty and sublimity.

What isn’t in this framework, by the way, is the solution some Christians have suggested for the problem of late-onset marriage: a “vocation to singleness.” Vocation, as I understand it, is the rope tying people to God and one another. A “vocation to singleness” is a rope tied only on one end.

Each vocation has its own characteristic loneliness—a crown of thorns as well as a crown of stars. Loneliness is an intrinsic element of marriage. It’s intrinsic to the life of a religious community. For me, there’s the difficulty and unaccountability of living alone and the poignance of watching my friends marry. None of these lonelinesses are signs of failure as long as you are still willing to extend yourself in love toward God and others.

The fear and loneliness of love can be borne more easily when our vocations are publicly acknowledged and honored. When people feel that their sacrifices are ignored or mocked, it’s much harder to continue. Over the past century, marriage, priesthood and religious life, and friendship have all lost a great deal of societal honor. The sacrifices are just as necessary as they always were. If we want people to make them, though, we need to honor them.

Eve Tushnet is a freelance writer whose ?work has appeared in Commonweal , National Review,  and the Washington Blade .

By Thomas Joseph White

W here should we locate the deepest core of the contemporary crisis in marriage? The fundamental problem is found not in the realm of the political, or even in peoples’ sexual practices. Throughout history, conventional sexual practices have very often failed to live up to objective moral norms. This issue today, rather, has to do with speculative reason, which concerns the structure of reality and the order of truth as such.

The problem in contemporary culture is that a large proportion of society is increasingly blind to the fundamental structure of human nature and to the ethical character of human sexuality. In fact, the prevalent vision of sexuality peddled is primarily aesthetic. Sexual experiences are something like listening to one’s favorite songs or taking trips to the art gallery. The only remaining ethical norm is one of procedural liberalism. All is permitted as long as no one gets hurt and everything is consensual.

What Douglas Farrow’s thirteen theses indicate (suggesting thereby a more developed argument) is that this is too thin a notion of ethics to sustain a healthy ethos of marriage and, over time, a functional culture. For human beings come from and are loved and educated in the human heterosexual family. Is that a bigoted or sectarian claim? In fact, Farrow’s list of fundamental truths points eloquently to the basic ontological foundations for human reproduction and the ethical education of children in society, and from these he reasonably draws a normative social claim: Heterosexual marriage open to the transmission of life is the morally normative context of human sexuality.

This view stems from natural realism: There is a unity between human sexuality and reproduction. The purposeful choice to sever that unity is always morally problematic. It has negative consequences for the moral character and ethical development of individuals, families, and societies, necessarily and inevitably. Over time, the separation of the unitive and procreative dimensions of sexuality leads to the progressive rise of the “nightmare menu”: on one side, ways to reproduce without recourse to sexuality (screening to selectively reduce the inconvenient), and on the other, ways to seek sexual union without reproduction, altering socially and legally our definitions of sexuality and marriage.

The root of the problem is contraception. Contraception itself is a practice, but its deeper effect is found in the order of speculative reason and the perception of truth itself. The contraceptive culture renders obscure our very understanding of the nature of human sexuality in its biological, ethical, and inevitably political dimensions. This affirmation may seem too “philosophical” and therefore inopportune to us politically. Both the left and the right want to find a form of discourse free from much theoretical reasoning about human nature. That is naïve. Politics is short-sighted, and any lasting victory for an ethical form of society requires that we nurture and develop theoretical insight into the foundations of human nature and ethics.

Farrow is pointing us to insights that can be further developed by argument and illustration. Such is the kind of reasoning that needs to be advanced in the public square: not an argument from sectarian exceptionalism or the unique privileges of a private religious conscience, but arguments from the inalterable structure of things. Christians can rightly speak in this case of natural-law theory, but we should also speak without shame of biblical revelation. The two overlap: Biblical revelation comes to the aid of fallen, ailing human reason and helps orient and elevate it. As a culture turns away from Judeo-Christian revelation, public reason is impoverished, not improved.

Farrow’s style has a touch of the Barthian about it, with something of the rhetorical flavor of the Barmen Declaration. But his reasoning stands to correct the deficits of an isolationist fideism. We need to make public arguments that touch directly upon the truth about human nature as available to human reason. That is itself a corrective to the effects of sin, and it can be a form of argument derived from and subject to the work of the grace of God.

Pope Paul VI called the Church “expert in humanity” when it came to underscoring the dignity of the human person in the modern world. We would do well to consult the Church’s teaching anew if we would seek to reclaim today an authentic humana vita .

Thomas Joseph White, O.P., is director of the Thomistic Institute at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C

Image by Drazen Nesic via Creative Commons . Image cropped.

Articles by Douglas Farrow

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How to write a thesis statement, what is a thesis statement.

Almost all of us—even if we don’t do it consciously—look early in an essay for a one- or two-sentence condensation of the argument or analysis that is to follow. We refer to that condensation as a thesis statement.

Why Should Your Essay Contain a Thesis Statement?

• to test your ideas by distilling them into a sentence or two
• to better organize and develop your argument
• to provide your reader with a “guide” to your argument

In general, your thesis statement will accomplish these goals if you think of the thesis as the answer to the question your paper explores.

How Can You Write a Good Thesis Statement?

Here are some helpful hints to get you started. You can either scroll down or select a link to a specific topic.

How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is Assigned How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is not Assigned How to Tell a Strong Thesis Statement from a Weak One

How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is Assigned

Almost all assignments, no matter how complicated, can be reduced to a single question. Your first step, then, is to distill the assignment into a specific question. For example, if your assignment is, “Write a report to the local school board explaining the potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class,” turn the request into a question like, “What are the potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class?” After you’ve chosen the question your essay will answer, compose one or two complete sentences answering that question.

Q: “What are the potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class?” A: “The potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class are . . .”

A: “Using computers in a fourth-grade class promises to improve . . .”

The answer to the question is the thesis statement for the essay.

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How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is not Assigned

Even if your assignment doesn’t ask a specific question, your thesis statement still needs to answer a question about the issue you’d like to explore. In this situation, your job is to figure out what question you’d like to write about.

A good thesis statement will usually include the following four attributes:

• take on a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree
• deal with a subject that can be adequately treated given the nature of the assignment
• express one main idea
• assert your conclusions about a subject

Let’s see how to generate a thesis statement for a social policy paper.

Brainstorm the topic . Let’s say that your class focuses upon the problems posed by changes in the dietary habits of Americans. You find that you are interested in the amount of sugar Americans consume.

You start out with a thesis statement like this:

Sugar consumption.

This fragment isn’t a thesis statement. Instead, it simply indicates a general subject. Furthermore, your reader doesn’t know what you want to say about sugar consumption.

Narrow the topic . Your readings about the topic, however, have led you to the conclusion that elementary school children are consuming far more sugar than is healthy.

You change your thesis to look like this:

Reducing sugar consumption by elementary school children.

This fragment not only announces your subject, but it focuses on one segment of the population: elementary school children. Furthermore, it raises a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree, because while most people might agree that children consume more sugar than they used to, not everyone would agree on what should be done or who should do it. You should note that this fragment is not a thesis statement because your reader doesn’t know your conclusions on the topic.

Take a position on the topic. After reflecting on the topic a little while longer, you decide that what you really want to say about this topic is that something should be done to reduce the amount of sugar these children consume.

You revise your thesis statement to look like this:

More attention should be paid to the food and beverage choices available to elementary school children.

This statement asserts your position, but the terms more attention and food and beverage choices are vague.

Use specific language . You decide to explain what you mean about food and beverage choices , so you write:

Experts estimate that half of elementary school children consume nine times the recommended daily allowance of sugar.

This statement is specific, but it isn’t a thesis. It merely reports a statistic instead of making an assertion.

Make an assertion based on clearly stated support. You finally revise your thesis statement one more time to look like this:

Because half of all American elementary school children consume nine times the recommended daily allowance of sugar, schools should be required to replace the beverages in soda machines with healthy alternatives.

Notice how the thesis answers the question, “What should be done to reduce sugar consumption by children, and who should do it?” When you started thinking about the paper, you may not have had a specific question in mind, but as you became more involved in the topic, your ideas became more specific. Your thesis changed to reflect your new insights.

How to Tell a Strong Thesis Statement from a Weak One

1. a strong thesis statement takes some sort of stand..

Remember that your thesis needs to show your conclusions about a subject. For example, if you are writing a paper for a class on fitness, you might be asked to choose a popular weight-loss product to evaluate. Here are two thesis statements:

There are some negative and positive aspects to the Banana Herb Tea Supplement.

This is a weak thesis statement. First, it fails to take a stand. Second, the phrase negative and positive aspects is vague.

Because Banana Herb Tea Supplement promotes rapid weight loss that results in the loss of muscle and lean body mass, it poses a potential danger to customers.

This is a strong thesis because it takes a stand, and because it's specific.

2. A strong thesis statement justifies discussion.

Your thesis should indicate the point of the discussion. If your assignment is to write a paper on kinship systems, using your own family as an example, you might come up with either of these two thesis statements:

My family is an extended family.

This is a weak thesis because it merely states an observation. Your reader won’t be able to tell the point of the statement, and will probably stop reading.

While most American families would view consanguineal marriage as a threat to the nuclear family structure, many Iranian families, like my own, believe that these marriages help reinforce kinship ties in an extended family.

This is a strong thesis because it shows how your experience contradicts a widely-accepted view. A good strategy for creating a strong thesis is to show that the topic is controversial. Readers will be interested in reading the rest of the essay to see how you support your point.

3. A strong thesis statement expresses one main idea.

Readers need to be able to see that your paper has one main point. If your thesis statement expresses more than one idea, then you might confuse your readers about the subject of your paper. For example:

Companies need to exploit the marketing potential of the Internet, and Web pages can provide both advertising and customer support.

This is a weak thesis statement because the reader can’t decide whether the paper is about marketing on the Internet or Web pages. To revise the thesis, the relationship between the two ideas needs to become more clear. One way to revise the thesis would be to write:

Because the Internet is filled with tremendous marketing potential, companies should exploit this potential by using Web pages that offer both advertising and customer support.

This is a strong thesis because it shows that the two ideas are related. Hint: a great many clear and engaging thesis statements contain words like because , since , so , although , unless , and however .

4. A strong thesis statement is specific.

A thesis statement should show exactly what your paper will be about, and will help you keep your paper to a manageable topic. For example, if you're writing a seven-to-ten page paper on hunger, you might say:

World hunger has many causes and effects.

This is a weak thesis statement for two major reasons. First, world hunger can’t be discussed thoroughly in seven to ten pages. Second, many causes and effects is vague. You should be able to identify specific causes and effects. A revised thesis might look like this:

Hunger persists in Glandelinia because jobs are scarce and farming in the infertile soil is rarely profitable.

This is a strong thesis statement because it narrows the subject to a more specific and manageable topic, and it also identifies the specific causes for the existence of hunger.

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How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement: 4 Steps + Examples

What’s Covered:

What is the purpose of a thesis statement, writing a good thesis statement: 4 steps, common pitfalls to avoid, where to get your essay edited for free.

When you set out to write an essay, there has to be some kind of point to it, right? Otherwise, your essay would just be a big jumble of word salad that makes absolutely no sense. An essay needs a central point that ties into everything else. That main point is called a thesis statement, and it’s the core of any essay or research paper.

You may hear about Master degree candidates writing a thesis, and that is an entire paper–not to be confused with the thesis statement, which is typically one sentence that contains your paper’s focus. 

Read on to learn more about thesis statements and how to write them. We’ve also included some solid examples for you to reference.

Typically the last sentence of your introductory paragraph, the thesis statement serves as the roadmap for your essay. When your reader gets to the thesis statement, they should have a clear outline of your main point, as well as the information you’ll be presenting in order to either prove or support your point. 

The thesis statement should not be confused for a topic sentence , which is the first sentence of every paragraph in your essay. If you need help writing topic sentences, numerous resources are available. Topic sentences should go along with your thesis statement, though.

Since the thesis statement is the most important sentence of your entire essay or paper, it’s imperative that you get this part right. Otherwise, your paper will not have a good flow and will seem disjointed. That’s why it’s vital not to rush through developing one. It’s a methodical process with steps that you need to follow in order to create the best thesis statement possible.

Step 1: Decide what kind of paper you’re writing

When you’re assigned an essay, there are several different types you may get. Argumentative essays are designed to get the reader to agree with you on a topic. Informative or expository essays present information to the reader. Analytical essays offer up a point and then expand on it by analyzing relevant information. Thesis statements can look and sound different based on the type of paper you’re writing. For example:

• Argumentative: The United States needs a viable third political party to decrease bipartisanship, increase options, and help reduce corruption in government.
• Informative: The Libertarian party has thrown off elections before by gaining enough support in states to get on the ballot and by taking away crucial votes from candidates.
• Analytical: An analysis of past presidential elections shows that while third party votes may have been the minority, they did affect the outcome of the elections in 2020, 2016, and beyond.

Step 2: Figure out what point you want to make

Once you know what type of paper you’re writing, you then need to figure out the point you want to make with your thesis statement, and subsequently, your paper. In other words, you need to decide to answer a question about something, such as:

• What impact did reality TV have on American society?
• How has the musical Hamilton affected perception of American history?
• Why do I want to major in [chosen major here]?

If you have an argumentative essay, then you will be writing about an opinion. To make it easier, you may want to choose an opinion that you feel passionate about so that you’re writing about something that interests you. For example, if you have an interest in preserving the environment, you may want to choose a topic that relates to that. 

If you’re writing your college essay and they ask why you want to attend that school, you may want to have a main point and back it up with information, something along the lines of:

“Attending Harvard University would benefit me both academically and professionally, as it would give me a strong knowledge base upon which to build my career, develop my network, and hopefully give me an advantage in my chosen field.”

Step 3: Determine what information you’ll use to back up your point

Once you have the point you want to make, you need to figure out how you plan to back it up throughout the rest of your essay. Without this information, it will be hard to either prove or argue the main point of your thesis statement. If you decide to write about the Hamilton example, you may decide to address any falsehoods that the writer put into the musical, such as:

“The musical Hamilton, while accurate in many ways, leaves out key parts of American history, presents a nationalist view of founding fathers, and downplays the racism of the times.”

Once you’ve written your initial working thesis statement, you’ll then need to get information to back that up. For example, the musical completely leaves out Benjamin Franklin, portrays the founding fathers in a nationalist way that is too complimentary, and shows Hamilton as a staunch abolitionist despite the fact that his family likely did own slaves. 

Step 4: Revise and refine your thesis statement before you start writing

Read through your thesis statement several times before you begin to compose your full essay. You need to make sure the statement is ironclad, since it is the foundation of the entire paper. Edit it or have a peer review it for you to make sure everything makes sense and that you feel like you can truly write a paper on the topic. Once you’ve done that, you can then begin writing your paper.

When writing a thesis statement, there are some common pitfalls you should avoid so that your paper can be as solid as possible. Make sure you always edit the thesis statement before you do anything else. You also want to ensure that the thesis statement is clear and concise. Don’t make your reader hunt for your point. Finally, put your thesis statement at the end of the first paragraph and have your introduction flow toward that statement. Your reader will expect to find your statement in its traditional spot.

If you’re having trouble getting started, or need some guidance on your essay, there are tools available that can help you. CollegeVine offers a free peer essay review tool where one of your peers can read through your essay and provide you with valuable feedback. Getting essay feedback from a peer can help you wow your instructor or college admissions officer with an impactful essay that effectively illustrates your point.

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Home / Guides / Writing Guides / Parts of a Paper / How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement

How to Write a Strong Thesis Statement

A thesis can be found in many places—a debate speech, a lawyer’s closing argument, even an advertisement. But the most common place for a thesis statement (and probably why you’re reading this article) is in an essay.

Whether you’re writing an argumentative paper, an informative essay, or a compare/contrast statement, you need a thesis. Without a thesis, your argument falls flat and your information is unfocused. Since a thesis is so important, it’s probably a good idea to look at some tips on how to put together a strong one.

Guide Overview

What is a “thesis statement” anyway.

• 2 categories of thesis statements: informative and persuasive
• 2 styles of thesis statements
• Formula for a strong argumentative thesis
• The qualities of a solid thesis statement (video)

You may have heard of something called a “thesis.” It’s what seniors commonly refer to as their final paper before graduation. That’s not what we’re talking about here. That type of thesis is a long, well-written paper that takes years to piece together.

Instead, we’re talking about a single sentence that ties together the main idea of any argument . In the context of student essays, it’s a statement that summarizes your topic and declares your position on it. This sentence can tell a reader whether your essay is something they want to read.

2 Categories of Thesis Statements: Informative and Persuasive

Just as there are different types of essays, there are different types of thesis statements. The thesis should match the essay.

For example, with an informative essay, you should compose an informative thesis (rather than argumentative). You want to declare your intentions in this essay and guide the reader to the conclusion that you reach.

To make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you must procure the ingredients, find a knife, and spread the condiments.

This thesis showed the reader the topic (a type of sandwich) and the direction the essay will take (describing how the sandwich is made).

Most other types of essays, whether compare/contrast, argumentative, or narrative, have thesis statements that take a position and argue it. In other words, unless your purpose is simply to inform, your thesis is considered persuasive. A persuasive thesis usually contains an opinion and the reason why your opinion is true.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are the best type of sandwich because they are versatile, easy to make, and taste good.

In this persuasive thesis statement, you see that I state my opinion (the best type of sandwich), which means I have chosen a stance. Next, I explain that my opinion is correct with several key reasons. This persuasive type of thesis can be used in any essay that contains the writer’s opinion, including, as I mentioned above, compare/contrast essays, narrative essays, and so on.

2 Styles of Thesis Statements

Just as there are two different types of thesis statements (informative and persuasive), there are two basic styles you can use.

The first style uses a list of two or more points . This style of thesis is perfect for a brief essay that contains only two or three body paragraphs. This basic five-paragraph essay is typical of middle and high school assignments.

C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series is one of the richest works of the 20th century because it offers an escape from reality, teaches readers to have faith even when they don’t understand, and contains a host of vibrant characters.

In the above persuasive thesis, you can see my opinion about Narnia followed by three clear reasons. This thesis is perfect for setting up a tidy five-paragraph essay.

In college, five paragraph essays become few and far between as essay length gets longer. Can you imagine having only five paragraphs in a six-page paper? For a longer essay, you need a thesis statement that is more versatile. Instead of listing two or three distinct points, a thesis can list one overarching point that all body paragraphs tie into.

Good vs. evil is the main theme of Lewis’s Narnia series, as is made clear through the struggles the main characters face in each book.

In this thesis, I have made a claim about the theme in Narnia followed by my reasoning. The broader scope of this thesis allows me to write about each of the series’ seven novels. I am no longer limited in how many body paragraphs I can logically use.

Formula for a Strong Argumentative Thesis

One thing I find that is helpful for students is having a clear template. While students rarely end up with a thesis that follows this exact wording, the following template creates a good starting point:

___________ is true because of ___________, ___________, and ___________.

Conversely, the formula for a thesis with only one point might follow this template:

___________________ is true because of _____________________.

Students usually end up using different terminology than simply “because,” but having a template is always helpful to get the creative juices flowing.

The Qualities of a Solid Thesis Statement

When composing a thesis, you must consider not only the format, but other qualities like length, position in the essay, and how strong the argument is.

Length: A thesis statement can be short or long, depending on how many points it mentions. Typically, however, it is only one concise sentence. It does contain at least two clauses, usually an independent clause (the opinion) and a dependent clause (the reasons). You probably should aim for a single sentence that is at least two lines, or about 30 to 40 words long.

Position: A thesis statement always belongs at the beginning of an essay. This is because it is a sentence that tells the reader what the writer is going to discuss. Teachers will have different preferences for the precise location of the thesis, but a good rule of thumb is in the introduction paragraph, within the last two or three sentences.

Strength: Finally, for a persuasive thesis to be strong, it needs to be arguable. This means that the statement is not obvious, and it is not something that everyone agrees is true.

Example of weak thesis:

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are easy to make because it just takes three ingredients.

Most people would agree that PB&J is one of the easiest sandwiches in the American lunch repertoire.

Example of a stronger thesis:

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are fun to eat because they always slide around.

This is more arguable because there are plenty of folks who might think a PB&J is messy or slimy rather than fun.

Composing a thesis statement does take a bit more thought than many other parts of an essay. However, because a thesis statement can contain an entire argument in just a few words, it is worth taking the extra time to compose this sentence. It can direct your research and your argument so that your essay is tight, focused, and makes readers think.

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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.

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Strong Thesis Statements

A thesis statement clearly identifies the topic being discussed, includes the points discussed in the paper, and is written for a specific audience. Your thesis statement belongs at the end of your first paragraph, also known as your introduction. Use it to generate interest in your topic and encourage your audience to continue reading. Strong thesis statements:

• State the essay's subject -- the topic that you are discussing
• Reflect the essay's purpose -- either to give your readers information or to persuade your readers to agree with you
• Include a focus -- your assertion that conveys your point of view
• Use specific language -- avoids vague words and generalizations
• May (but don't have to) state the major subdivisions of the essay's topic

Developing Thesis Statements

To develop a thesis statement about your site, do some exploratory research and ask yourself questions about your topic like: 

• What interests me about this topic as I learn more about it?
• How does the topic relate to the larger themes discussed in this course?
• What are the major debates and disagreements over the topic you are studying?

Ask Dr. Wellman  for feedback on your thesis statement.

Picking Your Topic IS Research

Once you've picked a research topic for your paper, it isn't set in stone. It's just an idea that you will test and develop through exploratory research. This exploratory research may guide you into modifying your original idea for a research topic. Watch this video for more info:

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What Makes A Strong Thesis For A Marriage

Table of Contents:

According to Rosman and Rubel (1981), marriage is a ritual that signifies a change in a person’s status and the acceptance of their new family by society.

A comparison of American and Indian cultural marriage customs.

Cultural differences can be seen in marriage customs. Every culture performs marriage in accordance with its own traditions and customs. While many cultures have similar traditions and customs, others have their own special practices. A social union that two people have chosen to form as spouses is referred to as marriage. Sexual relations, marriage as a lifelong commitment, and conception are all implied by the union of couples. This research paper compares marriage customs between American and Indian cultures. The two cultures’ approaches to marriage differ significantly from one another.

According to anthropologist Bruce Knauft, the Gebusi clan had words for a variety of things. For instance, the Gebusi word for yesterday and tomorrow is oil, and the word for grandparents and grandchildren is owa. However, the word kogwayay stands out as the most distinctive among them because it serves as a catchall marker for all of their cultural distinction. Kogwayay is also the term used by the Gebusi for ethnicity, which is the identification with a particular cultural group due to shared values, customs, and beliefs while being inversely excluded from other groups. This is due to the language’s branching terminology. Religion is one factor that contributes to the Gebusi’s sense of kogwayay. Our understanding of their religious practices is expanded upon through Knauft’s book, and we are able to observe how they evolve over time in response to broader cultural shifts.

What does a thesis statement for an arranged marriage look like?

The effects of sociocultural and socioeconomic factors on arranged marriages include lower divorce rates and increased violence. I- Aside from cultural and socioeconomic factors, arranged marriages can result from a variety of other factors as well. A: In some cultures, getting married is both a social event and a family issue.

Which of the following best describes a relationship?

Any relationship must have effective communication for it to succeed, according to the thesis. Relationships require open communication because it enables us to work together to organize our lives, make decisions, share our interests and concerns, and support one another.

What is the child marriage thesis statement?

Child marriage is a form of rights exploitation. Almost everywhere, a child must be at least 18 years old before they can get married. So, marrying a child off before they are of legal age is abusing their right. The long-standing tradition is one of the most frequent causes of child marriage.

Child marriage is still a common practice throughout much of the world. Even though the world is changing quickly, some areas still don’t seem to be able to keep up with the times. The sad reality of child marriage, which is rarely thought about, is regrettable. When a child under the age of 18 marries informally or formally, with or without their consent, it is known as child marriage. The boy or man is typically older than the girl. We will shed light on this social issue by writing an essay about child marriage.

Child marriage is no less than exploitation of right. In almost all places, the child must be 18 years and above to get married. Thus, marrying off the child before the age is exploiting their right.

The long-standing custom that is still followed is one of the most frequent causes of child marriage. In many cultures, a girl is treated as someone else’s property the moment she is born.

What would a strong thesis statement look like?

A good example of an argumentative thesis is that high school graduates should be required to spend a year working on volunteer projects before enrolling in college. This will help them become more mature and aware of the world.

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In addition to examples of various thesis statements, this resource offers advice on how to write a thesis statement.

What words introduce a thesis statement?

Write a topic sentence or present your case as your thesis statement’s basic guidelines. dot. For these, we suggest using one of the following sentence starters to begin your thesis: In this essay, I will… (Subject) is interesting/relevant/my favorite because… Through my research, I learned that….

The most crucial component of an essay is the thesis statement. It serves as the reader’s guide, laying out the overall structure of the paper, establishing the tone of the writing, and generally conveying the main idea.

Writing a strong thesis statement can be difficult because of how crucial it is.

Before we dive into the details, let’s go over the definition of a thesis statement. The word “thesis” is a formal term for “the topic of an essay” or “a stance in a debate.”. A statement is just a sentence (or a few sentences), plain and simple.

What three things must a thesis statement contain?

Thesis Statement Components A thesis statement is composed of three main components: a specific topic, a strong opinion, and a detailed justification.

Jerz Writing Academic (Argument | Title | Thesis | Blueprint | Pro/Con | Quoting |MLA Format).

Your essay’s sole, focused argument, or thesis statement, should be stated. A compelling thesis presents a topic, the position you wish to defend, and a plan of reasoning that outlines how you will support that position in order to address the question you want to raise. A strong thesis is more than just a factual assertion, an observation, a preference or opinion, or the question you intend to answer. (Read more about this in “Academic Argument: Evidence-based Defense of a Non-obvious Position. “.

A thesis that challenges a cultural stereotype is not inherently “correct.”. You might argue that a text “provides a more expensive but more ethical solution than X” or “undermines Jim Smith’s observation that “(insert a quote from Smith here)”” instead of asserting that a book “challenges agenre’s stereotypes.”. (In an effort to develop the “right” thesis, avoid automatically using the phrase “challenges a genre’s stereotype. ).

What is the point of marriage?

Marriage should be for companionship, reproduction, and redemption, according to God. These objectives are still necessary for a functioning society today.

Marriage serves the companionship, procreation, and redemptive purposes that God has for it. These goals are still necessary for a functioning society today and are still relevant. Let’s examine each in greater detail.

God created marriage primarily for three things: companionship, procreation, and redemption. These goals are still necessary for a functioning society today and are still relevant. Let’s examine each of them more closely.

Marriage’s primary goal is to provide for a partner. The Lord stated that it was not good for man to be alone in Genesis 2:18.

What constitutes a basic thesis statement?

The main idea of your paper or essay should be summarized in a thesis statement. In most cases, it comes near the end of your introduction. Depending on the type of essay you’re writing, your thesis will differ slightly. But the main point you want to make should always be stated in the thesis statement.

Published by Shona McCombes on January 11, 2019. Eoghan Ryan made changes on September 14, 2022.

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay. It usually comes near the end of your introduction.

Depending on the kind of essay you’re writing, your thesis will take on a slightly different appearance. But the thesis statement should always clearly state the main idea you want to get across. Everything else in your essay should circle back to this idea.

How should a thesis statement be introduced?

Start with a question and work your way toward a thesis statement in four easy steps. Create the initial response. Create a response. dot. The reader should be informed of your position’s justifications in a powerful thesis statement. Exactly what your essay will teach them. Your argument’s or story’s main points.

Published on January 11, 2019 by Shona McCombes. Revised on September 14, 2022 by Eoghan Ryan.

Your thesis will look a bit different depending on the type of essay you’re writing. But the thesis statement should always clearly state the main idea you want to get across. Everything else in your essay should relate back to this idea.

What would make an effective thesis statement introduction?

In these cases, we advise beginning your thesis with one of the following phrases: In this essay, I will… (Subject) is interesting/relevant/my favorite because… Through my research, I discovered that….

A thesis statement is the most important part of an essay. It’s the roadmap, telling the reader what they can expect to read in the rest of paper, setting the tone for the writing, and generally providing a sense of the main idea.

Because it is so important, writing a good thesis statement can be tricky.

Before we get into the specifics, let’s review the basics: what thesis statement means. Thesis is a fancy word for “the subject of an essay” or “a position in a debate. ” And a statement, simply, is a sentence (or a couple of sentences).

What are the three requirements for a thesis statement?

General Thesis Statement Hints A thesis statement typically consists of two parts: your topic and then the analysis, explanation(s), or assertion(s) you are making about the topic. Depending on the kind of paper you’re writing, your thesis statement will take that into account.

Identify the three theses

Explanatory, argumentative, or analytical thesis statements are all possible.

A thesis statement, which is typically found in the opening paragraph of an essay, is a succinct summary of the main idea, purpose, or contention of the paper. It usually only contains one or two sentences.

A solid thesis statement serves as the framework for a well-structured paper and aids in your decision-making regarding which details are most crucial to include and how they should be presented.

For instance, this thesis could serve as the introduction to a paper on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ‘s significance as an advocate for civil rights: “Dr. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader in the American civil rights movement who had a significant impact. His stirring speeches and nonviolent demonstrations helped unify a divided country. “.

How should a personal statement for marriage be written?

The declaration will describe how the couple first met, how their relationship progressed, when the decision to get married was made, and how circumstances following the nuptials support a conclusion that the marriage is motivated by a desire to create a life together rather than merely obtaining legal status.

As an immigration lawyer, my job is to help clients put together a well-prepared petition or application packet for submission to U. S. For those who are about to be deported, contact the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) or the U.S. S. The Immigration Court.

What a personal statement should focus on depends on what immigration relief is being sought. For example, a person applying for asylum because of past persecution back home will describe what harm he or she suffered, or why he or she fears future harm if forced to return to his or her country. The personal statement accompanying the asylum application will discuss the personal events that lead up to the writer’s past persecution, or events that could result in future persecution.

In contrast, an individual seeking lawful permanent resident status (i. e. a green card) through marriage to a U. S. citizen or lawful permanent resident may have to write a personal statement that discusses his or her relationship to the spouse. The statement will reveal how the couple met, how their relationship developed, at what point in time the decision was made to wed, and how events after the wedding support a finding that the marriage is based on the desire to build a life together rather than simply acquiring legal status. Personal statements are also required for victims of domestic violence who are seeking permanent resident status under the Violence Against Women Act, victims of certain criminal acts seeking temporary U Visa nonimmigrant status, and those seeking a change of status from one nonimmigrant category to another (such as an F-1 student seeking a B-2 tourist visa). Depending on what type of status you are seeking, your personal statement will describe the unique circumstances in your life that argue for approval of your petition and/or application.

What is general statement about marriage?

In general, marriage can be described as a bond/commitment between a man and a woman. Also, this bond is strongly connected with love, tolerance, support, and harmony. Also, creating a family means to enter a new stage of social advancement. Marriages help in founding the new relationship between females and males.

In general, marriage can be described as a bond/commitment between a man and a woman. Also, this bond is strongly connected with love, tolerance, support, and harmony. Also, creating a family means to enter a new stage of social advancement. Marriages help in founding the new relationship between females and males. Also, this is thought to be the highest as well as the most important Institution in our society. The marriage essay is a guide to what constitutes a marriage in India.

Whenever we think about marriage, the first thing that comes to our mind is the long-lasting relationship. Also, for everyone, marriage is one of the most important decisions in their life. Because you are choosing to live your whole life with that 1 person. Thus, when people decide to get married, they think of having a lovely family, dedicating their life together, and raising their children together. The circle of humankind is like that only.

As it is seen with other experiences as well, the experience of marriage can be successful or unsuccessful. If truth to be held, there is no secret to a successful marriage. It is all about finding the person and enjoying all the differences and imperfections, thereby making your life smooth. So, a good marriage is something that is supposed to be created by two loving people. Thus, it does not happen from time to time. Researchers believe that married people are less depressed and more happy as compared to unmarried people.

What is a strong thesis statement?

A strong thesis statement requires proof; it is not merely a statement of fact. You should support your thesis statement with detailed supporting evidence will interest your readers and motivate them to continue reading the paper. Sometimes it is useful to mention your supporting points in your thesis. One all-important component that must be included with certain petitions and applications is a client’s personal statement, where the client discusses his or her personal story. A personal statement is also known as an affidavit or declaration.

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Writing a Thesis Statement — Definition, Types, and Examples

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement is a single sentence that identifies the topic and purpose of a scholarly research paper or academic writing. A thesis statement directly or indirectly presents the main points of the paper. Information presented in the essay should tie directly back to the thesis.

Overall, a good thesis statement accomplishes the following:

Identifies the purpose of the essay

Expresses the writer's position/opinion

Lists the main supports (optional)

Briefly summarizes the writer's conclusion(s)

Establish if the essay is explanatory, argumentative, or analytical

People often confuse thesis statements with topic sentences , which start each body paragraph. Typically, the thesis statement is the final sentence in the introductory paragraph and acts as a “road map” for the rest of the paper.

Types of thesis statements

The three main types of thesis statements are explanatory, argumentative, and analytical.

Explanatory thesis statements are used in expository essays that focus solely on informing the reader. Papers with this type of thesis do not contain the writer's opinion, nor do they try to persuade the reader.

The three main branches of science taught in public schools include biology, chemistry, and physics.

Argumentative thesis statements identify the writer's position or point of view on a given topic. Argumentative essays persuade the reader to agree with the writer's stance. If the reader cannot agree or disagree with the claim in the thesis, then it is not argumentative.

Public schools should place more emphasis on the arts because they encourage creativity, help improve academic development, and provide a beneficial emotional outlet.

Analytical thesis statements are used in papers that analyze how or why something does what it does. These thesis statements identify what the writer is analyzing, the parts of the analysis, and the order of those parts.

An analysis of course requirements in public schools suggests access to more electives can increase graduation rates.

How to write a thesis statement

When writing a thesis, the following guidelines apply:

Step 1: Determine the type of paper (explanatory, argumentative, or analytical).

Step 2: Identify the topic, position/claim, and supports of the essay.

Step 3: Determine if the supports should be included within the thesis. Although they are considered optional, they might be required depending on the audience and purpose of the essay.

Step 4: Compose a sentence that includes the topic, position, and supports (optional). While a thesis statement can be more than one sentence, it should not exceed two.

Step 5: Place the thesis statement at the end of the introductory paragraph(s). Placing it at the end of the introduction and before the supports allows the reader to focus on the paper’s main purpose.

Thesis statement examples

The following examples highlight each type of thesis statement.

Topic: Alternative Energy Sources

Explanatory Thesis: Alternative energy sources that can supplement the use of fossil fuels include solar, wind, and geothermal.

Argumentative Thesis: To combat reliance on foreign sources of fossil fuels, the United States would benefit from focusing on alternative energy options.

Analytical Thesis: Analysis suggests that replacing fossil fuels with alternative energy sources could negatively impact the economy.

Topic: Social Media

Explanatory Thesis: Three of the first platforms that influenced the world of social media include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Argumentative Thesis: Social media negatively influences society as it increases opportunities for cyberbullying, limits face-to-face interactions, and creates unrealistic expectations.

Analytical Thesis: An analysis of the use of social media suggests itis irrevocably harming the development of teenagers.

Topic: Standardized Testing

Explanatory Thesis: Standardized tests such as the ACT and SAT play a limited role in influencing college acceptance.

Argumentative Thesis: Standardized testing should not be required because it increases anxiety, does not measure progress, and cannot predict future success.

Analytical Thesis: Analysis suggests that standardized testing in elementary and high school negatively impacts students' academic success.

Writing Effective Thesis Statements

What is a thesis, what is a thesis statement.

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Grammarly will then check your work for a specific set of issues common to a certain type of assignment. You can also check your thesis statement for common issues without uploading a full essay.

You can connect to Grammarly through our tutorial:

• Grammarly Tutorial Library tutorial for using Grammarly, a writing and citation aide.

A thesis is a type of paper written at the end of an academic program . This is not the same as a " thesis statement ."

View our Theses Services guide if you're looking for additional information to complete the thesis requirement at the end of your program.

A thesis statement is a short statement, usually one sentence in length, that is present at the end of your introduction paragraph. 

A thesis statement summarizes the main point of the essay and makes an argument about the topic, its importance, or its plausibility. 

A thesis statement is...

... in the body of the essay through the use of examples and evidence.

Read more about thesis statements .

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Department of Art

Twelve thousand labors – gem miller.

Twelve Thousand Labors is a 6’ diameter circular quilt depicting women at labor, utilizing the visual language of Early Classical Attic pottery. Athenians oered white-ground lekythos as funerary votives – and symbolic dowries – for women who died before marriage. In these ancient terracotta vessels, scenes and associated motifs are arrayed in concentric circles; gural imagery is outlined, and female gures were left unpainted.

Classical Athenian – or Attic – pottery maintained a consistent visual language which communicated and prioritized the prevalent ideology. As a result, Attic pottery de-emphasized women laboring; Attic ideology believed that the concept of “work” was masculine. Surviving Attic artwork does not reliably portray the involvement of women’s work in all levels of society – the home, marketplace, agriculture, government. Attic women were constantly laboring to support their households; the belief that women must not leave their house or work was only achievable for the upper classes. This idealization was just that – unattainable, quixotic – but has been inherited and reproduced throughout history.

The scenes in my quilt mythologize and celebrate the women in a society which simultaneously repressed them and was dependent on them. Through contextualizing the historical understanding of Ancient Greek women’s labor with their under-representation in mythology, ancient writings, and artwork, this piece exposes the perpetuation of women’s invisible labor.

I am calling back to the same Classical past which inspired the masculine mythos of the Romans, of the Medieval Ages, of the Renaissance, of Neoclassical artwork, and of the Academy. But unlike those who have come before me, I will not apotheosize a society which refused to recognize their women. I am recognizing this hypocrisy, and through my work, am reclaiming this narrative:

Women, and their labor, are the basis on which society functions.

Women must be celebrated.

Gem Miller is an experimental printmaker and quilter with a focus on folk and historically inspired processes. Her practice draws inspiration from art history, often incorporating traditional processes with contemporary practices. She investigates – through creation and research – how art and culture constantly transform each other, and where this cyclical relationship has allowed ancient idealism to dictate contemporary reality. Her creative objective is to elicit warmth – through laughter, joy, or the feeling of being embraced. Miller incorporated quilting into her printmaking practice out of a desire to return to her textile roots and to create art which can bring people a very real, very tangible warmth. Her artistic practice is centered around handcrafting: intentional creation for the love of the process. Consequently, her work toys with the concept of labor – the labor inherent in creation, as well as labor as an intangible but immeasurable commodity.

Exhibition:

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Evan Stark, who expanded definition of domestic violence, dies at 82

By explaining the patterns of domination often at the root of domestic violence, the sociologist helped improve services for victims as well as their treatment under the law.

Evan Stark, a sociologist who helped broaden the definition of domestic violence beyond physical assault to include the patterns of domination often at its root, a shift that improved services for victims as well as their treatment under the law, died March 17 at his home in Woodbridge, Conn. He was 82.

His wife and academic collaborator, Anne Flitcraft, confirmed his death. He was on a Zoom call with domestic violence advocates in British Columbia when he had an apparent heart attack, Flitcraft said.

Dr. Stark was a self-described “veteran radical sociologist” who participated in the civil rights movement and led protests against the Vietnam War before turning his attention to domestic violence — “an epidemic problem that has been invisible,” he once said — when a friend in Minnesota helped open one of the country’s first shelters for battered women in the 1970s.

As a sociologist, author, expert witness and advocate, Dr. Stark challenged pervasive misconceptions about domestic violence, which is primarily, although not universally, inflicted upon women. One of the most pernicious myths is the notion that women who remain in abusive relationships do so willingly.

“You would never ask why a hostage or kidnapping victim stays — or why they finally retaliate,” Dr. Stark once said.

In the 1980s, advocates created a diagram known as the “Power and Control Wheel” to represent the tactics often employed by abusers to keep their victims from leaving. Those tactics might include belittling a woman to degrade her self-esteem, isolating her from her friends and family, limiting her access to money, surveilling her activities and threatening violence on her or her children.

Dr. Stark encapsulated such behaviors under the term “coercive control,” a concept he outlined in books including “Coercive Control: The Entrapment of Women in Personal Life” (2007) and “Children of Coercive Control” (2023).

“He singularly articulated the real double binds that define the lives of battered women,” said Nancy Grigsby, a member of the advisory group for the Battered Women’s Justice Project and a longtime domestic violence advocate in Ohio.

With his work, she continued, Dr. Stark helped demonstrate that “battered women live in a landscape where their daily choices are defined and confined by the possible consequences that their partners might impose.”

For example, shelters and protective orders do little to help women who live in justified fear of availing themselves of such options. Informed by the concept of coercive control, advocates expanded their efforts beyond the immediate prevention of homicide and injury to also address the underlying forces that keep women in relationships of physical violence — and to help them get out.

Dr. Stark often testified as an expert witness in court, notably in a federal class-action suit brought in New York on behalf of abused women whose children were forcibly placed in foster care by New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services on the grounds that the women had neglected their children by keeping them in violent situations.

In his expert report, Dr. Stark argued that “removal of a young child from its primary caretaker can be particularly traumatic where domestic violence has occurred and should be used only as a last resort and in the face of evidence that the child faces imminent harm.”

Regarding the abused mothers, he “talked about coercive control … though he did not call it that in the context of this lawsuit,” Jill M. Zuccardy, one of the lead lawyers for the plaintiffs, wrote in an email. “He understood at a time when many did not that domestic violence was so much more than just violence.”

Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn found in favor of the women in 2002, writing that “the pitiless double abuse of these mothers is not malicious, but is due to benign indifference, bureaucratic inefficiency, and outmoded institutional biases.”

Sharwline Nicholson, the lead plaintiff in the case, was a 32-year-old mother of two when the father of her younger child attacked her in 1999, leaving her bleeding from the head and with a broken arm and fractured ribs.

She asked a trusted neighbor to care for her children before calling an ambulance for herself. At a hospital, she learned that authorities had taken custody of them. Her children were placed in foster case — initially with no legal authorization — where they remained for several weeks.

“The blame from the city was more to the woman,” Nicholson said in a telephone interview after Dr. Stark’s death. “Evan Stark came in and explained where a woman’s mind-set would be after they had been beaten or were a victim of violence,” she continued, adding that “he made things even clearer for survivors themselves.”

Early activism

Evan David Stark was born in Manhattan on March 10, 1942, and grew up in Queens, the Bronx and Yonkers, N.Y. His father was a novelist, poet and professor at the City College of New York, and his mother did administrative work for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the African American labor union.

Dr. Stark joined the civil rights movement as a member of the Congress of Racial Equality. He received an undergraduate degree from Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., in 1963, before entering a graduate sociology program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

In 1967, he helped lead a demonstration at Madison against on-campus recruiting by Dow Chemical, a manufacturer of napalm. The protest, which left dozens injured when police used nightsticks and tear gas to break it up, attracted national attention.

Dr. Stark had received his master’s degree at that point but left Madison after the protest, suspending his doctoral studies. He lived briefly in Canada before returning to the United States, where he did antipoverty work in Minnesota and helped lead the Honeywell Project, a protest campaign against Honeywell Inc., one of the state’s largest employers, over its manufacture of antipersonnel fragmentation bombs.

In the 1970s, Dr. Stark and Flitcraft were living in New Haven, Conn., where she was a medical student at Yale University. They became involved in domestic violence advocacy and opened their home to women fleeing abusive relationships.

Flitcraft pursued a thesis examining the medical profession’s treatment of domestic violence victims. Recalling the language used at the time, she said in an interview that a typical patient chart might note that a woman had been “hit in the head by a glass ashtray,” without noting who had thrown the object at her.

Furthermore, Flitcraft said, many physicians failed to understand the recurrent nature of much domestic abuse. When a patient returned again and again with injuries, the hospital treated each incident separately, without addressing the blatant pattern of abuse.

At the time, Dr. Stark was employed at Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies. Working together, he and his wife received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to expand on Flitcraft’s study.

The result of their work, an article titled “Medicine and Patriarchal Violence: The Social Construction of a ‘Private’ Event,” was published in the International Journal of Health Services in 1979. Having examined the records of 481 women treated at a New Haven hospital for a total of more than 1,400 cases of trauma, they determined that battering was approximately 10 times more common than doctors acknowledged.

With his wife, Dr. Stark later wrote the book “Women at Risk: Domestic Violence and Women’s Health” (1996).

Dr. Stark received a PhD in sociology in 1984 from Binghamton University, part of the State University of New York, according to his wife. He spent much of the rest of his career at Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he taught in fields including public health and women’s studies. His degrees also included a master’s of social work from Fordham University in 1991.

His marriage to Sally Connolly ended in divorce. Besides his wife, of Woodbridge, survivors include a son from his first marriage, Aaron Stark of New Haven, Conn.; three sons from his second marriage, Sam Stark of Cambridge, Mass., Daniel Stark of Jacksonville, Fla., and Eli Stark of Holyoke, Mass.; a sister; and three grandchildren.

Working with local advocates, Dr. Stark helped persuade numerous nations to criminalize coercive control in recent years. England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland were among the first international jurisdictions to take that step.

In the United States, only Hawaii “followed suit in the criminal law,” but several states “have incorporated coercive control into the civil law with his help,” according to Joan S. Meier, director of the National Family Violence Law Center at George Washington University’s law school.

“Domestic abuse is a crime against the whole community because the community cannot thrive without women’s full participation,” Dr. Stark once said in a speech. He hoped, he remarked in another , to “have made significant inroads into ending violence against women and children.”