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The Thesis Statement

Knowing when to keep it simple

There are some parts of your IELTS essay where it is important to keep things simple. Your thesis statement is one of those parts because it is too important to be adding in lots of complex grammar. You want your examiner to have a very clear idea of what your answer to the question is, so save your complex grammar for later.

How to write the thesis statement

There are a lot of ways to write a thesis statement. However, there is one that I always teach students because it is easy, looks academic and helps you show that you are answering the question. It is:

In this essay, I will + power word + answer. 

Let's take a look at each of those parts.

In this essay, I will

There is not a lot to say about this section, simply remember these words. It is also quite easy for students to forget the comma after 'essay'. This format is very academic sounding. During my master's degree, I submitted six essays. All of them had 'In this essay, I will' in them. If this format is academic enough for master's level essays at Oxford, it will be fine for the IELTS too.

Power word

After you've written 'In this essay, I will', you want to use something I call for a power word. I call them this because they powerfully demonstrate that you are answering the question the right way. There are three you need to remember: argue, compare and explore.

In this essay, I will argue that…

Argue is used when you are giving reasons for a point of view or making a judgement about something. Students sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable about using 'argue' in their essays because it usually means an aggressive confrontation. However, in academic usage, we use 'argue' to mean that we are making a point backed up by reasons.

In this essay, I will compare…

Compare is used when you are looking at the advantages and disadvantages of two ideas. For example, essays often require you to compare the advantages and disadvantages of something.

In this essay, I will explore…

Explore is used when you are looking at something without judging it. 'Explore 'is quite easily confused with 'argue'. The difference is that when you 'argue' something, you are judging it. In other words, you give your opinion. When you 'explore' something, you are just giving the facts about it without any judgement.[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}"]

Examples

The easiest way of learning these is to see how they work in practice. Here are some examples (the thesis statement is in bold for each one):

Some people believe that school children should not be given homework. What is your opinion?
There is considerable disagreement in society over whether homework is the best use of students’ after-school time. In this essay, I will argue that it is better that students have no homework. First, because it makes students stressed and second because there are more worthwhile uses of students’ extracurricular time.

In this example, the question is asking for your opinion. As a result, you should use 'argue'. When the examiner reads this power word, they will know that I have answered the question in the right way. Lots of students will respond to a 'What is your opinion?' question with 'I think that...' This is okay, but you can see that using 'In this essay, I will argue...' makes the same point in a much more academic sounding way.

The government should pay money to the parents of very young children so that one of them can stay at home and look after their children. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
In the modern age, mothers and fathers are often so busy that they do not get to see their children and governments are considering subsidising them to stay at home. In this essay, I will argue that this would be a positive development. First, because having a parent at home is good for children’s development, and second, because this type of policy can save the government money in the long term.

If your question asks 'to what extent do you agree or disagree', you would once again use argue. This is because you are giving your opinion. The other thing to pay attention to here is that this thesis statement is nice and simple.

An increasing number of professionals like teachers and doctors are leaving poorer countries where they grew up to work in richer countries. What are some problems this causes and what are some solutions?
In recent years, developed countries have seen an influx of educators and healthcare practitioners from the developing world. In this essay, I will explore two issues this causes and present some solutions. First, that these countries do not recoup their investments in these people’s education, and second, that this leads to an unfair distribution of important workers.

When you see a 'problem and solution' type question, it is asking you to describe something rather than give your opinion. As a result, you should use 'explore' for these question types

Exercise

Yesterday, I asked you to write the first sentence of your IELTS essay based on what you just learned. The question was:

Celebrities can often be found sharing their views on political issues that have nothing to do with their profession. Is this a positive or a negative development?

Today, I'd like you to continue with this essay by writing the thesis statement. To remind you, this means you need to answer the question. Have a think about which power word you need to use for this question type.

If you'd like to, you can post your thesis statement below as a comment and I'll take a look 😊