I spent hours teaching thesis statements with only moderate improvement in essay quality. I went to the mountains without food or water to meditate on ways to improve student essays. After 3-hours without food I passed out (technically, I was beaten senseless by a couple of boy scouts with sling shots). I woke up in an ambulance. Instead of paramedics tending my wounds, there were question marks.
"That's it," I thought, "The question marks are trying to tell me something about writing better thesis statements." I guessed what it could mean, but to no avail. Evantually the chief question mark picked up the ball underneath its arched body and bashed me over the head with it. When I awoke, there was a scar across my chest with the following words: "(1) identify a topic; (2) create a research topic question(s); (3) write the thesis statement."
That made no sense, so I did some research. I discovered the question marks were right: the best way to write effective thesis statements is to identify a topic first and create a research topic to be answered by the thesis statement.
I needed to find out the best way to make a research topic question. Here's what I found:
