Difference between Thesis Statement and Purpose Statement

Sable Mc’Oneal
Sable University Writing Tips
3 min readSep 15, 2018

When it comes to writing an essay the key idea to remember is this: usually, it is not advised to have a statement of purpose within a paper. However, you can use purpose statements as the first sentence of an essay sometimes. Purpose statements also work well in abstracts. Occasionally, you can use purpose statements as a thesis statement in scientific and heavily-research based papers.

Thesis statement

A thesis statement is a sentence, which delineates the topic, predicts how the topic will be developed and says something precise about the topic. The key point here is not only to announce a topic, but to be precise with the conclusions you made about the topic. A good thesis statement contains succinct and very clear information about the key points of the topic, its purpose and provides answers to the topic questions. The writer should be able to prove and support a thesis statement within the paper. Therefore, such statement should not be too large or general, since it defines the key route for the paper.

In a short paper, a thesis statement should be located at the end of the intro paragraph. In a longer paper, a thesis statement may consist of several sentences or an entire thesis paragraph (for example, dissertations).

Example:

Good: The war has significantly changed the historical background of … due to …
Bad: In this paper, I will discuss the war and its consequences…

Purpose statement

The goal of a purpose statement is to announce the purpose, direction and the general scope of the paper. Nevertheless, unlike a thesis statement, purpose statement does not provide particular conclusions made by the writer. Just like a thesis statement, a purpose statement is located at the end of the intro paragraph, or may take the form of a separate paragraph in large papers, such as dissertations etc.

While both ways to present your paper are acceptable in academic writing, we advise you to cling to thesis statements. Purpose statements are typical for written assignments like research papers. They are also a common requirement among definite disciplines.

Prop Tips: Purpose statements are also common with academic writers that custom writing companies employ. So, in the event that you decide to have your thesis written by these companies, be sure to check before submitting the final draft to your lecturer/instructor.

Example:

This paper will examine the consequences of the war and the causes of this conflict. The focus will be on the political and social instability preceding the tragic events.

You may use such phrases for your purpose statement:

· This essay seeks to remedy these problems by analyzing the literature of …

· This essay seeks to address the following questions …

· The purpose of this study is to …

As always, when you have any question on thesis statement outline, thesis statement example, thesis statement formula, informative thesis statement examples, purpose statement format, qualitative purpose statement examples, or just stuck with writing a research paper, essay, thesis or dissertation paper, get in touch: sablecontentorders@gmail.com. I will gladly help.

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