how do you write a thesis statement for a research paper in this lesson you will learn how to write a research thesis statement by restating your big research question in a complete sentence let’s review the steps in preparing to write our number one researching a topic which we’ve already done by reading lots of articles on the Civil War and taking notes and getting prepared second generate a big research question which for us is how did mistakes caused some battles of the Civil War to begin then you’re going to write it your thesis statement and finally you’ll outline your essay we are currently on step three in this process we’re getting ready to write our thesis statement a common mistake that many readers many writers make is not to have a thesis statement at all and this is actually kind of like taking a picture that’s out of focus without a thesis statement your reader won’t really know what big picture you’re trying to get across or what you’re trying to teach them and so by including a thesis statement you’ll allow your reader to see the big picture more clearly so in order to write a thesis statement you’ll follow these steps first review your big research question then restate the question as a complete sentence and finally ask yourself am i teaching others something new so I want you to watch me as I go through these steps in creating my research thesis statement so first review your big research question that’s easy my research question was how did mistakes caused some battles of the Civil War to begin okay the second step is restate the question as a complete sentence so I’m going to go ahead and take a look again in my research question and I’m going to say okay how did mistakes caused some battles of the Civil War to begin okay so what information do I want to show back up in my complete sentence here in my thesis statement well I know that I want hmm I’m asking myself this question over and over again which information will show back up in my answer well I know that I want some battles of the Civil War to be in my answer that’s important that I talk about battles and I also know that I want to talk about this mistakes and and how mistakes caused to something battles and I also know that I don’t want my statement to be a question so the first thing I can do is actually crossing off the question words and the question mark because it’s no longer a question it’s a statement ok so let’s see let me think here some battles of the Civil War mistakes caused some battles of the Civil War mistakes okay oh I think actually I could probably take the some metals of the Civil War and put it first take mistakes cause and put it second and actually flip that sentence to make it a complete sentence so let’s see what I have here I could say something like some battles of the Civil War caused by mistakes perfect so I took away the question words the question mark and I just flipped that sentence to make it complete okay so my third step is to ask myself am i teaching oh there’s something new so i’m looking again at my thesis statement that i just came up with some battles of the Civil War what caused my mistakes and well am i teaching others something new I guess another way to say that might be do only a few people already know this information well let me think for a second okay so before I started researching this all I really knew about the Civil War was that it was a big war between the north and the south of United States over slavery and in the end the North won and so slavery ended I had no idea that there were battles I had no idea that there were mistakes that caused those battles and I’m pretty sure that I think a lot of other people in my class we’re in the same boat as me so am i teaching others something new yeah I really think that this is new information and do only a few people already know this information yeah I’m pretty sure that only a few people know this so I can answer yes to the both those questions I think I have a high quality thesis statement so in order to review the steps that we just took to create a thesis statement first review your big research question then restate the question is a complete sentence and finally ask yourself am i teaching others something new in this lesson you have learned how to write a research thesis statement by restating your big research question in a complete sentence