A thesis statement generator is a tool used to help a person writing an essay come up with a cogent and concise thesis statement. Typically, these tools do not provide any content whatsoever, but merely prompt the user to think about the topic in a way that makes his or her opinion clear and easily communicated in words. The writer usually becomes familiar with the structure of a thesis statement through use of the tool, and is soon able to formulate quality theses on his or her own.
Some people find detailed prompts to be valuable writing tools, and since a thesis statement generator merely reformulates the user's ideas in a new format, most academic institutions do not oppose the use of applications like this.
Usually, a thesis statement must include information about the paper's topic, the writer's position on that topic, and sometimes relevant support and opposition to that position. The most important part of a thesis statement is that it makes the writer's argument clear. While many different sentence structures are possible for these statements, a thesis statement generator will always produce the same general type of sentence. This is because its program is only rearranging the input provided by the user, not creating new information.
In most cases, a thesis statement generator includes a number of fields in which the user inputs responses to questions about the paper being written. Questions usually aim to identify the topic of the paper, the writer's position, supporting and opposing arguments, and sometimes a title. The answers the user provides to these questions must be formatted appropriately in order for the thesis statement generator to work. Otherwise, the resulting sentence may make no sense.
Common problems with thesis statement generators usually involve either incoherent ideas or unintelligible sentences. The generator cannot solve disordered thought, so it is important to provide an opinion clearly. Unintelligible sentences are usually caused by mismatched input format, and can easily be resolved by the user. These issues make it is very important to check over any work put through a thesis statement generator before submitting it for a class.
It is common to find generators like these online at writing help sites, but it is also possible to answer the questions, provide the answers, and then rearrange them into a thesis statement without using a service or program. Going through this writing exercise internalizes the thesis statement generator and makes it possible to write without relying on a program. Once the basic skills have been mastered, a writer can generate any kind of thesis statement he or she desires.