Below is an example taken from Wisconsin History Day's A Student Guide to National History Day. This example demonstrates how a student's thesis may evolve over time to address a specific argument.
Step 1: “Immigration to Milwaukee.” This is not a thesis statement yet because it doesn’t address a specific, narrow issue related to immigration in Milwaukee. What will the project examine? Health and sanitation in immigrant neighborhoods? Labor issues? The polka? There are thousands of immigration topics that a historian could research about Milwaukee. This topic needs to be narrowed quite a bit before it can be used to build a thesis.
Step 2: “Lizzie Black Kander and Jewish immigration to Milwaukee from 1880–1920.” This is a nice and narrow topic, but it’s still not a thesis. This phrase expresses no opinion and makes no argument about the significance of Kander and Jewish immigration.
Step 3: “Lizzie Black Kander used her cooking classes and The Settlement Cookbook to teach Milwaukee’s Jewish immigrants about American culture.” This sentence is close to a thesis statement, but it isn’t quite there yet. The researcher now shows an opinion about the purpose of Kander’s work, but still doesn’t tell us why the topic is significant. What effects did The Settlement Cookbook and her cooking classes have? How did Kander’s actions change the lives of Jewish immigrants?
Step 4: “Through cooking classes and The Settlement Cookbook, in the late 18th century Lizzie Black Kander introduced Milwaukee’s Jewish immigrants to American culture. Her classes allowed immigrants to assimilate and avoid discrimination.” We have a winner! This thesis looks at a narrow topic, expresses an opinion, and evaluates the significance of the topic. A History Day project based on this thesis statement would discuss Kander’s work and show evidence that she helped immigrants assimilate and avoid discrimination. This thesis also includes the theme words of assimilation and discrimination (old theme).