Essay Writing Tips: How to Restate a Thesis

Learning how to restate a thesis will save you a lot of time and stress when it comes to concluding your academic essay or assignment.

Your conclusion is arguably the most important part of the essay. If it’s not on the money, you might fail to make the crucial points to land the best marks.

Therefore, restating your initial thesis couldn’t be more important. But how exactly do you do this? And which steps should you take before re-writing a thesis?

The good news is that restating a thesis is easy when you know how. Join us as we explain everything you need to know to conclude your essay like a boss.

What is a restated thesis?

A restated thesis is a reworked version of your original thesis statement that you present to the reader at the end of your essay. It should form part of your conclusion, but it should be unique and engaging. In other words, you can’t just copy your original thesis and include it at the end of your assignment.

The best thesis restatements express the same information in a new and compelling way. The main purpose of the restated thesis is to remind the reader of your main points while bringing the assignment to a close.

Why do you need to restate your thesis?

There are a few reasons why restating your thesis is an essential part of assignment writing:

• It gives credence to your original statement and links the end of your assignment to the initial research proposal.
• A restated thesis reminds the readers what you planned to prove from the start.
• When worded efficiently, the restated thesis helps to tie your argument together, making for a compelling conclusion.

How to restate a thesis in three simple steps

Now you understand its purpose, it’s time to reveal how to restate a thesis. While there are a few ways to go about it, follow these three simple steps to make your life easier:

Step 1: Revisit your initial statement

The first thing you need to do is revisit the initial statement that you made. You should consider its wording and whether there’s an easy way to replace some of the main words with synonyms.

Your thesis should provide insight into a topic, idea, or argument. It should be succinct, concise, and clear to the reader. As Gordon Harvey of Harvard College indicates, the thesis should “govern the whole essay.”

Step 2: List the key points

Before attempting a restatement, you must list the key points from your initial statement. We recommend listing these as a checklist, which you can tick off as you work through the restatement. This will ensure that you don’t miss out on any crucial details.

Step 3: Paraphrase your statement

Paraphrasing is a skill that will serve you well when learning how to restate a thesis. It’s the ability to say the same thing differently. There are a few ways to do this, as we introduce below.

How to restate a thesis: Different strategies to use

Now that you have your main points down in front of you, it’s time to work on restating the thesis for your conclusion. As alluded to above, there are a few ways to approach this. Here are our recommendations:

Use synonyms

Synonyms are words that mean the same as a word you have already used. Therefore, you can restate your thesis efficiently by replacing words from your initial statement with synonyms.

You must ensure that the synonyms make grammatical sense and are appropriate for the context in which they’re used. Here’s an example sentence from a thesis that shows you how synonyms can help you:

Original thesis: Overstimulation before bedtime from gadgets can cause numerous issues for young adults, including sleep deprivation, mood swings, and heightened anxiety.

Restated thesis: Overexposure to screens and devices can be problematic for youths, particularly relating to their quality of sleep and their general mood, which can lead to increased anxiety.

If you plan to use synonyms to restate your thesis, consider using our AI Grammar Checker to ensure your new sentences make sense. This will prevent you from accidentally altering the meaning of your thesis after changing the words.

Change the structure of your sentence

Another option is to change the structure of your thesis. In other words, you can pretty much say the same thing but in a slightly different way.

Changing the sentence structure is straightforward, but it also helps to change a few words in the sentence, as it will ensure that the statement is notably different.

Here’s an example of how altering the structure will help you as you’re considering how to restate a thesis:

Original thesis: People with mental health challenges are more prone to depressive episodes when drinking alcohol.

Restated thesis: Drinking alcohol can lead to more frequent depressive episodes among people with mental health conditions.

As you can see in this example, we’ve said the same thing, but we’ve structured the sentence differently. This is an easy way to restate your thesis without altering its meaning.

Make your thesis more concise

When it comes to how to restate a thesis, making it more concise is another good option.

This involves taking your initial statement and making it more succinct, which you can do by summarizing the key point or points that you initially made.

For example:

Original thesis: Excessive online gambling among teens can lead to increased debt, social anxiety, and numerous criminal behaviors as they become adults due to the inherent risk of the practice.

Restated thesis: Teenagers who gamble online excessively are more likely to face many social problems in early adulthood.

Provided you’ve provided sufficient evidence for your main points earlier in the essay, you don’t need to go over them all again in the conclusion. Therefore, shortening the sentence is a handy way to restate your thesis.

Ask AI to re-write your thesis

Using a tool like our Writing Improver is another excellent way to restate a thesis. The tool can come up with numerous suggestions based on your original argument, which will give you a choice when it comes to concluding your essay.

You can play around with the recommendations, customize the thesis, and add to it where you see appropriate. The tool takes much of the hassle out of the process, making it easier to summarize your essay in a way that’s consistent with what you’ve already written.

Recap: How to restate a thesis easily

Understanding how to restate a thesis will undoubtedly help you conclude any academic essay, paper, or assignment.

It’s the act of emphasizing the initial argument that you wanted to make. When done well, restating a thesis brings the entire essay to a coherent conclusion and ensures that you’ve covered the main points.

Of all the ways to restate a thesis, we recommend using synonyms, as it’s a simple and effective strategy. You can also use our AI tools to help you re-work your thesis and to ensure it’s on point.

How to restate a thesis FAQ

How to restate a thesis statement the easy way?

Perhaps the easiest way to restate a thesis is to use synonyms and to slightly restructure the sentence. You just need to make sure that the synonyms that you choose make sense in the context you’re using them in. If they do, it’s the perfect way of saying the same thing with slightly different words.

Can your thesis be exactly the same in the conclusion?

No, your thesis restatement must be different in the conclusion. By different, we mean that it should be worded differently, which you can do by changing its structure or using synonyms. The general message and topic of the thesis should be the same in both the introduction and the conclusion.

Should you restate a thesis in all essays?

It makes sense to restate your thesis in most academic essays, as it’s a good way to reinforce your arguments. As highlighted above, the thesis should govern the entire essay, so you need to refer to it in both the introduction and the conclusion. Restating the thesis enables you to make the same point in a slightly different way.