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.

A student working out how to restate a thesis on a computer

Table of Contents

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

A student working on an essay on her laptop

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.

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Sarah Collins is a passionate professional writer with a master’s degree in Literature and Writing and over a decade of experience in content creation. She specializes in crafting engaging articles, from academic writing and grammar-focused content to practical guides, and believes writing is an art that connects deeply with readers.

Outside of work, Sarah finds inspiration in collecting vintage typewriters, appreciating their timeless charm and the tactile connection they provide to the written word.

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How to Restate a Thesis

Last Updated: February 27, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was reviewed by Gerald Posner . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 397,206 times.

A thesis statement serves as your paper’s (or speech’s) guiding idea, alerting readers to the main points of your paper and the direction it will take. A thesis restatement, which comes in the paper’s conclusion, is the thesis’s kindred spirit, though not its identical twin. It differs from the thesis in both word choice and sentence structure. Restating your thesis at the end of the paper allows you to remind your readers of what you have proven in your body paragraphs and helps to bring your paper to a successful close.

Working out the Restatement Basics

Step 1 Decide on a place for the restatement.

  • Sketching out a rough conclusion (the main points you want to get across) will give you an idea of the best place for the restated thesis before you actually try your hand at writing the restatement.
  • Depending on the nature of your paper or of your conclusion, you may want to open your conclusion with a question or some other kind of rhetorical device, rather than a restatement of the thesis. While writing often follows prescribed formulas (such as the 5-paragraph essay), there is no one-size-fits-all approach for writing a concluding paragraph, and you may need to try out several positions for your thesis restatement to find out what works best.

Step 2 Capitalize on the work you’ve done.

  • You can use the restated thesis to provide a greater level of sophistication or emotional impact to the original argument. For example, if your initial argument was that buying pets as holiday gifts is dangerous, you might restate your thesis this way: "Remember: buying that puppy as a Christmas present might seem like a good idea at the time, but it could end in the tragedy of another homeless dog by Easter."
  • You can also restate your thesis to incorporate the relationship you've built with your reader. For example, if your essay was about developing business partnerships, you could begin your restatement by saying something like, "As a businessperson...." Not only will this make your restatement different from the original, but it will also help draw connections with important elements from the essay/speech.

Step 3 Answer the

  • For example, if you have written an essay about alcohol use on college campuses, you could revisit the "So what?" question in your conclusion by providing a statement about what that means for students and for college officials. It could look something like this: "Because alcohol abuse depends on more than just the legal drinking age, it is crucial that students be educated about how alcohol abuse occurs, and also that college officials broaden their perspective to include a greater variety of aspects."

Step 4 Avoid clichés.

  • You may be able to use something like “In conclusion” at the end of a speech, however. Signaling or signposting words—like “in conclusion” or “next”—are very important in speeches because listeners only have one chance to follow along with what you’re saying, and these words help them to keep their place.

Step 5 Don’t apologize.

  • Avoid saying things like, “It seems like” or “It is possible that” in the restatement. One exception would be if this conditional language is part of your original thesis statement and your paper is devoted to discussing a topic that is only a possibility, not something you are stating is definitely the case. Otherwise, maintain a level of confidence.
  • While maintaining confidence is crucial to the success of your paper, it’s important to acknowledge when opposition exists and not to use absolute statements which may alienate readers. Confidence in your position and in the fact that you’ve proven your point is one thing; blind certainty in your opinion is another!

Making the Restatement Distinct from the Thesis

Step 1 Use different words.

  • You can use your word processor’s thesaurus function for this, an online thesaurus, or a good old-fashioned paper thesaurus. If you use a thesaurus, however, check your chosen word in the dictionary to ensure that you know its precise meaning. Thesauruses group words very loosely by general meaning, and there is often a significant difference in connotation between them.
  • It’s not necessary to change every single word, such as prepositions (“in,” “on,” “above,” “over”) and articles (“a,” “an,” and “the”). Spend your time focusing on words/phrases that receive the most emphasis, like those that are central to the points you’re making.

Step 2 Change the structure.

  • Try varying your sentences by starting with different parts of speech. For example, if you began the original thesis with a prepositional phrase, start the restatement with the subject of the sentence. For instance, if the thesis starts out “Around the turn of the nineteenth century in England, women frequently…”, you might start your restatement out with something like “Women in early nineteenth-century….”
  • Another way to vary the structure is to present your points in a different order. Many thesis statements include three ideas, presented in the order in which they will be discussed in the body paragraphs. When restating, you can list the points in an alternate order.

Step 3 Split the points up.

Community Q&A

Community Answer

  • When restating your thesis, if you find that the statement doesn’t fit your paper anymore, you’ll want to go back to the body of your paper and try to find where things went off track. You may find that you need to revise the original thesis to reflect what you actually wrote in the paper, or that parts of the body of the paper need to be revised to better suit the thesis. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
  • While restating your thesis is essential to the conclusion of your paper or speech, it’s not enough. You will need to emphasize main points and, depending on the assignment/goal of the paper, you may also need to call your audience to action, discuss the implications of what you have talked about in the paper, or make predictions for the future. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
  • Think of the restatement as a new, more powerful version of your thesis—you’ve written the paper and learned a lot over that process, and now you have all of this knowledge to draw on. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

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  • ↑ https://wts.indiana.edu/writing-guides/writing-conclusions.html
  • ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/cliches/
  • ↑ https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/conclusion
  • ↑ https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/undergraduates/writing-guides/how-do-i-write-an-intro--conclusion----body-paragraph.html

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