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Six steps for finding and evolving a central claim.

In their Writing Analytically, David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen, outline six steps for evolving a central claim. Getting the central claim to respond more fully to evidence, either by formulating a mostly new central claim and beginning again, or by modifying the existing thesis, is the primary activity of conceptual revision (as opposed to correcting and editing). Your aim here is not to go round and round forever, but to go back and forth between thesis and evidence, evidence and thesis, allowing each, in turn, to adjust how you see the other, until you find the best possible fit between the two. The central claim not only directs a writer’s way of looking at evidence; the analysis of evidence should also direct and redirect—bring about revision—of the central claim.

What follow is a six-step guide for formulating and reformulating a central claim.  As an overarching guideline, allow your central claim to run up against potentially conflicting evidence in order to build upon and revise your initial idea, extending the range of evidence it can accurately account for by clarifying and qualifying its key terms.

2.  Explain how the details you have focused on in the evidence and lead to your working thesis.

3.  Locate evidence that is not adequately accounted for by the working central claim and pursue the implications of that evidence by repeatedly “ASKING SO WHAT?” Explain how and why these pieces of evidence complicate the working central claim.

4.  Use your analysis of the complicating evidence to reformulate the central claim. Share with readers your reasons for moving from your initial claim to this reformulation.

5.  Test the adequacy of the evolved central claim by repeating steps two, three, and four until you are satisfied that the central claim accounts for your evidence as fully and accurately as possible. The best test of a quality central claim is to see how much of the relevant evidence it can reasonably account for.

6.  Rewrite the draft into a more coherent and fuller analysis of the evidence, while retaining for readers the “central claim trail”—the various steps that you went through along the way to formulating the central claim you ultimately chose.

Let’s trace these steps using the student’s work on Velázquez’s  Las Meninas

Go through your draft and underline potential central claims. View the presence of multiple, perhaps even competing, claims as an opportunity rather than a problem. In an exploratory draft, a range of interpretations of evidence constitutes raw material, the record of your thinking that might be developed in a more finished draft.

In the  Las Meninas paper no single idea emerges clearly as the central claim. Instead, the writer has arrived (in Paragraph 7) at three related but not entirely compatible ideas:

“I think the king wants to. . .”

Central claim 1:  give Velázquez “the recognition he deserves by including him in the ‘family’.”

Central claim 2:  show that Velázquez’s status and brilliance [as an artist] have been appreciated.

Central claim 3:  give Velázquez “the credit he deserved for being a loyal friend and servant.”

These three ideas about the painter’s intentions could be made to work together, but at present the writer is left with an uneasy fit among them. In order to resolve the tension among her possible thesis statements, the writer appears to have settled on  “I think that Velázquez wants the king to give him the recognition he deserves by including him in the family.”  This idea follows logically from a number of the details the writer has focused on, so it is viable as a working thesis—the one that she will, in revision, test against potentially complicating evidence and evolve.

It helps that the writer has specified her  interpretive context —the painter’s intentions—because a writer’s awareness of her interpretive context makes it much easier for her to decide which details to prioritize and what kind of questions to ask about them. A different interpretive context for the  Las Meninas paper, such as the history of painting techniques or the social structure of seventeenth-century royal households, would have caused the writer to emphasize different details and arrive different conclusions about their possible significance.

The success of analytical arguments often depends on a writer’s ability to persuade readers of the appropriateness of her choice of interpretive context. And so it is important for writers to ask and answer the question “In what context might my subject best be understood and why?”

It is okay, by the way, that the writer has not concerned herself prematurely with organization, introductions, and transitions. She has instead allowed her draft to move freely from idea to idea as these occurred to her. She might have come up with the useful ideas in Paragraph 7 had she pressed herself to commit to any one idea (the divine right of kings idea, for example) too soon.

Notice that this writer has prompted a sequence of thought by using the word “ interesting” . Repeated use of this word as a transition would not be adequate in a final draft because it encourages listing without explicit connections among claims or explanations of how each claim evolved into the next. In an exploratory draft, however, the word “interesting” keep the writer’s mind open to possibilities and allows her to try on various claims without worrying prematurely about whether her tentative claims are right or wrong.

The writer of the  Las Meninas paper has offered at least some evidence in support of her working central claim, “ Velázquez wants the king to give him the recognition he deserves by including him in the family. ” She notes the symbol on the painter’s vest, for example, which she says might have been added later by the king to show that the painter’s “status and brilliance have been appreciated.” She implies that the painter’s “confident stance” and “steady stare” also support her central claim. Notice, however, that she has not spelled out her reasons for making this connection between her evidence and her claim.

Nor has she corroborated her claim about this evidence with other evidence that could lend more support to her idea. Interesting, the potential central claims advanced in Paragraph 7 are not connected with the rather provocative details she has noted earlier in the draft: that “Velázquez dominates the painting along with the little girl,” that he “takes up the whole left side along with his gigantic easel,” and that “the king and queen are not as visible as they might be” suggesting that “they are not always at the center where everyone would expect them to be.”

In revision the writer would need to find more evidence in support of her claim and make the links between evidence and claims more explicit. She would also need to tackle the complicating evidence that she leaves dangling earlier.

This is a key step in evolving a central claim—pursuing the piece or pieces of evidence that do not clearly fit with the working central claim, explaining why they don’t fit, and determining what their significance might actually be. For this purpose, the writer would need to zoom in on the details of her evidence that she describes in her draft.

• So what that there are size differences in the painting? What might large or small size mean?
• So what that the king and queen are small, but the painter, princess, and dwarf (another servant) are all large and fairly equal in size and/or prominence?

Proposed answer: Perhaps the king and queen have been reduced so that Velázquez can showcase their daughter, the princess.

Test of this answer:  The size and location of the princess (center foreground) seems to support this answer, as does the princess being catered to by the ladies in waiting. But, if the painting is meant to showcase the princess, what is the point of the painter’s having made himself so large?

Another possible answer : Perhaps the small size and lack of physical prominence of the king and queen are relatively unimportant, in which case, what matters is that they are a presence, always overseeing events (an idea implied but not developed by the writer).

Test of this answer:  Further support for this answer comes from the possibility that we are meant to see the king and queen as reflected in a mirror on the back wall of the painter’s studio (an idea the writer mentions), in which case they would be standing in front of the scene depicted in the painting, literally overseeing events.There isn’t much evidence against this answer, except, again, for the large size of the painter, and the trivializing implications of the king’s and queen’s dimunition, but these are significant exceptions.

Another possible answer: Perhaps the painter is demonstrating his own ability to make the king and queen any size—any level of importance—he chooses. The king and queen are among the smallest as well as the least visible figures in the painting. Whether they are being exhibited as an actual painting on the back wall of the painter’s studio (a possibility the writer has not mentioned) or whether they appear as reflections in a small mirror on that back wall, they certainly lack stature in the painting in comparison with the painter, who is not only larger and more prominent than they are but also who, as the writer notes “dominates the painting along with the little girl.” The little girl is the princess, herself, and the supposed subject of the painting within the painting that Velázquez is working on.

Test:  This answer about the painter demonstrating his control of the representation of the kind and queen seems credible. It has the most evidence in its favor and the least evidence to contradict it. The writer would probably want to choose this idea and would need to reformulate her central claim to better accommodate it.

On the basis of the writer’s answers in Step 3, it would appear that rather than showcasing royal power, the painting showcases the painter’s own power. This idea is not a clear fit with the writer’s working central claim about the painter’s intentions, that “Velázquez wants the kind to give him the recognition he deserves by including him in the family.” So, what should the writer do?

What she should not do is beat a hasty retreat from her working central claim. She should use the complicating evidence to qualify, rather than abandon, her initial idea, which did, after all, have some evidence in its favor. Good writing shares with readers the thinking process that carried the writer forward from one idea to the next.

The writer’s evolved central claim would need to qualify the idea of the painter wishing to be recognized as a loyal servant and accepted member of the family (which are, themselves, not entirely compatible ideas), since there is evidence in the painting suggesting a more assertive stance on the part of Velázquez about the importance of painters and their art.

The writer is now ready to pursue the next step in the revision process: looking actively for other features of the painting that might corroborate her theory. This takes us to Step 5, the last step the writer would need to go through before composing a more polished draft.

The need to find additional corroboration is especially pressing for this writer because her new central claim that the painting demonstrates the artist’s power—not just his brilliance and desire for recognition—suggests an interpretation of the painting that would be unusual for an era in which most other court paintings flattered royal figures by portraying them as larger than life, powerful and heroic.

It is unlikely that any one central claim will explain all of the details in a subject, but a reasonable test of the value of one possible claim over another is how much of the relevant evidence it can explain. So the writer would try to apply her new central claim to details in the painting that have not yet received much attention, such as the painter himself with the large dwarf on the other side of the painting.

This pairing of dwarf and painter might initially seem to spell trouble for the new central claim about the painter demonstrating his power to frame the way the monarchs are represented. If it was, in fact, the painter’s intention to have his power recognized, why would he want to parallel himself—in size, placement, and facial expression—with  dwarf who is, presumably, a fairly low-level servant of the royal household, unlike the  meninas , who are the daughters of aristocrats? SO WHAT? that the dwarf is parallel with the painter?

The writer might argue that the dwarf suggests a visual pun or riddle, demonstrating that in the painter’s world the small can be made large (and vice versa, in the case of the king and queen). No longer “dwarfed” by his subordinate role as court painter, Velázquez stands tall. If this reading is correct, and if it is true, as the writer suggests, that Prince Philip himself later had the honorary cross added to Velázquez’s vest, we might assume that the king either entirely missed or was able to appreciate the painter’s wit.

Similarly, another of the writer’s key observations—that the painter “plays” with viewer’s expectations—fits with the central claim that the painting asks for recognition of the artist’s power, not just his loyal service. In subverting viewers’ expectations both by decentering the monarchs and concealing what is on the easel, the painter again emphasizes his power, in this case, over the viewers (among whom might be the king and queen if their images on the back wall are mirror reflections of them standing, like us, in front of the painting). He is not bound by their expectations, and in fact appears to use those expectations to manipulate viewers: he could make them wish to see something he has the power to withhold.

It is tempting at the end of the exploratory writing process for the writer to simply eliminate all the ideas and analysis that did not support her final choice of central claim. Why should you include all six steps when you know what the best version of your central claim is going to be?

Good analytical writing is collaborative. To a significant extent, good writing recreates for readers the thinking process that produced its conclusions. It shares with readers how a writer arrives at ideas, not just what the writer ultimately thinks. It takes readers along on a cognitive journey through the process of formulating and reformulating that results in a carefully qualified statement of ideas. Having made the trip, readers are more likely to appreciate the explanatory power of the most fully articulated statement of the central claim.

In a final draft, a writer can capture for readers the phases of thinking she went through by, for example, wording the central claim as a SEEMS TO BE ABOUT X claim (SEEMS TO BE ABOUT X, BUT IS REALLY—OR ALSO—ABOUT Y.) This wording would allow the writer of the  Las Meninas paper to share with readers the interesting shift she makes from the idea that the painting promotes the divine right of kings to the idea that it also endorses the power of the painter to cause people to see royalty in this light (a visual pun, as the light on the princess is actually produced by the painter’s brush).

The writer could also set up a central claim that puts X in tension with Y, while granting some validity to both. In this case, X (the painter wanting to be recognized as a member of the family) would serve as back pressure todrive Y (the painter wanting to demonstrate, tongue-in-cheek, the power of painters).

In an inductively organized paper, you would begin with a working central claim somewhat closer to the final version of the thesis that was the case in the exploratory draft, but you wuld still take the readers along on your step-by-step journey to your conclusions. In a deductively organized paper, wherein the central claim must appear from the outset in something close to its full version, you would still be able to show your readers how your thinking evolved. The writer of the  Las Meninas paper could do this by beginning with details that seem to obviously support the central claim (large size and prominence of the painter and his easel relative to the king and queen) and then move to details (such as the large dwarf) that readers would be less likely to connect with the central claim without her help.

The Evolving Thesis

Based on Writing Analytically , Ch. 6

What is a thesis ?

• A claim about the meaning of some feature of your subject (not just a statement of fact—a good test: if you reverse the thesis, is it an arguable claim?)
• A means of focusing your inquiry; a lens for exploration
• A means of providing a principle of selection to select the most relevant evidence
• A means of guiding the development of your ideas
• A means of both prompting and organizing your thinking
• A means of recreating for your reader the chains of thought that led you to your conclusion

A working thesis develops by your

• asking questions about the material
• looking for something to be curious about in the topic or selection
• gathering evidence that seems to support your initial claim
• looking for evidence that complicates or contradicts it
• accomplishing some kind of synthesis out of the dialectic between those conflicting forms of evidence

Thus, a working thesis is “only relatively adequate”—it won’t account for all relevant evidence equally well. This means that your job, then, is to refine that working thesis by seeking out and analyzing both the corroborating and the conflicting evidence, and making sure that your claim adequately accounts for both.

As a thesis evolves, it might result in an expansion or a restriction of the original claim as you move through the process of revision and development:

WORKING                                                                                                   REVISED

THESIS         corrroborating evidence       conflicting evidence               THESIS

Then lather, rinse, repeat ☺ until you’ve developed your thesis as far as you can.

OR, to describe the same process verbally,

• Formulate an idea (working thesis) about your subject.
• See how far this thesis can go in accounting for the evidence you’ve gathered.
• Evaluate the evidence it does not account for, or locate other evidence that now seems important but that your thesis does not encompass (“yeah, but what about…?”)
• Ask “So What?” about the apparent mismatch between the thesis and the evidence.
• Reshape the thesis to accommodate what doesn’t fit.
• Repeat several times or more as necessary.

Remember that the dialectic (or the tension) between the thesis and the subject is reciprocal; the thesis guides your analysis of the evidence, but the analysis also shapes the thesis itself. This push-and-pull is what helps us move forward our understanding.

Notice that this method is very inductive ; it moves from examination of specific evidence to the formulation of a claim. Notice, too, though, that it also involves deduction ; once that claim is formulated, your job is to search for evidence that would confirm or contradict it. It’s a circular process that, again, helps move forward our understanding with each successive pass.

Finding the Thesis

You have plucked one idea (or closely related group of ideas) out of all of your possible ideas to focus on. Congratulations! Now what? Well, now you might write about that topic to explore what you want to say about it. Or, you might already have some idea about what point you want to make about it. If you are in the latter position, you may want to develop a working thesis to guide your drafting process.

What Is a Working Thesis?

A thesis is the controlling idea of a text (often an arguable idea—you will learn more about this in a bit). Depending on the type of text you are creating, all of the discussion in that text will serve to develop, explore multiple angles of, and/or support that thesis.

But how can we know, before getting any of the paper written, exactly what thesis the sources we find and the conversations we have will support? Often, we can’t. The closest we can get in these cases is a working thesis, which is a best guess at what the thesis is likely to be based on the information we are working with at this time. The main idea of it may not change, but the specifics are probably going to be tweaked a bit as you complete a draft and do research.

So, let’s look at one of the examples from “ Strategies for Getting Started ” from the “Prewriting—Generating Ideas” section of this book: the cluster about the broad central idea of danger. If the main idea is “danger,” maybe the conversation you decide you want to have about it after clustering is that sometimes people step into danger intentionally in order to prove ourselves in some way. Next, you might make a list of possible thesis statements. For the sake of example, let’s say this is for an assignment in response to the film The Hunger Games . Some thesis statements that fit this situation might look like this:

• Ultimately, The Hunger Games is a film about facing fears.
• In the 2012 film The Hunger Games , the main character’s fear of losing her sister drives her to face a different set of dangers.
• Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of The Hunger Games , creates as much danger for herself as she faces from others over the course of the film.

If you were writing a summary, the first example in that list might be a good thesis to work with. If you were writing a review, the second one might be the better option. Let’s say, though, that you’ve been assigned to write a more traditional college essay, something a little more focused on analysis. In that case, the final example in this list looks like a good working thesis. It might not be quite the same as the thesis you end up with in later drafts, but it looks like a strong idea to focus your ideas around while you’re first getting them on the page.

The Word on College Reading and Writing Copyright © by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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For the Instructor

Chapter 11: editing and evolving the thesis and outline.

In class, have your students bring in one of the scholarly sources that they think they may use and have them read it again carefully, annotating their reading. This can be done with either a hard copy or an online version. If they are reading an online version, ensure that they are using the annotation settings on their PDF reader to makes notes as they go along.

At the end of the their reading ask them to identify:

3 definitions of key terms the author provides in the work.

3 statistics or number-based evidence the author uses.

2 key quotes that may be useful to their argument.

2 sources from the Bibliography or Works Cited that may also be useful to read.

Once they have completed that checklist, have them imagine where each piece of information might fit within their essay (i.e. where might this definition fit best? At what stage of my argument?). Remind them that they don’t have to use all the information they found, but they should at least consider it.

Once they have a rough idea where the information might work, have them write a body paragraph incorporating in one of the pieces of research that adds to and clarifies their argument.

At any point during this process, it may be helpful to have the students share with each other in small groups or pairs.

Write Here, Right Now: An Interactive Introduction to Academic Writing and Research Copyright © 2018 by Ryerson University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Thesis 101: A Guide for Social Science Thesis Writers

Welcome to the harvard library, finding a researchable question, finding scholarly resources in your field, covid-19 - information & resources, helpful library services & tools.

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Sue Gilroy , Librarian for Undergraduate Writing Programs and Liaison to Social Studies  ([email protected])

Diane Sredl , Data Reference Librarian and Liaison to the Department of Economics ([email protected])

Kathleen Sheehan , Research Librarian and Liaison to the Depts. of Government, Psychology & Sociology ([email protected])

Congratulations on choosing to write a senior thesis! This guide brings together resources and information to help you as you work though the thesis research and writing process.

What is Already Known

Handbooks  are a stock-in-trade for academic researchers. Typically, they're edited volumes, with chapters written by authorities -- or recognized experts, and they synthesize current "consensus" thinking around a particular topic, the most widely accepted perspectives on a topic  They usually contain extensive bibliographies which you can mine as well.

• Cambridge Handbooks O nline
• Cambridge Histories Online
• Oxford Handbooks Online
• Very Short Introductions

Current Trends & Questions

Literature reviews  are essays that help you easily understand—and contextualize—the principal contributions that have been made in your field. They not only track trends over time in the scholarly discussions of a topic, but also synthesize and connect related work. They cite the trailblazers and sometimes the outliers, and they even root out errors of fact or concept. Typically, they include a final section that identifies remaining questions or future directions research might take.

Among the databases for finding literature reviews, we recommend you start with:

• Annual Reviews offers comprehensive collections of critical reviews by leading scholars.
• Web of Science can be a powerful tool in uncovering literature reviews. A keyword topic search in Web of Science much like HOLLIS, will return results that you can then sift through using a variety of left-side filter categories.  Under document type, look for the review.  

Prioritizing My Reading  

• Oxford Bibliographies Online combine the best features of the annotated bibliography with an authoritative subject encyclopedia. Entries identify key contributions to a topic, idea, person, or event and indicate the value of the work. 
• Anthropology
• Social Studies
• Multidisciplinary

Research Guide:

• Anthropology Research

Key Databases:

• Anthropology Plus
• Anthropology Online

Library Research Contact:

Susan Gilman , Librarian for Tozzer Library

• Economics Research  
• Business Source Complete
• Business Premium Collection

Diane Sredl , Data Reference Librarian

• Library Research Guide for History  
• America History & Life
• Historical Abstracts

Fred Burchsted , Research Librarian

Anna Assogba , Research Librarian

• Sociology: a Guide to Research Resources
• Sociology Database
• Social Sciences Premium  

Kathleen Sheehan , Research Librarian

• Government: a Guide to Research Resources
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Social Studies tends to be so interdisciplinary that it's sometimes hard to offer students  a "one-size fits all" starting point.  

Research Guides :

• Research Guides for Social Studies 98 (junior tutorials) may also cover -- broadly speaking -- an area of interest and you may find some leads there. But the 1:1 consult often can't be beat for  locating the databases and the primary sources that are  best suited to your project! 
• If your thesis is applied, our Social Sciences Premium database is sometimes, along with HOLLIS , a good jumping off point. 
• If your thesis is theoretical,   resources like Phil Papers or Philosopher's Index are also recommended.  

Sue Gilroy , Liaison to Social Studies, Lamont Library

• Contemporary Issues in Psychology

Key Database:

• Web of Science

Michael Leach , Head, Collection Development, Cabot Library

Research Guides:

• Research Travel Checklist
• HOLLIS User Guide
• Public Opinion Sources
• Beginner's Guide to Locating and Using Numeric Data
• Conducting Research Interviews: Selected Resources
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• A Harvard COVID-19 Resource Roundup
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• Check Harvard Library Bookmark - Use this bookmarklet to get quick access to subscriptions purchased by Harvard Library.
• Zotero: Getting Started  - A tool for saving, organizing and formatting your research sources.
• Ask a Librarian - Send us your question virtually.
• Borrow Direct & ILL  to borrow materials not currently available from the Harvard Library
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The contents of this Guide are drawn largely from other Guides authored by Sue Gilroy, Librarian for Undergraduate Writing Programs and Liaison to Social Studies.

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Developing a Thesis

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Once you've read the story or novel closely, look back over your notes for patterns of questions or ideas that interest you. Have most of your questions been about the characters, how they develop or change?

For example: If you are reading Conrad's The Secret Agent , do you seem to be most interested in what the author has to say about society? Choose a pattern of ideas and express it in the form of a question and an answer such as the following: Question: What does Conrad seem to be suggesting about early twentieth-century London society in his novel The Secret Agent ? Answer: Conrad suggests that all classes of society are corrupt. Pitfalls: Choosing too many ideas. Choosing an idea without any support.

Once you have some general points to focus on, write your possible ideas and answer the questions that they suggest.

For example: Question: How does Conrad develop the idea that all classes of society are corrupt? Answer: He uses images of beasts and cannibalism whether he's describing socialites, policemen or secret agents.

To write your thesis statement, all you have to do is turn the question and answer around. You've already given the answer, now just put it in a sentence (or a couple of sentences) so that the thesis of your paper is clear.

For example: In his novel, The Secret Agent , Conrad uses beast and cannibal imagery to describe the characters and their relationships to each other. This pattern of images suggests that Conrad saw corruption in every level of early twentieth-century London society.

Now that you're familiar with the story or novel and have developed a thesis statement, you're ready to choose the evidence you'll use to support your thesis. There are a lot of good ways to do this, but all of them depend on a strong thesis for their direction.

For example: Here's a student's thesis about Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent . In his novel, The Secret Agent , Conrad uses beast and cannibal imagery to describe the characters and their relationships to each other. This pattern of images suggests that Conrad saw corruption in every level of early twentieth-century London society. This thesis focuses on the idea of social corruption and the device of imagery. To support this thesis, you would need to find images of beasts and cannibalism within the text.

Evolving your RA Argument

In this workshop, students apply the Evolving Thesis method to their RA pre-write, using the pre-write as a foundation to develop their first working thesis. 

Author:  Jennifer Stonaker

Course:  PWR 1

Activity Schedule:  Week 2

Activity details:  In this workshop, students apply the Evolving Thesis method to build and strengthen a thesis for their rhetorical analysis essay.   See the student-facing handout for more details; the handout also contains a detailed explanation of the Evolving Thesis method.

Additional notes from Jenne:  Thanks to Donna for introducing me to the Evolving Thesis method! You can read more about the method in Writing Analytically by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen. 

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12.3: Evolution of the Thesis Statement

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Previous pages established the importance of a working thesis statement early in the writing process. This working thesis is likely to be revisited and revised several times as the writing process continues.

After gathering evidence, and before starting to write the essay itself, is a natural point to look again at the project’s thesis statement. The following video offers friendly, appealing advice for developing a thesis statement more concretely.

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Evolving a Thesis

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How to Craft Your Ideal Thesis Research Topic

Table of contents

Catherine Miller

Writing your undergraduate thesis is probably one of the most interesting parts of studying, especially because you get to choose your area of study. But as both a student and a teacher who’s helped countless students develop their research topics, I know this freedom can be just as intimidating as it is liberating.

Fortunately, there’a a step-by-step process you can follow that will help make the whole process a lot easier. In this article, I’ll show you how to choose a unique, specific thesis topic that’s true to your passions and interests, while making a contribution to your field.

Choose a topic that you’re interested in

First things first: double-check with your teachers or supervisor if there are any constraints on your research topic. Once your parameters are clear, it’s time to identify what lights you up — after all, you’re going to be spending a lot of time thinking about it.

Within your field of study, you probably already have some topics that have grabbed your attention more than others. This can be a great place to start. Additionally, consider using the rest of your academic and extra-curricular interests as a source of ideas. At this stage, you only need a broad topic before you narrow it down to a specific question. 

If you’re feeling stuck, here are some things to try:

• Look back through old course notes to remind yourself of topics you previously covered. Do any of these inspire you?
• Talk to potential supervisors about your ideas, as they can point you toward areas you might not have considered.
• Think about the things you enjoy in everyday life — whether that’s cycling, cinema, cooking, or fashion — then consider if there are any overlaps with your field of study.
• Imagine you have been asked to give a presentation or record a podcast in the next three days. What topics would you feel confident discussing?
• Watch a selection of existing lectures or explainer videos, or listen to podcasts by experts in your field. Note which topics you feel curious to explore further.
• Discuss your field of study with teachers friends and family, some with existing knowledge and some without. Which aspects do you enjoy talking about? 

By doing all this, you might uncover some unusual and exciting avenues for research. For example, when writing my Master’s dissertation, I decided to combine my field of study (English teaching methodology) with one of my passions outside work (creative writing). In my undergraduate course, a friend drew on her lived experience of disability to look into the literary portrayal of disability in the ancient world. 

Do your research

Once you’ve chosen your topic of interest, it’s time to dive into research. This is a really important part of this early process because it allows you to:

• See what other people have written about the topic — you don’t want to cover the same old ground as everyone else.
• Gain perspective on the big questions surrounding the topic. 
• Go deeper into the parts that interest you to help you decide where to focus.
• Start building your bibliography and a bank of interesting quotations. 

A great way to start is to visit your library for an introductory book. For example, the “A Very Short Introduction” series from the Oxford University Press provides overviews of a range of themes. Similar types of overviews may have the title “ A Companion to [Subject]” or “[Subject] A Student Companion”. Ask your librarian or teacher if you’re not sure where to begin. 

Your introductory volume can spark ideas for further research, and the bibliography can give you some pointers about where to go next. You can also use keywords to research online via academic sites like JStor or Google Scholar. Check which subscriptions are available via your institution.

At this stage, you may not wish to read every single paper you come across in full — this could take a very long time and not everything will be relevant. Summarizing software like Wordtune could be very useful here.

Just upload a PDF or link to an online article using Wordtune, and it will produce a summary of the whole paper with a list of key points. This helps you to quickly sift through papers to grasp their central ideas and identify which ones to read in full. 

Get Wordtune for free > Get Wordtune for free >

You can also use Wordtune for semantic search. In this case, the tool focuses its summary around your chosen search term, making it even easier to get what you need from the paper.

As you go, make sure you keep organized notes of what you’ve read, including the author and publication information and the page number of any citations you want to use. 

Some people are happy to do this process with pen and paper, but if you prefer a digital method, there are several software options, including Zotero , EndNote , and Mendeley . Your institution may have an existing subscription so check before you sign up.

Narrowing down your thesis research topic

Now you’ve read around the topic, it’s time to narrow down your ideas so you can craft your final question. For example, when it came to my undergraduate thesis, I knew I wanted to write about Ancient Greek religion and I was interested in the topic of goddesses. So, I:

• Did some wide reading around the topic of goddesses
• Learned that the goddess Hera was not as well researched as others and that there were some fascinating aspects I wanted to explore
• Decided (with my supervisor’s support) to focus on her temples in the Argive region of Greece

As part of this process, it can be helpful to consider the “5 Ws”: why, what, who, when, and where, as you move from the bigger picture to something more precise. 

Why did you choose this research topic?

Come back to the reasons you originally chose your theme. What grabbed you? Why is this topic important to you — or to the wider world? In my example, I knew I wanted to write about goddesses because, as a woman, I was interested in how a society in which female lives were often highly controlled dealt with having powerful female deities. My research highlighted Hera as one of the most powerful goddesses, tying into my key interest.

What are some of the big questions about your topic?

During your research, you’ll probably run into the same themes time and time again. Some of the questions that arise may not have been answered yet or might benefit from a fresh look. 

Equally, there may be questions that haven’t yet been asked, especially if you are approaching the topic from a modern perspective or combining research that hasn’t been considered before. This might include taking a post-colonial, feminist, or queer approach to older texts or bringing in research using new scientific methods.

In my example, I knew there were still controversies about why so many temples to the goddess Hera were built in a certain region, and was keen to explore these further.

Who is the research topic relevant to?

Considering the “who” might help you open up new avenues. Is there a particular audience you want to reach? What might they be interested in? Is this a new audience for this field? Are there people out there who might be affected by the outcome of this research — for example, people with a particular medical condition — who might be able to use your conclusions?

Which period will you focus on?

Depending on the nature of your field, you might be able to choose a timeframe, which can help narrow the topic down. For example, you might focus on historical events that took place over a handful of years, look at the impact of a work of literature at a certain point after its publication, or review scientific progress over the last five years. 

With my thesis, I decided to focus on the time when the temples were built rather than considering the hundreds of years for which they have existed, which would have taken me far too long.

Where does your topic relate to?

Place can be another means of narrowing down the topic. For example, consider the impact of your topic on a particular neighborhood, city, or country, rather than trying to process a global question. 

In my example, I chose to focus my research on one area of Greece, where there were lots of temples to Hera. This meant skipping other important locations, but including these would have made the thesis too wide-ranging.

Create an outline and get feedback

Once you have an idea of what you are going to write about, create an outline or summary and get feedback from your teacher(s). It’s okay if you don’t know exactly how you’re going to answer your thesis question yet, but based on your research you should have a rough plan of the key points you want to cover. So, for me, the outline was as follows:

• Context: who was the goddess Hera?
• Overview of her sanctuaries in the Argive region
• Their initial development 
• Political and cultural influences
• The importance of the mythical past

In the final thesis, I took a strong view on why the goddess was so important in this region, but it took more research, writing, and discussion with my supervisor to pin down my argument.

To choose a thesis research topic, find something you’re passionate about, research widely to get the big picture, and then move to a more focused view. Bringing a fresh perspective to a popular theme, finding an underserved audience who could benefit from your research, or answering a controversial question can make your thesis stand out from the crowd.

For tips on how to start writing your thesis, don’t miss our advice on writing a great research abstract and a stellar literature review . And don’t forget that Wordtune can also support you with proofreading, making it even easier to submit a polished thesis.

How do you come up with a research topic for a thesis?

To help you find a thesis topic, speak to your professor, look through your old course notes, think about what you already enjoy in everyday life, talk about your field of study with friends and family, and research podcasts and videos to find a topic that is interesting for you. It’s a good idea to refine your topic so that it’s not too general or broad.  

Do you choose your own thesis topic?

Yes, you usually choose your own thesis topic. You can get help from your professor(s), friends, and family to figure out which research topic is interesting to you. 

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OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions . OATD currently indexes 6,906,862 theses and dissertations.

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We’re happy to present several data visualizations to give an overall sense of the OATD.org collection by county of publication, language, and field of study.

You may also want to consult these sites to search for other theses:

• Google Scholar
• NDLTD , the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. NDLTD provides information and a search engine for electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), whether they are open access or not.
• Proquest Theses and Dissertations (PQDT), a database of dissertations and theses, whether they were published electronically or in print, and mostly available for purchase. Access to PQDT may be limited; consult your local library for access information.

Writing Process

Video: evolution of the thesis statement.

Previous pages established the importance of a working thesis statement early in the writing process. This working thesis is likely to be revisited and revised several times as the writing process continues.

After gathering evidence, and before starting to write the essay itself, is a natural point to look again at the project’s thesis statement. The following video offers friendly, appealing advice for developing a thesis statement more concretely.

• Video: Evolution of the Thesis Statement. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• How To Write A Killer Thesis Statement by Shmoop. Authored by : Shmoop. Located at : https://youtu.be/8wxE8R_x5I0 . License : All Rights Reserved . License Terms : Standard YouTube License

The Educator Online

“Finding and Evolving a Thesis” by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen

“Finding and Evolving a Thesis” by David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen is a guidebook that offers practical advice and strategies for developing and refining a thesis statement in academic writing. The book is intended for students and writers who want to improve their thesis-writing skills and create stronger arguments in their essays.

The authors stress the significance of a strong thesis statement as the cornerstone of a successful essay. They offer detailed instructions on how to choose a subject, conduct research, and create a thesis that is convincing and backed up by facts.

The book discusses a variety of thesis statements, such as analytical, persuasive, and informational theses. It provides methods for organising thoughts, generating a thesis that addresses the complexities of the chosen topic, and brainstorming ideas.

Additionally, Rosenwasser and Stephen talk about typical difficulties that authors run into when coming up with a thesis. They offer methods for concentrating a broad topic, improving a thesis statement through revision, and incorporating criticism from teachers or fellow students.

The book explores the theoretical aspects of thesis writing in addition to offering helpful advice, touching on ideas like argumentation, evidence, and logical reasoning. It challenges authors to evaluate their own arguments critically and take into account opposing viewpoints in order to support their theses.

Throughout the book, the authors provide numerous examples and exercises to help readers practice and apply the concepts they learn. They emphasize the iterative nature of thesis development, encouraging writers to revise and evolve their theses as they gain new insights and knowledge.

“Finding and Evolving a Thesis” serves as a comprehensive resource for writers at various skill levels. It offers clear explanations, practical strategies, and valuable insights into the art of crafting a strong thesis statement. By following the guidance provided in the book, writers can enhance their ability to construct compelling arguments and produce well-structured essays.

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Why do animals keep evolving into crabs?

Crabby bodies are so evolutionarily favorable, they've evolved at least five different times. So why does this process, known as carcinization, keep happening?

A flat, rounded shell. A tail that's folded under the body. This is what a crab looks like, and apparently what peak performance might look like — at least according to evolution . A crab-like body plan has evolved at least five separate times among decapod crustaceans, a group that includes crabs, lobsters and shrimp. In fact, it's happened so often that there's a name for it: carcinization.

So why do animals keep evolving into crab-like forms? Scientists don't know for sure, but they have lots of ideas.

Carcinization is an example of a phenomenon called convergent evolution , which is when different groups independently evolve the same traits. It's the same reason both bats and birds have wings . But intriguingly, the crab-like body plan has emerged many times among very closely related animals. 

The fact that it's happening at such a fine scale "means that evolution is flexible and dynamic," Javier Luque , a senior research associate in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, told Live Science.

Related: Does evolution ever go backward?

Crustaceans have repeatedly gone from having a cylindrical body plan with a big tail — characteristic of a shrimp or a lobster — to a flatter, rounder, crabbier look, with a much less prominent tail. The result is that many crustaceans that resemble crabs, like the tasty king crab that's coveted as a seafood delicacy, aren't even technically "true crabs." They've adopted a crab-like body plan, but actually belong to a closely related group of crustaceans called "false crabs."

When a trait appears in an animal and sticks around through generations, it's a sign that the trait is advantageous for the species — that's the basic principle of natural selection. Animals with crabby forms come in many sizes and thrive in a wide array of habitats, from mountains to the deep sea. Their diversity makes it tricky to pin down a single common benefit for their body plan, said Joanna Wolfe , a research associate in organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University.

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Wolfe and colleagues laid out a few possibilities in a 2021 paper in the journal BioEssays . For example, crabs' tucked-in tail, versus the lobster's much more prominent one, could reduce the amount of vulnerable flesh that's accessible to predators. And the flat, rounded shell could help a crab scuttle sideways more effectively than a cylindrical lobster body would allow.

But more research is needed to test those hypotheses, Wolfe said. She is also trying to use genetic data to better understand the relationships among different decapod crustaceans, to more accurately pinpoint when various "crabby" lineages evolved, and pick apart the factors driving carcinization.

There's another possible explanation: "It's possible that having a crab body isn't necessarily advantageous, and maybe it's a consequence of something else in the organism," Wolfe said. For example, the crab body plan might be so successful not because of the shell or tail shape itself, but because of the possibilities that this shape opens up for other parts of the body, said Luque, who is a co-author of the 2021 paper with Wolfe.

For example, a lobster's giant tail can propel the animal through the water and help it crush prey. But it can also get in the way and constrain other features, Luque said. The crab body shape might leave more flexibility for animals to evolve specialized roles for their legs beyond walking, allowing crabs to easily adapt to new habitats. Some crabs have adapted their legs for digging under sediment or paddling through water.

"We think that the crab body plan has evolved so many times independently because of the versatility that the animals have," Luque said. "That allows them to go places that no other crustaceans have been able to go."

— Why did trilobites go extinct?

— Why do lobsters turn red when they're cooked?

— Why are there so many giants in the deep sea?

The crab-like body plan also has been lost multiple times over evolutionary time — a process known as decarcinization.

"Crabs are flexible and versatile," Luque explained. "They can do a lot of things back and forth."

Wolfe thinks of crabs and other crustaceans like Lego creations: They have many different components that can be swapped out without dramatically changing other features. So it's relatively straightforward for a cylindrical body to flatten out, or vice versa. But for better or worse, humans won't be turning into crabs anytime soon. "Our body isn't modular like that," Wolfe said. "[Crustaceans] already have the right building blocks."

Laurel Hamers is a writer specializing in science, medicine and the environment. Now based in Oregon, she was previously a staff writer at Science News magazine in Washington, D.C. Laurel holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Williams College in Massachusetts and is a graduate of the UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program.

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Evolving drone and missile threats prompting Tokyo to rethink air defense

With neighboring countries such as China, Russia and North Korea adding hypersonic weapons and artificial intelligence-equipped drones to their already massive arsenals, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces are facing an increasingly complex set of challenges to keep the country safe.

To make matters worse, the relatively low cost of mass-producing some of these weapons has raised the possibility of Japan — as well as U.S. forces in the country — being on the receiving end of not one, but potentially several saturation attacks that could overwhelm air defenses in the event of a military clash.

The Defense Ministry in Tokyo is aware of the pressing need to upgrade the country’s defense shield, noting that if Japan continues to rely solely upon ballistic missile defenses (BMD), it will become “increasingly difficult” to fully address such evolving threats with the existing missile defense network alone.

To counter this, Tokyo revealed in its latest National Defense Strategy that it plans to “fundamentally reinforce” the country’s detection, tracking and interception capabilities by putting a system in place that unifies information coming from radar and other sensors so that the data can be better used by available missile launchers and other defensive equipment.

Japan currently fields a multilayered BMD system, with Aegis-equipped warships providing upper-tier interception and land-based Patriot missiles engaging lower-tier threats. The SDF also operates Type 03 medium-range missiles and other systems to take out cruise missiles and other aerial threats.

But because effective air defense also requires early warning as well as accurate detection and tracking, Japan also fields a wide range of sensors, including fixed early-warning radars — known as the FPS series — at 28 locations across the country. It also receives critical information from satellites and aerial platforms, as well as radars on Aegis-equipped ships.

Integrating these assets across the different domains has been a central feature of the Japan Aerospace Defense Ground Environment (JADGE) — an automated command and control, battle management, and communications system.

For this fiscal year alone, the Defense Ministry requested ¥37.3 billion to improve JADGE's capabilities, including through the use of AI, as well as several billion more to either modernize or replace several FPS radars.

Yet even though JADGE has been gradually updated since its introduction in 2009, experts such as John Bradford, a former country director for Japan at the Office of the U.S. Defense Secretary, argue that the system has become “insufficient” to deal with the “volume and sophistication” of new airborne weapons, particularly those fielded by China.

“Since the introduction of JADGE, Japan’s threat perceptions have completely changed,” he said, arguing that JADGE needs to be either complemented or replaced with a more modern integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) system that can better tackle these sophisticated threats.

“One can think of JADGE as the system that enables the SDF to see everything its various sensors perceive,” Bradford said.

“A next-generation system, however, will make that picture clearer and enable the SDF to use all that data to shoot as soon as an enemy missile or aircraft approaches Japan.”

Other analysts such as Masashi Murano, a Japan chair fellow at the U.S.-based Hudson Institute, argue that while JADGE remains “an excellent system with very high processing power,” its stationary nature poses a risk.

“Centralized command and control (C2) could significantly reduce the efficiency of air-defense operations throughout Japan should the system’s capabilities — or those of the FPS radars — be lost or downgraded due to physical or cyberattacks,” Murano said.

“This is where a highly mobile, distributed system could complement JADGE and increase the resiliency of Japan's overall IAMD architecture,” he noted.

Japan is known to be exploring the advantages of better networking its existing capabilities, but it is unclear whether Tokyo has already set out a formal requirement for a new system to upgrade or complement JADGE.

What is known is that several companies have been working on networking solutions for years, including U.S. defense giants Lockheed Martin, RTX (formerly known as Raytheon Technologies), and Northrop Grumman, the latter of which recently revealed that it is pitching its Integrated Air and Missile Defense Battle Command System (IBCS) to Japan as a foundation to its vision of a connected battlespace that the company calls BattleOne.

“We have been meeting with the Japanese government to talk about this (IBCS) capability and how they can leverage it to modernize their air and missile defense systems,” said Jon Ferko, the company’s director for business development, adding that Northrop Grumman has already inked a teaming agreement with Mitsubishi Electric to potentially develop networking equipment tailored to SDF requirements.

IBCS, which is being fielded by both the U.S. and Polish armies, was originally developed to integrate and operate the U.S. Army's ground-based air-defense components. But it has also been designed to be able to connect with U.S. Navy maritime-based, air-defense elements such as SPY-6 radars and Aegis destroyers.

The system can link all sensors and shooters across a battlefield, including those from across domains and different partner countries, to generate a detailed common operational picture, and, with assistance from AI, determine the optimal way to take out any given threat.

An important feature, company officials said, is that integration into IBCS does not require other manufacturers to disclose the source code underpinning their equipment.

But IBCS is not merely a defensive tool. It can also be used to strike back at enemy forces, as it can propose the best course of action to retaliate against selected targets based on predetermined scenarios.

This could be an important feature for the SDF, since Tokyo is already acquiring so-called counterstrike weapons, including up to 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles between April 2025 and March 2028, to potentially target enemy bases and command-and-control nodes in response to an attack on Japan.

That said, BattleOne/IBCS may be just one of several possibilities, especially as Tokyo has yet to disclose specific networking system requirements, or whether it would consider a combination of such systems.

The NDS states that by fiscal year 2027 Japan plans to acquire two additional Aegis-equipped vessels to enter service in fiscal 2027 and 2028, enhance its early warning-and-control radar capabilities and reinforce its ability to respond to small drones, including with directed-energy weapons ​​​​​​such as lasers. More recently, Washington and Tokyo agreed to conduct joint research on a new missile, called the Glide Phase Interceptor , to defend against hypersonic weapons.

While some defense contractors have indicated they can further upgrade JADGE, experts such as Steve Town, a former U.S. Army air-defense specialist with the International Security Industry Council in Tokyo, say Japan could also go down a different route by expanding the use of assets equipped with the U.S.-developed Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) system, which is already fielded by several of the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Aegis-equipped destroyers.

This comes as U.S. ally Australia signed a contract with Lockheed Martin last month as its strategic partner for its new all-domain IAMD system. The company has also partnered with the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to demonstrate its DIAMONDShield battle management system.

It also follows a U.S.-Japanese agreement in April to cooperate with Australia on a networked air-defense architecture, a move that could play a critical role in Tokyo's plans for a next-generation IAMD system.

Regardless of the available options, experts agree that Tokyo will have its work cut out for it, as choosing the best integration system will require calculating risks about costs, the scope of engineering challenges and the future of the respective technologies. It will also likely demand close coordination between the SDF branches.

“The devil behind those decisions is in the details and, in this case, the details are highly technical and classified,” Bradford said.

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This founder says meme tech is the next big thing

Alex Taub , a longtime founder with multiple exits under his belt, believes it’s time to disrupt the meme industry.

“I have this big thesis that meme tech is going to be the next big category,” Taub told TechCrunch. “Like, there’s health tech, there’s proptech, there’s adtech, there’s fintech… I think meme tech is about to have a big moment.”

Taub might sound like he’s spent a bit too much time in the trenches of the content mines. But he has a point. If you want to send your friend the perfect SpongeBob meme, what are you supposed to do? Google “mr krabs confused meme”? Memes are a key component of our online communications — from boomers posting minions to gen alpha posting about toilets — and yet few companies have tried to do anything new.

To be clear, tech innovation isn’t always good or necessary. No one needs to own a smart refrigerator , or for that matter, a Humane Ai pin . But there’s been almost no innovation in how we organize and share memes for more than a decade: On Tumblr in 2009, it was common practice to have a reaction gif folder on your computer desktop; now, the most organized among us have meme folders on our phones. It’s basically the same thing. Similarly, even though your iPhone can quickly catalog all of your pictures of a cat named Plover, iPhones don’t know who Mr. Krabs is, leaving a bit to be desired in terms of meme efficiency.

“If you think of what meme tech really is right now, it’s essentially Giphy , but it got acquired by Facebook, and then got sort of shuttered off to Shutterstock. There’s some OG companies like Know Your Meme and Cheezburger, but those companies are actually media companies,” Taub said. “I ended up realizing there’s an opportunity here for meme management.”

On Wednesday, Taub launched Meme Depot , which he aspires to build into a comprehensive archive of any meme imaginable.

“You have collections, which are like subreddits, visually,” he explains. If you’re looking for a Kim Kardashian meme, for example, there would be a Kim Kardashian collection that you can navigate to. “And visually, they’re very easy to look through, like Pinterest.”

That’s all well and good, but companies need to make money. Here’s where Taub might lose people: The business model revolves around crypto.

“I’ve been in crypto in one way or another the last 12 years, and I think it’s very misunderstood in terms of the speculation and the bad actors, but it’s also just a new way to reimagine the internet,” he said.

Inspired by Friend.tech , Meme Depot has a feature called meme party, which turns specific meme categories into communities. Using cryptocurrency, users can buy depot passes to join the meme party, which is basically just an ephemeral, cursor-based chat. But for people who don’t want anything to do with crypto, it’s not necessary to pay money or open a crypto wallet to engage with Meme Depot in any way. It allows early pass holders of a meme collection to earn a bit of money as more people join it.

Taub is well aware that this tactic could spark debate.

“There’s a lot of controversy about like, who is allowed to monetize memes? Is it the creator of the meme, is it the person in the meme?” he said. “If this takes off the way I think it will, we might add a new wrinkle to this, which is a good thing. You want people to talk about it.”

These same questions were raised during the NFT boom of 2021, when the subjects of viral memes like Scumbag Steve , Disaster Girl and Overly Attached Girlfriend sold their iconic images as NFTs. This was often the first time that these people earned any money for being the subject of viral memes — Disaster Girl, now in her twenties, earned the equivalent of $500,000 in ETH at the time, though that could have depreciated significantly depending on what she did with the cryptocurrency.

Then there are memes like Pepe the Frog , which evolved from an innocent cartoon to an alt-right symbol, and back again to a Twitch emote and crypto meme. When an image is so divorced from its origin, it could belong more so to the public than its original creator.

“People can monetize the community around the meme without monetizing the meme itself,” Taub said.

Meme Depot is part of Truth Arts, which operates with a mixture of venture funding, royalties from the Goblintown NFT collection and money from selling past ventures like SocialRank, a social media analytics company. For some business-minded folk, the question may persist: why memes?

Taub’s answer is simple: “Memes are culture, and culture is entertainment.”

Updated, 5/29/24, 1:20 p.m. ET with clarification on the nature of Meme Depot’s funding.

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SpaceX sent Starship to orbit — the next launch will try to bring it back

SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket could take to the skies for the fourth time on June 5, with the primary objective of evaluating the second stage’s reusable heat shield as the…

Billionaire Groupon founder Eric Lefkofsky is back with another IPO: AI health tech Tempus

Eric Lefkofsky knows the public listing rodeo well and is about to enter it for a fourth time. The serial entrepreneur, whose net worth is estimated at nearly $4 billion,…

You’ve spoken! Meet the Disrupt 2024 breakout session audience choice winners

TechCrunch Disrupt showcases cutting-edge technology and innovation, and this year’s edition will not disappoint. Among thousands of insightful breakout session submissions for this year’s Audience Choice program, five breakout sessions…

Zero-day flaw in Check Point VPNs is ‘extremely easy’ to exploit

Check Point is the latest security vendor to fix a vulnerability in its technology, which it sells to companies to protect their networks.

Spotify offers Car Thing refunds as it faces lawsuit over bricking the streaming device

Though Spotify never shared official numbers, it’s likely that Car Thing underperformed or was just not worth continued investment in today’s tighter economic market.

Misinformation works, and a handful of social ‘supersharers’ sent 80% of it in 2020

The studies, by researchers at MIT, Ben-Gurion University, Cambridge and Northeastern, were independently conducted but complement each other well.

Tesla shareholder sweepstakes and EV layoffs hit Lucid and Fisker

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Okay, okay…

Paul Graham claims Sam Altman wasn’t fired from Y Combinator

In a series of posts on X on Thursday, Paul Graham, the co-founder of startup accelerator Y Combinator, brushed off claims that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was pressured to resign…

AI manufacturing startup funding is on a tear as Switzerland’s EthonAI raises $16.5M

In its three-year history, EthonAI has amassed some fairly high-profile customers including Siemens and chocolate-maker Lindt.

Ticktock! 48 hours left to nab your early-bird tickets for Disrupt 2024

Don’t miss out: TechCrunch Disrupt early-bird pricing ends in 48 hours! The countdown is on! With only 48 hours left, the early-bird pricing for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 will end on…

Valar Labs debuts AI-powered cancer care prediction tool and secures $22M

Biotech startup Valar Labs has built a tool that accurately predicts certain treatment outcomes, potentially saving precious time for patients.

Archer, Kakao Mobility partner to bring electric air taxis to South Korea in 2026

Archer Aviation is partnering with ride-hailing and parking company Kakao Mobility to bring electric air taxi flights to South Korea starting in 2026, if the company can get its aircraft…

Basalt plans to ‘hack’ a defunct satellite to install its space-specific OS

Space startup Basalt Technologies started in a shed behind a Los Angeles dentist’s office, but things have escalated quickly: Soon it will try to “hack” a derelict satellite and install…

Former teen model co-created app Frich to help Gen Z be more realistic about finances

As a teen model, Katrin Kaurov became financially independent at a young age. Aleksandra Medina, whom she met at NYU Abu Dhabi, also learned to manage money early on. The…

Autobiographer’s app uses AI to help you tell your life story

Can AI help you tell your story? That’s the idea behind a startup called Autobiographer, which leverages AI technology to engage users in meaningful conversations about the events in their…

Perplexity AI’s new feature will turn your searches into shareable pages

AI-powered summaries of web pages are a feature that you will find in many AI-centric tools these days. The next step for some of these tools is to prepare detailed…

ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved…

Cylib wants to own EV battery recycling in Europe

Battery recycling startups have emerged in Europe in a bid to tap into the next big opportunity in the EV market: battery waste.  Among them is Cylib, a German-based startup…

Amazon gets FAA approval to expand US drone deliveries

Amazon has received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly its delivery drones longer distances, the company announced on Thursday. Amazon says it can now expand its…

Former Priceline execs debut Plannin, a booking platform that uses travel influencers to help plan trips

With Plannin, creators can tell their audience about their latest trip, which hotels they liked and post photos of their travels.

Amazon is rolling out AI voice search to Fire TV devices

Amazon is rolling out its AI voice search feature to Alexa, which lets it answer open-ended questions about content.

Redpanda acquires Benthos to expand its end-to-end streaming data platform

Redpanda has already integrated Benthos into its own service and has made it the core technology of its new Redpanda Connect service.

Fintech startup Forward grabs $16M to take on Stripe, lead future of integrated payments

It’s a lofty goal to take on legacy payments infrastructure, however, Forward’s model has an advantage by shifting the economics back to SaaS companies.

Rhea reaps $10M more led by Thiel

Fertility remains a pressing concern around the world — birthrates are down in many countries, and infertility rates (that is, the inability to conceive) are up. Rhea, a Singapore- and…

Tech giants form an industry group to help develop next-gen AI chip components

Microsoft, Meta, Intel, AMD and others have formed a new group to design next-gen interconnects for AI accelerator hardware.

Ambani’s Reliance fires opening salvo in fintech battle, launches JioFinance app

With JioFinance, the Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani is making his boldest consumer-facing move yet into financial services.

Filing shows Salesforce paid $419M to buy Spiff in February

Salespeople live and die by commissions. It’s no surprise, then, that Salesforce paid a premium to buy a platform that simplifies managing commissions.

YoLa Fresh, a GrubMarket for Morocco, digs up $7M to connect farmers with food sellers

YoLa Fresh works with over a thousand retailers across Morocco and records up to $1 million in gross merchandise volume.

Instagram now lets teens limit interactions to their ‘Close Friends’ group to combat harassment

Instagram is expanding the scope of its “Limits” tool specifically for teenagers that would let them restrict unwanted interactions with people.