Let's talk about the thesis or claim of your essay.

A good thesis statement or claim is the central beating

heart of an academic essay, it's very very important.
In order to be sure that you have a good thesis or claim,
we wanna focus in on the three main aspects.
A good claim is debatable, supportable with evidence,
and impersonal.
When I say debatable, I mean that a reasonable person
might take up either side of the question.
When I say supportable with evidence,
I mean that the author of the thesis or claim
can point to some kind of proof or evidence
or sound arguments that will support the claim.
And when I say that a thesis or claim is impersonal,
I mean that it would be equally valid
regardless of the author making that claim,
it's not tied to the individual personality of you
or me or anybody else,
it would work coming out of the mouth of anyone.
One common point of misunderstanding
is the difference between a thesis or claim and an opinion.
And this is important because a thesis or claim
is vital for a good academic essay,
whereas opinions are not part of academic essays.
Let me illustrate this idea with a story.
There was a professor who taught at Columbia for years
and every single semester, he struggled to come up
with a good way to explain to his class
the difference between a claim and an opinion
and eventually he worked out this little example.
He would stand at the front of the classroom
and he would say, I've been at Columbia for 30 years.
Last year, our football team lost every game.
I think they're the greatest football team on earth.
This is an example of a statement that is an opinion
and not a claim.
It fails every aspect of what makes a good claim.
To begin with, it's not debatable, I can't even imagine
what terms of debate we would use to figure out
which is the greatest football team on earth,
and mind you, he didn't even say which is the best
college football team, he said Columbia is the greatest
football team on earth, it's not really debatable.
It's also not supportable with evidence.
In fact, the only real figure that he gives,
the football team lost every game last year,
seems to point the opposite direction,
it seems to demonstrate that Columbia doesn't
have the greatest football team on earth.
And finally, this statement is not impersonal,
that is to say, it only makes sense coming out
of the mouth of a Columbia professor.
Imagine he had said, I've been working at Stanford
for 30 years and I think Columbia has the greatest football
team on earth even though they lost every game.
It no longer makes any sense.
So this is an example of an opinion
because it's not debatable, not supportable with evidence,
and not impersonal.