Expository Writing

Lesson Three

Thesis Statements

Dr. M. Connor

The backbone of a paper

Just like your back bone gives you the support to hold together and the shape you need to be in to function fully

– imagine what would happen if I took out your backbone!

the thesis supports and shapes the paper.

Working thesis

a statement that, based on everything you know of the topic, should prove to be a reasonably accurate summary of what you will write

Final thesis

the accurate one sentence summary of your work that will appear in the final draft.

Three aspects of a thesis

A final thesis statement will:– Control and focus the entire paper.– Give order to details of the essay by

providing unity and a sense of direction.– Specify to the reader the point of the

research.

Two parts of a thesis sentence

A thesis statement generally consists of two parts: – your topic, followed by– the predicate, which is the analysis,

explanation(s), or assertion(s) that you're making about the topic.

The kind of thesis statement you write will depend on what kind of paper you're writing.

First step

The first thing you’ll do in the journey from working thesis to final thesis is to narrow the subject of your thesis.

Select the most promising and interesting material from the material you’ve prewritten.

Your reader will be interested if you are Don’t think readers can’t get interested in

topics they don’t know about.

Most readers can get drawn into your writing if you generate enough excitement.

Teachers have to read your writing, but remember, in the “real world” no one has to read your stuff!

Review your materials

Go back to your materials Perhaps ask the reporters’ questions

with the added question “which aspects?”

You won’t use everything!

Accept that you will use in your paper only a fraction of the material that you have generated through prewriting!

Save it if you want--get back to it someday.

– I do that all the time.

– Some ideas don’t make what I’m writing about at the moment, but someday I go back and write them out.

Narrowing a topic

Subject (too broad): tornados

Limiting questions: which aspects?

Narrowed subject: predicting tornados with sophisticated equipment

Make an assertion

A subject alone, no matter how carefully narrowed, is not a thesis.

You must make an assertion about your subject.

As you study your notes, you begin to make logical connections among ideas. It is through this process that you develop a complete thesis.

A pyramid

What you are doing is sort of like a pyramid.

The thesis is the narrow point at the top. The base of the pyramid is data. You narrow your focus by putting your

data into categories and then narrow your categories into inferences that bring you to your thesis.

Write a Thesis

Write an inference that draws material from 2 or more categories

Category 1* Category 2 * Category 3 * Category 4*

Organize your data into categories

Data * Data * Data * Data * Data * Data * Data * Data * Data * Data

Inferences

An inference is a logical leap to a conclusion, based on available information.

You make inferences every day without thinking about it.

– You see dark clouds gathering and feel a drop in the temperature, and you infer that a storm is on the way.

You have a predicate

The inference that you make about a subject based on the information in your categories will become the predicate part of your thesis.

Inferences that lead to informative writing

Although many relationships may exist among the categories you have gathered, only a few patterns tend to recur.

Recognizing these patterns can help you make an inference that will complete the predicate part of your thesis.

Sequential order

In reviewing notes across categories, you find that you can place certain information in logical order.

You infer a sequence, a pattern of first, second, third…. A sequence might suggest a process.

Definition

Certain notes may enable you to define a term.

Classification

You may find so many examples of a term that you can recognize different varieties or classes.

Comparison

After reviewing the classifications, you can compare or show similarities among various elements of the same class.

Contrast

After reviewing the classification, you may contrast or show differences among various elements of the same class.

Examples of thesis statements:

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a hand like this sometimes??

Sequential order

A tornado begins when warm, tropical air meets cooler, drier air, creating instability in the air near the ground and a marked increase in wind.

Definition

A tornado is a relatively small but powerful storm consisting of fierce rotating winds forming a vortex.

Classification

Three types of cyclonic storms are tornadoes, whirlwinds, and waterspouts.

Comparison

Waterspouts and tornadoes are alike in several ways.

Contrast

Although they appear to be similar to tornadoes, whirlwinds differ from them in significant ways.

Argumentative paper

While an argumentative paper contains a great deal of information, the purpose of the paper is to express the writer’s opinion, not simply to explain something to the reader.

The four thesis statements that follow would lead to argumentative papers.

Generalization

The study of tornadoes is the most important area of meteorological research today.

Causation

The devastation resulting from tornadoes is caused by the government’s failure to adequately fund research.

Sign

Failure to fund tornado research is a sign of governmental incompetence.

Analogy

Just as failure to fund medical research threatens the health of the population, so too does failure to fund meteorological research threaten the safety of the population.

Thesis helps shape paper

The inferences you make to draw your conclusion, in other words, write your thesis, will go to shaping your paper as well.

The types of paragraphs you write in a paper are directly tied to the inferences that you express in your thesis.

Steps for generating a working thesis Narrow your subject so that you will be able to write specifically

on it in the number of pages allotted.

Assemble your notes--arrange in categories--that you have generated for your paper.

Study the categories you have generated for your subject. Selectively draw ideas and information from across the categories in order to narrow your subject.

Ask: What inference can I make concerning the material I have generated? How will this inference allow me to draw on information and ideas from two or more categories? The answer to these questions will become the predicate of your thesis.

Feel free to then throw it away! After you’ve done all this work, though, feel

free to abandon your preliminary thesis if research or your own thinking leads you to new, different issues.– For example, one writer began research on child

abuse with this working thesis: “A need for a cure for child abuse faces society each day.”

• Investigation, however, narrowed her focus: “Parents who abuse their children should be treated as victims, not criminals.”

Change of focus

The writer moved to a specific position from which to argue that social organizations should serve abusing parents in order to help abused kids.

Yes, there will be days when you want to smash the computer in frustration! Ah, the joys of writing!

Writing takes TIME

Sometimes, that’s just the way writing goes.

It’s a lot of work, and one of the reasons why so many people aren’t successful at writing is that they aren’t willing to put in the hard work that it entails.

Getting to a final thesis Use code words from your notes and rough

outline to refine you thesis sentence.

– For example, during your reading of several novels and short stories of Hemingway you might have jotted down certain repetitions of image or theme or character.

• The code words might be “death,” “loss of masculinity,” “the code of the hero,” or other issues that Hemingway explored time and again.

And a possible thesis is...

The tragic endings of Hemingway’s stories force his various heroes into stoic resignation to their fate.

OR Hemingway’s code of the hero includes

a serious degree of pessimism that clouds the overstated bravado.

Final thesis checklist It expresses your position in a full, declarative

sentence, which is not a question, not a statement of purpose and not merely a topic.

It limits the subject to a narrow focus on one issue that has grown out your thoughts and/or research.

It establishes an investigative, inventive edge to your writing and therefor gives a reason for your work.

It points forward to the conclusion.

For more information visit:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_thesis.html