Special Topic:  The Thesis Statement

Source: The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing: The Basic Edition (4th edition). New York: Pearson/Longman, 2006. Pages 27-46

In this course, we will be writing thesis-governed writing, writing that seeks to solve a problem.  So it's important that you understand what a thesis is.

* "Each academic discipline is a field of inquiry and argument, not just a repository of facts and concepts to be learned."  Your thesis statement reflects this attempt to argue for a solution in this field of inquiry.

* Harvard psychologist William Perry details the develop of a critical thinker from

1.  a dualist

2.  a multiplist

3.  to relativism, when a thinker is able to "take a position in the face of complexity and to justify that decision through reasons and evidence while weighing and acknowledging contrary reasons and counterevidence" (29-30).

* Each academic discipline is a "network of conversations in which participants exchange information, respond to each other's questions, and express agreements and disagreements" (30).

* "...a strong thesis usually contants an element of uncertainty, risk, or challenge.  A strong thesis implies a naysayer who could disagree with you" (34).

* Remember that you are trying to change your reader's view on something.  Ask yourself these questions (which appear in the Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing on page 35):

1.  Before reading my essay, my readers think this way about my topic:

2.  After reading my essay, my readers will think this different way about my topic:

*  You can change your reader's view in many ways:

1.  You can enlarge it.  This is largely an informational approach;

2.  You can clarify it.  This kind of writing "explains, analyzes, or interprets" (35);

3.  You can "restructure a reader's whole view of a subject" (36).

* Give your thesis tension by using "although" or "whereas."  "By tension we mean the reader's sensation of being pulled away from familiar ideas toward new, unfamiliar ones or being pulled in two or more directions by opposing ideas" (36).

* Support your thesis with points and particulars.

Source: Rhetorical Figures in Science by Jeanne Fahnestock (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)

Try to use figures of speech in your thesis statements.  Figures of speech are highly formal structures in English that deeply affect your readers.  Figures include metaphors, antithesis, and forms of series reasoning.  Here are some lists of figures.  I would prefer that each of your thesis statements this term represent a clear figure of speech or thought.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_of_speech

http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/rhetoric.html

Last updated 7 September 2008