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Making a Thesis Evolve From chapter 6 & 7 of Writing Analytically

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A Good Thesis: Promotes thinking Reduces scope: separates useful evidence from the majority of information Provides direction: helps you decide what to talk about next Contains tension (balances this against that)

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A Static Thesis: A static thesis is imprecise, general, and redundant. A static thesis is a broad idea or label put on a bunch of examples. An example of a static thesis is: Exercise is good for you. A static thesis treats evidence only as something used as support. The writer keeps stating her point and then listing examples.

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Making a Thesis Evolve Formulate an idea about your subject. This idea will be written as your thesis statement. This thesis statement should be in the front of your paper. Determine whether or not you can prove your thesis to be true. Locate complicating evidence the opposing side.

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Make sure to keep asking and answering So what? to keep reinforcing your thesis. You may need to reshape your thesis statement to accommodate the evidence that hasnt fit.

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Thesis Guidelines Your thesis should offer a theory about the meaning of evidence that would not be immediately obvious to readers. Your thesis should be open to opposing viewpoints. Treat your thesis as a statement to be tested not the absolute truth. Ask questions about your thesis to make your paper evolve.

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Samples Bad thesis: The jeans industry targets its advertisements to appeal to young adults. Good thesis: By inventing new terms, such as loose fit and relaxed fit, the jeans industry has attempted to normalize, even glorify, its products for a younger generation.

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Samples Bad Thesis: An important part of ones college education is learning to better understand others points of view. Good Thesis: Although an important part of a persons college education is learning to better understand others points of view, a persistent danger is that students will simply be required to substitute their teachers answers for the ones they grew up believing uncritically.

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Samples Bad thesis: Violent revolutions have had both positive and negative results for men. Good thesis: Although violent revolutions begin to redress long-standing social inequities, they often do so at the cost of long-term economic dysfunction and the suffering that attends it.

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The Exploratory Draft This can be draft #1. The purpose of this draft is to use your writing and ideas to arrive at a working thesis. Dont try to polish your introductory paragraph. Just get started rambling is okay. Your thesis can be broad. The first draft is there to guide your intentions.

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The Revision of the Exploratory Draft This can be draft #2. In this draft you should look to be carefully formulating and evolving your thesis. Look for patterns of repetition and contrast. Look for strands of information (repetition of a similar detail). Look for organizing contrasts binaries (relationships between royalty & commoners, employers & servants, large & small, very important & less important)

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The Next to Final Draft the test This will be your 3 rd draft Be sure to unify the observations you have made. Be sure you havent gone off on tangents. Be sure you have used a wide range of evidence. Be sure your paper makes sense to other readers.

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The Final Draft checking your work Checklist A clear working thesis? Confirming evidence? Complicating evidence? Depth vs. Breadth spend your time exploring your ideas rather than worrying about how many ideas you have formed. Have you made your point? Whats your point? Whats your evidence? How have you interpreted the evidence? How does the evidence support your point? How does it all connect to your thesis?