Writing Analytically, 6th Edition - Rosenwasser, David & Stephen, Jill [151]
Analytical writing begins with something puzzling that the writer wishes to better understand. Strong thesis statements enable exploration. Weak thesis statements disable exploration by closing things down way too tightly at the outset.
Here are two characteristics that an idea needs to possess in order to work as a thesis.
the thesis of an analytical paper is an idea about what some feature or features of your subject means
a thesis should be an idea in need of argument; that is, it should not be a statement of fact or an idea with which most readers would already agree.
Finding the Tension in Good Thesis Statements
In the Try This on the next page are six examples of good thesis statements, that is, good translations of ideas into forms that could direct the development of an essay. The first thing you should notice about all of these thesis statements is the presence of tension—the pressure of one idea against another idea, of one potentially viable way of seeing things against another viable, but finally less satisfactory way of seeing things. Good ideas usually take place with the aid of some kind of back pressure, by which we mean that the idea takes shape by pushing against (so to speak) another way of seeing things. This is not the same as setting out to overturn and completely refute one idea in favor of another (although thesis statements sometimes work in this way too). More often what happens is that the thesis statement’s primary idea emerges as some kind of clarification or reworking of another idea. The forward momentum of the thesis comes from playing the newer idea off of the older one.
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Try This 11.1: Spotting the Tension in Good Thesis Statements
Look at the thesis statements below, all of which were taken from published analytical essays. Find the tension in each, or the defining pressure of one idea against another possibility. In the first thesis sentence, for example, the primary idea is that the new advertising campaign for Docker trousers is radical. The back pressure against which this idea takes shape is that this new campaign may not seem radical. The writer will demonstrate the truth of both of these claims, rather than overturning one and then championing the other. The same can be said of the parts of the second thesis statement. The primary idea, recognizable by the syntax of the second sentence, is that cosmetic surgery will make life worse for everyone. The back pressure against which this idea will take shape is the claim that cosmetic surgery has psychologicial benefits; it makes individual people happier.
Notice that the thesis statement does not simply say: “Cosmetic surgery is bad.” The writer’s job will be to demonstrate that the potential harm of cosmetic surgery outweighs the benefits, but the benefits won’t be just summarily dismissed. Both of the two ideas are to some extent true. Neither idea, in other words, is a straw man—the somewhat deceptive argumentative practice of setting up a dummy position solely because it is easy to knock down. A straw man does not strengthen a thesis statement because it fails to provide genuine back pressure.
1) It may not seem like it, but “Nice Pants” is as radical a campaign as the original Docker series.
2) If opponents of cosmetic surgery are too quick to dismiss those who claim great psychological benefits, protesters are far too willing to dismiss those who raise concerns. Cosmetic surgery might make individual people happier, but in the aggregate it makes life worse for everyone.
3) The history of thought in the modern era of history of thinking about the self may be an exaggeration, but the consequences of this vision of a self set apart have surely been felt in every field of inquiry.
4) We may