Writing Analytically, 6th Edition - Rosenwasser, David & Stephen, Jill.original_ [150]
* * *
Chapter 11
* * *
Making a Thesis Evolve
THIS CHAPTER IS AT THE HEART of what we have to say about essay writing, especially about the function of thesis statements. The chapter argues that even in a final draft a thesis develops through successive complications; it doesn’t remain static, as people tend to believe. Even in cases such as the report format of the natural and social sciences, where the thesis itself cannot change, there is still development between the beginning of the paper and the end. The thesis, usually called a hypothesis, is tested in various ways in order to evaluate its adequacy.
Formulating a claim, seeking conflicting evidence, and then using these conflicts to revise the claim is a primary movement of mind in analytical writing. Here’s the mantra: the complications you encounter are an opportunity to make your thesis evolve, not a problem. An evolving thesis is one that responds more fully and accurately to evidence.
This chapter contains one heuristic, Six Steps for Making a Thesis Evolve Through Successive Complications. Here is a skeletal version of this process, which the chapter will demonstrate and define in more detail.
SIX STEPS FOR MAKING A THESIS EVOLVE THROUGH SUCCESSIVE COMPLICATIONS
Formulate an idea about your subject, a working thesis.
See how far you can make this thesis go in accounting for confirming evidence.
Locate evidence that is not adequately accounted for by the thesis.
Make explicit the apparent mismatch between the thesis and selected evidence, asking and answering “so what?”
Reshape your claim to accommodate the evidence that hasn’t fit.
Repeat steps 2, 3, 4, and 5 several times.
Your ability to discover ideas and improve on them in revision, as we’ve argued in the preceding chapters, depends largely on your attitude toward evidence—on your ability to use it as a means of testing and developing your ideas rather than just (statically) confirming and reasserting them.
MOVING FROM IDEA TO THESIS STATEMENT: WHAT A GOOD THESIS LOOKS LIKE
Considerable misunderstanding exists about thesis statements among students—and among many teachers. We have chosen to use the term “thesis” because, by and large, it is the most common term across the academic disciplines for what might otherwise be called a “controlling idea” or “primary claim” or “hypothesis.” The term has a long history, going back to classical rhetoric wherein a thesis involved taking a position on some subject. The term “thesis” named general questions with wide applications. The term “hypothesis” was used “to name a specific question that involved actual persons, places, or events” (Crowley 57). (For an excellent discussion of the history of these terms, see Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee, Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students.)
This idea of “taking a position,” as in an argument, is what some faculty members dislike about the term, mistaking it perhaps for an invitation to writers to express their views on a subject rather than closely examining it. For every faculty member who wishes student writers to organize their thinking around a clearly-defined central claim (thesis), other faculty members argue that thesis-driven writing and reflective writing differ in methods and goals.
In the meantime, we will continue to use the term thesis, though not in the way it is often described in writing textbooks, where it is presented as a static idea that a writer sets out to prove. Our use of the term is probably closer to the idea of a “hypothesis,” which has come to mean a theory to be tested.
Arriving at Thesis Statements: When and Where
The most disabling misunderstanding for students is that a writer needs to have a thesis before he or she begins writing. Good thesis statements are the product of writing, not its precursor. Worrying about having a thesis statement too early in the writing process will