Writing Analytically, 6th Edition - Rosenwasser, David & Stephen, Jill.original_ [167]
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GUIDELINES FOR FINDING AND DEVELOPING A THESIS
A thesis offers a theory about the meaning of evidence that would not have been immediately obvious to your readers.
A thesis is made, not found. It is the result of a process of thinking of about the evidence but is not itself present in the evidence, like a golden egg.
Treat your thesis as a hypothesis to be tested rather than an obvious truth.
Most effective theses contain tension. They are conceptually complex, and that is reflected in their grammatical shape—often they will begin with “although” or incorporate “however.”
The body of your paper should serve not only to substantiate the thesis by demonstrating its value in selecting and explaining evidence, but also to evolve the thesis—move it forward—by uncovering the questions that each new formulation of it prompts you to ask.
When you encounter potentially conflicting evidence (or interpretations of that evidence), don’t simply abandon your thesis. Use the complications to refine your thesis until you arrive at the most accurate explanation of the evidence that you can manage.
To check that your thesis has evolved, locate and compare the various versions of it throughout the draft. Have you done more than demonstrate the general validity of an unqualified claim?
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Assignment: Making a Thesis Evolve
Formulate and Evolve a Thesis on a Film, Painting, or Other Visual Image. Using the models of either Las Meninas or Educating Rita, produce an interpretation of the film or painting or other visual image of your choice.
First, begin by formulating a variety of possible statements about the film or painting that could serve as a working thesis. These might be in answer to the question “What is the film/painting about?” or “What does it ‘say’?” Or you might begin by doing The Method to uncover pattern of repetition or contrast you have observed and can then explain.
Obviously, this assignment could be adapted to other subjects—an essay, the coverage of a current event, and so forth. Here are some specific suggestions:
The contemporary appeal of a cartoon or other popular television character
Differences in political rhetoric between Democrats and Republicans on the same issue
The rhetoric of a popular print or television ad campaign for a familiar product, such as an insurance company or a soft drink or an automobile
Next, follow the procedure for making the thesis evolve, listed again here for convenience:
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.
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Chapter 12
Recognizing and Fixing Weak Thesis Statements
BY WAY OF REVIEW, a strong thesis makes a claim that (1) requires analysis to support and evolve it and (2) offers some point about the significance of your evidence that would not have been immediately obvious to your readers. By contrast, a weak thesis either makes no claim or makes a claim that does not need proving. This chapter offers advice on how to recognize a weak thesis statement—and how to fix it. The chapter consists largely of examples of weak thesis statements taken from actual student papers, followed by discussion of how to recognize and rethink and rephrase them.
Weak thesis statements don’t give the writer enough to do in his or her essay. Typically, a weak thesis is an unproductive claim because it doesn’t actually require further thinking or proof, as, for example, “An important part of one’s college