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Page
1
of
7
C
ourtesy
the Odegaard Writing
& Research Center
Adapted
from www.dartmouth.edu/~writing/materials/student/ac_paper/develop.shtml
Developing Your Thesis
WRITING A THESIS SEN
TENCE
No sentence in your paper will vex you as much as the thesis sente
nce. And with good
reason: the thesis sentence is typically that ONE sentence in the paper that asserts,
controls, and structures the entire argument. Without a strong persuasive, thoughtful
thesis, a paper might seem unfocused, weak, and not worth the rea
der’s time.
Complicating the matter further is that different disciplines have different notions of what
constitutes a good thesis sentence. Your English professor might frown on a thesis sentence
that says, “This paper will argue X by asserting A, B, and
C.” Such a thesis would likely be
seen as too formulaic. In a Social Science course, on the other hand, a good thesis might be
crafted in just that way.
So what makes a good thesis sentence?
Despite the differences from discipline to discipline, a good the
sis will generally have the
following characteristics:
1.
A good thesis sentence will make a claim.
This doesn’t mean that you have to
reduce an idea to an “either/or” proposition and then take a stand. Rather, you need
to develop an interesting perspective t
hat you can support and defend. This
perspective must be more than an observation. “America is violent” is an
observation. “Americans are violent because they are fearful” (the position that
Michael Moore takes in
Bowling for Columbine
) is an argument. Why
? Because it
posits a perspective. It makes a claim.
Put another way, a good thesis sentence will inspire (rather than quiet) other points
of view. One might argue that America is violent because of its violent entertainment
industry. Or because of the pr
oliferation of guns. Or because of the disintegration of
the family. In short, if your thesis is positing something that no one can (or would
wish to) argue with, then it’s not a very good thesis.
2.
A good thesis sentences will control the entire argument
.
Your thesis sentence
determines what you are required to say in a paper. It also determines what you
cannot say. Every paragraph in your paper exists in order to support your thesis.
Accordingly, if one of your paragraphs seems irrelevant to your thesis y
ou have two
choices: get rid of the paragraph, or rewrite your thesis.
Understand that you don’t have a third option: you can’t simply stick the idea in
without preparing the reader for it in your thesis. The thesis is like a contract
between you and your
reader. If you introduce ideas that the reader isn’t prepared
for, you’ve violated that contract.
3.
A good thesis will provide a structure for your argument.
A good thesis not
only signals to the reader
what
your argument is, but
how
your argument will be
presented. In other words, your thesis sentence should either directly or indirectly
suggest the structure of your argument to your reader.
Say, for example, that you are going to argue that “American fearfulness expresses
itself in three curious ways: A
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