There are probably innumerable approaches to developing a thesis.
Probably the most popular and conventional way is to write a sentence or a group sentences that establish what your paper is going to be about. The problem with this method is that often it leaves you with a thesis that is too lengthy or too broad, and when writing a scholarly work, it is often difficult to mention everything that will be in your paper in your thesis.
So, another approach is that you can use your thesis to state your stance on the issue being discussed in your paper. For instance, the topic of my paper is the impacts of American society caused by the September 11th, 2001 attacks. Hence, a very basic thesis statement would be, "The terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 caused immense impacts on American society." Of course, in the final draft I would have to describe exactly what impacts those attacks had.
Yet another way to develop a thesis is to begin with a question, then try to answer it. "Did 9/11 change American society? How? What groups, if any were impacted the most? The least?," and so on.
Lastly, some people prefer to basically write their paper backwards, almost. You can write your paper, which chisels in exactly what ideas will be in your paper, then write a thesis that blankets those ideas.
I like how you talked about stating the issue that you are going to talk about and then forming a question. I find that this works best as well. This way you aren't forming too lengthy of a thesis statement as talked about in your first paragraph.
ReplyDeleteI think different types of paper sometimes require different methods of developing a thesis. Good job!
ReplyDeleteWhat were some of Turabain's recommendations for developing a thesis?
ReplyDelete