magic thesis statement

Princeton Correspondents on Undergraduate Research

The “Magic Research Statement”—Turning a Topic into a Research Question

We all know that trying to find a topic for a Junior Paper can feel like dragging your feet through quicksand. So when you eventually settle on the right topic, you feel like running to the top of a hill and shouting, “I’m unstoppable!”

…That is, until you stop and ask yourself, “Now what?” This is precisely where I found myself after determining that my Junior Paper for the Sociology Department would focus on gender progressive advertisements. Sure, I had finally discovered a topic that I was passionate about, but how could I transform that into a a reasonable research question?

Fortunately, there’s a convenient tool to help you with this next step. In The Craft of Research , a required reading for my Junior Seminar, Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams break down the notorious research question into three simple parts (if you’re familiar with the Magic Thesis Statement, a tool to craft a thesis for an essay, then you probably know where I’m going with this!). According to these three authors, an easy way to manage your research question is to set it up as follows: “I am trying to learn about (working on, studying) ______________, because I want to find out who/what/when/where/whether/why/how______________, in order to help my reader understand how_________________.

In this format, the first blank is for the topic. If you haven’t already chosen a topic, some questions to consider are: What concepts interest me? What do I want to learn more about? The next blank focuses on what you specifically want to find out about your topic. In this case, it can be helpful to think about why you’re pursuing your idea and which important points you wish to understand about the topic. Finally, filling in the first two blanks will help you fill in the third–the wider significance of your research. Perhaps the hardest part of the research question, another way to determine why this research is important is to ask yourself: What issues does this topic bring up? Why should readers care about this research?

After determining that I wanted to study progressive feminist advertising campaigns, I realized that I wanted to learn what kind of impact these supposedly feminist ads had on women’s self-esteem and self-views. As for the wider significance, I wanted to help my readers better understand whether these advertisements are a positive media representation of women or just a faux feminist trend encouraging women to buy products. As a result, my “Magic Research Statement” turned into the following: I am studying progressive feminist advertisements, because I want to find out how they impact women, in order to help my readers understand how this type of media may or may not positively influence viewers’ understanding of women.

When you take the time to craft a”Magic Research Statement,” this seemingly small sentence can set you up with a great foundation for your upcoming work. The three components within the statement will act as guidelines for choosing your secondary sources, picking relevant key terms, finding related topics, and deciding the best format for conducting your research. Additionally, crafting your Magic Research Statement doesn’t have to be done on your own! Reaching out to your professors can be a great way to get more information and advice on every step of the research process.  Though all of this may sound like a lot of hard work (which, admittedly, it is), starting out with a strong foundation will make working on your Junior Paper that much better and worthwhile!

–Taylor Griffith, Social Sciences Correspondent

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Thesis Statements

5 ways of looking at a thesis, 1. a thesis says something a little strange..

Consider the following examples:

A: By telling the story of Westley and Buttercup’s triumph over evil, The Princess Bride affirms the power of true love.

B: Although the main plot of The Princess Bride rests on the natural power of true love, an examination of the way that fighting sticks—baseball bats, tree branches, and swords—link the frame story to the romance plot suggests that the grandson is being trained in true love, that love is not natural but socialized.

I would argue that both of these statements are perfectly correct, but they are not both strange. Only the second one says something, well, weird. Weird is good. Sentence A encourages the paper to produce precisely the evidence that The Princess Bride presents explicitly; sentence B ensures that the paper will talk about something new.

Romeo and Juliet concerns the dangers of family pride, Frankenstein the dangers of taking science too far. Yup. How can you make those things unusual? Good papers go out on a limb. They avoid ugly falls by reinforcing the limb with carefully chosen evidence and rigorous argumentation.

2. A thesis creates an argument that builds from one point to the next, giving the paper a direction that your reader can follow as the paper develops.

This point often separates the best theses from the pack. A good thesis can prevent the two weakest ways of organizing a critical paper: the pile of information and the plot summary with comments. A paper that presents a pile of information will frequently introduce new paragraphs with transitions that simply indicate the addition of more stuff. (“Another character who exhibits these traits is X,” for instance.) Consider these examples:

A: The Rules and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey both tell women how to act.

B: By looking at The Rules, a modern conduct book for women, we can see how Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is itself like a conduct book, questioning the rules for social success in her society and offering a new model.

Example A would almost inevitably lead to a paper organized as a pile of information. A plot summary with comments follows the chronological development of a text while picking out the same element of every segment; a transition in such a paper might read, “In the next scene, the color blue also figures prominently.” Both of these approaches constitute too much of a good thing. Papers must compile evidence, of course, and following the chronology of a text can sometimes help a reader keep track of a paper’s argument. The best papers, however, will develop according to a more complex logic articulated in a strong thesis. Example B above would lead a paper to organize its evidence according to the paper’s own logic.

3. A thesis fits comfortably into the Magic Thesis Sentence (MTS).

The MTS: By looking at _____, we can see _____, which most readers don’t see; it is important to look at this aspect of the text because _____.

Try it out with the examples from the first point:

B: Although the main plot of The Princess Bride rests on the natural power of true love, an examination of the way that fighting sticks–baseball bats, tree branches, and swords–link the frame story to the romance plot suggests that the grandson is being trained in true love, that love is not natural but socialized.

Notice that the MTS adds a new dimension to point number one above. The first part of the MTS asks you to find something strange (“which most readers don’t see”), and the second part asks you to think about the importance of the strangeness. Thesis A would not work at all in the MTS; one could not reasonably state that “most readers [or viewers] don’t see” that film’s affirmation of true love, and the statement does not even attempt to explain the importance of its claim. Thesis B, on the other hand, gives us a way to complete the MTS, as in “By looking at the way fighting sticks link the plot and frame of The Princess Bride , we can see the way the grandson is trained in true love, which most people don’t see; it is important to look at this aspect of the text because unlike the rest of the film, the fighting sticks suggest that love is not natural but socialized.” One does not need to write out the MTS in such a neat one-sentence form, of course, but thinking through the structure of the MTS can help refine thesis ideas.

4. A thesis says something about the text(s) you discuss exclusively .

If your thesis could describe many works equally well, it needs to be more specific. Let’s return to our examples from above:

Try substituting other works:

A: By telling the story of Darcy and Elizabeth’s triumph over evil, Pride and Prejudice affirms the power of true love.

Sure, that makes sense. Bad sign.

B: Although the main plot of Pride and Prejudice rests on the natural power of true love, an examination of the way that fighting sticks–baseball bats, tree branches, and swords–link the frame story to the romance plot suggests that the grandson is being trained in true love, that it is not natural but socialized.

Um, nope. Even if you have never read Pride and Prejudice , you can probably guess that such a precise thesis could hardly apply to other works. Good sign.

5. A thesis makes a lot of information irrelevant.

If your thesis is specific enough, it will make a point that focuses on only a small part of the text you are analyzing. You can and should ultimately apply that point to the work as a whole, but a thesis will call attention to specific parts of it. Let’s look at those examples again. (This is the last time, I promise.)

One way of spotting the problem with example A is to note that a simple plot summary would support its point. That is not of true example B, which tells the reader exactly what moments the paper will discuss and why.

If you find that your paper leads you to mark relevant passages on virtually every page of a long work, you need to find a thesis that helps you focus on a smaller portion of the text. As the MTS reminds us, the paper should still strive to show the reader something new about the text as a whole, but a specific area of concentration will help, not hinder, that effort.

• Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis. Authored by : Erik Simpson. Project : Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Image of pirate. Authored by : Taavi Burns. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/9oPPUY . License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Image of Pride and Prejudice. Authored by : dawt. Located at : https://flic.kr/p/d1BRQy . License : CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives

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7.2: 5 Ways of Looking at a Thesis

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1. A thesis says something a little strange.

Consider the following examples:

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)

• By telling the story of Westley and Buttercup’s triumph over evil, The Princess Bride affirms the power of true love.
• Although the main plot of The Princess Bride rests on the natural power of true love, an examination of the way that fighting sticks—baseball bats, tree branches, and swords—link the frame story to the romance plot suggests that the grandson is being trained in true love, that love is not natural but socialized.

I would argue that both of these statements are perfectly correct, but they are not both strange. Only the second one says something, well, weird. Weird is good. Sentence A encourages the paper to produce precisely the evidence that The Princess Bride presents explicitly; sentence B ensures that the paper will talk about something new.

Romeo and Juliet concerns the dangers of family pride, Frankenstein the dangers of taking science too far. Yup. How can you make those things unusual? Good papers go out on a limb. They avoid ugly falls by reinforcing the limb with carefully chosen evidence and rigorous argumentation.

2. A thesis creates an argument that builds from one point to the next, giving the paper a direction that your reader can follow as the paper develops.

This point often separates the best theses from the pack. A good thesis can prevent the two weakest ways of organizing a critical paper: the pile of information and the plot summary with comments. A paper that presents a pile of information will frequently introduce new paragraphs with transitions that simply indicate the addition of more stuff. (“Another character who exhibits these traits is X,” for instance.) Consider these examples:

• The Rules and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey both tell women how to act.
• By looking at The Rules, a modern conduct book for women, we can see how Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is itself like a conduct book, questioning the rules for social success in her society and offering a new model.

Example A would almost inevitably lead to a paper organized as a pile of information. A plot summary with comments follows the chronological development of a text while picking out the same element of every segment; a transition in such a paper might read, “In the next scene, the color blue also figures prominently.” Both of these approaches constitute too much of a good thing. Papers must compile evidence, of course, and following the chronology of a text can sometimes help a reader keep track of a paper’s argument. The best papers, however, will develop according to a more complex logic articulated in a strong thesis. Example B above would lead a paper to organize its evidence according to the paper’s own logic.

3. A thesis fits comfortably into the Magic Thesis Sentence (MTS).

The MTS: By looking at _____, we can see _____, which most readers don’t see; it is important to look at this aspect of the text because _____.

Try it out with the examples from the first point:

• Although the main plot of The Princess Bride rests on the natural power of true love, an examination of the way that fighting sticks–baseball bats, tree branches, and swords–link the frame story to the romance plot suggests that the grandson is being trained in true love, that love is not natural but socialized.

Notice that the MTS adds a new dimension to point number one above. The first part of the MTS asks you to find something strange (“which most readers don’t see”), and the second part asks you to think about the importance of the strangeness. Thesis A would not work at all in the MTS; one could not reasonably state that “most readers [or viewers] don’t see” that film’s affirmation of true love, and the statement does not even attempt to explain the importance of its claim. Thesis B, on the other hand, gives us a way to complete the MTS, as in “By looking at the way fighting sticks link the plot and frame of The Princess Bride , we can see the way the grandson is trained in true love, which most people don’t see; it is important to look at this aspect of the text because unlike the rest of the film, the fighting sticks suggest that love is not natural but socialized.” One does not need to write out the MTS in such a neat one-sentence form, of course, but thinking through the structure of the MTS can help refine thesis ideas.

4. A thesis says something about the text(s) you discuss exclusively .

If your thesis could describe many works equally well, it needs to be more specific. Let’s return to our examples from above:

Try substituting other works:

• By telling the story of Darcy and Elizabeth’s triumph over evil, Pride and Prejudice affirms the power of true love.

Sure, that makes sense. Bad sign.

• Although the main plot of Pride and Prejudice rests on the natural power of true love, an examination of the way that fighting sticks–baseball bats, tree branches, and swords–link the frame story to the romance plot suggests that the grandson is being trained in true love, that it is not natural but socialized.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)

Um, nope. Even if you have never read Pride and Prejudice , you can probably guess that such a precise thesis could hardly apply to other works. Good sign.

5. A thesis makes a lot of information irrelevant.

If your thesis is specific enough, it will make a point that focuses on only a small part of the text you are analyzing. You can and should ultimately apply that point to the work as a whole, but a thesis will call attention to specific parts of it. Let’s look at those examples again. (This is the last time, I promise.)

One way of spotting the problem with example A is to note that a simple plot summary would support its point. That is not of true example B, which tells the reader exactly what moments the paper will discuss and why.

If you find that your paper leads you to mark relevant passages on virtually every page of a long work, you need to find a thesis that helps you focus on a smaller portion of the text. As the MTS reminds us, the paper should still strive to show the reader something new about the text as a whole, but a specific area of concentration will help, not hinder, that effort.

Thesis Statements

What this handout is about.

This handout describes what a thesis statement is, how thesis statements work in your writing, and how you can craft or refine one for your draft.

Introduction

Writing in college often takes the form of persuasion—convincing others that you have an interesting, logical point of view on the subject you are studying. Persuasion is a skill you practice regularly in your daily life. You persuade your roommate to clean up, your parents to let you borrow the car, your friend to vote for your favorite candidate or policy. In college, course assignments often ask you to make a persuasive case in writing. You are asked to convince your reader of your point of view. This form of persuasion, often called academic argument, follows a predictable pattern in writing. After a brief introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the topic directly and often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis statement, and it serves as a summary of the argument you’ll make in the rest of your paper.

What is a thesis statement?

A thesis statement:

• tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.
• is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper.
• directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II or Moby Dick; a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war or the novel.
• makes a claim that others might dispute.
• is usually a single sentence near the beginning of your paper (most often, at the end of the first paragraph) that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.

If your assignment asks you to take a position or develop a claim about a subject, you may need to convey that position or claim in a thesis statement near the beginning of your draft. The assignment may not explicitly state that you need a thesis statement because your instructor may assume you will include one. When in doubt, ask your instructor if the assignment requires a thesis statement. When an assignment asks you to analyze, to interpret, to compare and contrast, to demonstrate cause and effect, or to take a stand on an issue, it is likely that you are being asked to develop a thesis and to support it persuasively. (Check out our handout on understanding assignments for more information.)

How do I create a thesis?

A thesis is the result of a lengthy thinking process. Formulating a thesis is not the first thing you do after reading an essay assignment. Before you develop an argument on any topic, you have to collect and organize evidence, look for possible relationships between known facts (such as surprising contrasts or similarities), and think about the significance of these relationships. Once you do this thinking, you will probably have a “working thesis” that presents a basic or main idea and an argument that you think you can support with evidence. Both the argument and your thesis are likely to need adjustment along the way.

Writers use all kinds of techniques to stimulate their thinking and to help them clarify relationships or comprehend the broader significance of a topic and arrive at a thesis statement. For more ideas on how to get started, see our handout on brainstorming .

How do I know if my thesis is strong?

If there’s time, run it by your instructor or make an appointment at the Writing Center to get some feedback. Even if you do not have time to get advice elsewhere, you can do some thesis evaluation of your own. When reviewing your first draft and its working thesis, ask yourself the following :

• Do I answer the question? Re-reading the question prompt after constructing a working thesis can help you fix an argument that misses the focus of the question. If the prompt isn’t phrased as a question, try to rephrase it. For example, “Discuss the effect of X on Y” can be rephrased as “What is the effect of X on Y?”
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? If your thesis simply states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it’s possible that you are simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like “good” or “successful,” see if you could be more specific: why is something “good”; what specifically makes something “successful”?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? If a reader’s first response is likely to  be “So what?” then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue.
• Does my essay support my thesis specifically and without wandering? If your thesis and the body of your essay do not seem to go together, one of them has to change. It’s okay to change your working thesis to reflect things you have figured out in the course of writing your paper. Remember, always reassess and revise your writing as necessary.
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? If a reader’s first response is “how?” or “why?” your thesis may be too open-ended and lack guidance for the reader. See what you can add to give the reader a better take on your position right from the beginning.

Suppose you are taking a course on contemporary communication, and the instructor hands out the following essay assignment: “Discuss the impact of social media on public awareness.” Looking back at your notes, you might start with this working thesis:

Social media impacts public awareness in both positive and negative ways.

You can use the questions above to help you revise this general statement into a stronger thesis.

• Do I answer the question? You can analyze this if you rephrase “discuss the impact” as “what is the impact?” This way, you can see that you’ve answered the question only very generally with the vague “positive and negative ways.”
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not likely. Only people who maintain that social media has a solely positive or solely negative impact could disagree.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? No. What are the positive effects? What are the negative effects?
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? No. Why are they positive? How are they positive? What are their causes? Why are they negative? How are they negative? What are their causes?
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? No. Why should anyone care about the positive and/or negative impact of social media?

After thinking about your answers to these questions, you decide to focus on the one impact you feel strongly about and have strong evidence for:

Because not every voice on social media is reliable, people have become much more critical consumers of information, and thus, more informed voters.

This version is a much stronger thesis! It answers the question, takes a specific position that others can challenge, and it gives a sense of why it matters.

Let’s try another. Suppose your literature professor hands out the following assignment in a class on the American novel: Write an analysis of some aspect of Mark Twain’s novel Huckleberry Finn. “This will be easy,” you think. “I loved Huckleberry Finn!” You grab a pad of paper and write:

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American novel.

You begin to analyze your thesis:

• Do I answer the question? No. The prompt asks you to analyze some aspect of the novel. Your working thesis is a statement of general appreciation for the entire novel.

Think about aspects of the novel that are important to its structure or meaning—for example, the role of storytelling, the contrasting scenes between the shore and the river, or the relationships between adults and children. Now you write:

In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast between life on the river and life on the shore.

• Do I answer the question? Yes!
• Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? Not really. This contrast is well-known and accepted.
• Is my thesis statement specific enough? It’s getting there–you have highlighted an important aspect of the novel for investigation. However, it’s still not clear what your analysis will reveal.
• Does my thesis pass the “how and why?” test? Not yet. Compare scenes from the book and see what you discover. Free write, make lists, jot down Huck’s actions and reactions and anything else that seems interesting.
• Does my thesis pass the “So what?” test? What’s the point of this contrast? What does it signify?”

After examining the evidence and considering your own insights, you write:

Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression of American democratic ideals, one must leave “civilized” society and go back to nature.

This final thesis statement presents an interpretation of a literary work based on an analysis of its content. Of course, for the essay itself to be successful, you must now present evidence from the novel that will convince the reader of your interpretation.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. 2010. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers , 6th ed. New York: Longman.

Lunsford, Andrea A. 2015. The St. Martin’s Handbook , 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 2018. The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing , 8th ed. New York: Pearson.

Ruszkiewicz, John J., Christy Friend, Daniel Seward, and Maxine Hairston. 2010. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers , 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Principedia

Ways of Knowing

Description of course goals and curriculum.

FSI is a seven-week summer program that allows a cohort of entering students the chance to experience the intellectual, co-curricular, and social life at Princeton prior to the beginning of the fall semester.  During the program, our Freshman Scholars have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the intellectually vibrant culture at Princeton through seminar-style courses and/or laboratory research experiences, to engage with their fellow scholars in a variety of co-curricular, community-building activities, and to work closely with faculty members from a range of academic disciplines and fields.  By experiencing early the many resources that Princeton has to offer, Freshman Scholars have the chance to prepare themselves to be future campus leaders and peer mentors.  The FSI program is designed as a fellowship opportunity that you can attend without an additional financial burden.  It is therefore of no cost to students receiving any amount of grant aid from the university.  Students who do not receive grant aid from the university will still get free tuition and textbooks, but will be responsible for paying for room and board.

Ways of Knowing is broken up into six units for the six weeks a student will be taking the course. The themes reflect the various ways a person can analyze science, the humanities, etc. One theme will be covered for one week, and after that week, the professor will move on to the next theme. The themes are:

• Self / Other
• Social Change
• Time / Space

All these topics will allow students to study the various ways of knowing Vision, Power, Body, Self/Other, Social Change, and Time/Space. This means that students analyze how modern society views and handles these themes through a wide variety of disciplines including psychology, biology, and history among others. These studies were primarily conducted through readings and research. Various authors including H.G. Wells, Foucault, Claude M. Steele, Einstein, and Aristotle (just to name a few) were covered. Their ideas allowed students to engage in scholarly conversations inside the classroom, within their papers and ideally outside of the classroom as well.

Students will be expected to become familiar with these themes along with the authors that are used to explore them. By the end of the course they should be able to make connections between the themes and authors and not just within a specific theme. They should also be able to write a Princeton level essay, and know the tools available to successfully execute a paper.

Learning From Classroom Instruction

The instructor used unique teaching methods including getting huge sticky notes with quotes from readings and allowing us to respond to these quotes by directly writing our thoughts on the large sticky tabs. There were also classes where she gave us each a sheet of paper that told us how to respond to a person’s comments in a group conversation on the readings. The sheet could say, “Piggyback off of one your classmate’s comments” or “Make a counterargument to one of your classmate’s comments.” In addition to large group discussions, students broke off into smaller groups to discuss a particular question amongst themselves. They then regrouped and share their thoughts with the rest of the class. These methods increased class participation and allowed students to hear the input of peers and professor. Students are expected to know the connections that were made in class so they could apply them in papers, and most importantly know this information for the next four years of college and beyond.

Learning For and From Assignments

Reading: The course moves really quickly from one theme to the next. It would be helpful to take notes on how the themes are related and how all of the texts tie in with each other. Although it may seem that readings can only be grouped for a particular week under a specific theme, there are other connections a student can make with these texts. For example, a student can argue that the idea of Power found in “Discipline and Punish” by Foucault has a connection to Einstein’s “Out of My Later Years” that conveys the theme of Space.

A student should try to think of the similar ideas that are being conveyed by the various scholars in the readings. One should also think of the dissimilar ideas that can be found throughout the readings. For example:

A contrast or comparison can be made within a theme:

Author A from the theme of Vision would agree/disagree with Author B from the theme of Vision.

A contrast or comparison can be made throughout different themes.

Author C from the theme of Power would agree/disagree with Author D from Self.  Another important connection a student can draw here, is to look at how the assigned reading pertains to the weekly theme. Often, different readings from a week offer contrasting perceptions of the theme, thus providing the student with both depth and breadth in understanding the weekly theme.

Besides finding similarities and differences, a student should try to think of a problem that an author does not really address in his paper, and then try to address this problem with the work of another author. Often finding a problem can be a daunting task when analyzing critically acclaimed authors. Looking for any interesting aspect in the text, be it a problem, contradiction, tension, juxtaposition of ideas, or even unclear ideas makes for great starting points for papers. Finding these interesting aspects will help with lens essays where a student has to examine the work of an author with the information presented in another author’s essay. Please note that the purpose of the lens essay is not to solve the problem but to explain this problem at a deeper level with the perspective of another author.

ANNOTATE CREATIVELY TO MAKE CONNECTIONS IN THE READINGS. WRITE IN PENCILS, PENS, COLORED MARKERS, HIGHLIGHTERS, STICKY NOTES, SMOKE SIGNALS, etc. Make sure your annotations are genuine, and they make sense to you. Also, colorful annotations are always helpful. This will allow you to remember your notes and recall information for papers and class discussion.

Readings can take up a good chunk of time so start the readings early. The earlier you read, the more prepared you will be for class and for future papers. Oftentimes, writing a paper on a reading requires a 2nd or even 3rd reading. Some readings will require more than the brief skim, and you will need to sit down and analyze the key details. This is when annotation is key because it will help you dissect challenging pieces, and break them down into something more manageable for conversation in class and in papers.

In terms of managing time and readings, try to figure out within the first week how fast you read and annotate. This will help you schedule in the right amount of time to complete readings.  

Here are some general tips to tackle tough readings:

-Whenever there are really dense readings, you should always try to look at every paragraph and see if there's something important in it. After first reading it, you should read the paragraph again but with attention. If it has something important in it, underline the important phrase(s) or annotate notes to the side. If it doesn't, just skip it. By the end of reading the passage, refer to those notes/underlined parts for a good review.

-Try to imagine what the author of a reading would have written as their thesis for a reading. By the end of the first round of reading, try to generate a "quasi"-thesis statement and go back into the text to see if it makes sense. Try to edit the "quasi"-thesis until it seems to capture the main gist of the reading. Even using the Magic Thesis Statement is helpful here, since it can guide you in structuring the reading into a logical understanding.

-Often, certain things can get confusing in passages/readings, so try to write guesses of what you think it means and ask the professor/preceptor/other classmates for their interpretations.

    2. Writing : In terms of writing your actual paper, you should definitely complete the pre-drafts with an idea of what you want to write about for your final paper. They should be taken seriously so that you can incorporate them into your actual paper. The pre-draft will have a question that will allow you to think about the one of the chosen texts more deeply. This is a good time to brainstorm before you start to write your final paper.

Please know that a lot of time needs to be set aside for the creation of your thesis statement. It is the single most important sentence in your paper, and should deserve a lot of time and consideration. Along with your thesis statement, it would be wise to outline your paper before you actually start to write. This gives you a game plan of what ideas you want to discuss and helps you to see how they tie back into the thesis statement. Remember, that your points, the evidence for your points, and scholarly sources used, should all tie back into the thesis statement. Outlining will allow you to evaluate the relevance of your evidence and the points you make before it is in a draft form where it will be harder to edit out extraneous information.

-Your professor will focus on ideas such as the Magic Thesis Statement, the Gaipa Moves, and “with the grain” and “against the grain” reading. The Magic Thesis Statement is a special format for a thesis statement that will allow your paper to flow and not just fit the very formatted five point thesis statement. The Magic Thesis Statement will have a focus on the importance of your argument. Make sure you refer back to your pre-draft assignment and your annotations from readings to find the importance. Looking back at notes in the midst of brainstorming helps you make important connections.

-The Gaipa Move gives you a format on how to make your argument. These moves may involve agreeing with a scholarly source and then later disagreeing with it. These moves will be more than just making counterarguments. The scholarly articles you will use outside of your chosen text should help you make your argument whether you disagree with your scholarly articles or not. This is when you can look back at annotations in your chosen text and see if you can make connections or counterarguments with your scholarly source based on the main text you annotated for readings.

-With the grain and against the grain readings allow you as the reader to agree with the author and understand the main points an author is making. An against the grain reading allows you as the reader to find gaps in an author’s argument which helps in the formulation of counterarguments.

One difficulty students have is getting out of the habit of writing the five paragraph essay. If a student were to try to write a five paragraph essay for the assignments, too many ideas would be in one paragraph and prevent the essay from flowing. A paragraph should only have one main idea. If a student finds himself starting to write a new idea in the paragraph, he should start a new paragraph. As a tool to learn how to write outside of the rigid five paragraph essay, map out your papers with sticky notes. The map is more or less an outline but it allows for more elaboration on certain points. Please know that you do not have to use this kind of outline to succeed and learn in the course! You can make an outline that fits your learning style best. You can experiment with sticky tabs, construction paper, or a very organized outline typed on your laptop. The outline is meant to be for you so the methods you use to create the outline should be comfortable for you . Just know that no matter what methods you use, a lot of time needs to be set aside for the creation of your thesis statement along with your outline. It is the single most important sentence in your paper, and it deserves a lot of time and consideration.

"Tortoise Tab" Chart

1.)When you make this outline or the “Tortoise Tab” Chart , you’ll probably have a vague idea of what your thesis statement will be and the main points you want to convey. The tabs are meant to be placed on a table or desk with a good amount of space so you can add pieces of evidence and ideas as they come up. Write your thesis statement on the big sticky note found in the Tortoise tabs offered by the Writing Center and McGraw Center. Write your main points on the smaller yellow tabs.

3.)Next, place the second main point a few spaces down from main point #1 so you can have space for the connecting idea that will tie the two points together.

4.)An introduction note tab should be placed (medium note tab from the Tortoise tabs) should be placed in front of the Thesis Statement tab. The introduction should give background information for the text you are analyzing and it should give information for the lens that you will be using.

5.) The main point should connect to ideas on how the evidence ties into main point #1. How the evidence ties into the main point should have its own note tab.

6.)The tab that connects the main point and the “How the Evidence ties into Main Point #1” should give evidence for the main point made.

7.) After the “How the Evidence ties into the Main Point #1” tab, create a tab that connects the idea between the main points. The tab underneath the “Connecting Idea Between Main Points” should have page numbers for evidence of this connecting idea. You can also write out the evidence on additional tabs to see how well they tie into the main points.

8.) After making the connecting idea tab, make an arrow tab and have it point towards Main Point #2 from the connecting idea tab. Repeat the steps done for Main Point #1 to support Main Point #2.  

9.)The conclusion tab should have a quick blurb on why your argument is important. This follows along with the magic thesis statement I mentioned earlier.

10.)The Gaipa Move you decide to use for your scholarly articles to support your main points can be placed just above the main points. You can literally say “‘Pick a Fight’ with Scholar A” on these light pinks tabs found in the Tortoise Tabs.

-If you only have Tortoise tabs and you feel that you need to color code your ideas, you can highlight the evidence and ideas for your main points. (ie. all information for main point #1 will be get highlighted yellow while all the information for main point #2 will get highlighted pink).

-The arrows to connect your ideas can also be color coordinated with the highlight color that you use. (ie. all the information highlighted in orange for main point #1 will get connected with orange labels and all the information highlighted in pink for main point #2 will get connected with pink labels).

There are no tests, exams, or quizzes in this course. The midterm and the final is a paper. However, the “examinations” are the weekly papers. These are very important and weigh heavily into your grade.

External Resources

Inspiration is a useful tool to map out and outline the main ideas of your paper. It’s also just useful for brainstorming. The format used for the “Tortoise Tab” Chart can be used for Inspiration as well. On this website you will be allowed to make t charts and webs with your information. From these graphs the software can format your ideas into an outline. You have to pay for Inspiration, but there is a thirty day free trial that you can try out. If you don’t want to download Inspiration on your computer for a price you can get the Inspiration app for your Iphone or Ipad for free! If you are a visual or kinesthetic learner (meaning you need to see the material or actually move in order to learn) this is a great resource!

What Students Should Know About This Course For Purposes Of Course Selection

Ways of Knowing allows a student to be exposed to the analysis of subjects such as science, anthropology, psychology, history and literature. It can allow a student to think about what they want to study at Princeton and see what they are passionate about. It also helps them realize what they don’t want to study which is just as important.

This course helps a student value the feedback of my classmates on papers and ideas. Feedback is very helpful and helps give a clear direction on writing a paper. Don’t be afraid to share and collaborate with your classmates, because they can give you a new perspective on an idea that you are stuck on.

Writing fellows will also be a useful resource in the course. Their workshops near the beginning of every week will give you guidance, and help you segue into productive brainstorming for your next paper. Additionally, personal, weekly writing conferences are a big component of the course, and their experienced feedback often has the power to turn mediocre papers into well developed papers. These one-on-one conferences will give you the attention that your paper needs and the opportunity to ask questions. Remember, there are no stupid questions, especially in college. This is an ideal time to explore and try new methods. Questions will lead to guidance and (hopefully) not confusion.

In addition to the resources found in your fellow classmates, your professors are great resources as well. Be sure to reach out to your professors for any concerns and questions. They really do want to hear from you, and love talking to you. Also, they respond to emails pretty quickly! They are here for you, and want you to succeed at Princeton.

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FORMULATING A THESIS

You need a good thesis statement for your essay but are having trouble getting started. You may have heard that your thesis needs to be specific and arguable, but still wonder what this really means.

Let’s look at some examples. Imagine you’re writing about John Hughes’s film Sixteen Candles (1984). You take a first pass at writing a thesis:

Sixteen Candles is a romantic comedy about high school cliques.

Is this a strong thesis statement? Not yet, but it’s a good start. You’ve focused on a topic–high school cliques–which is a smart move because you’ve settled on one of many possible angles. But the claim is weak because it’s not yet arguable. Intelligent people would generally agree with this statement—so there’s no real “news” for your reader. You want your thesis to say something surprising and debatable. If your thesis doesn’t go beyond summarizing your source, it’s descriptive and not yet argumentative.

The key words in the thesis statement are “romantic comedy” and “high school cliques.” One way to sharpen the claim is to start asking questions .

Tip : Asking “how” or “why” questions will help you refine your thesis, making it more arguable and interesting to your readers.

Take 2. You revise the thesis. Is it strong now?

Sixteen Candles is a romantic comedy criticizing the divisiveness created by high school cliques.

You’re getting closer. You’re starting to take a stance by arguing that the film identifies “divisiveness” as a problem and criticizes it, but your readers will want to know how this plays out and why it’s important. Right now, the thesis still sounds bland – not risky enough to be genuinely contentious.

Tip : Keep raising questions that test your ideas. And ask yourself the “so what” question. Why is your thesis interesting or important?

Take 3. Let’s try again. How about this version?

Although the film Sixteen Candles appears to reinforce stereotypes about high school cliques, it undermines them in

important ways, questioning its viewers’ assumptions about what’s normal.

Bingo! This thesis statement is pretty strong. It challenges an obvious interpretation of the movie (that is just reinforces stereotypes), offering a new and more complex reading in its place. We also have a sense of why this argument is important. The film’s larger goal, we learn, is to question what we think we understand about normalcy.

What’s a Strong Thesis?

As we’ve just seen, a strong thesis statement crystallizes your paper’s argument and, most importantly, it’s arguable .

This means two things. It goes beyond merely summarizing or describing to stake out an interpretation or position that’s not obvious, and others could challenge for good reasons. It’s also arguable in the literal sense that it can be argued , or supported through a thoughtful analysis of your sources. If your argument lacks evidence, readers will think your thesis statement is an opinion or belief as opposed to an argument.

Exercises for Drafting an Arguable Thesis

A good thesis will be focused on your object of study (as opposed to making a big claim about the world) and will introduce the key words guiding your analysis.

To get started, you might experiment with some of these “mad libs.” They’re thinking exercises that will help propel you toward an arguable thesis.

By examining [topic/approach], we can see [thesis—the claim that’s surprising], which is important because . [1]

“By examining Sixteen Candles through the lens of Georg Simmel’s writings on fashion, we can seethat the protagonist’s interest in fashion as an expression of her conflicted desire to be seen as both unique and accepted by the group. This is important because the film offers its viewers a glimpse into the ambivalent yearnings of middle class youth in the 1980s.

Although viewers might assume the romantic comedy Sixteen Candles is merely entertaining, I believe its message is political. The film uses the romance between Samantha, a middle class sophomore, and Jake, an affluent senior, to reinforce the fantasy that anyone can become wealthy and successful with enough cunning and persistence.

Still Having Trouble? Let’s Back Up…

It helps to understand why readers value the arguable thesis. What larger purpose does it serve? Your readers will bring a set of expectations to your essay. The better you can anticipate the expectations of your readers, the better you’ll be able to persuade them to entertain seeing things your way.

Academic readers (and readers more generally) read to learn something new. They want to see the writer challenge commonplaces—either everyday assumptions about your object of study or truisms in the scholarly literature. In other words, academic readers want to be surprised so that their thinking shifts or at least becomes more complex by the time they finish reading your essay. Good essays problematize what we think we know and offer an alternative explanation in its place. They leave their reader with a fresh perspective on a problem.

We all bring important past experiences and beliefs to our interpretations of texts, objects, and problems. You can harness these observational powers to engage critically with what you are studying. The key is to be alert to what strikes you as strange, problematic, paradoxical, or puzzling about your object of study. If you can articulate this and a claim in response, you’re well on your way to formulating an arguable thesis in your introduction.

How do I set up a “problem” and an arguable thesis in response?

All good writing has a purpose or motive for existing. Your thesis is your surprising response to this problem or motive. This is why it seldom makes sense to start a writing project by articulating the thesis. The first step is to articulate the question or problem your paper addresses.

Here are some possible ways to introduce a conceptual problem in your paper’s introduction.

• Challenge a commonplace interpretation (or your own first impressions).

How are readers likely to interpret this source or issue? What might intelligent readers think at first glance? (Or, if you’ve been given secondary sources or have been asked to conduct research to locate secondary sources, what do other writers or scholars assume is true or important about your primary source or issue?)

What does this commonplace interpretation leave out, overlook, or under-emphasize?

Help your reader see the complexity of your topic.

Identify and describe for your reader a paradox, puzzle, or contradiction in your primary source(s).

What larger questions does this paradox or contradiction raise for you and your readers?

If your assignment asks you to do research, piggyback off another scholar’s research.

Summarize for your reader another scholar’s argument about your topic, primary source, or case study and tell your reader why this claim is interesting.

Now explain how you will extend this scholar’s argument to explore an issue or case study that the scholar doesn’t address fully.

If your assignment asks you to do research, identify a gap in another scholar’s or a group of scholars’ research.

Summarize for your reader another scholar’s argument about your topic, primary source, or case study and tell your reader why this claim is interesting. Or, summarize how scholars in the field tend to approach your topic.

Next, explain what important aspect this scholarly representation misses or distorts. Introduce your particular approach to your topic and its value

If your assignment asks you to do research, bring in a new lens for investigating your case study or problem.

Tip : your introductory paragraph will probably look like this:

Testing Your Thesis

Does my thesis only or mostly summarize my source?

Is my thesis arguable –can it be supported by evidence in my source, and is it surprising and contentious?

Is my thesis about my primary source or case study, or is it about the world?

If it’s about the world, revise it so that it focuses on your primary source or case study. Remember you need solid evidence to support your thesis.

“Formulating a Thesis” was written by Andrea Scott, Princeton University

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank my current and former colleagues in the Princeton Writing Program for helping me think through and test ways of teaching the arguable thesis. Special thanks go to Kerry Walk, Amanda Irwin Wilkins, Judy Swan, and Keith Shaw. A shout-out to Mark Gaipa as well, whose cartoons on teaching source use remain a program favorite.

[1] Adapted from Erik Simpson’s “Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis” at http://www.math.grinnell.edu/~simpsone/ Teaching/fiveways.html

5 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A THESIS

A thesis says something a little strange..

Consider the following examples:

A: By telling the story of Westley and Buttercup’s triumph over evil, The Princess Bride affirms the power of true love.

B: Although the main plot of The Princess Bride rests on the natural power of true love, an examination of the way that fighting sticks—baseball bats, tree branches, and swords—link the frame story to the romance plot suggests that the grandson is being trained in true love, that love is not natural but socialized.

I would argue that both of these statements are perfectly correct, but they are not both strange. Only the second one says something, well, weird. Weird is good. Sentence A encourages the paper to produce precisely the evidence that The Princess Bride presents explicitly; sentence B ensures that the paper will talk about something new.

Romeo and Juliet concerns the dangers of family pride, Frankenstein the dangers of taking science too far. Yup. How can you make those things unusual? Good papers go out on a limb. They avoid ugly falls by reinforcing the limb with carefully chosen evidence and rigorous argumentation.

A thesis creates an argument that builds from one point to the next, giving the paper a direction that your reader can follow as the paper develops.

This point often separates the best theses from the pack. A good thesis can prevent the two weakest ways of organizing a critical paper: the pile of information and the plot summary with comments. A paper that presents a pile of information will frequently introduce new paragraphs with transitions that simply indicate the addition of more stuff. (“Another character who exhibits these traits is X,” for instance.)

Consider these examples:

A: The Rules and Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey both tell women how to act.

B: By looking at The Rules, a modern conduct book for women, we can see how Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is itself like a conduct book, questioning the rules for social success in her society and offering a new model.

Example A would almost inevitably lead to a paper organized as a pile of information. A plot summary with comments follows the chronological development of a text while picking out the same element of every segment; a transition in such a paper might read, “In the next scene, the color blue also figures prominently.” Both of these approaches constitute too much of a good thing. Papers must compile evidence, of course, and following the chronology of a text can sometimes help a reader keep track of a paper’s argument. The best papers, however, will develop according to a more complex logic articulated in a strong thesis. Example B above would lead a paper to organize its evidence according to the paper’s own logic.

A thesis fits comfortably into the Magic Thesis Sentence (MTS).

The MTS: By looking at , we can see , which most readers don’t see; it is important to look at this aspect of the text because .

Try it out with the examples from the first point:

B: Although the main plot of The Princess Bride rests on the natural power of true love, an examination of the way that fighting sticks–baseball bats, tree branches, and swords–link the frame story to the romance plot suggests that the grandson is being trained in true love, that love is not natural but socialized.

Notice that the MTS adds a new dimension to point number one above. The first part of the MTS asks you to find something strange (“which most readers don’t see”), and the second part asks you to think about the importance of the strangeness. Thesis A would not work at all in the MTS; one could not reasonably state that “most readers [or viewers] don’t see” that film’s affirmation of true love, and the statement does not even attempt to explain the importance of its claim. Thesis B, on the other hand, gives us a way to complete the MTS, as in “By looking at the way fighting sticks link the plot and frame of The Princess Bride , we can see the way the grandson is trained in true love, which most people don’t see; it is important to look at this aspect of the text because unlike the rest of the film, the fighting sticks suggest that love is not natural but socialized.” One does not need to write out the MTS in such a neat one-sentence form, of course, but thinking through the structure of the MTS can help refine thesis ideas.

A thesis says something about the text(s) you discuss exclusively .

If your thesis could describe many works equally well, it needs to be more specific. Let’s return to our examples from above:

Try substituting other works:

A: By telling the story of Darcy and Elizabeth’s triumph over evil, Pride and Prejudice affirms the power of true love.

Sure, that makes sense. Bad sign.

B: Although the main plot of Pride and Prejudice rests on the natural power of true love, an examination of the way that fighting sticks–baseball bats, tree branches, and swords–link the frame story to the romance plot suggests that the grandson is being trained in true love, that it is not natural but socialized.

Um, nope. Even if you have never read Pride and Prejudice , you can probably guess that such a precise thesis could hardly apply to other works. Good sign.

A thesis makes a lot of information irrelevant.

If your thesis is specific enough, it will make a point that focuses on only a small part of the text you are analyzing. You can and should ultimately apply that point to the work as a whole, but a thesis will call attention to specific parts of it. Let’s look at those examples again. (This is the last time, I promise.)

One way of spotting the problem with example A is to note that a simple plot summary would support its point. That is not of true example B, which tells the reader exactly what moments the paper will discuss and why.

If you find that your paper leads you to mark relevant passages on virtually every page of a long work, you need to find a thesis that helps you focus on a smaller portion of the text. As the MTS reminds us, the paper should still strive to show the reader something new about the text as a whole, but a specific area of concentration will help, not hinder, that effort.

PROCESS: WRITING A THESIS STATEMENT

Thesis statements are easy to construct if you: 1. can condense your secondary sources—that you’ve read and understood—into a “main idea and argument” grid (explained below); and 2. answer a framework of

organizational questions (also below). These two steps can help to ensure that your thesis simultaneously situates an idea within a particular “conversation” and specifies a unique perspective/makes a new argument/ contribution to the conversation.

• Condensing secondary sources:
• Include some brief information each of your secondary sources (books, journal articles, etc.) on a grid so that you can organize the authors’ main ideas and perspectives in one space. For instance,

Once you’ve created an organizational table, you’ll want to examine it for commonalities/linkages among the authors’ ideas and arguments. In the example above, all authors have written about climate change policy, so now you know that you’ll need to include something like this phrase, “climate change policy,” in your thesis statement. Regarding the authors’ arguments, Jones argues about how climate change policy is affected by the government’s concern with economic growth; Smith argues that it needs to be communicated as an ethical imperative; and Taylor argues that it needs to be communicated by interdisciplinary teams.

Given this information, the first half of your thesis – which explains the specific topic – needs to explain to the audience/reader that you are writing specifically about climate change policy. The second half of your thesis – which contextualizes the argument – needs to explain to the audience/reader your interpretation of these authors’ arguments. For instance, you may choose to argue that:

• climate change policy regarding the effect of government policies about economic growth is the greater imperative for accomplishing more effective climate change policies in the U.S.
• ethical imperatives are the motivating factor for encouraging the public to respond – causing academic institutions to work with government officials/decision-makers in responding to the public’s opinion/support of climate change policy as an ethical concern

The examples above are hypothetical; and only two of the many, creative possibilities for interpreting an argument out of a specific topic . Whereas an argument seeks to persuade an audience/reader about a way of interpreting others’ information, a topic simply describes how to categorize/identify where the argument “fits” (i.e. which generalized group of people would be concerned with reading your writing)

Hint: oftentimes, the authors of academic journal articles conclude their arguments by suggesting potential research questions that they believe ought to be addressed in future scholarship. These suggestions can potentially provide some really excellent information about how to begin articulating a unique argument about a specific topic.

ASSESSMENT: TOPIC AND WORKING THESIS

Time to commit! By now you’ve explored several ideas, and probably ruled out a few easily. Now, though, I’m asking you to pick one particular topic to use for the final research essay project. You can change your mind later, if you’d like–but will have to get permission from me to do so.

For this assignment, I’d like you to do the following:

• Identify which particular topic you’ve decided on
• Describe a specific controversy that exists within this topic. Identify what the sides are (and there may be more than just 2 sides), and why each believes what it does.
• Define what side you agree with, and why.
• State the overall claim that you want your essay to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt. (This will be your working thesis, and it’s welcome to change as you progress in later weeks. It’s okay to start simple, for now, and build in more complexity later. I suggest looking at the Thesis statement websites in this module to get started).

Freshman Composition II Copyright © by Lumen Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Tortoise Tuesday: Practicing Writing with Marchesi’s Vocal Methods

Learning to sing is a bit like learning to write: time-intensive, often discouraging, ultimately rewarding—and based on a foundation of technique that you’ll need before you can move on to the more exciting stuff. Scales come before arias, just as D1s come before dissertations. Where writers have writing seminars and thesis bootcamps, singers have books like Mathilde Marchesi’s Theoretical and Practical Vocal Method . In her introduction, Marchesi, a 19 th -century teacher who trained many of her era’s great singers, lays out her foundational principles. These prove to be useful guidance for aspiring musicians, but they’re also applicable to writers—at any stage.  

“In order to obtain a speedy and satisfactory result,” Marchesi writes, “pupils should never be burdened with more than one difficulty at a time, and they should be assisted in overcoming obstacles by having them presented in a natural and progressive order.” Thinking about only one issue at a time might sound impossible when you’re juggling what feels like a dozen lexicon terms in writing sem, but breaking your assignment down into pieces can make a paper feel much more manageable. Instead of trying to get from a prompt to a 12-page paper in one go, it can be helpful to think about one step of the process at a time. What question are you trying to answer in your paper? What sources do you need to find? How will you select useful evidence, and what conclusion can you draw from it?

Taking the writing process one step at a time also makes it easier to identify the place where you’re getting stuck. Just as when you’re learning a new piece and find that you keep stumbling over the same passage, it helps to take a step back and return to the basics. In her Vocal Method , Marchesi notes that she’s included “special Exercises and Vocalises for each particular difficulty,” and a glance at the table of contents confirms this: there are exercises for flexiblity, exercises for singing appoggiaturas, exercises for blending vocal registers. By focusing on one skill at a time, the student builds the technique needed to approach each challenge in the context of a full piece of music. In the same way, when you feel stuck on a particular aspect of your writing, it can help to pull out exercises that isolate one lexicon term. The Magic Thesis Statement is a personal favorite, but there are many more: cartoons to help you take a position in the scholarly conversation, highlighting exercises to reveal the ratio of evidence to analysis, reverse outlines to check that the structure of your draft makes sense. Once you’ve built the technical skills that are fundamental to any piece of writing, you’ll be ready to take on even the most complicated projects. Whether you’re writing your dissertation or singing Brünnhilde, having basic skills to fall back on makes for a more secure—and much less stressful—performance.

–Rosamond van Wingerden ’20

Source: Marchesi, Mathilde. Theoretical and Practical Vocal Method , Op. 31 (via IMSLP).

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A thesis statement guides your essay by identifying both your subject and your attitude toward it. A thesis statement:

• is potentially interesting to the intended reader.
• is specific .
• limits the topic so that it is manageable .
• evolves as your thinking about the subject evolves.

Construct a working thesis.

Test the working thesis.

• Try substituting other words—if the same statement can be made about another subject, the thesis needs to be more specific.
• Ask “so what?”
• Ask “why?” and “how?” 
• Try filling in the “Magic Thesis Sentence” :

By looking at __________________, we can see ____________________, which most readers/viewers/observers don’t see; this is important because ___________________.

Revise the working thesis.

• Add information that responds to the “so what?” question to explain relevance.
• in order to
• Use active verbs
• Avoid abstract terms (e.g.  issue, aspect, society,  etc.)
• Avoid empty modifiers ( very, important,  etc.)

Use a Seed Sentence

Another way to construct a working thesis  is to start with a paradigm in the form of a “seed sentence.” These are patterns that reflect common ways of thinking about topics that are open to different perspectives. While anything constructed using one of these seeds will almost certainly need to be revised before the paper’s final version, they can provide a helpful starting point. If you choose to use sentence-paradigms to help you construct a thesis, try out several to find the best fit for your topic, idea, and assignment.

“Once I was _______________, but now I am _______________.”

“They say that _____________, but my experience [or closer examination] shows that ____________.”

Once I thought vulgar language was unforgivable, but now I feel sorry for those who express hatred by using it.

They say that people can learn from their mistakes, but my experience shows that once they learn prejudice, few people change their behavior.

“When I saw ____________, I saw ____________ instead of ______________.”

When I saw that I could fight the bullies or ignore them, I saw that fighting would be degrading while nonviolence would maintain my self-respect.

Cause and Effect:

“If _________________, then ________________."

“Because ______________, ________________." 

If we look at the way teens view bullying, then we see that current interventions devised by adults are not likely to be effective. Because I learned to ignore bullies when I was young, I can now find ways to encourage people with differing points of view to work together.

Compare/Contrast:

“Because of ____________similarities [or differences], ___________.”

Because adults and teenagers define bullying differently, the typical adult approaches to combatting the behaviors will not be effective.

Difference/Likeness (or Likeness/Difference):

“However ______________, ______________.”

However much both adults and teenagers agree that bullying behaviors damage relationships, this problem will persist until both groups begin using the same language to label the undesirable actions.

“Not only ___________________, but also _________________.”

Not only do adults want to blame technology for the problem of bullying, but they also tend to rely on ineffective solutions such as school assemblies.

Shift of Focus:

“Instead of [even though, because, etc.] _______________, we should direct attention to ________________.”

Even though these attempts to stop bullying are well-meaning, they will not be effective until they address the roots of the problem: lack of empathy and the desire for attention. 

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The magic of 3

by Kim Kautzer | Dec 13, 2012 | Teaching Homeschool Writing

Learning specialist Kendra Wagner joins us today as a guest blogger.

The Magic of 3

Ask teachers what is meant by this phrase and they will likely answer: “The 3 body paragraphs of a 5-paragraph essay.”

Applications

I tell my students that the 5-part essay is designed to frame your thinking and make you a smarter person! It is a model of speaking or writing that is common across the professions of law, public speaking, journalism, and storytelling.

I make the analogy to football practice , with a warm-up, 3 main drills, and a cool-down. I also explain how, in the courtroom, TV and movie lawyers use 3 arguments with a short intro and their concluding statements. This wakes the kids up.

Ah, the power of what happens on a screen.

Notice I didn’t call it the “ Rule of 3 ”  because there are many strategies to becoming a skilled writer , and many “right” ways to write. Some kids find freedom in this, but others find it restricting: Why can’t writing be more like math? One correct answer. One correct way of constructing a sentence.

When these students beg to write only two body paragraphs, or a hefty four , I’ll let them if they make a good case for why a book character makes only two turning-point decisions in their novel, or for why the science museum might only have two interesting exhibits.

While the “Magic of 3 ” makes a great template to hang a child’s hat on, it should not be too rigidly enforced. Though a powerful paper can consist of two body paragraphs with compelling reasons or examples, these usually work best after establishing a comfort zone with the “Magic of 3 .”

More Applications of the Magic of 3

The “Magic of 3 ” doesn’t stop with main points and paragraphs; it also applies to sentence building and word choice . I think you’ll find the following tips helpful as you guide your budding writers.

3 Topic Sentenc es

Here’s a good guideline: require students to come up with 3 options for a topic sentence (or thesis statement), and then choose one for their story or essay. This encourages prevention of topic sentence phobia , and reinforces the idea that there is no single right way to write.

3 Powerhouse Verbs and Adjectives

During the revising process, when students’ writing seems flat (or “wimpy,” as some of my middle schoolers call it), it is likely missing some powerhouse verbs   and interesting adjectives .

Offer this guideline for powerhouse verbs: For every 3 long sentences, there should be at least 3 strong emotion or action verbs somewhere within those 3 sentences. (For 4 th  grade and above, a long sentence = 10-25 words.)

There should also be 3 adjectives, which can be as simple as color or number words.

These verbs and adjectives can be distributed in any way across the 3 sentences. Not every sentence needs one.

First try: We went to the water park. I liked the Geronimo slide best, but my brother was scared. It was hot and we all had fun and then went home.

Revision: We p layed all day at the water park and slid down ten slides. My favorite was a fast one called Geronimo, and it was the scariest , so my brother hung onto me as we skidded down. We beat the heat by staying in the water all day.

Verbs: played, slid, hung, skidded, beat, staying Adjectives: ten, favorite, fast, scariest

3 Conjunctions

When kids are stuck at short, simple sentences, suggest using one of the 3 most  common conjunctions — and, but, so —in the middle of the sentence, with a full sentence on either side of the conjunction. This is known as a compound sentence .

First try: I really like soccer. I get to do a lot of skill practice. It is all year round. Revision: Soccer is a way to improve a lot of different skills, and you can practice and play year-round.

First try: T here are many ways to use time wisely doing homework. Revision: Homework is important, but  students need to find ways to use their time wisely to get the most out of it.

3 Sentence Builders

When students need to improve word retrieval, sentence development, and ease with writing in a show, don’t tell style, provide the following drill practice. Have them create single, unrelated sentences using at least 3   of the “5 Ws and How” in each sentence. For example:

After the long meeting , Lucy raced home in a flash   to feed her dog , who was waiting on the porch .

While some kids find freedom in the writing process, others find frustration. “Why can’t writing be more like math, with its correct answers?” These kids want specific rules for constructing a sentence. The Magic of 3 offers a great template to provide your child with the structure s/he craves. You don’t want to dampen the creativity of writing, so it should not be rigidly enforced. But establishing a foundation with “The Magic of 3” can help some kids find the comfort zone they need to take the stress out of writing.

Thanks to Kendra Wagner for guest blogging today! A learning specialist in Seattle, Kendra teaches children reading, writing, and thinking skills. Her specialty in ADD and dyslexia grew out of her work in schools as a reading specialist and consultant. She has a particular interest in written expression and helping unearth children’s voice. Visit Kendra’s  website ,  blog , and  Facebook page .

Photo: lollyknit , courtesy of  Creative Commons

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