I find myself bemused by John's perception that the social
sciences don't understand the concept of a thesis
statement. My experience as a
sociologist/anthropologist/educator is just the opposite.
Even though real papers in the soc sciences involve
empirical inquiry, the researcher must take a position on
what s/he intends to prove with that inquiry. The inquiry
is based on a hypothesis which is essentially the thesis
statement. Because both hard and soft scientists know
they can't really "prove" their hypothesis, they are
accepting or rejecting a null hypothesis, their language
in their results does tend to be careful. However, the
point remains, the researcher has some specific problem
identified, a specific method for inquiring about that
problem, what s/he expects the results to be, and then in
the conclusion discusses how well (or not) the results
came to what was expected.
There's even a standard location for the thesis statement
in a social sciences article--it should classically be
just before the lit review and the actual hypothesis for
the research should be just before the methods section.
Example of a thesis statement from an article I use to
teach how to write lit reviews: "Guided by Wilson's theory
of neighborhood effects, we hypothesize ahd that living
in a disadvantaged neighborhood lowers African-American
adlescents' college aspirations." This statement does the
job that a thesis statement should do: it identifies the
problem to be studied, it makes clear the researcher's
stance (which may or may not be "proved" at the end of the
research), it identifies the key concepts.
The hard sciences are actually the same way, they just
don't call it a thesis statement, they call it a research
question (which is really a statement reversed to the form
of a question). They are more likely to have open-ended
inquiry, but in the social sciences we have a particular
problem we want to "prove", it's not open.
Now that I'm in a writing center that takes students from
disciplines ranging from physiology to children's
literature, my experience has been just the opposite of
what John says. My humanities students have no idea what
a thesis statement is, their writing tends to ramble
around whatever they find interesting, they aren't trying
to prove anything. One of my first tutors was a history
master's student, he had no idea what a thesis statement
was.
Rebel (PhD Sociology)
Coordinator
Graduate Student Writing Studio
College of Education
University of New Mexico
On Fri, 18 Jun 2010 11:03:19 +0200
John Harbord <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I think James's uncertain response is quite helpful in
>reminding us
> that a lot of the time we are preparing student to write
>for lecturers
> in disciplines beyond English. Many such people,
>especially in the
> social and hard sciences, don't have or understand the
>concept of a
> thesis statement. Real papers in the social sciences
>involve (empirical)
> enquiry, that is, they involve the identification of a
>question to which
> we do not know the answer but would like to know it.
>Research or
> analysis is then carried out in order to find an answer
>to that
> question, which will be presented (often in the
>introduction) as
> findings, rather than an argument, often using verbs
>like 'show' rather
> than 'argue'. One can wangle it by saying that the
>argument is that the
> these findings are the best answer to the question, but
>I think that is
> probably rather post-hoc.
>
> This discussion appeared on Wcenter not so long ago and
>I raised this
> question and received the confirmation that, as James
>suggests, thesis
> statements are a lot more common in the humanities than
>elsewhere. My
> guess is that they are most common of all in English
>composition
> classes, and migrate outwards, often undesiredly, from
>there. I have a
> feeling, possibly a prejudice, that thesis statements
>are a feature of
> non-authentic genres (eg. the 5-paragraph essay) that
>try to teach the
> skills of argument without creating new knowledge. I'm
>not entirely
> sure, beyond the humanities, whether teaching thesis
>statement writing
> prepares students well for writing in the disciplines.
>
> It would be interesting to hear from those who teach
>writing in
> languages other than English how scholarly enquiry is
>framed in those
> contexts. I know for example that in French academic
>writing there is
> something called a 'problematique' which drives the
>enquiry; I am told
> that German may have something similar, but I don't know
>much more in
> either case.
>
> Best,
>
> John
>
>>>> James Hartley <[log in to unmask]> 17/6/10 13:38
>>>>>>>
> Hi Alex
>
> I am afraid that I am unfamiliar with the idea of a
>thesis statement or
> what
> a good one is. Perhaps the term is used more in the
>Arts than the
> social
> sciences.
>
> I have, however, been thinking about how we can improve
>the thesis
> abstract - which in itself might be considered as a
>thesis statement?
>
> The short paper attached might be of interest in this
>respect.
>
> Cheers
>
> Jim
>
> James Hartley
> School of Psychology
> Keele University
> Staffordshire
> ST5 5BG
> UK
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.keele.ac.uk/depts/ps/people/JHartley/index.htm
> —-------
>From: European Association for the Teaching of Academic
>Writing -
> discussions [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
>Alexander
> Baratta
> Sent: 16 June 2010 21:52
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: The Thesis Statement
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I would be grateful if as many of you as possible might
>be able to
> respond to two quick questions regarding the thesis
>statement, or
> 'argument' as it is known in the UK.
>
> 1. How would you define a thesis statement?
> 2. What is a good thesis statement?
>
> Thanks for your assistance on this matter,
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Alex Baratta
Bring to the act of writing all of your craft, care,
devotion, lack of humbug, and honesty of sentiment. And
then write without looking over your shoulder for the
literary police. Write as if your life depended on saying
what you felt as clearly as you could, while never losing
sight of the phenomenon to be described.
Norman Mailer, The Spooky Art
|
