I teach workshops on how to write a thesis statement. My
main point always is that, while you will write your
thesis statement out for your reader somewhere in your
paper, the PURPOSE of the thesis statement is to keep you,
writer, on point. So you do not go off on tangents, so
you don't write about things you have no intention of
discussing anywhere in your paper but you've been seduced
by their "interestingness," so you read and synthesize
only that material that is relevant to the point you
ultimately want me, reader, to be convinced of by the time
you're finished.
There are several good sites that I refer students to if
they can't come to one of my workshops:
http://www.sdst.org/shs/library/thesis.html (especially a
thesis statement must answer the 'so what')
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/thesis.html
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/
http://www.writing.ku.edu/~writing/guides/thesis.shtml
Rebel
Dr. Rebel Palm (PhD sociology)
Coordinator
Graduate Student Writing Studio
College of Education
University of New Mexico
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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
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