The thesis statement or thesis question is one of the (if not the) most important parts of your<\/p>\n
paper. \u00a0It should be introduced in the first paragraph and serve as the focus of your analytic<\/p>\n
argument. \u00a0The thesis is the thread \u00a0(a strong one!) that ties together your interpretations of all<\/p>\n
the\u00a0significant moments, patterns, developments, changes, and\/or contradictions that you will<\/p>\n
develop in the body of your paper. \u00a0Think of the thesis statement as a contract between you (the<\/p>\n
writer) and the reader. The thesis makes certain promises to your reader; it then becomes your<\/p>\n
job to fulfill that promise using specific details or analysis. \u00a0The more specific your promise,<\/p>\n
the easier it will be to find specific evidence to support your argument.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This post offers general <\/i>guidelines on writing thesis statements, but it\u2019s important to remember:<\/p>\n
thesis statements are NOT formulas, and a successful one cannot be reduced to its parts.<\/p>\n
Successful theses provoke thought, they read beautifully, they provide analysis of an idea or event,<\/p>\n
and they consider a specific <\/i>issue.<\/p>\n
Your thesis should include three components: WHAT, HOW, and WHY<\/b><\/p>\n
WHAT\u2014claim about event or historical topic<\/p>\n
HOW<\/b>\u2014the events, ideas, sources, etc. that you choose to prove your claim<\/p>\n
WH<\/i>Y\u2014the significance of your idea in terms of understanding the history\/narrative as a whole<\/p>\n
(answers the dreaded \u201cso what?\u201d question)<\/p>\n
Example: The experiences of tribal groups who inhabited the Old Northwest and who<\/b><\/p>\n
relocated to territories west of the Mississippi River from the late 1700s to the 1860s <\/b><\/p>\n
offer\u00a0<\/b>new perspectives on the subject of Indian removals. Rather than an organized <\/b><\/p>\n
removal of\u00a0<\/b>tribes under the legislation and direction of the federal government, the <\/b><\/p>\n
movements of Indian\u00a0<\/b>populations in the nineteenth century encompassed an <\/b><\/p>\n
expansive timeline, fractured and scattered\u00a0<\/b>journeys, and extensive participation <\/b><\/p>\n
by a variety of actors whose presence and attitude serve to\u00a0<\/i><\/b>complicate a seemingly <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
smooth narrative of American expansion.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Please note:<\/b><\/p>\n
1. A thesis can be (and probably should be) more than one sentence.<\/b><\/p>\n
2. The part of the thesis in plain text (“Rather than an organized removal of <\/b><\/p>\n
tribes under the\u00a0<\/b>legislation and direction of the federal government”) is a potential <\/b><\/p>\n
contradiction to your argument; a\u00a0<\/b>strong thesis usually addresses a potential <\/b><\/p>\n
opposing viewpoint. This ability to imagine and answer\u00a0<\/b>an opposing viewpoint <\/b><\/p>\n
ensures that your thesis is arguable<\/i>.<\/b><\/p>\n
3. A good thesis should address these three questions of what? how? and why? in <\/b><\/p>\n
some way.<\/b><\/p>\n
Most students have trouble answering the \u201cso what?\u201d question for their thesis; it <\/b><\/p>\n
is answering this\u00a0<\/b>question that makes your argument relevant to the historical context. <\/b><\/p>\n
Be careful, though, that your\u00a0<\/b>answer to the \u201cso what?\u201d question is not a generalization <\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cabout the world we live in, or life in\u00a0<\/b>general\u201d; it should be SPECIFIC and justify why <\/b><\/p>\n
and how your argument is significant to the\u00a0<\/b>historical narrative.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The thesis statement or thesis question is one of the (if not the) most important parts of your paper. \u00a0It should be introduced in the first paragraph and serve as the focus of your analytic argument. \u00a0The thesis is the thread \u00a0(a strong one!) that ties together your interpretations of all the\u00a0significant moments, patterns, developments, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","et-bg-layout-dark","et-white-bg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/rita-reynolds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/rita-reynolds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/rita-reynolds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/rita-reynolds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/rita-reynolds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/rita-reynolds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/rita-reynolds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/rita-reynolds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faculty.wagner.edu\/rita-reynolds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}