Five kinds of weak thesis and how to fix them
(from D. Ronwasr and J. Stephen
Writing Analytically, 4th edition, 2007)
平静的英文A strong thesis makes a claim that (1) requires analysis to support and evolve it and (2) offers some point about the significance of your evidence that would not have been immediately obvious to your readers. By contrast, a weak thesis either makes no claim or makes a claim that does not need proving.
Weak Thesis type 1: The thesis makes no claim, i.e. it does not advance an idea about the topics the paper will explore.
Problem Example: I'm going to write about Darwin's
concerns with evolution in The Origin of the Species.
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Solution: Rai specific issues for the essay to explore.
Example: Dawin's concerns with survival of the fittest in The Origin of the Species initially leads him to neglect a potentially conflicting aspect of his theory of evolution – survival as a matter of independence.
Weak Thesis type 2: The thesis is obviously true or is a statement of fact. This type of thesis is not productive becau it does not require proof. A thesis needs to be an asrtion with which it would be possible for readers to disagree.
Problem Example: The jeans industry targets its advertiments to appeal to young adults.
Solution: Find some avenue of inquiry – a question about the facts or an issue raid by them.
Example: By inventing new terms, such as sometimesnaiveloo fit and relaxed fit, the jeans industry has attempted to normalize, even glorify, its product for an older and fatter generation.
Weak Thesis type 3: The thesis restates conventional wisdom. Restatement of one of th好看的电影 欧美
我和世界不一样下载e many clichés that constitute a culture's conventional wisdom is not a productive thesis unless you have something to say about it that hasn't been said many times before.
Problem Example: An important part of one's college education is learning to better understand others' points of view.
旅途劳顿Solution: Seek to complicate your subject – for example, by prenting different points of view on the same subject – in order to produce a fresh perspective on it.
Example: Although an important part of one's college education is learning to better understand others' points of view, a persistent danger is that students will simply be required to substitute their teachers' answers for the ones they few up believing uncritically.
Weak Thesis type 4: The thesis offers personal or moral conviction as the basis for the claim. A statement of one's personal convictions or one's likes or dislikes does not alone supply sufficient grounds for a productive thesis.
Example: Although I agree with Jeane Kirkpatrick's argument that environmentalists and business should work together to ensure the ecological future of the world, the indisputable fact is that environmental considerations should always be a part of any decision that is made. The environment should be protected becau it is the right thing to do, not becau someone is forcing you to do it.
Solution: Try on other points of view honestly and dispassionately; treat your ideas as hypothes to be tester rather than obvious truths.
轮廓的意思
Example: Although I agree with Jeane Kirkpatrick's argument that environmentalists and business should work together to ensure the ecological future of the world, her argument undervalues the necessity of pressuring business to attend to environmental concerns that may not benefit them in the short run.
Weak Thesis type 5: The thesis makes an overtly broad claim. An overly general claim is not a productive thesis becau it oversimplifies and is too broad to direct development. You might work from a general idea at first, but your formulations need to become specifi
c enough to guide the development of a paper.
Problem examples:
1) 预科Othello is a play about love and jealousy
2) Violent revolutions have had both positive and negative results for humankind.
Solution: Convert broad categories and generic (fits anything) claims to more specific, more qualified asrtions. Find ways to bring out the complexity of your subject.
Examples:
1) Although Othello appears to attack jealousy, it also support the skepticism of the jealous characters over the naiveté of the lovers.
2) Although violent revolutions bring to redress long-standing social inequities, they often do so at the cost of long-term economic dysfunction and the suffering that attends it.
Strong vs. Weak Thesis
twelve1) In a strong thesis, words won't be general or vague.
Example:
Vague “Although the narrator achieves some kind of victory, it is not complete.”back
Specific “Although the narrator achieves momentary power over John, she does so only by submitting to an extreme form of lf-control.”
