Cleveland State University ESC 720 Research Communications

1. Cleveland State UniversityESC 720Research Communications Lecture 5 – State Your Thesis Dan Simon

2. State Your Thesis • Thesis = Focus • A one-sentence statement of the main message of your report • How to define a strong thesis statement • You are starting with a topic, but topic  thesis • You have sources and summaries, and they should provide input to your thesis statement

3. State Your Thesis What do you know about your topic? Absolute view: • History • Major subtopics • Cultural issues • Controversies • Contrasting theories or approaches • Current research directions

4. State Your Thesis What do you know about your topic? Relative view: • Under what classifications does your topic fall? • What are some important subtopics? • What are some related topics?

5. State Your Thesis • Based on the following … • What you know about your topic • The questions you asked in your source summaries • … ask a question you want to answer in your paper • The question must point to your references • The question must be challenging to you • The question must be interesting to you • The answer must fill a significant number of pages • The answer must be able to be summarized in one sentence • The answer to your question is your thesis (focus)

6. State Your Thesis Qualities of a Good Thesis Question • Requires explanation • Not a yes/no question; not trivial • Not answerable with well-known facts • Requires analysis, synthesis, experiment, etc. • Specific – not too general

7. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Hydrogenated oils are bad for you.

8. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Hydrogenated oils are bad for you. Too General

9. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Hydrogenated oils are bad for you. • The government should regulate the use of hydrogenated oils in fried fast foods because scientific studies have linked these oils to cancer and heart disease. Too General

10. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Hydrogenated oils are bad for you. • The government should regulate the use of hydrogenated oils in fried fast foods because scientific studies have linked these oils to cancer and heart disease. Too General Good

11. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Hydrogenated oils are bad for you. • The government should regulate the use of hydrogenated oils in fried fast foods because scientific studies have linked these oils to cancer and heart disease. • Hydrogenated oils deposit fatty acids and clog arteries. Too General Good

12. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Hydrogenated oils are bad for you. • The government should regulate the use of hydrogenated oils in fried fast foods because scientific studies have linked these oils to cancer and heart disease. • Hydrogenated oils deposit fatty acids and clog arteries. Too General Good Too Factual

13. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Hydrogenated oils are bad for you. • The government should regulate the use of hydrogenated oils in fried fast foods because scientific studies have linked these oils to cancer and heart disease. • Hydrogenated oils deposit fatty acids and clog arteries. • We should get the FDA to label every package of cookies with the content of hydrogenated oils. Too General Good Too Factual

14. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Hydrogenated oils are bad for you. • The government should regulate the use of hydrogenated oils in fried fast foods because scientific studies have linked these oils to cancer and heart disease. • Hydrogenated oils deposit fatty acids and clog arteries. • We should get the FDA to label every package of cookies with the content of hydrogenated oils. Too General Good Too Factual Too Informal

15. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Hydrogenated oils are bad for you. • The government should regulate the use of hydrogenated oils in fried fast foods because scientific studies have linked these oils to cancer and heart disease. • Hydrogenated oils deposit fatty acids and clog arteries. • We should get the FDA to label every package of cookies with the content of hydrogenated oils. • Scientific studies link hydrogenated oils to cancer and heart disease. Too General Good Too Factual Too Informal

16. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Hydrogenated oils are bad for you. • The government should regulate the use of hydrogenated oils in fried fast foods because scientific studies have linked these oils to cancer and heart disease. • Hydrogenated oils deposit fatty acids and clog arteries. • We should get the FDA to label every package of cookies with the content of hydrogenated oils. • Scientific studies link hydrogenated oils to cancer and heart disease. Too General Good Too Factual Too Informal Too Factual

17. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Impedance control is better than position control for prosthetic legs.

18. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Impedance control is better than position control for prosthetic legs. Too General

19. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Impedance control is better than position control for prosthetic legs. • Impedance control can optimize a wider range of cost functions than position control in prosthetic legs. Too General

20. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Impedance control is better than position control for prosthetic legs. • Impedance control can optimize a wider range of cost functions than position control in prosthetic legs. Too General Good

21. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Impedance control is better than position control for prosthetic legs. • Impedance control can optimize a wider range of cost functions than position control in prosthetic legs. • Prosthetic legs should be made more widely available in third-world countries. Too General Good

22. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Impedance control is better than position control for prosthetic legs. • Impedance control can optimize a wider range of cost functions than position control in prosthetic legs. • Prosthetic legs should be made more widely available in third-world countries. Too General Good Too General

23. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Impedance control is better than position control for prosthetic legs. • Impedance control can optimize a wider range of cost functions than position control in prosthetic legs. • Prosthetic legs should be made more widely available in third-world countries. • Prosthetic leg research is a waste of time because people need to take better care of their own health so they don’t have to get their legs amputated. Too General Good Too General

24. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Impedance control is better than position control for prosthetic legs. • Impedance control can optimize a wider range of cost functions than position control in prosthetic legs. • Prosthetic legs should be made more widely available in third-world countries. • Prosthetic leg research is a waste of time because people need to take better care of their own health so they don’t have to get their legs amputated. Too General Good Too General Too Informal

25. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Impedance control is better than position control for prosthetic legs. • Impedance control can optimize a wider range of cost functions than position control in prosthetic legs. • Prosthetic legs should be made more widely available in third-world countries. • Prosthetic leg research is a waste of time because people need to take better care of their own health so they don’t have to get their legs amputated. • Prosthetic legs have greatly advanced in capability since the introduction of the microprocessor. Too General Good Too General Too Informal

26. Thesis Examples Analyze the following thesis examples: • Impedance control is better than position control for prosthetic legs. • Impedance control can optimize a wider range of cost functions than position control in prosthetic legs. • Prosthetic legs should be made more widely available in third-world countries. • Prosthetic leg research is a waste of time because people need to take better care of their own health so they don’t have to get their legs amputated. • Prosthetic legs have greatly advanced in capability since the introduction of the microprocessor. Too General Good Too General Too Informal Too Factual

27. Make Your Thesis Strong and Focused • It should be a product of your literature review • It should be the answer to an interesting question • It should have a clear wider significance • It should be as short as possible, while still being long enough to be specific • It should be reworded five times to sharpen it;start with a long thesis, and then try to shorten it

28. Make Your Thesis Strong and Focused • It should be interesting to your audience • What does your audience know about your topic? • How does your audience feel about your topic? • Assume that tour audience is open-minded. • Assume that tour audience wants to learn.

29. Thesis Examples “Impedance control is good.”

30. Thesis Examples “Impedance control is good.” • Too broad • No criteria for “good”

31. Thesis Examples “I decided to research impedance control because it is an interesting and important topic, a lot of papers have been written about it, and I think it can help a lot of amputees.”

32. Thesis Examples “I decided to research impedance control because it is an interesting and important topic, a lot of papers have been written about it, and I think it can help a lot of amputees.” • Too long • Too personal • Not formal enough • Not specific enough

33. Thesis Examples “American students are prone to plagiarism in their writing because of the laziness that is inherent in American culture.”

34. Thesis Examples “American students are prone to plagiarism in their writing because of the laziness that is inherent in American culture.” • Prejudicial and biased • Too broad to make a strong case

35. Thesis Examples “There are big differences between the ADRC and PID control approaches.”

36. Thesis Examples “There are big differences between the ADRC and PID control approaches.” • Too general

37. Thesis Examples “Model-free control is a way to control an engineering system without having a mathematical model for the system.”

38. Thesis Examples “Model-free control is a way to control an engineering system without having a mathematical model for the system.” • Too factual • Does not include the writer’s viewpoint

39. State Your Thesis Your thesis can include broader implications • The government should regulate the use of hydrogenated oils in fried fast foods because scientific studies have linked these oils to cancer and heart disease. • Impedance control can optimize a wider range of cost functions than position control, and is thus a more flexible and effective control method for prosthetic legs.

40. Acknowledgments • CSU Writing Centerwww.csuohio.edu/academic/writingcenter