1 / 11

Thesis work (humble)

Thesis work (humble). Jason buchanan. How to know if your main idea is ‘really’ an idea. Warning: You can’t kind of know your main point. If you only kind of know what your idea is, then your readers will also only kind of know what your idea is.

tomai
Download Presentation

Thesis work (humble)

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Thesis work (humble) Jason buchanan

  2. How to know if your main idea is ‘really’ an idea • Warning: You can’t kind of know your main point. If you only kind of know what your idea is, then your readers will also only kind of know what your idea is. • Example: “You should try to laugh when you feel stressed out, even if it’s fake laughter, because any kind of laughter will help you reduce stress. • Complete sentence • Defines an opinion • A “because” phrase

  3. How to know if your main idea is ‘really’ an idea 2 • The main idea of a college essay should be something you have figured out for yourself, a reasonable opinion of your. It should be a debatable essay, and your essay should win that debate. • Most people have some degree of stress. • The Mayan Indians flourished for many years in what is now Central America. • Developing a thoughtful opinion of your own is more work than scooping up whatever dull observation is sitting on the grass in front of you.

  4. How to know if your main idea is ‘really’ an idea 3 • What am I interested in? • What do I like to do for fun that might translate into an interesting paper topic • What do I feel strongly about? Also, What do I know a lot about? • What would I like to know more about? • What are some issues or topics that are in the news right now that I find interesting and important? • What are some issues or topics on my college campus that I find interesting and important? • Can my friends or family members offer me suggestions for topics that I find interesting and important?

  5. How to know if your main idea is ‘really’ an idea 4 • It needs to be appropriate for the assignment • It needs to be something you know enough about to write about comfortably • It needs to not be too broad (i.e. too large of a topic to cover in detail within the page length limits) • It needs to be interesting and important to you (or else you're going to get very bored) • It needs to be creative. Professors hate tired topics that everybody writes and speaks about

  6. Tired topics • The death penalty or capital punishment • Why marijuana should be legal • Why the drinking age should be lowered/raised • Abortion • Why you should (or shouldn’t) wear your seat belt. Or why you should wear your helmet • Why you shouldn't smoke. Binge drinking is a tired topic too. • Why you should recycle • Violence in the media, also sex in the media also is a tired topic • Why you should adopt a pet

  7. Stick to one idea while drafting • Once you know what your main idea is, sticking to it becomes a fairly mechanical process: you check your essay, paragraph by paragraph, and make sure that each paragraph helps in some way to present that idea. • 2 options for fixing a lousy idea: First, you can work on the thesis statement before you write the essay. The other option is to write the essay using a lousy main idea, then get it back with a lousy grade.

  8. Judging your main idea • Is it Original? • Should come from you. Not from paraphrase or plagiarism. • Is it Engaging? • Pick a topic you care about. Equals more engaged writing. • Is it Insightful? • Avoid “Duh” thesis statements. • Is it Precisely Stated? • Know what every word in the thesis means. Avoid vagueness. • Is it Specific? • Narrow, focused ideas.

  9. Vague words • Finding words that capture your meaning and convey that meaning to your readers is challenging. When your instructors write things like "awkward," "vague," or "wordy" on your draft, they are letting you know that they want you to work on word choice. • Sometimes a sentence is hard to follow because there is a grammatical problem with it or because of the syntax (the way the words and phrases are put together). • Here's an example of vague writing: "Having finished with studying, the pizza was quickly eaten.”

  10. Vague words 2 • Misused words—the word doesn't actually mean what the writer thinks it does • Words with unwanted connotations or meanings • Using a pronoun when readers can't tell whom/what it refers to • Jargon or technical terms • Avoid: “It, thing, stuff, very, extremely, really, kind of, was, am are, often, so to, this that”

  11. Exercises in evaluating topics • Let’s do these exercises: • http://www8.esc.edu/htmlpages/writerold/menus.htm

More Related