Chapters 5, 9, and 10

The Correcting-Misinterpretations Model The Filling-the-Gap Model The Modifying-What-Others-Have-Said Model The Hypothesis-Testing Model

Four models that may help a writer organize the information you gather in response to the question guiding your inquiry, and are some ways to develop a working thesis.

Never accept your working thesis as your final position.

Instead, continue testing your assertion as you read and write, and modify your working thesis as necessary.

The Filling-the-Gap Model

The gap model points to what other writers may have overlooked or ignored in discussing a given issue.

Thesis

The logical stand, and an assertion that academic writers make at the beginning of what they write and then support with evidence throughout their essay.

The Hypothesis-Testing Model

This model begins with the assumption that writers may have good reasons for supporting their arguments, but that there are also number of legitimate reasons that explain why something is, or is not, the case.

The Correcting-Misinterpretations Model

This model is used to correct writers whose arguments you believe have misconstrued one or more important aspects of an issue.

The Modifying-What-Others-Have-Said Model

This model of thesis writing assumes that mutual understanding is possible.

Academic writers explores

complex issues that grow out of relevant, timely conversations in which something is at stake.

Writers are continually challenged by the need to

establish their purpose and to make a clear and specific assertion of it.

Reading raises questions

helping you see what you know and need to know, and challenging you to read on.

Modification model

"Although I agree with the A and B ideas of other writers, it is important to extend/refine/limit their ideas with C."

Misinterpretations model

"Although many scholars have argued about A and B, a careful examination suggests C."

Gap model

"Although scholars have noted A and B, they have missed the importance of C."

It is a myth that writers

first come up with a thesis and then write their essays.

Shish Kehab Metaphor

One student aptly described the thesis using the metaphor of ______________.

Working Thesis

Your first attempt at an assertion of your position.

The gap model typically makes it

a claim of value.

The thesis typically takes the form of

a factual claim.

The thesis penetrates every paragraph, holding the paragraphs together, just as

a skewer penetrates and holds the ingredients of a shish kebab together.

Although it is a common myth that a thesis can be phrased in a single sentence (a legacy of the five-paragraph theme, we suspect), this example shows that

a thesis can be written in two (or more) sentences.

A variation on the gap model also occurs when

a writer suggests that although something might appear to be that case, a closer look reveals something different.

A thesis encompasses

all of the information writers use to further their arguments; it is not simply a single assertion at the beginning of an essay.

The evidence is based on a hypothesis that researchers will continue to test by examining individual cases through an inductive method until

the evidence refutes that hypothesis.

Hypothesis-testing model

"Sometimes people explain A by suggesting B, but a close analysis of the problem reveals the possibility of several competing/complementary explanations such as C, D, and E."

An academic thesis

makes an assertion that is clearly defined, focused, and supported. reflects an awareness of the conversation from which the writer has taken up the issue. is placed at the beginning of the essay. penetrates every paragraph like the skewer in a shish kebab. acknowledges points of view that differ from the writer's own, reflecting the complexity of the issue. demonstrates an awareness of the readers' assumptions and anticipates possible counterarguments. conveys a significant fresh perspective.

The illustrations and examples that a writer includes

must relate to and support the thesis.

The questions motivating your research will often lead you to a number of possible answers, but

none are necessarily more correct than others.

Writers use issue-based questions to

read, learn, and develop a thesis throughout the pieces of writing.

The thesis serves as a signpost throughout an essay

reminding readers what the argument is and why the writer has included evidence--examples, illustrations, quotations--relevant to that argument.

A more definitive thesis will come once you are

satisfied that you have examined the issue from multiple perspectives.

In crafting your thesis, choose words that

signal to readers that your are correcting others' ideas, or even misinterpretations, without being dismissive.

Readers expect academic writers to

take a clear, specific, logical stand on an issue, and they evaluate how writers support their claims and anticipate counterarguments.

A working thesis is valuable in

the early stages of writing because it helps you read selectively, in the same way that your issue-based question guides your inquiry.

The position writers ultimately take in writing-their thesis-comes at

the end of the writing process, after not one draft but many.

The hypothesis-testing model assumes that

the questions you raise will likely lead you to multiple answers that compete for your attention.

The question serves as a tool for inquiry that will help you formulate your

working thesis

An academic writer reads as a

writer to understand the issues, situations, and questions that lead other writers to make claims.

Through revising and discussing their ideas

writers hone their thesis, making sure that it threads through every paragraph of the final draft.

To reach that assertion

you must first engage in a prolonged process of inquiry, aided by a well-formulated question.