Idea 1. If your paper assignment asks you to answer a specific question, turn the question into an assertion and give reasons for your opinion. Idea 3. Spend time "mulling over" your topic. Make a list of the ideas you want to include in the essay, then think about how to group them under several different headings. Often, you will see an organizational plan emerge from the sorting process. Main Idea: Women's labor in their homes during the first half of the nineteenth century contributed to the growth of the national economy. Your blueprint for writing: Almost every assignment you complete for a history course will ask you to make an argument. Your instructors will often call this your "thesis" -- your position on a subject. Harry Truman’s decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima was motivated by racism. The purpose of this paper is to delve into the mindset behind Truman’s decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima. Every paper must argue an idea and every paper must clearly state that idea in a thesis statement. Refining the thesis: A good thesis does not spring to life from nothing. A good thesis is the product of a discussion you have about your source material and its meaning. Here is what that process might look like: The thesis paragraph (See also the handout entitled "The Three Parts of a History Paper."): The first paragraph of your paper should be your thesis paragraph. The function of this paragraph is to define the problem your paper addresses, define key words and concepts you will use, and present your argument in summary. A thesis paragraph is not an opportunity to meditate on the history of the world; you do not have enough space in a thesis paragraph to do anything more than fulfill the purposes stated above. The last sentence of this paragraph should be your thesis. Here is an exercise which may help you develop your thesis paragraph. Answer the following questions: Establish that southern states started passing new disfranchisement laws in the 1890s. Historical examples would be nice. After developing a hypothesis help writing a paper for college, read through it again, searching for vague words and phrases that "let you off the hook," or permit you to not make strong arguments. Underline such phrases term paper free example, and re-word them to be more specific. In every un-refined thesis, there is a word or phrase which remains unclear or unexplained. Find it and "unpack" it in your introductory paragraph. Constructing a tentative thesis (hypothesis): Here is a somewhat formulaic approach to constructing a tentative thesis. It is just one possibility among many. Although freedom made life better in general for African-American women, freedwomen may have lost some of the power they had held in the family under slavery, because freedom subjected them to the patriarchal domination of a sexist society. For instance, you may have some source information that suggests black women were beaten by their husbands when free, but you might also have some that suggests their husbands protected them from whites and kept them from working long hard hours in the fields. Perhaps it was only in the realm of relative equality within the family that women lost out in freedom. Developing a good thesis is usually the most difficult part of writing a paper; do not expect it to come easily. (3) A "because" clause. This will force you to summarize support for your thesis as concisely as possible. How do I present the thesis? The thesis should be contained in a single sentence that is concise and grammatically correct. This is usually the last sentence of the first paragraph. More than one sentence may be necessary to establish the thesis. The remainder of the introductory paragraph should draw the reader's attention to the problem the thesis confronts english essay book pdf free download, and define key terms that appear in the thesis. How do I develop a good thesis? Here is an example of how you might arrive at a strong thesis. Legal disfranchisement did not begin until twelve years after the end of Reconstruction, for it took an economic downturn in the South and the coming of age of the first generation of southern African Americans born into freedom to trigger legal efforts to keep blacks away from the polls. Finally, you will have to link the new ideas of race to the rise of disfranchisement laws. You may be able to do this within the last two sections of the argument; if not examples of business law research papers, it will be necessary here. How and/or why did it happen? This is the thesis. (3) The paragraph presents an entire argument in brief. It therefore lays out a structure for the paper. The author of this paper knows what needs to be established in the body of the paper (and hence air pollution essay, has an outline), and the reader has a "road map" for following the argument. How did African-American women fare after slavery ended? (2) Develop a question around it, as in "why did government officials allow discrimination against Japanese Americans?" (You now have a question that helps you probe your topic; your efforts have a direction critical thinking at work, which is answering the question you have posed for yourself. Note that there are a great many questions which you might ask of your general topic. You should expect in the course of your research to consider many such possibilities. Which ones are the most interesting? Which ones are possible given the constraints of the assignment?) Another approach to thesis construction: Here is another exercise that might help you develop your thesis. On a separate sheet of paper, complete the following sentences: 2. A succesful thesis statement takes a position that requires defending. Your argument should not be an obvious or irrefutable assertion. Rather, make a claim that requires supporting evidence. This thesis is stronger because it is more narrow writing a reflective paper example, and thus allows the writer to offer more in-depth analysis. It states what kind of change women expected (political), how they experienced that change (through Republican Motherhood), and what the effects were (indirect access to the polity of the new nation). Weak Thesis: The Revolution led to social, political, and economic change for women. "Historians have debated the American Revolution's effect on women. Some argue that the Revolution had a positive effect because it increased women's authority in the family. Others argue that it had a negative effect because it excluded women from politics. Still others argue that the Revolution changed very little for women writing a good english essay introduction, as they remained ensconced in the home. Write a paper in which you pose your own answer to the question of whether the American Revolution had a positive, negative, or limited effect on women." Strong Thesis: The Revolution had a negative impact on women because of the belief that women lacked the rational faculties of men. In a nation that was to be guided by reasonable republican citizens feminism essays, women were imagined to have no place in politics and were thus firmly relegated to the home. Weak Thesis: The Revolution had a negative impact on women because of the prevailing problem of sexism. 4. A successful thesis statement is focused and precise. You need to be able to support it within the bounds of your paper. Weak Thesis: The Revolution had little effect on women because they remained ensconced in the home. Your thesis should be between one and three sentences long and is placed at the end of your introduction. Just because the thesis comes towards the beginning of your paper does not mean you can write it first and then forget about it. View your thesis as a work in progress while you write your paper. Once you are satisfied with the overall argument your paper makes, go back to your thesis and see if it captures what you have argued. If it does not, then revise it. Crafting a good thesis is one of the most challenging parts of the writing process, so do not expect to perfect it on the first few tries. Successful writers revise their thesis statements again and again. - is focused and precise When revising your thesis, check it against the following guidelines: This is a stronger thesis because it goes beyond offering a list of changes for women ageism essay, suggesting why improvements in education, the law essays examples with thesis statements, and economics mattered. It outlines the historical significance of these changes: they helped women build a cohesive feminist movement in the nineteenth century. 4. Is my thesis focused and precise ? Few would argue with the idea that war brings upheaval. Your thesis needs to be debatable: it needs to make a claim against which someone could argue. Your job throughout the paper is to provide evidence in support of your own case. Here is a revised version:
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