Developing a Thesis Statement for a Paper

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Developing a Thesis Statement for a Paper

• FYS 100
• Creative Discovery in Digital Art Forms
• Fall 2008
• Burg

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Choosing a Topic

• Choosing a topic for a paper is one of the most
  important parts of writing.
• You have to choose something that you can talk
  about specifically, concretely, vividly, and
  interestingly.

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Thesis Statement

• A thesis for a paper is the main point of the
  paper.
• You should be sure that your paper has a thesis.
  
• A thesis statement is one sentence that
  explicitly expresses the main point. (Sometimes
  the thesis can be expressed more clearly in more
  than one sentence.)

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Where do you put the thesis statement?

• A traditional way to organize a paper is to make
  the thesis statement the last sentence of the
  introduction.
• Everything in the introduction before the thesis
  statement leads the readers to the main point.

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Developing a Thesis Statement for your Research
Paper

• The general topic area of your research is
  creativity in digital media.
• The general question is this
• Is computer-generated art less creative than
  traditional art?
• Does the computer take over the creative process
  too much?
• Does the computer make things too easy, so that
  you dont really have to exercise your creativity
  to make something that can be called art?

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A Possible Thesis Statement

• Thesis statement
• There are lots of possibilities for creativity in
  digital media.
• Critique of this thesis statement
• Expressed very informally.
• Not very exciting in the way its expressed.
• It would be easy to illustrate this with
  concrete, specific examples.
• It might be too general. Should it be focused on
  one medium e.g., digital photography, digital
  drawing and painting, or digital music production?

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A Possible Thesis Statement

• Thesis statement
• Being creative in digital media involves bringing
  art and science together in innovative and
  fascinating ways.
• Critique of this thesis statement
• Its expressed in a more interesting way than the
  last one.
• Youd have to be careful in your examples. If
  you talk about the science, you dont want to do
  it in a superficial way, and you need to be
  correct.
• There are lots of interesting examples in this
  area, but youd have to dig them out.

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A Possible Thesis Statement

• Thesis statement
• Art can be created by either digital or
  traditional means. What makes art art isnt
  the tool that is used, but the creativity of the
  artist.
• Critique of this thesis statement
• This is a good point.
• What makes art art is difficult to pin down.
  Youd have to be careful not to end up with a
  bunch of glittering generalities.
• Youd need concrete examples and specific
  language,even though the ideas are abstract.

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A Possible Thesis Statement

• Thesis statement The work of exemplifies the
  creative possibilities of digital art (or digital
  music production).
• Critique of this thesis statement
• Its more focused than the others, which is good.
• Youd need to find specific supporting details
  from the artists work.
• Youd need to talk specifically about the digital
  techniques that this artist uses and the ways in
  which his or her creativity is employed.
• Can you write at least ten pages about this?

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A Possible Thesis Statement

• Thesis statement
• Some people think that using prefabricated loops
  in music production is cheating. Actually,
  there are many ways in which a musician can use
  loops creatively.
• Critique of this thesis statement
• Its focused and specific, which is good.
• Its an interesting point that not all readers
  will already know about.
• Youd have to know a good bit about loops and how
  they are used creatively in order to get at least
  ten pages out of this topic.
• It would be good to illustrate this with specific
  musicians, but it might be difficult to know if
  they actually used pre-fabricated loops or
  created their own.

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What to do?

• Any of the ideas just presented could work for
  your research paper.
• You need to refine the ideas.
• Be sure you have lots of supporting details that
  are
• Specific
• Concrete
• Vivid
• Convincing
• Relevant
• Dont just write a bunch of glittering
  generalities!
• Make abstract ideas as clear and concrete as
  possible. Use
• Explicit language
• Examples
• Metaphors and analogies