Expository Writing

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Expository Writing

• Lesson Three
• Thesis Statements
• Dr. M. Connor

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The backbone of a paper

• Just like your back bone gives you the support to
  hold together and the shape you need to be in to
  function fully
• imagine what would happen if I took out your
  backbone!
• the thesis supports and shapes the paper.

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Working thesis

• a statement that, based on everything you know of
  the topic, should prove to be a reasonably
  accurate summary of what you will write

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Final thesis

• the accurate one sentence summary of your work
  that will appear in the final draft.

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Three aspects of a thesis

• A final thesis statement will
• Control and focus the entire paper.
• Give order to details of the essay by providing
  unity and a sense of direction.
• Specify to the reader the point of the research.

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Two parts of a thesis sentence

• A thesis statement generally consists of two
  parts
• your topic, followed by
• the predicate, which is the analysis,
  explanation(s), or assertion(s) that you're
  making about the topic.
• The kind of thesis statement you write will
  depend on what kind of paper you're writing.

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First step

• The first thing youll do in the journey from
  working thesis to final thesis is to narrow the
  subject of your thesis.
• Select the most promising and interesting
  material from the material youve prewritten.

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Your reader will be interested if you are

• Dont think readers cant get interested in
  topics they dont know about.
• Most readers can get drawn into your writing if
  you generate enough excitement.
• Teachers have to read your writing, but remember,
  in the real world no one has to read your
  stuff!

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Review your materials

• Go back to your materials
• Perhaps ask the reporters questions with the
  added question which aspects?

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You wont use everything!

• Accept that you will use in your paper only a
  fraction of the material that you have generated
  through prewriting!
• Save it if you want--get back to it someday.
• I do that all the time.
• Some ideas dont make what Im writing about at
  the moment, but someday I go back and write them
  out.

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Narrowing a topic

• Subject (too broad) tornados
• Limiting questions which aspects?
• Narrowed subject predicting tornados with
  sophisticated equipment

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Make an assertion

• A subject alone, no matter how carefully
  narrowed, is not a thesis.
• You must make an assertion about your subject.
• As you study your notes, you begin to make
  logical connections among ideas. It is through
  this process that you develop a complete thesis.

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A pyramid

• What you are doing is sort of like a pyramid.
• The thesis is the narrow point at the top.
• The base of the pyramid is data.
• You narrow your focus by putting your data into
  categories and then narrow your categories into
  inferences that bring you to your thesis.

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Write a Thesis
Write an inference that draws material from 2 or
more categories
Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4
Organize your data into categories
Data Data Data Data Data Data Data
Data Data Data
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Inferences

• An inference is a logical leap to a conclusion,
  based on available information.
• You make inferences every day without thinking
  about it.
• You see dark clouds gathering and feel a drop in
  the temperature, and you infer that a storm is on
  the way.

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You have a predicate

• The inference that you make about a subject based
  on the information in your categories will become
  the predicate part of your thesis.

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Inferences that lead to informative writing

• Although many relationships may exist among the
  categories you have gathered, only a few patterns
  tend to recur.
• Recognizing these patterns can help you make an
  inference that will complete the predicate part
  of your thesis.

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Sequential order

• In reviewing notes across categories, you find
  that you can place certain information in logical
  order.
• You infer a sequence, a pattern of first, second,
  third. A sequence might suggest a process.

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Definition

• Certain notes may enable you to define a term.

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Classification

• You may find so many examples of a term that you
  can recognize different varieties or classes.

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Comparison

• After reviewing the classifications, you can
  compare or show similarities among various
  elements of the same class.

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Contrast

• After reviewing the classification, you may
  contrast or show differences among various
  elements of the same class.

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Examples of thesis statements
Wouldnt it be nice to have a hand like this
sometimes??
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Sequential order

• A tornado begins when warm, tropical air meets
  cooler, drier air, creating instability in the
  air near the ground and a marked increase in wind.

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Definition

• A tornado is a relatively small but powerful
  storm consisting of fierce rotating winds forming
  a vortex.

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Classification

• Three types of cyclonic storms are tornadoes,
  whirlwinds, and waterspouts.

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Comparison

• Waterspouts and tornadoes are alike in several
  ways.

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Contrast

• Although they appear to be similar to tornadoes,
  whirlwinds differ from them in significant ways.

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Argumentative paper

• While an argumentative paper contains a great
  deal of information, the purpose of the paper is
  to express the writers opinion, not simply to
  explain something to the reader.
• The four thesis statements that follow would lead
  to argumentative papers.

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Generalization

• The study of tornadoes is the most important area
  of meteorological research today.

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Causation

• The devastation resulting from tornadoes is
  caused by the governments failure to adequately
  fund research.

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Sign

• Failure to fund tornado research is a sign of
  governmental incompetence.

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Analogy

• Just as failure to fund medical research
  threatens the health of the population, so too
  does failure to fund meteorological research
  threaten the safety of the population.

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Thesis helps shape paper

• The inferences you make to draw your conclusion,
  in other words, write your thesis, will go to
  shaping your paper as well.
• The types of paragraphs you write in a paper are
  directly tied to the inferences that you express
  in your thesis.

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Steps for generating a working thesis

• Narrow your subject so that you will be able to
  write specifically on it in the number of pages
  allotted.
• Assemble your notes--arrange in categories--that
  you have generated for your paper.
• Study the categories you have generated for your
  subject. Selectively draw ideas and information
  from across the categories in order to narrow
  your subject.
• Ask What inference can I make concerning the
  material I have generated? How will this
  inference allow me to draw on information and
  ideas from two or more categories? The answer to
  these questions will become the predicate of your
  thesis.

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Feel free to then throw it away!

• After youve done all this work, though, feel
  free to abandon your preliminary thesis if
  research or your own thinking leads you to new,
  different issues.
• For example, one writer began research on child
  abuse with this working thesis A need for a
  cure for child abuse faces society each day.
• Investigation, however, narrowed her focus
  Parents who abuse their children should be
  treated as victims, not criminals.

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Change of focus

• The writer moved to a specific position from
  which to argue that social organizations should
  serve abusing parents in order to help abused
  kids.

Yes, there will be days when you want to smash
the computer in frustration! Ah, the joys of
writing!
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Writing takes TIME

• Sometimes, thats just the way writing goes.
• Its a lot of work, and one of the reasons why so
  many people arent successful at writing is that
  they arent willing to put in the hard work that
  it entails.

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Getting to a final thesis

• Use code words from your notes and rough outline
  to refine you thesis sentence.
• For example, during your reading of several
  novels and short stories of Hemingway you might
  have jotted down certain repetitions of image or
  theme or character.
• The code words might be death, loss of
  masculinity, the code of the hero, or other
  issues that Hemingway explored time and again.

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And a possible thesis is...

• The tragic endings of Hemingways stories force
  his various heroes into stoic resignation to
  their fate.
• OR
• Hemingways code of the hero includes a serious
  degree of pessimism that clouds the overstated
  bravado.

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Final thesis checklist

• It expresses your position in a full, declarative
  sentence, which is not a question, not a
  statement of purpose and not merely a topic.
• It limits the subject to a narrow focus on one
  issue that has grown out your thoughts and/or
  research.
• It establishes an investigative, inventive edge
  to your writing and therefor gives a reason for
  your work.
• It points forward to the conclusion.

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For more information visit

• http//owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_
  thesis.html