Thesis, Outline and Annotative Bibliography

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Thesis, Outline and Annotative Bibliography
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Rules for Writing a Thesis Statement

• It must be a complete sentence.
• It can NOT be a questions
• It should be provable with facts, anecdotes,
  stories, etc.
• It needs to present you and your ideas.
• Do NOT generalize.
• Do NOT use first or second person pronouns.
• Do NOT use clichés.
• ex The best things since sliced bread.

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Step 1- Formulate your thesis.

• Your thesis is a formal, exact statement of what
  your paper will be about. It will most likely
  evolve as you consider the information you have.
  Think about what you are trying to present and
  emphasize in your paper.

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• Examples of Thesis Statements
• TOPIC The Battle of Gettysburg
• THESIS The Battle of Gettysburg changed the
  momentum of the Civil War.
• TOPIC Mike Piazza
• THESIS With his leadership skills, offensive
  output, and work ethic, Mike Piazza excels as the
  best Major League catcher in the history of
  baseball.

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Step 2- Develop your outline.

• An outline is important because you will
  organize the notes from your sources based on the
  ideas in the working outline. The outline will
  map the body paragraphs of your paper. The
  introduction and conclusion will NOT be part of
  the outline.

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Model Outline (Double space all)

• Thesis last sentence of introduction
• I. First point
• A. Supporting information to develop or
  expand on the point
• 1. Fact to develop A
• 2. Fact to develop B
• B. Supporting Information
• 1. Fact to develop A
• 2. Fact to develop B
• II. Second Point

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Annotative Bibliography

• An annotated bibliography is a list of citations
  to books, articles, and documents. Each citation
  is followed by a brief descriptive and evaluative
  paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the
  annotation is to inform the reader of the
  relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources
  cited.

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Annotation Answers

1. What is the main subject of the source?
2. Who is the main audience for the source?
3. Give a brief summary of the information.
4. What special features can you point out about
   this source? Examples would be photographs,
   charts/tables of data, link to relate source,
   etc.

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Annotative Bibliography Example

• Waite, Linda J., Frances Kobrin Goldscheider, and
  Christina Witsberger. "Nonfamily Living and the
  Erosion of Traditional Family Orientations Among
  Young Adults." American Sociological Review 51.4
  (1986) 541-554. Print.
• The authors, researchers at the Rand Corporation
  and Brown University, use data from the National
  Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women and Young Men
  to test their hypothesis that nonfamily living by
  young adults alters their attitudes, values,
  plans, and expectations, moving them away from
  their belief in traditional sex roles. They find
  their hypothesis strongly supported in young
  females, while the effects were fewer in studies
  of young males. Increasing the time away from
  parents before marrying increased individualism,
  self-sufficiency, and changes in attitudes about
  families. In contrast, an earlier study by
  Williams cited below shows no significant gender
  differences in sex role attitudes as a result of
  nonfamily living.

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Another Example

• Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird Some Instructions on
  Writing and Life. New York Anchor Books, 1995.
  Print.
• Lamott's book offers honest advice on the nature
  of a writing life, complete with its insecurities
  and failures. Taking a humorous approach to the
  realities of being a writer, the chapters in
  Lamott's book are wry and anecdotal and offer
  advice on everything from plot development to
  jealousy, from perfectionism to struggling with
  one's own internal critic. In the process, Lamott
  includes writing exercises designed to be both
  productive and fun.