Writing a Claim/Thesis Statement Unit 10: Research Strategies

What is a Thesis Statement? A thesis statement, or claim, expresses the main idea of your research paper. It states the most important conclusion you have drawn about your topic from your research. All of the details in your paper should relate to and support your thesis/claim. This statement is sometimes called a controlling idea, because it determines everything in your paper.

What is a Thesis Statement? Your research paper’s thesis statement must be arguable. Example: “Young boys served as drummer boys in the Civil War,” is NOT a good thesis statement, because it is not arguable. “Serving as a drummer boy in the Civil War was very difficult,”is better, because this is something that could be arguable and which you have to prove with evidence and reasoning.

How do I write a thesis statement? Review your notes and think about how you feel about your topic. What is the main idea that you want to support throughout your paper? Use these ideas to write your thesis statement, which you can later revise when you begin writing your rough draft. As you write your draft, you may find that you need to re-work your thesis statement to make sure that your evidence and reasoning aligns with it.

Writing Outlines Once you have written your thesis statement, you can begin working on your outline!

Outlines An outline: Is a logical, general description Reflects logical thinking and clear classification

Outline Structure An outline has a balanced structure based on the following principles: Parallelism Coordination Subordination Division

Parallelism This means that each heading and subheading has parallel structure- if the first heading is a verb, the second heading should be a verb. Example: Identify best vacation locations Select hotels (“Identify" and “Select" are both verbs. The present tense of the verb is usually the preferred form for an outline.) Adapted From The Owl at Purdue

Coordination Each heading must be of equal significance. This also applies to subheadings. So, a I is equal to a II, an A is equal to a B, and a 1 is equal to a 2. Correct coordination A. Birds B. Wolves C. Bears Faulty coordination A. Wolves B. Birds C. Robins (“Robins” are a type of bird- therefore, they are not equal to the other subheadings.) Adapted From The Owl at Purdue

Subordination The information in the headings should be general, and subheadings should be more specific. A “I” is more general than an “A” or “B”, and those are more general than a “1” or a “2” Correct subordination A. Flights 1. American Airlines 2. Spirit B. Hotels 1. Hilton 2. Best Western Faulty subordination A. Activities 1. Disney World 2. Best Rides at Disney 3. Best Restaurants at Disney

Division To divide you always need at least two parts; therefore, there can never be an A without a B, a 1 without a 2, an a without a b, etc. Correct division A. Activities 1. Disney World 2. Daytona Beach 3. Deep-Sea Fishing B. Dining

Form Be Consistent! Use a topic structure for this outline. A topic outline uses words or phrases for all entries and uses no punctuation after entries. It gives a brief overview and is faster to write than a full-sentence outline.

Form The outline should use Roman numerals, capital letters, Arabic numbers, lower-case letters I. A. B. 1. 2. a. b.