unsubstantiated assertions

Learn to recognize unsubstantiated assertions

writing the thesis paper The following is meant to help you in writing a thesis paper. 1. Learn to recognize unsubstantiated assertions, rather than treating claims as

self-evident truths. Whenever you make a claim. offer your reader the evidence that led you to it. 2. Make details speak. Explain how evidence confirms or qualifies

your claim. and offer your reasons for believing the evidence means what you say it does. 3. Say more about less rather than less about more. allowing a carefully

analyzed part of your subject to provide perspective on the whole. 4. It is generally better to make ten points on a representative issue or example than to make the

same basic point about ten related issues or examples; this axiom we call 10 on 1. S. Argue overtly that the evidence on which you choose to focus is representative.

Be careful not to generalize on the basis of too little or unrepresentative evidence. 6. Use your best example as a lens through which to examine other evidence.

Analyze subsequent examples to test and develop you conclusions. rather than just confirming that you are right. 7. Look for difference within similarity as a way of

doing 10 on 1. Rather than repeating the same overly general pattern to better develop your claim. 8. To find the most revealing piece or feature of the evidence. keep

asking yourself, “What can I say with some certainty about the evidence?‘ lfyou continually rehearse the facts. you are less likely to let an early idea blind you to

subsequent evidence. 9. Whatever kind of evidence you’re using the emphasis rests on how you use what you have: on articulating what the evidence means. and carefully

linking it to your claims. I I I . II . E I 1. A thesis is an idea that you formulate and reformulate about your subject. It should offer a theory about this meaning

ofevidence that would not have been immediately obvious to your readers. 2. Look for a thesis by focusing on an area ofyour subject that is open to opposing viewpoints

or multiple interpretations. Rather than trying to lousate a single right answer, search for something that raises questions.