Методические указания к семинарским занятиям по курсу: Организация и планирование научных исследований
Sem 13. Developing a thesis for the article
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Guideline to seminars
- Бұл бет үшін навигация:
- Sem 14. Presentation of the outline of the article
- Sem 15. Presentation of an articles’ primary sources base Write summary about an articles’ primary sources base Sem 16. Final presentation of the first draft of your paper
| Sem 13. Developing a thesis for the article
Why and How to Create a Useful Outline I suggest you resource describes why outlines are useful, what types of outlines exist, suggestions for developing effective outlines, and how outlines can be used as an invention strategy for writing. Why create an outline? There are many reasons; but in general, it may be helpful to create an outline when you want to show the hierarchical relationship or logical ordering of information. For research papers, an outline may help you keep track of large amounts of information. For creative writing, an outline may help organize the various plot threads and help keep track of character traits. Many people find that organizing an oral report or presentation in outline form helps them speak more effectively in front of a crowd. Below are the primary reasons for creating an outline. Aids in the process of writing Helps you organize your ideas Presents your material in a logical form Shows the relationships among ideas in your writing Constructs an ordered overview of your writing Defines boundaries and groups How do I create an outline? Determine the purpose of your paper. Determine the audience you are writing for. Develop the thesis of your paper. Then: Brainstorm: List all the ideas that you want to include in your paper. Organize: Group related ideas together. Order: Arrange material in subsections from general to specific or from abstract to concrete. Label: Create main and sub headings. Remember: creating an outline before writing your paper will make organizing your thoughts a lot easier. Whether you follow the suggested guidelines is up to you, but making any kind of outline (even just some jotting down some main ideas) will be beneficial to your writing process. Alphanumeric Outlines This is the most common type of outline and usually instantly recognizable to most people. The formatting follows these characters, in this order: Roman Numerals Capitalized Letters Arabic Numerals Lowercase Letters If the outline needs to subdivide beyond these divisions, use Arabic numerals inside parentheses and then lowercase letters inside parentheses. Select the "Sample Outlines" PDF in the Media Box above to download the sample of this outline. Full Sentence Outlines The full sentence outline format is essentially the same as the Alphanumeric outline. The main difference (as the title suggests) is that full sentences are required at each level of the outline. This outline is most often used when preparing a traditional essay. Select the "Sample Outlines" PDF in the Media Box above to download the sample of this outline. Decimal Outlines The decimal outline is similar in format to the alphanumeric outline. The added benefit is a system of decimal notation that clearly shows how every level of the outline relates to the larger whole. Select the "Sample Outlines" PDF in the Media Box above to download the sample of this outline. Practice on writing working thesis Write a brief narrative essay where you discuss the topic you have decided to research and write about. Tell your audience, your fellow classmates and your instructor how you arrived at this topic, some of the other ideas you considered in your brainstorming activities, and the working thesis you have settled on for the start of your project. Also, be sure to let us know about some of the initial library research you have conducted. Working with the topic you’ve chosen, create a working thesis similar to the above examples. Try to ensure that your working thesis is focused and to the point by keeping it to only one sentence. Creating a working thesis can be tricky, so be sure to devote some time to try out different possible working thesis statements. And don’t forget: a working thesis is the temporary scaffolding that will help you build your essay. It will and should change in the process of writing, so it doesn’t need to be “perfect” at this stage. • After you have individually formed working theses, get together with a small group of classmates to share and revise them Assignment: Writing a Working Thesis Essay The process of writing a working thesis essay can take many forms. Sometimes, topic proposals are formal essays written according to fairly strict guidelines and offering exhaustive detail. At other times, your writing about your topic might be more personal and brief in form. Here is an example of a working thesis essay assignment: Questions to consider as you write your first draft • Is the research topic one assigned by the instructor? Is it focused on a specific group of texts, questions, or ideas that have to do with a specific class? • Are you expected to come up with your own idea for research? Since it is unlikely you will be able to write about just anything, what are some of the guidelines given to you by your instructor for what you can and can’t write about? • What are some of the ideas for research that you rejected as possibilities? Why did you reject some of these ideas? • What ideas did you decide to brainstorm about? Remember! Be sure to brainstorm about more than one idea! What brainstorming techniques did you use to explore these ideas? Which ones seemed to work the best? • What are some of the research topics that make up your research idea? In other words, when you begin to narrow your idea into different topics, what are some of the different research topics that interest you? • What results did you get from a quick library keyword search? B Be sure the keyword search you do of your library’s databases examines books, periodicals, and newspapers to see a full range of possibilities for research. Also, be sure to consider as many synonyms as possible for the keyword terms you are using for your research topic. • What results did you get from a keyword search on the World Wide Web? Be sure to conduct a keyword search using more than one search engine since different services compile their data in different ways. Also, as was also the case with your library keyword search, be sure to consider as many synonyms as possible. • Given these steps in the process, what is your working thesis? What variations of your working thesis did you consider along the way? Writing a Working Thesis The next step, developing a “working thesis,” can be a difficult and timeconsuming process. However, as was the case when considering different ideas for research in the first place, spending the time now on devising a good working thesis will pay off later. For our purposes here (and for most college classes), a thesis advocates a specific and debatable issue. In academic writing (including the writing done by your professors), the thesis is often stated fairly directly in the first third or so of the writing, though not usually at the end of the first paragraph where students are often told to place it. The sentence or two that seems to encapsulate the issue of the essay is called a “thesis statement.” Frequently, theses are implied—that is, while the piece of writing clearly has a point that the reader understands, there may not be a specific sentence or two that can easily be identified as the “thesis statement.” For example, theses are often implied in newspapers and magazines, along with a lot of the writing that appears on Web pages. The point is a thesis is a point. Theses are not statements of facts, simple questions, or summaries of events. They are positions that you as the writer take on and “defend” with evidence, logic, observations, and the other tools of discourse. Most kinds of writing—and particularly academic writing—have a thesis, directly stated or implied. Even most of the writing we largely think of as “informational” has a directly stated or implied thesis. Theses also tend to lend a certain organization to written arguments since what you include (or exclude) in a written text is largely controlled by the thesis. The main goal of the thesis (either as a specific statement or as an implied statement) is to answer two key questions that are concerns of all readers: “what’s your point?” and “why should I care?” Now, a working thesis is more or less a temporary thesis you devise in the beginning of the research process in order to set some direction in your research. However, as I wrote in the beginning of this chapter, you should remember Your working thesis is temporary and should change as you research, write, and learn more about your topic. Think of the working thesis as the scaffolding and bracing put up around buildings when they are under construction: these structures are not designed to forever be a part of the building. Just the opposite. But you couldn’t build the building in the first place if you didn’t have the scaffolding and bracing that you inevitably have to tear away from the finished building. Here’s another way of thinking of it: while the journey of 1000 miles begins with just one step (so the saying goes), you still have to pick some kind of direction in the beginning. That’s the purpose of a working thesis. You might change your mind about the direction of your research as you progress through the process, but you’ve got to start somewhere. What does a working thesis look like? Before considering some potentially “good” examples of working theses, read through these BAD examples of statements, ones that ARE NOTtheses, at least for the purposes of academic writing: • Computer crime is bad. • Fisheries around the world are important. • The Great Gatsby is an American novel. None of these sentences would make effective theses because each of these is more or less a statement of fact. Of course, we could debate some of the details here. But practically speaking, most people would assume and believe these statements to be true. Because of that, these statements don’t have much potential as working theses. These statements ARE NOTreally theses either: • There are many controversial ways of dealing with computer crime. • There are many things that could be done to preserve fisheries around the world. • The Great Gatsby is a wonderful novel for several different reasons. These revised working thesis statements are better than the previous examples, but they are not quite working theses yet. The problem with these possible working theses is that they are hopelessly vague and give no idea to the reader where the essay is going. Also, while these statements are a bit more debatable than the previous group of examples, they are still statements that most people would more or less accept as facts. While this next group of statements is yet another step closer, these statements ARE NOTreally good working theses either: • This essay will be about the role computer hackers play in computer crime committed on the Internet. • This essay will discuss some of the measures the international community should take in order to preserve fisheries around the world. • My essay is about the relevance today of The Great Gatsby’s depiction of the connection between material goods and the American dream. Each of these statements is close to being a working thesis because each is about an idea that has been focused into a specific topic. However, these statements are not quite working thesis statements because they don’t offer a position or opinion that will be defended in some way. To turn these topics into working theses, the writer needs to take a side on the issues suggested in the statements. Now, these revised statements ARE examples of possible working theses: • While some computer hackers are harmless, most of them commit serious computer crimes and represent a serious Internet security problem. • The international community should enact strict conservation measures to preserve fisheries and save endangered fish species around the world. • The Great Gatsby’s depiction of the connection between material goods and the American dream is still relevant today. If you compare these possible working theses with the statements at the beginning of this section, you will hopefully see the differences between the “bad” and “good” working theses, and hopefully you can see the characteristics of a viable working thesis. Each of the “good” working thesis statements: • takes a stand that is generally not considered a “fact;” • is specific enough to give the writer and potential reader some idea as to the direction the writing will take; and • offers an initial position on the topic that takes a stand. Another useful characteristic of a good working thesis is that it can help you as writer to determine what your essay will NOTbe about. For example, the phrasing of the working thesis on computer hackers suggests to both the reader and the researcher that the essay will NOT be about the failure of “dot com” business, computer literacy, or computer software. Certainly these issues are related to the issue of computer hackers and computer crime, but these other issues will not become the focus of the essay. Sem 14. Presentation of the outline of the article Read carefully materials to the seminar 11 b create an outline Фио Тема диссертации Тема статьи Ouline Thesis…….. Argument Argument Argument Sem 15. Presentation of an articles’ primary sources base Write summary about an articles’ primary sources base Sem 16. Final presentation of the first draft of your paper Sem 17. Final presentation of your paper жүктеу/скачать 54,54 Kb. Достарыңызбен бөлісу:
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