Based on: The Shape of Reason by John Gage
The process of rethinking and redrafting a thesis is important because it helps
you to confront questions in your thinking while changes are still easily made.
Question
1. Is the question really at issue for the audience? Does it express something
that is not yet known, something worth discovering, an issue about which reasonable
people might disagree?
2. Can one make reasonable progress toward answering this question in a four-page
paper?
Thesis
A thesis is an idea, stated as an assertion, that represents a reasoned response
to a question at issue and that serves as the central idea of a composition.
1. Is the thesis an idea? Does it state, in a complete sentence, an assertion?
2. Does the thesis say exactly what the writer means? Are the terms used precise
and clear? (Can they be made more precise, clearer?)
3. Is the thesis related to the course readings closely enough for the paper
to demonstrate a developed understanding of some of those readings?
Developing Structures
A complete thesis: Assertion 1 (claim) because Assertion 2 (reason).
1. Does the thesis include a because clause?
2. Is the because clause a complete, precisely stated idea?
3. Does it represent a central reason for answering the question "What
makes the thesis true?"
4. Is the implied assumption one that the audience can be expected to
accept without further argument?
For the Paper
What opposing arguments or alternative lines of reasoning should this writer
confront? (Remember, reasoning is a dialogue.)