Posted: 2/24/2005 2:44:08 PM EDT
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I'm having trouble getting a good thesis statement for my research paper. The paper is about gun Control, History of gun control, Modern/upcomming gun control, and it's affectiveness. Any help would be great. |
Thanks, I totally understand. I'll try your way |
Just because I like splitting semantic hairs... It's not "my way", it's just "a way". One more bit of advice, don't try to hit a home run and stress too much about it being perfect... do a bit of web research on a particular facet of gun control then just write down what comes to mind (i.e., how do you feel about it?) in a stream of consciousness sort of way... then clean it up and edit it a bit over a couple iterations... let it sit for a day then read it again, give it a final polish, and the thesis statement will jump right out as the description of your main point(s) of argument. Seriously, good luck, and glad to see that you can take a bit constructive criticism. By the way, which is it?... HS or College? Backcountry |
| HS, but the teacher is keeping us on a short leash, She wants us to turn our reasearch then our thesis statement and the our paper. I allready have my research done so I'm going to try to write the paper before the thesis statement is due. I feel it will be a better end product. |
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That's pretty funny... if I recall correctly, that's how my HS teachers wanted research papers prepared and incrementally submitted... I guess that's so some students don't leave it all until the day before it's due... but I will tell you that I hated doing it that way... and here's why (and also a potential way to make yourself look smart to the teacher)... When one first does the research, and then the thesis statement, and then writes the paper, in a strict linear timeline like that, little room is left for creatively modifying the finished product. Creative thought is not linear, it's multidirectional, and good writers frequently go back to do further research even when they are at the end stage of writing their report, which in turn may necessitate modifying the thesis statement (which unfortunately was turned in to the teacher 2 weeks prior). Has your teacher brought up being able to modify the thesis statement once the writing portion of this assignment is underway? If not, a discussion on the merits and pitfalls of adaptive research is in order. He/she may have good reason for first wanting to teach the linear method, but hopefully an assignment will follow that gives you more room to stretch your creativity. Hope your teacher isn’t an anti… even if you write a factually correct and well-presented argument against some facet of gun control, he/she may let bias cloud judgment and you’ll still get an F, and that would suck. Backcountry |
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Don't worry if things change a bit as you go along. A good problem will evolve as you work on it. My published dissertation ended up quite a bit different from what I started with. That having been said, it is very easy to allow the dang things to expand exponentially as you go along. Sometimes there is just too much good research to draw from. Stay focused on a somewhat narrow problem and delve deep rather than go broad and shallow. In other words, pick one aspect of gun control and research it thoroughly rather than taking gun control as your whole domain. My opinion that you'll be much happier when it comes time to "final it out." One good piece of advice my major prof gave me was: If you can't explain the whole thing to a layman in 30 seconds or less then you don't understand it yourself. Good luck and keep us posted. PS: No disrespect to the posters above, but I totally disagree with the notion of writing the paper first and the statement of problem last. Your problem is your roadmap. Its like getting in your car and starting driving and worrying about where you are headed when you get there. No professor I wrote under would ever consider allowing such a random method of researching. That comes straight from the "take it for what its worth department." |