Formulating a Position/Thesis Objective: Once you have identified your topic area, you need to decide on what angle you will take. In order to construct a position/thesis that effectively integrates more than one source, you must understand the relationships between your selected sources. A first step might be to find the similarities and differences among the sources. Do they touch on common issues, explanatory frames, models, or key concepts? Are they written with similar styles or structures? Do they make the same argument? Do they use the same event or methods? Once you establish a common element that relates the sources, you can look for the questions, problems, or disparities that the sources reflect upon one another. Do the authors make different arguments about the same focus question? In what way are these arguments different and what are the broader implications of these differences? Does one article’s approach hide what another makes transparent? In-class work: We will start looking at relationships among your source texts and use these relationships as a way to focus your topic and thesis for the literature review. Form a group of 3-4 people, each of whom summarized a different article from the course bibliography. Talk about the different articles with each other, providing the highlights from your summary and analysis. As a group, come up with a preliminary analytical question that draws on at least some aspect of all articles read by your group, though perhaps some texts will be used more heavily than others. In discussion with your group, each of you draft a thesis in your own words that answers the group’s focus question. Group members’ theses may address different angles on the analytical question. Compare your group’s analytical question and your responding thesis to the versions you each drafted before class. How are they similar/different? Which do you think is stronger and why? Use our classwork to help you revise your thesis for Paper 2, so that you have a strong starting point for your paper. On a separate sheet of paper: List the members of your group and which articles you each analyzed. What is/are the analytical question(s) your group has come up with? What is the thesis you have come up with that answers your group’s analytical question? What is the current version of the thesis you intend to use in the literature review?
Formulating a Position/Thesis Objective: Once you have identified your topic area, you need to decide on what angle you will take. In order to construct a position/thesis that effectively integrates more than one source, you must understand the relationships between your selected sources. A first step might be to find the similarities and differences among the sources. Do they touch on common issues, explanatory frames, models, or key concepts? Are they written with similar styles or structures? Do they make the same argument? Do they use the same event or methods? Once you establish a common element that relates the sources, you can look for the questions, problems, or disparities that the sources reflect upon one another. Do the authors make different arguments about the same focus question? In what way are these arguments different and what are the broader implications of these differences? Does one article’s approach hide what another makes transparent? In-class work: We will start looking at relationships among your source texts and use these relationships as a way to focus your topic and thesis for the literature review. Form a group of 3-4 people, each of whom summarized a different article from the course bibliography. Talk about the different articles with each other, providing the highlights from your summary and analysis. As a group, come up with a preliminary analytical question that draws on at least some aspect of all articles read by your group, though perhaps some texts will be used more heavily than others. In discussion with your group, each of you draft a thesis in your own words that answers the group’s focus question. Group members’ theses may address different angles on the analytical question. Compare your group’s analytical question and your responding thesis to the versions you each drafted before class. How are they similar/different? Which do you think is stronger and why? Use our classwork to help you revise your thesis for Paper 2, so that you have a strong starting point for your paper. On a separate sheet of paper: List the members of your group and which articles you each analyzed. What is/are the analytical question(s) your group has come up with? What is the thesis you have come up with that answers your group’s analytical question? What is the current version of the thesis you intend to use in the literature review?
Peer-Review-Exercise-on-Formulating-a-Thesis-4.trj_.docx