Research Writing Process (Book)

A Few Thoughts on Where to Take Your Thesis (from L. Lanzbom)

In your opening paragraph, you will offer your thesis statement in two parts, telling the reader what your paper will be about (the subject), and what your opinion is on the subject. 

Do not write your thesis as a question! Write your thesis as a statement.
Let’s say you choose the thesis, “In today’s youth culture, Ozzy Ozbourne is more musically influential than Beethoven.”

The subject here is the music of Ozzy Ozbourne; your slant or opinion is Ozbourne’s music is as influential as Beethoven in today’s music market.

The question lurking behind this thesis statement is this:

“Does Ozzy have more musical influence than Beethoven?” To prove and organize your thesis, think about one or more of these key questions: “Who,” “how,” “why,” and “what.” You can even toss in “when” and “where” if you want.

In our example, “who” is answered already – Ozzy and Beethoven. But, now you have “what” (modern rock music; music that is accepted by the masses etc.) “why” (many young adults do not listen to classical) and “how,” (more radio stations for rock music than classical music stations; cd sections in most music stores are larger than cd sections for classical music). You can work with any of these to answer your argument.
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