The Elements of an Article   Part 1

How to write a Thesis Statement

What is a thesis, and why do I need one?

A thesis consists of two parts: the topic and the comment. The topic statement is what you are going to write about, and the comment is the point you are making about the topic. A thesis is simply the main argument or point in your paper, which you will support with the evidence you provide. Even if you are not doing an argumentative paper, you must still have a central point that unifies your work. Without a cohesive thesis statement it is easy to wander off topic or slap together a bunch of ideas that are only loosely connected.

So, where can I get a thesis?

Write you own thesis using these four steps:

• Re-state the assignment or topic.
• Take a position on the issue.
• Briefly state your reasons why/how.
• Revise: take out any wordiness or vague ideas, and make sure the thesis relates to the topic.

Example:

Assignment: Discuss the issue of identity in In Search of April Raintree.

• Identity in In Search of April Raintree is . . .
• Important . . .
• Because April's negative perception of her mixed heritage leads to her unhappiness.

Working thesis: Identity in In Search of April Raintree is important because April's negative perception of her mixed heritage leads to her unhappiness.

This thesis is weak in two spots. First, why should we care if April is unhappy? Because it relates to the theme of identity in the book. Second, April isn't always unhappy but finds a kind of happiness.

Re-write it as follows:
In In Search of April Raintree April tries unsuccessfully to repress her Native heritage and pass as white, but she is not happy until she acknowledges both aspects of her heritage.

What does a "good" thesis look like?

A good thesis statement must be unified, precise and dynamic. It also has to be something you can support with evidence, and be limited enough to cover adequately in the size of the paper you are writing.

Examples:

dull, vague
   Grass is important in the African savanna.

precise, dynamic
   Grass is the essential element in the African savanna's system of nutrient recycling. Attitudes about love vary.

manageable, supportable
    In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley discusses Romantic attitudes about the relationship between physical beauty and love.

Tips

1.   A thesis statement is not written in stone. Don't get so attached to a thesis that you refuse to change it as your ideas change and develop.

2.   Writing the working thesis on an index card and keeping it in front of you during the writing process will help you maintain your focus.

Paragraph by Paragraph Outline of Your Article

How to Do an Outline of Your Article

1.   Number each paragraph.

2. On a separate sheet of paper, write down the number for a paragraph and then write beside it the main idea(s) of the paragraph. Starting with the introduction, do this for every paragraph in the article. If the introduction is too complex to simplify to a single statement, write "Introduction" and copy out the thesis statement (if the article has one). If the conclusion is too complex to simplify, just write "Conclusion."

If a paragraph seems to have more than one main idea, write them all down, one idea per sentence.

You do not have to copy a sentence from the paragraph. In fact, it is generally best if you don't. Try to boil down complex ideas to one, simple, direct statement. Replace sophisticated writing with a plain-language sentence.

Do not agonize over exactly how to phrase a main idea. If the paragraph is messy, a concise statement of a main idea may be impossible. Give it your best shot, remembering that the point of this exercise is to check the organization of the article.

Writing single words instead of main idea sentences is not good enough. You want to see how one idea relates to another, and by looking at two single words such as "abuse" and "language," you cannot tell how they relate in the essay. Furthermore, if you write out full sentences, they may easily turn into topic sentences that you can use in your article.

3.   Once you have written the main idea(s) for each paragraph, read through the list of ideas to check the organization by asking the following (not necessarily in this order):

• Is the organization one the readers would expect?
• If not, is it one that they can follow reading the paper at high speed and for the first time? (Ask someone.)
• Does the organization fit with the thesis statement?
• If the organization is adequate, is there a more effective way to organize the parts?
• Is it balanced? That is, does the paper spend as much space on each area as the assignment or thesis suggests it should?
• Also, do points of equal weight receive approximately equal space? (Go back to the paper and count pages or measure space if you have to.)
• Should some paragraphs be combined?
• Should some paragraphs be broken into smaller paragraphs? (Look for places in your paragraph-by-paragraph outline where you have more than one sentence written for a paragraph. Sometimes these should be separate paragraphs.)

4. Revise. If there are not too many changes, make them directly on your rough draft, and re-type. If major organizational changes are required, write a formal outline to guide your revisions.

Revising Your Sentences

Much academic writing consists of prepositional phrases which have no action tied together by a form of which has no action. Such writing uses more words than plain, active writing does. Readers will fall asleep. You may want to write abstract, flexible prose, for doing so has many advantages. But you benefit from knowing how to change such writing to vigorous "plain style".

Paramedic Method for Sentences

1. Circle (or bold or italicize) the prepositions.
   One prepositional phrase is fine, two in a row sometimes unavoidable, but three in a row should raise a red flag.
   
2. Circle (or bold or italicize) the "is" forms.
   Watch for "is", "was", "will be", "seems to be", "have been", and other forms of "to be".
   
3. Ask Where is the action?
   You will probably find it nominalised, that is, turned into a noun in a prepositional phrase.
   
4. Put this action in a simple active verb.

Example (Sentence)

Here is an example of the use of the rule of justice in argumentation.

Revision

(Example hides the action of giving an example. As a technical term, rule of justice must stay intact.)

This passage exemplifies argumentation using the rule of justice.

Lard Factor

The reduction of words or lard factor (LF) in the sentences above is 36%. To find the lard factor, use the following calculations:

• Subtract the number of words in the revised version from the number of words in the original (get the difference in words).
      14 - 9 = 5
• Divide the difference in words by the number of words in the original, and multiply by 100.
      5/14 x 100 = 36%   (decrease in %)

Exercise

Use the Paramedic Method to revise the following sentences:

1. There is one further comment of Berkeley's, on another topic, which is also supportive of the above premises.
2. At the centre of any theory of a science of society is an image of man, a conception of him as a particular kind of creature, defined by his powers and liabilities.
3. The concept of role differentiation in any social system may be defined as the structures of distribution of the members of the system among the various positions and activities distinguished in the system, and hence the differential arrangement of the members of the system.

Example (Paragraph)

Experimenting in International Organization: Pugwash as a Sustainable Dynamic Epistemic Organization

Introduction:

Grassroots peace movements are vital in ensuring the future well-being of the international community. (Elliot 1995, Mawlawi 1993, Alger 1987) With the interdependency of issues, and the changing orientation of security which now includes issues of economic and civic development the environment, and the most basic of human rights there is a need for strong local, national and international organizations to pursue the goals of peace and security like never before in history. (Alger 1987, 283) The very nature of the contemporary state of affairs requires innovative organizational structures, aims and activities and flexibility of participating members which will allow for such organizations like grassroots peace movements to operate and succeed in the one of the last realms of high politics. The roles and responsibilities of grassroots movements in such a realm has been considered negligible, since international peace and security has traditionally be the arena for states and their diplomats. Consequently, examining the organizational capacities of a peace group like Pugwash International, it is hoped to expose and explain the importance and challenges that the peace movement brings into the efforts to secure a better global community for human-kind.

Revision (Steps 1 and 2)

1
Grassroots peace movements are vital
in ensuring the future well-being
of the international community.

2
With the interdependency
of issues
and [with] the changing orientation
of security
which now includes issues
of economic and civic development, the environment, and the most basic
of human rights,
there is a need
for strong local, national and international organizations
to pursue the goals
of peace and security
like never before
in history.

3
The very nature
of the contemporary state
of affairs
requires innovative organizational structures, aims and activities and flexibility
of participating members
which will allow
for such organizations
like grassroots peace movements to operate and succeed
in the one
of the last realms
of high politics.

4
The roles and responsibilities
of grassroots movements
in such a realm
has been considered to be negligible
since international peace and security has traditionally be the arena
for states and their diplomats.

5
Consequently, examining the organizational capacities
of a peace group
like Pugwash International
it is hoped to expose and explain the importance and challenges
that the peace movement brings
into the efforts to secure a better global community
for human-kind.

Revision (Steps 3 and 4)

1
Grassroots peace movements help maintain international security.
(LF = 50%)

2
Traditionally, peace meant the absence of military conflict, but now we recognize that economic development, civic progress, environmental protection, and basic human rights contribute to peace and security.
(LF = 47%)

3 & 4
In the past, states and their diplomats worked for international peace and security, but today populist peace movements should help with the job.
(LF = 70%)

5
Pugwash International illustrates the challenges peace movements face and the successes well-organized groups can have.
(LF = 62%)

Mean Lard Factor: 57%

Revised Paragraph:

Grassroots peace movements help maintain international security. Traditionally, peace meant the absence of military conflict, but now we recognize that economic development, civic progress, environmental protection, and basic human rights contribute to peace and security. In the past, states and their diplomats worked for international peace and security, but today populist peace movements should help with the job. Pugwash International illustrates the challenges peace movements face and the successes well-organized groups can have.

Revision Again

Traditionally, "peace and security" meant the absence of war. States, their diplomats, and their organizations assumed responsibility for avoiding armed conflict. Classic organizational models, such as Archer's (1980), help us understand the workings, successes, and failures of traditional international organizations. Now, however, we realize that peace and security depend on economic development, civic progress, environmental protection, and basic human rights. Furthermore, nuclear weapons and germ warfare make failure to maintain peace everyone’s concern. Consequently, grassroots peace movements should help to maintain international security. But what should such organizations look like in order to be effective? Classic analyses do not provide an answer. We need a new model for international organizations. Borrowing the concepts of sustainable from Smith (1995), dynamic from Kerr (1994), and epistemic from Feldman (1996), we can create a model of the sustainable, dynamic, epistemic organization needed in the 1990s. Applying this model to Pugwash International reveals that the world already has at least one such grassroots peace movement, one which fledgling groups might use as an exemplar.

Editing Your Writing

Editing involves examining sentences for problems with grammar, mechanics, punctuation, spelling, word choice, and style. You edit after you are satisfied with the content and organization of your paper. Editing is complex: you cannot merely memorize a few rules and produce a flawless paper. When editing, you use three general strategies:

Consulting — you detect a probable error, and you consult your memory or a handbook for a relevant rule.
Intuiting — you have a general sense that something is wrong with the sentence, so you try alternatives until you find one that sounds right.
Comprehending — you cannot understand a sentence, so you consider possible meanings in an effort to discover what was meant.

Techniques for Editing Your Writing

Use a list of the types of editing errors writers might make.
Many English handbooks have such a list on the inside cover.

GRAMMATICAL?
Case?
Verb form?
Agreement?

CLEAR SENTENCES?
Sentence fragments?
Comma spices and fused sentences?
Pronoun reference?
Shift in verb tense?
Misplaced or dangling modifiers?
Mixed constructions?

EFFECTIVE SENTENCES?
Subordination and coordination?
Parallelism?

PUNCTUATION?
Commas, semicolons, apostrophes, quotation marks, colon, dashes, etc.

MECHANICS?
Capitals, italics, abbreviations, numbers, hyphens?
citations and references?

EFFECTIVE WORDS?
Appropriate words?
Spelling?

• Have someone edit your paper.
• Discover your patterns of errors, and create a list of your most common errors.

First, list all the errors marked in one or more of your recent compositions. Then note the context in which each error occurred. Finally, decide what to look for in the future. Your page might look like this:

Favourite Patterns of Errors

• Sentence fragments (beginning with words such as when, even though)
• Commas after introductory bits (however, for example at first of sentences)

Points to consider

1. Learn the rules.
   Use a book with clear explanations, practical examples, and plenty of exercises for which answers are supplied (e.g., The Least You Should Know about English).
2. Have reference books on hand
   Suggested: a large dictionary (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition), a Canadian dictionary (for spelling; The Penguin Canadian Dictionary), the style manual for your discipline (e.g., Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 4th Edition), a Canadian edition of an English handbook (The St. Martin’s Handbook for Canadians), and a thesaurus (Roget’s International Thesaurus, 5th Edition).
3. Leave time to edit. Put your paper away for a day or longer.
4. Go through the paper more than once.
5. Edit a hard copy.
   Double space and generous margins (as your style manual no doubt requires you to do). This allows you room to write. Do not be deceived by how good your document looks. Write all over it.
6. Develop your sense of doubt.
   “Could there be something wrong there?” Put lots of question marks in the margins.
7. Read the paper out loud.
   Consciously try to read exactly what is on the page, not what your mind assumes is there. Have a friend read the paper aloud to you. Follow along on a copy and note problem areas.
8. Using a computer, divide your composition into a series of sentences, and then analyse each sentence individually.
9. Read backwards.
   Start at the end of your paper and read to the beginning one word or one sentence at a time.
10. Use a spell checker on a computer.
    Be aware of its limitations.
11. Use a grammar checker or text-analysis program on a computer.
    Be aware that the program has severe limitations. It identifies as errors things which are correct, it passes as correct things which are wrong, and it provides potentially misleading readability levels.
12. Consider what caused each error.
    Discovering why you made errors will help you decide how to prevent them.
    Some possible causes of errors: writing in a rush, editing in a hurry, writing sentences that are too complicated, writing in a discipline for which you do not know the conventions, trying to sound professorial, not using good editing techniques, not knowing the rules, ignoring your sense of doubt, and so on.

Summarizing

A summary contains only the most important information in a document. It condenses the original work without distorting the essential meaning, omitting any key points, or adding any extra material.

Steps to Writing a Summary

1. Survey or scan or read quickly to get an overall impression of the document’s content and organization.

2. Read carefully and underline the most significant information.

• Look for a statement of the main idea. It is most likely to appear in the introduction or conclusion.
• Look for the organizational pattern of the document. For example, the article might be organized by causes and effects, by comparison and contrast, or by thesis and list of supporting points. Watch for obvious organizational signals such as headings, highlighted text, and explicit organizational statements.
• Focus on principal concepts or arguments. Do not be distracted by examples or details.
• Underline in pencil. On a first reading, you usually cannot be sure what the most important points are.

3. Reread the document to make sure you have an adequate understanding. Erase any erroneous underlining. Make sure to underline, highlight, number, or indicate in some way the most significant information. (Note: Almost no one can do a good summary of a complex academic piece in just one reading.) 

4. Write your summary using the sections you have highlighted or underlined.

5. Check your summary against the original document. Your summary should have the same basic outline as the original article.

6. Edit your writing. (Don’t worry about this step until you have done everything else.)

 Idea

Although assignments to summarize usually call for a piece of writing that will receive a mark, such summaries are primarily tests of reading. They test whether you can read well enough to find the main ideas and the organizational pattern of a document.

Do not include in a summary

• Statements that say you are summarizing or will summarize e.g., “This is a summary of ...,” or “The author of this article reports that ...”
• References to the original e.g., “As the graph on page 3 illustrates ...”
• Headings
• Illustrations or tables
• Your opinion or judgement
• Information not included in the original
• Examples

Concluding issue

The question of plagiarism always arises: Can you use words and phrases from the original without quoting them? If the assignment asks you to write a summary, you sometimes can. Ask your professor. If, on the other hand, you are doing a short summary to be part of research paper, you must acknowledge any words taken from your source.

Image

You leave a full pot of coffee on the burner. You return hours later and see a cup of thick, black liquid remaining in the bottom of the pot. That is a summary. No coffee taken out, just the water boiled off. No extras like cream and sugar added, just the coffee, boiled down to its essence.

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