Writer's Blog: Chapter 11

Chapter 11 marks the beginning of writing our research paper. All the things before helped us gather information for our research paper, but now we will learn how to begin constructing our paper. In order to start, we need to create a thesis statement, which is exactly what the chapter is all about! A thesis statement "provides a clear, focused expression of the main point you want to make. It is, in a nutshell, the most important idea or argument you want to convey to your readers." (203-204) Some things you can do before crafting your thesis statement is review your position statement, review your notes, consider your purpose, and reflect on your readers. Reviewing your position statement kind of speaks for itself....just look over what your position on the issue is. To review your notes, find information or ideas that you have thought of as important. Make sure that the ideas or information that you have found will help you meet yours and your professors goal for this paper. Also, review what thoughts you have come up with on your own about the topic. To consider your purpose and role, you can follow some questions outlined in the book:

• Have the purposes, or reasons, for working on this paper changed since the beginning?
• Has your role as a writer changed since the beginning? You may have seen yourself as an informer in the beginning, but now you see yourself as a persuader. 

You also should reflect on your readers and make sure that the main point of your paper helps your readers' needs, purposes, and concerns. If your purpose or role has changed, if your position statement doesn't seem to match up with the main point you want to make, or if you are not meeting your reader's concerns, you can change your position statement. 

When you've done all of your reviewing, you can actually draft your thesis statement. First identify important information, ideas, and key phrases or words that you have used in your notes or other materials. Then you can draft some alternatives. Alternatives are different approaches you use with your reader. You can "invite your readers to learn something new, suggest that they change their attitudes or beliefs, or argue they should take action of some kind." (206) Also, make sure that you consider what kind of document, or genre, you are planning to write. In this case, it is a persuasive paper. Now you will focus your thesis statement so that it is not too broad. Be more specific. What do you want your readers to know about the subject, how should they feel about it, what actions should they take?? Also keep in mind any arguments or objections that a reader might have to your thesis statement and attempt to head it off before they can do so. To see examples of how writer's moved from their research question to position statement and then to their thesis statement you can look on page 208 of the chapter.