Thesis statement and outline

At this stage, you should have a clearly stated, relatively narrow topic and also have an interesting why question about it. If not, please contact Ryan and/or come by my office hours.

Your research question will have lots of possible answers. You may have read some that other scholars have presented. What is your answer? That is, what is the thesis statement you will defend in your paper? How do you see yourself building an argument to support this claim?

This assignment is another progress report. I want to know where you are at: (1) what's your topic; (2) what question are you asking about it; and (3) what's your answer. In addition, I'd like to see a bit of plan for the first draft. While I call it an outline, it need not be organized purely into headings and subheadings. Do what works for you. That could be a sketch or a diagram. What I will be looking for is how much you have thought about the details and the logic of your reasoning. Where you plan on discussing particular sources, cite them in this outline/sketch/draft so I know what you are working with. This is where using a bibliography manager really pays off!

Keep in mind that this, as before, is a 'progress assignment'. If you've only just started to write, then your ideas will still be in formation. I don't expect you to have the best version of your ideas at this stage. I do expect you to keep pushing yourself, and I'll be looking at where I can give you a boost. Mainly I'm looking for a plan that brings together your evidence and your interpretation of that evidence in a logical way. You don't have to stick to this plan if your thinking changes. By forcing you to turn something in now, I am hoping to get you started on the writing process.

I'd still appreciate it if you would format your writing in a readable way. If you write prose, make sure your prose is readable. You don't have to use complete sentences, but I think it helps. You do have to spellcheck and proofread your writing. Use the classic format for all written work. Put your name and the date on your work.

You should upload a file with your thesis statement and outline to the Blackboard dropbox for this assignment by 2 May at 11:59 p.m. Read the instructions on submitting your work carefully.

Some helpful guidance

You can use these worksheets to think about your research, or to give feedback to someone else. These forms are not instructions; it is not required that you use them, but the exercise of filling in blanks may help you understand the research process. In this assignment, you will be graded as you have before, on how much progress you have made on each aspect of research, as part of an ongoing and unfinished process.