Foundations of Critical Thought: Thesis Statements

Disclaimer: For those of you who don’t care or don’t need to know how to write a thesis statement, allow this to be my forwarning that this will be 100% about constructing Thesis Statements, but if you care for an exercise in critical thinking follow along!

One of the number one things I hear even going into my final year at university from students and professors alike is the inability for students to craft or understand the concept of a thesis statement. As a quick description, the thesis statement is (more often than not) a single sentence at the end of an introductory paragraph that outlines the following discussion in the essay/paper/presentation/etc. As thus they embody a certain complexity in which is best understood if you approach it using a sort of formula.

The simplest form for a thesis is simply:

“I will be discussing X, by talking about Y, and Z.”

It doesn’t always work as cleanly but that will be the frame in which most theses will be designed around.

Turning an Opinion into a Thesis:

Now to create a thesis, you need to have an idea of how a dicussion will unfold. In terms of dinner table conversation, this is how you grab a relative’s attention when talking about a controversial subject saying something like “Trump is a bad president who has no right to be leading a country .” To turn this into a thesis statement we frame this using the framework identified above:

“News reports regarding Trump suggests he is a bad president because he is a racist, and sexist pig who has no right to be leading a country.”

• X: News reports regarding Trump suggests he is a bad president …
  • News Reports not only identifies the discussion topic it also will describe how the evidence will be collected.
  • Suggets tells a reader what this evidence is going to provide.
    
• Y & Z: Racist and Sexist are the things you are identifying with your evidence.

Thus we turn an opinion: “Trump is a bad president who has no right to be leading a country” into a statement which identifies how and what you will say to describe Trump as unsuitable for his position. A thesis weaves an opinion with evidence to provide a framework of a discussion.

From an essay I had to write as a review to Brent Rushforth’s Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France, I wanted to argue that while Rushforth’s prose and research is incredible, it exaggerates the significance of the evidence. Now a review has specific things a writer might be looking for but in this scenario I was highly critical of the impact of slavery in New France compared to the larger labour regime in New France, so I critically examined his own research.

The thesis follows the basic format, but begins to show how theses should weave research and opinion:

“Rushforth’s research is well written and well argued, but when closely examined his arguments exaggerates the significance of the evidence and creates connections between loose narratives that undermine the gravity of his thesis. “

• X: his arguments exaggerates
  • This identifies the topic of discussion, why is this important:
    • Rushforth’s arguments are exaggerating… what?
• Y: the significance of the evidence
• Z: connections between loose narratives
• Opinion: Rushforth’s research is well written and well argued, but undermine the gravity of his thesis

Other examples from previous essays include

1. [Van Buren’s] presidency made him an area of study which has historically unfairly categorized him based on his lacklustre presidency and disregards the impact he had on American politics before and after his short presidency.
   1. X: Discussing Van Buren’s presidency
   2. Y: talking about his lacklustre presidency
   3. Z: the overall impact on American politics.
      
2. Thayer’s pedagogical development [at West Point] despite opposition, following the Civil War, due to a culmination of congressional antagonism and gradual academic stagnation put West Point in a position in which it was unable to continue to develop and thus fell from prominence to more progressive institutions.
   1. X: Thayer’s pedagogical development at West Point,
   2. Y: congressional antagonism and academic stagnation,
   3. Z: fall from prominence
      
3. Despite being plagued with incessant warfare, the Iroquois were well equipped intellectually to deal with European colonizers who sought to utilize the Iroquois’ relative unity to combat their rivals.
   1. The pattern isn’t always the exact same, but all the elements remain
      1. X: the Iroquois were well equipped intellectually to deal with European colonizer
      2. Y: Despite being plagued with incessant warfare
      3. Z: European colonizers who sought to utilize the Iroquois’ relative unity to combat their rivals
         
4. For the Union, the Telegraph and Joseph Henry’s advocacy stand out as significant background parts of the Northern war effort, while Matthew Fontaine Maury and the Torpedo acted more actively in the Southern war efforts, and both accelerated the integration of technology and war.
   1. This is a tad more nuanced as it is a compare but follows a similar pattern
      1. X₁: Telegraph and Joseph Henry
      2. Y₁: Northern War Effort
      3. X₂: Torpedo and Matthew Fontaine Maury
      4. Y₂: Southern War Effort
      5. Z: integration of technology and war
         
5. Thus, the challenge is to argue that those in charge of the government were the main perpetrators of the illegal economy. By looking at the early abandonment of the colony and the subsequent attempts to control the colony more directly while drawing lines between the government of New Granada will expose the proclivity of royal officials being both powerless passengers of an economy out of their control and active caretakers of the illegal political economy that buttressed the Atlantic Economy.
   
   1. This shows that a thesis does not necessarily have to be a single sentence. For more complicated theses, you can use more than one sentence although the practice is a bit awkward.
      1. X: argue that those in charge of the government were the main perpetrators of the illegal economy
      1. Y: looking at the early abandonment of the colony and the subsequent attempts to control the colony more directly
      1. Z₁: expose the proclivity of royal officials being both powerless passengers of an economy out of their control
      1. Z₂: active caretakers of the illegal political economy that buttressed the Atlantic Economy
         
6. Thus, one can extract from both Stevenson’s, and Wells’ gothic novels anxieties over the collapse of Victorian hierarchy depicted through Mr. Hyde and the colonial relationships within The Island of Doctor Moreau and The War of the Worlds.
   1. X: gothic novels anxieties over the collapse of Victorian hierarchy
   1. Y: depicted through Mr. Hyde
   1. Z: the colonial relationships within The Island of Doctor Moreau and The War of the Worlds.