Download Key moves in academic writing

DECODING ACADEMIC WRITING/RESEARCH
The Create A Research Space (CARS) Model, by John Swales
According to Swales, research writers frequently use 4 rhetorical moves to situate their argument.
1. They demonstrate the interest or importance of the research topic (establish centrality, or describe
exigency).
2. They selectively synthesize and review previous work
3. They show there is some kind of gap, shortcoming, or limitation in existing work, or that some
extension or verification is required.
4. They show how their work resolves the gap, shortcoming, or limitation in existing work, that it
successfully extends or verifies past research (in the humanities far more emphasis may be placed on
complication and problematizing as ends in themselves –see Susan Peck MacDonald).
CARS (create a research space) model, adapted from John Swales’ work
Move 1: establishing a territory/entering the conversation
a) claim centrality and/or significance
b) introduce the specific problem or issue
c) establish “insider status”
Move 2: define the scope of the problem or issue by summarizing previous research
Move 3: create a research space by:
a) indicating a gap in previous research
b) indicating a shortcoming, limitation or weakness in previous research
c) indicating a possible extension
Move 4: introduce present research by:
a) stating the aim of the research
b) describing the research
c) justifying the research
HIGH LEVEL and low level moves
HIGH LEVEL RHETORICAL MOVES
- establish exigency (“this matters”), centrality, or establish SIGNIFICANCE
- represent the conversation/acknowledge past work/lit review (THEY SAY)
- locate gap/create niche for contribution/situate own research
- present claims/research results, or occupy niche
(Extend, use lens, challenge or rebut, synthesize, illustrate)
- acknowledge limits/qualify claims/conclude
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LOWER LEVEL MOVES
introduce
present purpose, argument and claims
present evidence
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employ strategies/appeals
qualify claims (admit limitations of research)
introduce rebuttals (deal with opponents)
etc.
MOVES IN LITERATURE REVIEWS OR PRESENTING AUTHOR’S CONTRIBUTION
Situating claims in relation to previous research/texts1
Previous research or ways of approaching this topic are completely wrong: 'My research/approach is
completely original--doesn't link up with any tradition'.
Previous research or ways of approaching this topic are mostly wrong: 'My research/approach is highly
original --quite different from what has gone before. It’s a radical challenge and complication of existing
research.
Previous research or ways of approaching this topic are somewhat wrong: 'My research/approach both fits
in with tradition (extends, illustrates) and departs (complicates) from it in important ways.'
Previous research or ways of approaching this topic are not wrong, but have missed/ignored some things:
'My research/approach fills in the gaps (extends, illustrates, applies) left by previous research/approaches'.
Previous research or ways of approaching this topic are essentially right, but can be extended: 'My
research/approach is an extension of well established tradition.'
Previous research or ways of approaching this topic are right and flawless: 'My research/approach is not
original, but it replicates/lends (illustrates) support to previous research'.
Some Research & Analysis Strategies
Verify an existing idea/theory.
Apply an existing idea/theory.
Extend an existing idea/theory – develop the idea or show how it applies to some new area.
Take an idea/theory from an existing field and apply to a new context (“emergence” in social theory;
adaptation in biology; networks in the study of social relations; computation in the study of cognition, etc.)
Find counterexamples or shortcomings (complicate/challenge) to suggest that an existing idea/theory needs
to be qualified or revised. Focus on a prediction, implication, assumption, claim, chain of reasoning, use of
evidence, etc.
Find counterexamples or shortcomings to suggest that an existing idea/theory is seriously flawed, and a
paradigm may need to be abandoned. Focus = Critique (challenge, complicate)
Find counterexamples or shortcomings to suggest that an existing idea/theory is seriously flawed, and
suggest an alternative.
Synthesize and clarify work in some research area – provide an overview of competing or related work.
Synthesize and clarify work in some research area – provide an overview of competing or related work and
analyze strengths and weaknesses.
CARS model – centrality claim, gap, review of research, announce purposes, research, etc.
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From 'References to Other Researchers in Literary Research Articles', by Sally Jacoby, English Language
Research Journal, 1 (1987): 33-78.
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EXAMPLES
A) INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS “A Framework for Culture Assessment.” Tomasz Lenartowicz;
Kendall Roth. Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 30, No. 4., pp. 781-798.
1.Understanding the nature and influences of culture is central to international business. 2.Such inquiry
presupposes knowing that the cultural grouping(s) of a study is a valid unit of analysis, which is critical in
that the estimation of culture effects can vary based on the unit definition. 3.Unfortunately, perhaps out of
convenience, international studies often simply use a country-based definition of culture. 4.In a desire to
facilitate further development in understanding culture effects, in this paper, we propose a framework by
which valid cultural groupings may be assessed.
B) YOUTH & POPULAR CULTURE
“Adolescent Ambiguities In American Pie: Popular Culture as a Resource for Sex Education.” Catherine
Ashcraft. Youth & Society, Vol. 35 No. 1, September 2003 37-70 1. Popular culture is a key site in the
formation of teen knowledges about sex. 2.Yet formal sex education programs have largely ignored this
arena. 3. In this article, the author proposes the need to critically incorporate popular culture into sex
education efforts to develop programs that resonate with teens’ experiences and, at the same time, allow
them to construct more equitable social relations. 4. The author illustrates how this might be done through an
analysis of the recent teen film American Pie. 5. In addition, the author identifies specific implications and
resources for broader theoretical efforts to reconstruct discourses of masculinity, femininity, and sexuality.
C) MARKETING “‘Do the Right Thing:’ Diverging Effects of Accountability in a Managerial Context”
Christina L. Brown. Marketing Science Vol. 18, No.3, 1999, Pp. 230-246.
1.The need to justify one's decisions is a signal characteristic of decision-making in a managerial
environment. 2.Even chief executives must communicate reasons for their actions. 3.Yet, despite a
significant amount of laboratory research on the effects of accountability on decision-making, few studies
have attempted to assess what affects accountability might have outside the lab for actual managers. 4.In
this paper, we use as subjects actual members of the professional account, research, and creative staffs of
several advertising agencies in an experimental simulation of an advertising copy meeting. 5.We
demonstrate that accountability effects in complex, managerial decision contexts diverge considerably from
those found in the lab.
D. “The Visual and The Verbal: A Case Study in Macroeconomics,” Ann M. Johns
Although EAP researchers have devoted considerable attention to written texts, less has been paid to the use
of visual representation in the disciplines. 2. After reviewing the literature from several fields, this paper
describes the strategies of a first year university student as she privileges visual texts in both her
macroeconomics and reading/writing classes. 3. Suggestions for research and pedagogy relating to visual
representation conclude the paper.
E. “Dissertation Writing in Action: The Development of a Dissertation Writing Support Program for ESL
Graduate Research Students.” Desmond Allison, Linda Cooley, Jo Lewkowicz and David Nunan
1. Despite an explosion in the number of students writing graduate theses in a language other than their
first, there are very few accounts, either of research into the difficulties encountered by these students, or of
writing programs designed to help such students present dissertations written to an acceptable standard. 2.
This article describes and evaluates a program developed within the English Centre at the University of
Hong Kong to assist students who are required to present dissertations in English. 3. The program was
based on data collected from detailed interviews with graduate supervisors and a survey of graduate
students, as well as an analysis of extended pieces of graduate writing.”
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F. LITERARY STUDIES “Professing Literature is a history of academic literary studies in the United
States, roughly from the Yale Report of 1828, which assured the primacy of the classical over the
vernacular languages in American colleges for another half century, to the waning of the New Criticism in
the 1960s and subsequent controversies over literary theory…These early practices assumed a theory of the
social function of literature that affected the shape of literature departments…Those who see that the
humanities have become disablingly incoherent seem to me right, but many of them fail to see that
coherence can no longer be grounded in some restored consensus, whether it be traditional “basics,”
revolutionary ideological critique, or something else. In the final analysis, what academic literary studies
have had to work with is not a coherent tradition, but a series of conflicts that remain unresolved,
unacknowledged, and assumed to be outside the proper sphere of literary education. To bring these conflicts
into that sphere will mean thinking of literary education as part of a larger cultural history that includes the
other humanities as well as the sciences…” [Gerald Graff, Professing Literature]
G) Social Policy 1. The author believes that violence by women has been ignored in research and social
policy because of society's refusal to acknowledge that women, especially mothers, can be aggressive. 2. In
addition, most of the offenses committed by women are private events and are believed to be underreported
to authorities. 3. The author presents a psychodynamic perspective of female violence, explaining it as an
expression of frustration and anger rooted in childhood experiences of abuse and neglect. 4. Violent
behavior is described as female perversion, an act in which women use their bodies to assault images of
motherhood in an attempt to resolve some type of psychological problem. 5. The text highlights the failure
of social services to recognize the long-term effects of abuse on children and advocates for greater efforts to
prevent victims from becoming offenders. 6. Case studies provide examples of violent acts perpetrated by
women against their children, themselves, and their batterers. 7. Female sexual abuse, Munchausen's
syndrome by proxy, maternal physical abuse, and infanticide are discussed.
H) English For Specific Purposes (1.) Despite an explosion in the number of students writing graduate
theses in a language other than their first, there are very few accounts, either of research into the difficulties
encountered by these students, or of writing programs designed to help such students present dissertations
written to an acceptable standard. (2) This article describes and evaluates a program developed within the
English Centre at the University of Hong Kong to assist students who are required to present dissertations in
English. (3) The program was based on data collected from detailed interviews with graduate supervisors
and a survey of graduate students, as well as an analysis of extended pieces of graduate writing.”
H) Communication Studies 1. Although much criticism of alcohol advertising has focused on the youth
and underage drinking, targeted marketing of alcohol beverages towards minorities and women has created
much controversy in recent years yet is much less understood. 2. Content analyses of four consumer
magazines from 1979-1992 reveal significant variations in the amount of alcohol advertising, product types,
advertisement features, and advertising appeals. 3. The findings suggest that alcohol advertising is more
concentrated in minority magazines, and different products are targeted toward minorities and women with
distinct advertising techniques. 4. Consumer education and health communication programs need to
increase their effort to reach minorities and women and adopt customized social marketing strategies.
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EXTENDED EXAMPLE AND ANALYSIS: “Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and
disease mongering.” Ray Moynihan et al., British Medical Journal 2002;324:886-891 (13 April)
INTRODUCTION Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering
There's a lot of money to be made from telling healthy people they're sick. Some forms of medicalising ordinary life
may now be better described as disease mongering: widening the boundaries of treatable illness in order to expand
markets for those who sell and deliver treatments. Pharmaceutical companies are actively involved in sponsoring
the definition of diseases and promoting them to both prescribers and consumers. The social construction of illness
is being replaced by the corporate construction of disease.
Whereas some aspects of medicalisation are the subject of ongoing debate, the mechanics of corporate backed
disease mongering, and its impact on public consciousness, medical practice, human health, and national budgets,
have attracted limited critical scrutiny.
Within many disease categories informal alliances have emerged, comprising drug company staff, doctors, and
consumer groups. Ostensibly engaged in raising public awareness about underdiagnosed and undertreated problems,
these alliances tend to promote a view of their particular condition as widespread, serious, and treatable. Because
these "disease awareness" campaigns are commonly linked to companies' marketing strategies, they operate to
expand markets for new pharmaceutical products. Alternative approaches emphasizing the self limiting or relatively
benign natural history of a problem, or the importance of personal coping strategies are played down or ignored. As
the late medical writer Lynn Payer observed, disease mongers "gnaw away at our self-confidence."2 Although some
sponsored professionals or consumers may act independently and all concerned may have honourable motives, in
many cases the formula is the same: groups and/or campaigns are orchestrated, funded, and facilitated by corporate
interests, often via their public relations and marketing infrastructure.
A key strategy of the alliances is to target the news media with stories designed to create fears about the condition
or disease and draw attention to the latest treatment. Company sponsored advisory boards supply the "independent
experts" for these stories, consumer groups provide the "victims," and public relations companies provide media
outlets with the positive spin about the latest "breakthrough" medications.
Inappropriate medicalisation carries the dangers of unnecessary labelling, poor treatment decisions, iatrogenic
illness, and economic waste, as well as the opportunity costs that result when resources are diverted away from
treating or preventing more serious disease. At a deeper level it may help to feed unhealthy obsessions with health,3
obscure or mystify sociological or political explanations for health problems,4 and focus undue attention on
pharmacological, individualised, or privatised solutions.3 More tangibly and immediately, the costs of new drugs
targeted at essentially healthy people are threatening the viability of publicly funded universal health insurance
systems.5
Recent discussions about medicalisation6 have emphasised the limitations of earlier critiques1 of the disabling
impact of a powerful medical establishment. Contemporary writers argue that the lay populace has become more
active, better informed about risks and benefits, less trusting of medical authority, and less passively accepting of the
expansion of medical jurisdiction into their bodies and lives. Although these views may herald a more mature debate
about medicalisation, the erosion of trust in medical opinion reinforces the need for wide public scrutiny of
industry's role in these processes.
In this paper we do not aim for a comprehensive classification or definitive description of disease mongering, but
rather we draw attention to an important but under-recognised phenomenon. We identify examples, taken from the
Australian context but familiar internationally, which loosely represent five examples of disease mongering: the
ordinary processes or ailments of life classified as medical problems; mild symptoms portrayed as portents of a
serious disease; personal or social problems seen as medical ones; risks conceptualised as diseases; and disease
prevalence estimates framed to maximise the size of a medical problem. These groups are not mutually exclusive
and some examples overlap.
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Sample: Rhetorical Analysis of an Academic Journal Introduction
Ray Moynihan, Iona Heath and David Henry present their findings on the practice of disease
mongering within the pharmaceutical industry in an article entitled “Selling sickness: the
Pharmaceutical Industry and Disease Mongering” published in the British Medical Journal. An
analysis of the introduction to this article reveals that, like many other authors publishing their
work in peer reviewed journals, Moynihan, Heath and Henry have employed a set of basic
rhetorical moves that coincide with the Create A Research Space (CARS) writing model identified
by John Swales.
The introduction to this article makes use of all four of Swales’s moves and employs them in the
typical order found in research writing. They open their article with Swales’s first move before
they even specifically identify their topic within the text. The very first sentence, “There’s a lot of
money to be made from telling healthy people they’re sick,” immediately presents the reader with
a scenario that conjures up unethical behavior. This establishes an urgency for their topic before
the reader even knows exactly what that topic is and how the authors will approach it. They follow
this with sentences that not only provide the reader with a clearer picture of the topic but also
continue to firmly establish the importance of that topic. For example, “Some forms of
medicalising ordinary life may now be better described as disease mongering: widening the
boundaries of treatable illness in order to expand markets for those who sell and deliver treatments.
The authors conclude their first move with the sentence “Whereas some aspects of
medicalisation are the subject of ongoing debate, the mechanics of corporate backed disease
mongering, and its impact on public consciousness, medical practice, human health, and national
budgets, have attracted limited critical scrutiny.” This sentence functions in multiple ways. It tells
the reader that this area has not been adequately explored and therefore sets the authors up to make
CARS Move 3 (identify the specific area their article will explore) later in the introduction: “In
this paper we do not aim for a comprehensive classification or definitive description of disease
mongering, but rather we draw attention to an important but under-recognized phenomenon. The
sentence that concludes Move 1 also serves as an effective transition to move 2. This sentence
tells the reader that within the area of “medicalisaton” not enough attention has been paid to “the
mechanics of corporate backed disease mongering.” From this platform the authors shift to Move 2
in which they synthesize information about what little work has been done in this area.
Move 2 takes up the largest portion of this introduction, beginning in paragraph three and
continuing through paragraph 7. The authors synthesize the work of other researchers, though they
do not name them directly in their text, in order to demonstrate how corporate interests are
involved in the raising of disease awareness and what negative effects this has already been shown
to have.
The last two sentences of the introduction reveal Swales’s final move in which the authors
indicate that they will explore five examples of disease mongering in Australia. These five
examples are intended to become the means through which move 3 is accomplished by drawing
“attention to an important but under-recognised phenomenon.”
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Extended example 2: Advertising & Humor
THIS IS IN I:\Chris_Ex\02 LDWP and Comp\RWS 100\2008 Spring SICKO\4.0 Rhet Strategies Parry & Sutton\CARS materials
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Dudley-Evans Model of the Moves Identifiable in Master’s Theses2
Move 1:
Move 2:
Move 3:
Introducing the Field.
Introducing the General Topic (within the Field)
Introducing the Particular Topic (within the General Topic)
Move 4:
Defining the Scope of the Particular Topic by:
(i) introducing research parameters
(ii) summarizing previous research
Move 5:
Preparing for Present Research by:
(i) indicating a gap in previous research.
(ii) indicating a possible extension of previous research
Move 6:
Introducing Present Research by:
(i) stating the aim of the research or
(ii) describing briefly the work carried out (iii) justifying the research.
Key moves in academic writing
Sample phrases used in different parts of the CARS Model3
Move 1: Establishing a territory
Move 1, Step 1: Claiming Centrality
The writer states that the topic of research is useful, relevant, important, or worth investigating since it
forms part of a lively, significant or well-established research area.
Recently, there has been wide interest in ...
In recent years, there have been many papers describing...
In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in ...
The possibility of X .... has generated interest in .....
The time development .... is a classic problem in fluid mechanics.
The explication of the relationship between ..... is a classic problem of ....
Knowledge of .... has a great importance for ....
The study of .... has become an important aspect of ..
The theory that ... has led to the hope that ...
The effect of .... has been studied extensively in recent years.
Many investigators have recently turned to .....
The relationship between .... has been studied by many authors.
A central issue in .... is the validity of ....
The relationship between...is a classic problem in…
A Six-move schema of rhetorical moves for master’s theses in scientific fields (Dudley-Evans, 1986)
Based on materials in Swales, Swales & Feak, and on Ken Pennington’s CARS online resources at
http://butler.cc.tut.fi/~penningt/multimaker/cars.html.
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3
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A long-standing problem has been to obtain more information on...
Move 1, Step 2: Making Topic Generalizations
These consist of statements concerning the current state of either knowledge, consensus concerning
practice, or description of phenomena. Topic generalizations are often in the present tense.
The aetiology and pathology of ... is well known
There is now much evidence to support the hypothesis that ...
It is generally accepted that...
The .... properties of ... are still not completely understood
A standard procedure for assessing has been ...
Education core courses are often criticized for ....
English is surprisingly poor in related words....
There are as yet few situations where ....
The general features of... are well known.
Plumage coloration is known to influence mate selection in mallards.
Trout are believed to be relatively immobile.
There is now much evidence to support the hypothesis that...
A standard procedure for assessing...has been...
It is commonly suggested that...
Comparisons of spatially separated populations tend to consist of...
...is a common finding in patients with...
An elaborate system of...is found in the...
Move 1, Step 3: Reviewing Items of Previous Research
The writer relates what has been found (or claimed) with who has found it (or claimed it). This step often
includes reference the name and data of an author’s work.
Brie (1988) showed that the moon is made of cheese
Brie´s theory (1988) claims that the moon is made of cheese
Brie´s (1988) theory of lunar composition has general support
Previous research has shown that the moon is made of cheese (Brie, 1988).
The moon is probably made of cheese (Brie, 1988)
The moon may be made of cheese (but cf. Rock, 1989)
Data have been presented in the literature which show that... (Brie, 1988).
Move 2: Establishing a niche
Move 2, Step 1a - Counterclaiming
This step often follows Move 1-Step 3 (Reviewing Items of Previous Research) and is used to introduce an
opposing viewpoint or show the weaknesses in previous research.
However, this view is challenged by recent data showing...
However, these studies have failed to recognize the...
However, recent work in our laboratory suggests that...
...., yet these approaches become increasingly unreliable when...
Although these experiments......, they were performed on...and are therefore suspect.
Move 2, Step 1b - indicating a gap
This step typically follows Move 1-Step 2 (Making Topic Generalizations) and indicates an unfilled
research niche or a new way to approach the research problem that the writer intends to pursue.
A considerable amount of research has been... but little research has...
X...has been extensively studied. However, less attention has been paid to...
As a result, no comprehensive theory appears to exist.
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Despite the importance of..., few researchers have studied...
Research has tended to focus on...rather than...
The only reported study to date of...covered a limited range of...
...studies have appeared previously in the literature, but measurements were restricted to...
The properties of...are still not completely understood.
Evidence on this question is presently inconclusive.
However, the previously mentioned methods suffer from some limitations ....
The first group .... cannot treat ..... and is limited to ...
The second group .... is time consuming and therefore expensive, and its .... is not sufficiently accurate.
Both .... suffer from the dependency on ....
The ... method (upon which the present study is based) eliminates many of these limitations by ....., but it
can treat only ...
Move 2, Step 1c: Question-raising
This is where the author raises questions about the adequacy of previous research.
However, it is not clear whether the use of...can be modified to...
In spite of these early observations, the mechanism...has remained unclear.
The question remains...?
How much has the seal population actually decreased?
Move 2, Step 1d: Continuing a Tradition
This is where the author indicates the need for further research, discusses the need to extend or develop an
existing school of research, or argues for the need to investigate further the implications of research.
These differences need to be analyzed...
Hence, additional studies of...are needed.
It is desirable to carry out surveys of...
It is of interest to compare.....
Move 3 - Occupying the niche
Move 3, Step 1b - Outlining Purposes
This is where the author outlines the main purpose of his/her research (not to be confused with language
used to describe previous or other researchers work) This paper argues that ....
In this paper, we argue that ...
The purpose of this investigation is to ....
The purpose of this investigation was to ...
The aim of the present study is to elucidate...
The major objectives in this study were to quantify...
Move 3, Step 1a: Announcing present research
This step represents an alternative strategy to that used in Step 1B. Here, the writer describes what s/he
considers to be the main features of the research.
In the present research, we shall examine...
In this paper, we investigate...
In this study, the... was investigated by means of...
To evaluate the hypotheses that..., we examined...
To better understand..., we investigated...
Our focus will be on...
Our two research questions were...
This paper reports on the results obtained from...
This paper presents data on the results obtained from...
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This study is concerned with...
The present study tested... and measured...
Move 3, Step 2: Announcing Principal Findings
This is where the author focuses on the results and/or data obtained in the research.
In this paper, we show that...
Here, we report a new method for...
This paper hopes to show that...
Move 3, Step 3: Indicating Research Article structure
This is where the author comments on the organization of the article, telling the reader what to expect.
We have organized the rest of this paper in the following way ...
This paper is structured as follows ....
The remainder of this paper is divided into five sections. Section II describes…
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Using CARS to Write a Thesis Statement
Mini-Lecture for Week 4: Writing a Thesis Statement
Welcome to Week Four of COMM 600 Academic Writing for Graduate Students. The topic of the
mini-lecture this week is Writing a Thesis Statement for your paper.
CARS Model
This past week you practiced writing an introduction using the CARS model for writing an
introduction. CARS stands for Create a Research Space.
This model is found in Unit 8 of Academic Writing for Graduate Students.
The CARS model consists of three moves:
1. Create a research space by
a. showing the research area is important
b. reviewing previous research.
2. Establishing a niche or research space by
a. showing a gap in previous knowledge or
b. a need to extend current knowledge.
3. Occupying the niche by
a. outlining the purposes of the present research
b. listing research questions or hypotheses (optional)
c. announcing principal findings (optional)
d. stating the value of the present research (optional)
e. indicating the structure of the paper (optional).
Notice that these last items are optional, depending on practices within your discipline.
Writing a Thesis Statement
As a teacher of writing, I want to suggest that when following this model, you will OFTEN find it
helpful to write a thesis statement for your paper.
Notice that I said often because you do not always need to include a thesis statement in the
introduction to an academic research paper. The statement of purpose is sometimes sufficient.
However, you can often write a thesis statement that will fit neatly into the CARS formula. The
thesis statement will come after the statement of purpose. It gives direction to your paper by
announcing the main finding, or main point, developed in your paper.
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What is a thesis statement? It is a sentence that consists of a subject and your point of view about
that subject.
The ability to write a thesis that develops a point of view about your topic is a good test of whether
you have found and occupied a research space. If you can make a point based on your research,
you are not just recovering information; you are developing a stance of your own based on the
information.
Pattern for a Statement of Purpose Followed by a Thesis Statement
Here is a pattern or formula for a statement of purpose followed by a thesis.
You begin by stating the purpose of your paper is to take some action such as:



Examine the effects of something,
Compare two things
Analyze something
You follow that statement of purpose with a thesis statement that identifies the result of the action.
For instance, you state that the examination, the comparison, or the analysis shows or proves your
main finding to be true.
Here is an example of how this pattern could work.
The statement of purpose: The purpose of the paper is to compare operating system A and
operating system B.
The thesis statement: The comparison shows that system A will be the best system under whatever
conditions you have researched.
Suggestions for Writing a Thesis Statement
Here are some suggestions to keep in mind when writing a thesis statement. This information is
taking from the Harvard University Writing Center, and you will find the Web site in the class
Webliography.
A good thesis is never a question. For example, this question "Why did communism collapse in
central Europe?” is not a good thesis. A good thesis makes a claim that you will prove in your
paper.
A good thesis is never a list, such as in this sentence: “For political, economic, social, and cultural
reasons, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe.” The sentence provides a direction of sorts for
the reader but again it makes no specific claim to be proved.
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A good thesis should never be “vague, combative, or confrontational” such as the following
sentence: “Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because communism is evil.” This sentence
makes a claim but the word “evil” will be very difficult to define. Also, it may turn off an
academic audience that is “devoted to rational argument.”
A good thesis should have a “definable and arguable claim.” Here is an example:
“While cultural forces contributed to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the
disintegration of economies play the key role in driving its decline.”
A good thesis should be as “clear and specific as possible.” Here is a final example: “Communism
collapsed in Eastern Europe because of the ruling elite's inability to address the economic concerns
of the people.”
Writing a Thesis Statement for Your Class Paper
Now I am sure that you are concerned about writing a thesis for your research paper.
I want to assure you that the thesis is written in stages. You begin with a topic and try to turn that
topic into a research question. Then you state the purpose of your research.
And finally, you try to write a sentence that is the answer to your research question.
You will have to read and absorb many articles before you can complete the process and write
even a tentative thesis statement. But the earlier you can write a tentative thesis, the easier it will
be to do a review of the literature and begin drafting your paper.
However, you need to remember the key word here is tentative. You do not want to seek closure
too soon because you want to keep an open mind and exercise critical judgment as you review the
literature and reach conclusions about your topic. You will probably need to rethink and refine
your tentative thesis many times before you complete your paper.
In an opening conference, some students said they had a problem finding a focus for a paper or
trouble maintaining a focus. My feeling is that some of those problems are just part of the process
of writing a paper.
Writing an academic research paper is an intellectually challenging task that requires much effort
and frequently does not move at a smooth or even predictable pace.
But it is worth the effort, when you have your own carefully crafted statement to present to your
academic community.
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Works Cited
Developing a thesis (1999). Retrieved September 22, 2006 from the Harvard University Writing
Center Web site: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/Thesis.html
Swales, J.M., & Feak, C. B. (2004). Academic writing for graduate students (2nd ed.). Ann
Arbor: University of Michigan Press
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Some Issues to Consider When Reading Academic Writing
1. Look for problems, gaps, or unanswered questions in the text.
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What are the key assumptions and implications?
What are the central categories, figures, and concepts?
What are the main sources of evidence, what are the main chains of reasoning (warrants)? This will help
you decide what criteria to evaluate it by.
Can you find counterexamples/counterarguments?
2. Consider the text as a tool – how can you use it as a source of critique, as support, foil, example of a
tendency/school of thought, or as part of a literature review? The “so what” test can also be way of
beginning a critique.
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3. What major rhetorical moves are made?
How does the writer position him/herself relative to the community?
How does the author construct the community, research literature, and opposition?
How does the text position the reader?
How does the author persuade, construct a persona, establish significance, ownership and authority?
How does the author position his/her contribution? (where is the main argument for significance located – is
it conceptual, a qualification of existing research, an extension, confirmation, etc.) What is excluded or
defined as an “other” in the author’s establishment of a terrain?
Research Writing in the Social Sciences/Humanities Often Involves:
Establishing Significance (“So What?”)
Claiming centrality, importance, establishing exigency
Focusing on a Central Problem/Question
Positionality
Relating your position to previous research; showing that you are part of the community
“conversation”; acknowledging previous work; establishing ethos, “insider status” and authority by
citing important work; showing how your work fits in with other work (how it differs, extends,
problematizes, opposes, connects, etc.)
Competition
Competition for audience’s attention and for research space. Establishing work’s importance and
research niche
Originality/Newness
Contribution
How does the research both draw on and diverge from existing research? Does it just
replicate/strengthen existing research, or does it question/counterclaim existing research?
Acting like a “Native”
Speaking the language correctly; using the right terms; performing the right moves; following the
proper cultural norms
Research Writing in the Social Sciences/Humanities Often Involves:
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1. Focus on a central problem or question
2. An argument for the “significance,” interest or centrality of the problem/question of study to the
research community
3. Citations that reference previous relevant research, establish an “insider ethos” and show you are
aware of relevant previous research
4. Reviewing previous relevant research (if appropriate)
5. Showing how your research makes a contribution by developing, extending, corroborating,
problematizing, exposing weaknesses, etc. existing research
Rebuttal of competing/rival research
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