Write Faster -- Writing the Compelling Thesis

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#12 Write Faster: Writing the Compelling Thesis

You need three things to speed up the process:          

1. You need to fill your mind with ideas.
2. You need a main idea (a thesis) that responds to the prompt and explores the complexity of ideas.
3. You need a method for creating your introduction.

Today we are focusing on Step 2.

Start by crafting your thesis, your main argument. If you are given a prompt, re-read it several times and zero in on the key task you are asked to do. Look for the writer’s verb. Does your prompt ask you to analyze, evaluate, synthesize, differentiate, assess, define, prove, recommend, or critique?   Each of these words means something different – make sure you know what that verb means.

 

If you are not given a prompt, you can create your own topic and thesis. Start with pondering what you find interesting, fascinating, or compelling about this portion of the course. What questions or issues have caught your attention in lecture? What part of the discussion or seminar surprised you or made your wonder? What theories did you want the professor to say more about when class ended? Grab some scratch paper and make a list of sentences beginning with the phrase I wonder. I wonder what would happen if two black holes collided? I wonder why Shakespeare’s history plays are so centered on men, when his country was ruled by Elizabeth I? I wonder how the mind changes when we are confronted with the unexplained miracle? I wonder how creatures at the bottom of the ocean on the edge of underwater volcanoes evolved to survive such extreme conditions? I wonder how much of the North’s financial empire was ultimately based on the economics of Southern slavery? I wonder how much the early European painters’ ability to invent new pigments influenced their art?

 

To make your thesis more compelling, you want to make sure you are wrestling with complexities. Where are the complexities in your topic? Where are the opposing ideas, the paradoxes that cannot be reconciled? Look for the antithesis, the mystery, the inconsistencies, the contradictions, the paradox, the impossible, and explore that.

 

Word your thesis so you begin with a dependent clause that recognizes the complexity or counterargument, then move into your main idea. Start with despite, in spite of, even though like this: Even though crowds can include hundreds of independent strangers, they behave in strikingly similar ways as a group. Now you try it! Start with despite, even though, or in spite of.

 

How do you know it is the PERFECT thesis? You don’t. You will learn more as you write. The very act of writing will lead you to deeper discovery and may well lead you to revising your initial thesis.

 

What if you don’t know the answer to your thesis – you don’t know how to prove it. The writing process may help you see the evidence.

 

In the show notes today is a special link – I ask you to click the link and I will send you a simple, yet sophisticated way of starting your introduction to your paper. If you want to write faster, you need to find a way to knock out your introduction fast. I have it and I want to give it to you! Again, check the show notes for the link.