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1、Research Paper Writing-Thesis Statement一、Statement of Purpose A Statement of Purpose is a sentence that you write, which states, in some detail, what you want to learn about in your research project. The statement guides you as you work so that you will read and take notes only on whats needed for y
2、our project. 二、Functions of Statement of Purpose1、Writing a statement of purpose will do4 things to help you: You will get more interested in your project. It will keep you from getting overwhelmed and panicky at all the information you may find. It will help you develop a Thesis Statement, which co
3、mes later on in the research process.It saves you valuable time and effort. 2、When and How to do it:After you focus your topic, after some overview reading, answer these questions for yourself as best as you can:1. What is my real personal interest in the topic?(There will always be something that c
4、an interest you)2. What do I specifically want to learn about my topic?(Dont overwhelm yourself with too many things. Two or three are plenty.) Start your Statement of Purpose with words like I want to learn about. For example: One person was very concerned about air pollution (what exactly about ai
5、r pollution?) and wanted to know if the government is doing anything to stop it.Her Statement of Purpose was this: I want to learn about what is being done by our government to stop air pollution.Her Thesis Statement may sound something like this: In the United States, government regulation plays an
6、 important role in the fight against air pollution. Or, conversely, United States government regulation has little effect in the fight against air pollution.Being Specific enough.A Bit Too GeneralMuch Better, More SpecificI want to learn about the Dalai Lama.I want to know what role the Dalai Lama p
7、lays as the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.I want to find out about teen gangs.I want to find out some ways to stop teen gang activity.I want to learn about teen pregnancy.I want to know how teenage pregnancy affects young fathers and young mothers differently.I want to learn about AIDS.I wa
8、nt to know how close we are to a cure for AIDS.三、What is Thesis Statement1、A thesis statement is a strong statement that you can prove with evidence. It is not a simple statement of fact. A thesis statement should be the product of your own critical thinking after you have done some research. . You
9、will present your thesis statement in your introduction, prove it with evidence in the body of your paper, project, or presentation, and finally restate it along with a summary of your evidence in your conclusion. 2、Research QuestionsSometimes students are asked or may prefer to pose a research ques
10、tion instead of a thesis statement. How would the above thesis statement be written as a research question?Look at the following thesis statement/ hypothesis and discuss with a partner whether it is a good thesis statement. If so, why? If not, why not? This dissertation will suggest that there are m
11、any problems in higher education.1. Can we write a good dissertation about problems in higher education in China?(At best, such a piece of work would be vague and scattered in its approach)2. Can we write a good dissertation about problems in higher education in Xian? (Well, were getting there, but
12、that is still an awfully big topic, something we might be able to do for a book or Ph.D)3. Can we write about problems within the universities student community in Xian?(Now were narrowing it down to something useful, but once we start writing we would find that we are leaving out so much informatio
13、n, so many ideas that even most casual brainstorming would produce, that were not accomplishing much.)4. What if we wrote about the problem that since there are so many middle class students in the universities student community in Xian, fewer places were available for students from poorer backgroun
14、ds? Now we have a focus that we can probably write about and it would have a good argumentative edge to it. To back up such a thesis statement would require a lot of work. However, and we might be better off if we limited the discussion the Xidian University and the Shaanxi Normal University as an e
15、xample of how difficult it is for poorer students to gain access higher education. Its not a matter of being lazy; its a matter of limiting our discussion to the work that can be accomplished within a certain number of pages.) THE PRINCIPLE TO REMEMBER IS THAT WHEN YOU TRY TO DO TOO MUCH, YOU END UP
16、 DOING LESS OR NOTHING AT ALL!四、How To Generate A Thesis Statement take on a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree deal with a subject that can be adequately treated given the nature of the general topic for the dissertation express one main idea (although it is also possible to have more than one) assert your conclusions a
