Chapter 4: From Thesis to Essay
Your Turn!
Activity
Now that you have completed your self evaluation, do another revision of your three storey thesis wherein you address the issues that you have flagged thus far while also paying special attention to the compact and complex language that you should be using. After you have finished rewriting your thesis, read it aloud to check for any awkward phrasing that prohibits the logical flow of your argument.
While performing your evaluation of your three-storey thesis, you likely noticed that some of the questions were repetitions from the evaluation you did in response to your two-storey thesis in Chapter 2. That’s fine! It is good to revisit what you have written, especially given that you have likely been making small changes as you read and re-write. You also likely noticed that there were a number of new questions added; in particular, there is a whole section dedicated to your third storey.
Editing the Third Storey
Now that we are getting ready to edit and rewrite our three-storey thesis, use these questions to guide your evaluation. In particular, focus on whether your third storey is adding to the complex argument established in your second storey. If the third storey repeats the second storey, it is likely due to one of two problems:
- The second storey is not complex enough and so the writer uses the third storey to make it more complex. Instead, the second storey needs to be made more complex and then the third storey needs to be added on top.
- The writer is not addressing the potential consequences and results of the analysis proposed in the second storey.
As you rewrite your thesis statement make sure that the third storey extends your proposed analysis of the author’s argument to consider the large scope and scale of that initial argument. This will likely mean returning to the text and adding another key word or phrase to help you arrive at at the expanded scope of the author’s complex argument. Return to your initial list of observations and see if there is not another piece of specific evidence that can help you better address the potential consequences and results of the analysis proposed in the second storey.
Lastly, ensure that your third storey follows and extends logically from the second storey. The third storey should not be going off in a whole new direction. Instead, think of the third storey as taking the first two storeys and opening them up to the larger examination of the author’s argument. Remember that you are always analyzing the author’s complex argument so the focus and purpose of the first two storeys should still be present in the last storey.