In Master Leaders Course Distributive Learning you will be given a topic to research and write about for our
individual writing assignment.
There will be a case study provided for you and you will have to research three
additional schollarly sources.
In Week 1 you will be required to submit an Outline and Thesis Statement for the
facilitator to approve.
What is a thesis statement?
A Thesis Statement:
- Tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion.
- Is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper.
- Directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay might be World War II or Moby Dick; a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war or the novel.
- Makes a claim that others might dispute.
- Is usually a single sentence near the beginning of your paper (most often, at the end of the first paragraph)that presents your argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your interpretation.
Questions to Ask Yourself
- Have I taken a position that others might challenge or oppose? If your thesis simply states facts that no one would, or even could, disagree with, it is possible that you are simply providing a summary, rather than making an argument.
- Is my thesis statement specific enough? Thesis statements that are too vague often do not have a strong argument. If your thesis contains words like good or successful, see if you could be more specific: why is something good, what specifically makes something successful?
- Does my thesis pass the So what? test? If a readers first response is likely to be So what? then you need to clarify, to forge a relationship, or to connect to a larger issue.