English 102 Your Name: Haoyu Yan

Research Task #4: Formal Thesis Statement (with brief outline)

Objectives:
• Demonstrate the process, creatively and grammatically, of crafting a thesis statement
• Solidify the thesis for your research paper.
• Draft a brief, preliminary outline for your paper.

Assignment Description:

**Important: read pages 3 and 4 of this assignment sheet before completing the questions below.**

Based on your topic as you have narrowed it and now envision it, and applying the suggestions below, write a formal thesis statement for your research paper. Please remember that research is an evolving process of discovery in which you derive an argument from the evidence you assemble. It is natural and expected if your ideas have changed somewhat as you completed more research since Task #1.

1. Topic (you may have refined this since Task #1; that’s okay): Animal hunting ___________________________________________________________________________________

2. Research Question (your general underlying question that drives your entire paper): __Should we hunt animal or not? ________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

3. Your general projected answer (an informal sentence or two to focus your thoughts): __Although some rare animals could be useful in medication or other fields, in contrast, it also destroyed the nature balance. And most hunter doing this just for their own interest such as selling further. __________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

4. The main claim you’ll be making (eventually, this will be expressed in the central independent clause of your thesis statement, i.e., the second half of your thesis): _ _Animals are our friends and a part of environment, we should protect them instead of hunting them. _____________________
______________________________________________________________________________

5. A general minor claim that sets up your main claim by providing a contrast (this will be expressed in a dependent clause in your formal thesis statement, i.e., the first half of your thesis): [Begin this claim with a word/phrase like although, despite the fact, while it is true that, etc.] _ Although it is possible to earn more money a by hunting animals. __________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

6. Thesis statement (a concise, formal statement of your claim in a single complex sentence that includes a dependent clause combined with an independent clause). To construct your one-sentence thesis statement, start your sentence with your answer for question 5 and end it with your answer to question 4 ___ Although it is possible to earn more money by hunting animals. It will cause these animals to disappear soon. Many rare animals are in danger of dying out. We may not see these animals in the near future. Animals are our friends and a part of environment, we should protect them instead of hunting them. _____________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
(Note: not every topic, nor every approach to a topic, lends itself to this type of thesis statement that starts with a minor contrasting claim. Just try it for this assignment; you aren’t required to have your contrasting claim in your thesis statement in your paper—it can be elsewhere. Also, while this assignment asks you to create a one-sentence thesis statement, some thesis statements need to be longer than one sentence for the sake of clarity.)

7. Incipient Outline: Provide below a very brief outline covering the main sections of your research paper.
(see sample at the end of page 4 of this assignment sheet)
1. People sell the animals to earn more money.
2. The rare animals are being over-exploited for its meat and skin, which are used in traditional medicine.
3. The number of rare animal species decrease faster and faster and this trend will continue.
4. Each animal in our natural is an important link in a food chain, Animal hunting breaks the balance of nature.

To Construct a Thesis Statement

1. Think about your research question. Answer it on the basis of your research. What can you assert as an answer to your research question?

2. Analyze the answer to your research question for the presence of a claim. What in it would prompt the reader to ask “why” or “how” or “Can you show me?” If you can’t locate a claim, ask another research question, and another and another, until you find one. If you cannot find a claim, you may not have a claim, which means that you don’t have a hypothesis; go back and ask more research questions.

3. Assemble the various parts of your claim into one statement. As you articulate the claims, use the principles of sentence construction (coordination and subordination) to indicate the logical relationships in which the various parts of your claim reside. For example, logically, it often makes sense to think of your major claim as being articulated by the independent clause of your statement, and a minor claim as being expressed by an introductory dependent clause.

4. Once you have determined that a claim is present, analyze your claim:
For its clarity: If you were the reader, would you have a clear sense of the claim?
For its provability on the basis of research: if it is based on purely personal preference, belief or opinion, it will not work as a research hypothesis.
For its workability: in light of the sources you have been able to find and in light of what those sources support.

5. Once you have a workable claim, refine its language to make it as clear and precise as possible:
• Use precise language.
• Use descriptive verbs (active voice) rather than forms of the verbs “to be” (passive voice) or “to have.”
• Avoid vague adjectives, such as “incredible” or “great.” Instead, use specific modifiers to describe nouns precisely.
• Use precise signal words and phrases, especially verbs and conjunctions or conjunctive adverbs, to pinpoint the logical relationships among the parts of your claim.
• Make sure the sentence structure of your thesis is in good working order, with all of the parts in correct grammatical and logical relation to all of the other parts.

Sample Process for Development of a Thesis Statement

Topic: the Japanese-American Internment.

Research Question: Why did the general American public go along with the internment of citizens during WWII?

Projected Answer: The majority of Americans were influenced by preexisting unconscious racism that was triggered by war time hysteria.

Minor Claim (dependent clause): Although it is possible to attribute the public’s silence about the internment of citizens during World War II to war fears about national security.

Major Claim (independent clause): A long history of racism against Japanese and Chinese Americans on the west coast suggests that racism was the underlying reason for the silence about fellow citizens’ loss of civil rights.

Thesis Statement: Although it is possible to attribute the public’s silence about the internment of citizens during World War II to war fears about national security, a long history of racism against Japanese and Chinese Americans on the west coast suggests that racism was a major reason for the silence about fellow citizens’ loss of civil rights.

Incipient Outline:
I. Evidence for and scope of the American public’s silence during the internment
II. National security issues surrounding the internment
III. History of racism against Japanese and other Asian Americans in the early 1900’s
IV. Racism as the underlying reason for the silence