Academic Argument: an evidence-based defense of a non-obvious position on a complex issue.

Dennis G. Jerz / 10 Dec 2019

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Weak: Personal Intro. Strong: Blueprint, introducing supporting points. Weak: string of stand-alone paragraphs. Strong: Transitions develop complex conclusions. Weak: Last sentence introduces synthesis for the first time; no room to develop it. Strong: Conclusion synthesizes original ideas that have been part of the paper all along.

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Academic Argument: Evidence-based Defense of a Non-obvious Position

Academic Argument: Evidence-based Defense of a Non-obvious Position

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2 thoughts on “Academic Argument: an evidence-based defense of a non-obvious position on a complex issue.”

shirley says:
20 Sep 2021 at 10:45 am
is a thesis statement a statement of facts that soon will develop in the body of the essay?
Reply
- Dennis G. Jerz says:
  20 Sep 2021 at 2:10 pm
  I don’t usually assign writing tasks where the author’s job is simply to state a fact.
  This page is about taking a side and demonstrating why the evidence supports your side more than your opponent’s side. In order for it to be a thesis there has to be a reasonable antithesis — an opposing view, that a reasonable person who looked at the same issue might actually take, with at least some credible evidence in favor of that position. If there were just one obviously correct factual answer there would be nothing to debate. But if your writing task is simply to state facts and defend them, I’d say what you have described is a topic, not a thesis. But I won’t be marking your paper, so my opinion only matters so much.
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