I will be immensely thankful when Thursday arrives not just because thankfulness is the order of the day but because by Thursday I will be done reading and responding to the latest pile of student drafts. Many of them are quite good and even the mediocre ones have luminous moments, but every semester at about this time I find myself wondering where I have gone wrong. Why do I have so much trouble getting students to write arguable thesis statements?
The concept is simple enough: if the thesis is arguable, that means it must be possible for someone to disagree. "Herman Melville wrote about Ahab's quest for the white whale" is about as obvious an insipid a statement as can possibly be made about Moby Dick, but it fails as a thesis primarily because it is not arguable. How could anyone disagree? "No he didn't! Melville wasn't writing about Ahab's quest for the whale at all!" (That might make an interesting paper, actually.)
Adding the phrase "I believe" to the beginning of the sentence makes it even worse: "I believe that Herman Melville wrote about Ahab's quest for the white whale." How would you argue with that? "No you don't! I know for a fact that you're just pretending to believe it so you can pass the class! You haven't even read the book!"
Even worse is adding the phrase "I argue" to a point that argues nothing: "In this essay, I argue that Herman Melville wrote about Ahab's quest for the white whale." That's like saying, "I argue that water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen" or "I argue that two plus two equals four." Where is the argument? I'd be more interesting in hearing the opposing view!
A popular composition textbook is titled Everything's an Argument, and of course I see the point: content, genre, format, structure, and many other elements contribute to the rhetorical effectiveness of any text, written or otherwise. No argument with that. However, when I ask for an arguable thesis, I'd like to see a thesis that actually argues. Adding "I argue" to a statement so obvious only a cretin (or certain kinds of genius) would disagree cannot rescue an insipid thesis.
That's my story and I'm sticking with it. Feel free to disagree.
3 comments:
I like how my students understand thesis statements: Instead of saying "it's something with which a person can disagree" they say "it is disagreeable." And I argue we've seen many of those!
Dr. Hogue,
As I continue to trudge through my first year of teaching 7th grade Reading class, I had to let you know how much this post resonates with me!! I am always asking myself those same questions, but on a much lower level.
For my students, comprehension and retention is the goal after reading a very short story. It's maddening when I teach the students some strategies for remembering and understanding what they read time and time again, only to have them flunk the EASY, straight-forward test. It's quite a change from college English (which I miss dearly) where we were able to analyze everything.
Just thought I would share with you my struggles as a teacher as they as quite similar to your struggles on a much lower level. I feel your pain in this area!!!
Hope all is well!! :-)
It's good to know you're out there doing the good work! Keep at it! But I wonder how much of the problem arises because many students simply don't value reading books when, as a student once told me, "You can get the same information more easily from a movie."
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