Thesis Writing

TUT 100.32 - Virtue in Animal and Machine - Professor Weinman

Summary:: You will write a thesis statement synthesizing some ideas from our readings.
Purpose:

To think about what makes a thesis good and compelling
To practice writing good thesis statements

Due:: Tuesday 21 September
Turn In:: Bring four (4) printed copies of your thesis to class. (Since they are short, you may want to place them on one page and cut them apart for sharing in order to save paper).

Background

Read Professor Simpson's "Five Ways of Looking at a Thesis." While this is generally a fantastic set of guidelines, please heed his warning that, in particular, number four is very much unique to literary criticism. You won't be exploring particular text, but some idea in general.
(Re-)Read sections of Williams and McEnerny's guide to college writing:
- Another key feature of college writing: what's your point?
- But what's a good point?

Assignment

While Williams and McEnerny say that writing your point does not happen until after you have written, it still behooves us to practice crafting points, since ideas are the currency of scholarship. After all, you share points that have likely arisen during your reading in our class discussions quite regularly.

Write a thesis statement that synthesizes the material from Wild Justice and Moral Machines that we have read so far in some novel way. For instance, you might

play one's claims off the other's
generalize some ideas to teach us something new
counter an argument common between them

or perhaps something else entirely. In crafting both the content and execution of your statement, the result should exhibit the strengths of good theses described by Simpson and Williams and McEnerney.