Writing Your Term Paper U.S. History III

Formulating Your Thesis An analytical paper breaks down an issue or an idea into its component parts, evaluates the issue or idea, and presents this breakdown and evaluation to the audience. Your thesis statement should be specific— it should cover only what you will discuss in your paper and should be supported with specific evidence.

Formulating Your Thesis Your topic may change as you write, so you may need to revise your thesis statement to reflect exactly what you have discussed in the paper. The thesis statement usually appears at the end of the first paragraph of a paper.

Why do I need a thesis statement? It is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect from the rest of the paper. It 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; a thesis must then offer a way to understand the war.

Example: Topic - Compare and contrast the reasons why the North and South fought the Civil War.

BAD THESIS The North and South fought the Civil War for many reasons, some of which were the same and some different. Why is this bad? VAGUE RESTATES THE QUESTION WITHOUT ANY FURTHER INFORMATION DOESN’T TELL ME WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO WRITE ABOUT – NO ROAD MAP

GOOD THESIS While both Northerners and Southerners believed they fought against tyranny and oppression, Northerners focused on the oppression of slaves while Southerners defended their own right to self-government. Why is this GOOD? Specific (but not TOO specific) Roadmap for your paper – I can see your three body paragraphs Clearly answers the question

Paper Requirements Thesis Outline Sources (printed from Internet, notecard with book sources) Paper with proper formatting and citations Cover Page Works Cited Page

It’s Bad

What is Plagiarism? Using another person’s thoughts or ideas without giving them credit Making it look like your own How do you avoid it? Use citations NOT JUST DIRECT QUOTES Cite anything you took from a source, even if you reworded it Your own analysis does not need to be cited – someone else’s does

When do I need to cite my source? You need to cite your source, even if: you put all direct quotes in quotation marks. you changed the words used by the author into synonyms. you completely paraphrased the ideas to which you referred. your sentence is mostly made up of your own thoughts, but contains a reference to the author’s ideas. you mention the author’s name in the sentence.

What if I don’t cite my sources? You have plagiarized Form of cheating Score of zero and disciplinary action Reported to NHS if applicable When in doubt, cite!