Working Thesis: What is it?
A working thesis is a rough draft for your paper's final thesis--it's a short, simple sentence meant to be revised when you're done writing. Think of it as a jumping off point for your paper: it gives you the basic direction of where your argument is going to go, but still gives your ideas to grow, evolve, and even change course while you're writing.
When do I use it?
Use it when you have a basic topic in mind for your paper, but you're not sure exactly where you want to go with it. By writing your first draft with a working thesis, you'll be able to flesh our your ideas about the topic while you're writing and develop an argument. This is your chance to explore; you can revise your final thesis afterwards.
How does it work?
Say you want to write a persuasive essay against reality television but you don't know what your specific argument is. You might start our with a working thesis like this:
Reality television is harmful because it warps its audience's idea of reality.
While it's pretty vague, the above statement is still specific enough to get a paper started. It opens up a range of possibilities for the direction of your paper, especially if you're actively asking yourself questions and trying to answer them while writing.
Exploring your thesis
You might ask yourself some of these questions while writing with the this thesis:
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Did you find your writing heading in a certain direction during your draft? Look over your draft and see if you can pick out a new, more specific argument emerging--then revise your thesis so it reflects your new ideas. You can use this new thesis to revise the rest of your paper.
Narrowing it down
Depending on what questions you asked during your reality television draft and how you answered them, you might end up with a final thesis that looks like one of these:
The list is endless! |
It's possible you didn't expect to make one of these arguments at the beginning; maybe it unfolded naturally when you were writing, or maybe you went in a few directions during your rough draft and you narrowed it down to one of these topics afterwards. Remember: a thesis doesn't have to be concrete when you start to write. Like a rough draft, it's constantly in construction and can be played with and revised as many times as you want--even after you've already written your paper.