Developing a Thesis Statement for a Paper

FYS 100Creative Discovery in Digital Art Forms

Fall 2008Burg

Choosing a Topic

Choosing a topic for a paper is one of the most important parts of writing.

You have to choose something that you can talk about specifically, concretely, vividly, and interestingly.

Thesis Statement

A thesis for a paper is the main point of the paper.

You should be sure that your paper has a thesis.

A thesis statement is one sentence that explicitly expresses the main point. (Sometimes the thesis can be expressed more clearly in more than one sentence.)

Where do you put the thesis statement?

A traditional way to organize a paper is to make the thesis statement the last sentence of the introduction.

Everything in the introduction before the thesis statement leads the readers to the main point.

Developing a Thesis Statement for your Research Paper

The general topic area of your research is “creativity in digital media.”

The general question is this: Is computer-generated art less creative than traditional

art? Does the computer take over the creative process too

much? Does the computer make things “too easy,” so that you

don’t really have to exercise your creativity to make something that can be called “art”?

A Possible Thesis Statement

Thesis statement: There are lots of possibilities for creativity in digital

media. Critique of this thesis statement:

Expressed very informally. Not very exciting in the way it’s expressed. It would be easy to illustrate this with concrete, specific

examples. It might be too general. Should it be focused on one

medium – e.g., digital photography, digital drawing and painting, or digital music production?

A Possible Thesis Statement

Thesis statement: Being creative in digital media involves bringing art and

science together in innovative and fascinating ways. Critique of this thesis statement:

It’s expressed in a more interesting way than the last one.

You’d have to be careful in your examples. If you talk about the science, you don’t want to do it in a superficial way, and you need to be correct.

There are lots of interesting examples in this area, but you’d have to dig them out.

A Possible Thesis Statement

Thesis statement: “Art” can be created by either digital or traditional

means. What makes art “art” isn’t the tool that is used, but the creativity of the artist.

Critique of this thesis statement: This is a good point. “What makes art ‘art’” is difficult to pin down. You’d

have to be careful not to end up with a bunch of glittering generalities.

You’d need concrete examples and specific language,even though the ideas are abstract.

A Possible Thesis Statement

Thesis statement: The work of … exemplifies the creative possibilities of digital art (or digital music production).

Critique of this thesis statement: It’s more focused than the others, which is good. You’d need to find specific supporting details from the

artist’s work. You’d need to talk specifically about the digital

techniques that this artist uses and the ways in which his or her creativity is employed.

Can you write at least ten pages about this?

A Possible Thesis Statement

Thesis statement: Some people think that using prefabricated loops in music

production is “cheating.” Actually, there are many ways in which a musician can use loops creatively.

Critique of this thesis statement: It’s focused and specific, which is good. It’s an interesting point that not all readers will already know

about. You’d have to know a good bit about loops and how they are

used creatively in order to get at least ten pages out of this topic.

It would be good to illustrate this with specific musicians, but it might be difficult to know if they actually used pre-fabricated loops or created their own.

What to do? Any of the ideas just presented could work for your research

paper. You need to refine the ideas. Be sure you have lots of supporting details that are

Specific Concrete Vivid Convincing Relevant

Don’t just write a bunch of glittering generalities! Make abstract ideas as clear and concrete as possible. Use

Explicit language Examples Metaphors and analogies