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ONCE AGAIN, IN CASE YOU FORGOT, HERE IS THE ASSIGNMENT:
You will need to check the source of the statistic, whether you think it is being manipulated and why, and determine a context to understand the current relevance of the topic. What are the historical, cultural, economic and/or scientific circumstances that inspired the listing in Harper's Index, and how do you think the listing should be understood? What implications or bearings does the situation have for our times? What are some of the results or consequences of this situation in the world today? How do you relate to this subject? (That is, do you have any opinions as a result of your research?) You will need to write a paper that explains the topic, analyzes information about it and develops an understanding of the issue. |
Your thesis statement (which you articulated in the course of your proposal) indicates the purpose of your entire paper. The questions above suggest different information that the paper should include to give a complete picture of your thesis. Depending on your topic, not all these questions are of equal weight or even relevant, so decide where you need to focus.
To explain how to divide your topic, I took some examples from the July 2005 Harper’s Index. Here are two statistics that are linked (Harper’s often links statistics) and so you may want to treat both of them in your paper.
| Annual cost of all sixteen U.N. peacekeeping missions currently underway : $3,870,000,000[United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (N.Y.C.)] |
| Monthly cost of the U.S. occupation of Iraq : $4,100,000,000 |
Let us say that after you did your pre research writing on these statistics, you realized that your real interest here is your suspicion that the US is not prudent in its military spending; that is, you think our government constantly allows itself to be overbilled by suppliers because of corruption and cronyism. You think that the statistics above, which show the US spends more per month occupying Iraq than the current sixteen UN peacekeeping missions spend per year are a perfect illustration of this. So, your current thesis is:
"The US government cynically wastes money on the military, enriching corporations and well-connected people at the expense of US taxpayers and social programs. The government gets away with this because during wartime few people want to question military spending for fear of seeming unpatriotic and unsupportive of US troops. "
Yes, that thesis statement packs a lot of information, and is, in fact, two sentences. But a specifically worded thesis statement makes is MUCH easier to write your paper. And then breaking it down into sections makes sure you create a coherent essay.
For example, for the paper above, you can't just begin writing about anything and everything relating to military spending, shoving it all onto your computer screen. Instead, you must divide your project into separate but related parts, smaller parts that you can complete one at a time.
The first part might describe HOW BAD THE PROBLEM of military overspending is in the US by presenting some evidence that this is, in fact, likely taking place. An argument this strong requires more than one example, and you need to find sources as reliable as possible. You might do some investigating yourself. (What? The government pays 600 dollars for a hammer? Why not go to ACE Hardware?)
The second part might tackle the history of military overspending in the US. How are budgets decided? How do contracts get awarded?
The third part might deal with MEASURES TAKEN to deal with the problem in the last ___ years. Has there been any outcry about this corruption? And what has happened to the protests?
And the fourth part might speculate WHAT THE FUTURE LOOKS LIKE as far as military overspending in the US is concerned.
Why 4 mini sections? Well, you could divide a paper into 3, or 5, or even 6.. But less than three would make the paper's parts too large and unmanageable, and more than 6 or 7 would be over-challenging both the reading process and the audience's attention and comprehension tolerance for an essay (any more parts and you'd be into compositions of book proportions).
How do you decide what each section will be about? That is usually determined by the key or controlling word in your thesis (the opinion word), and by what you learn as you read another book chapter or periodical about your chosen topic.
For a different (and lighter) example let’s say you chose this statistic (from April 2005):
| Minimum number of octopuses catapulted in protest at a French McDonald's last year: 10[Jacques Isoird, Assemblé Nationale (Paris) |
Let's say your thesis is "The French have elevated protest to an art form." Here are some possible topics that could support your thesis:
| The French tradition of doing everything with style (food, clothes, celebrations—non-protest examples.) |
| A history of French style in protest (maybe beginning with Joan of Arc, the later throwing of cake at Marie Antoinette, etc. The thing here, since your thesis is obviously a bit tongue in cheek, is to reinterpret French protest events by finding the bit of "art" you can attribute to them. You might contrast these with unartistic , non-French protests. |
| An analysis of the current protest: What do French have against McDonald’s? Would they really prefer an octopus burger?. |
| Why throwing an octopus is less effective than throwing a grenade |
| Why artistic protests are doomed to fail; why love of failure is considered artistic and therefore appeals to the French. |
| Why the rest of the world no longer takes the French seriously |
Clearly, you can have some fun with this topic, but you still need to ground it in real research and provide an analysis that works in the context you’ve created. And of the last three possible topics, you might eliminate two of them and still have a viable four-part essay.