Thesis: Discrimination Against Japanese Americans

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History Research Paper Thesis ● What is a thesis? The thesis statement is one of the (if not the) most important parts of your paper. It should be introduced in the first paragraph and serve as the focus of your analytic argument. Think of the thesis statement as a contract between you (the writer) and the reader. The thesis makes certain promises to your reader; it then becomes your job to fulfill that promise using specific details and analysis. The more specific your promise, the easier it will be to find specific evidence to support your argument. Thesis statements are NOT formulas. Successful theses provoke thought, they read beautifully, they provide analysis of an idea or event, and they consider a specific issue. Your thesis…show more content…
Start with a topic, such as discrimination against Japanese Americans during World War II. (Note that this is a very general area of interest. At this stage, it is utterly unguided. You cannot write a paper on this topic, because you have no path into the material.) 2. Develop a question around it, as in "why did government officials allow discrimination against Japanese Americans?" (You now have a question that helps you probe your topic; your efforts have a direction, which is answering the question you have posed for yourself. Note that there are a great many questions which you might ask of your general topic. You should expect in the course of your research to consider many such possibilities. Which ones are the most interesting? Which ones are possible given the constraints of the assignment?) 3. Develop a unique perspective on your question which answers it: Government officials allowed discrimination against Japanese Americans not because it was in the nation's interest, but because it provided a concrete enemy for people to focus on. (This is a thesis statement. You have answered the question you posed, and done so with a rather concrete and specific statement. Your answer offers a novel and thoughtful way of thinking about the material. Once the terms of the thesis are clarified [what was the "national interest"; what was the meaning and value of having "a concrete enemy for people to focus on"?], you are on your way to a solid…show more content…
Civil War severely damaged the entire nation. [Nothing technically “wrong” with this thesis, but it’s really boring! This is a great place to start with a thesis statement; then expand and/or finesse the what? how? and why? components.] The reader-response thesis (as an unhelpful way of dealing with the “so what?”): Bell Irvin Wiley, in The Life of Johnny Reb, shows how the common soldier dealt with the war to get the reader to understand that the war was about more than politics and politicians. [All texts are addressed somehow to readers. This is not an analytical point.] Successful thesis: In both its geography and its brutality, the U.S. Civil War remains vastly different from other conflicts experience by Americans in the past three centuries. Specifically, the widespread impact of the war on the citizenry, the economy, and the landscape proves that the importance of the Civil War lies as much on the home front as it does on the battlefield. Why is it successful? - It’s specific. - It addresses a potential contradiction and is arguable. - It provides a logical way to structure the argument. - It’s fairly daring intellectually and has an interesting “so what?” - Can you identify the various
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