How to develop and argumentative Masters thesis

[Haifa]

Am so frustrated : ( and sad i just got feedbac from my MA supervisor and wasn't that good. he said my work is just compilation of infos and descriptive and it fails to be argumentative I do not know what to do please help am so frustrated  

[Lisa44201]

Without seeing your proposal, it's sort of hard to give advice. Perhaps you should schedule a meeting with your adviser.

[Zorah]

Don't just summarize the articles. Weave the articles together through a narrative thread based on a point of view. What do you want the readers to believe after reading your document?

[Guest |||]

Without reading the paper, knowing what field you are in, or what the expectations are, it is hard to give advise.

 

However consider the basic example

 

You can state facts very dryly

 

University application numbers have increased 5%, average classroom attendence decreased 5%, local liqour store sales have increased 10% and student debt has debt has increased 10%.

 

So, you have some facts, now, consider a silly narrative.

 

More and more students are going to university to get boozed up.  Take the fact that classroom attedence is down and that liquor store sales have increased in the area, where are our students if not in the classes - perhaps busy drinking away the days.  Not only though are more students skipping class, but student debt has increased as well and why would students be all the more cash strapped these recent years?  Because instead of paying off their tuition, they are drinking away their finances and are forced to take out more loans and debt!  etc etc etc.

 

So its silly and not the best argument, but consider another view

 

More and more people are interested in a post-secondary education.  As we can see, there has been an increase in student debt as more and more students are willing to borrow money in order to attend university, and with this application numbers to our university have sky-rocketed.  However, our studious and invested students are quickly fleeting away on discovering that our neighborhood is nothing like the pamphlet pictures and brochures.  Instead they realize local alcoholism, including many faculty and professors, is a serious problem, so much that some professors no longer show up for lecture leading to a decline in overall student attendence.  If we do not address this problem, then etc etc etc.

 

 

So in either case we can take the facts and try to put some sort of silly narrative spin on it, once we reach a point where the narrative seems probable and justified, we might have a sound argument.

[rising_star]

What is the point you're using the descriptive information to argue? Once you have that in mind, use it to structure and frame the descriptive info. Basically a literature review isn't meant to be an exhaustive recitation of the main points of every article in your field. It's meant to be a summary that builds up an argument (usually that we know A, B, and C, but what we don't know is D, which is really surprising and what the point of this study is).

[Zorah]

On the practical side, I find it works to first read all of the relevant articles and put them aside and then just write your paper from your head. After you're done writing from head, use the articles to pull citations to support your argument. 

[yhakak]

I think that's a good approach in general, but not necessarily for a thesis, which might be too long for that sort of thing, but it's certainly a way to work if you do it chapter by chapter...

 

 

On the practical side, I find it works to first read all of the relevant articles and put them aside and then just write your paper from your head. After you're done writing from head, use the articles to pull citations to support your argument. 

[danieleWrites]

Since you've essentially got what amounts to an explanation of what other people think on the topic, (an explanatory synthesis); your next step is to take a position. Take a stand. What is your opinion on the subject? That's kind of the next step, in a way. Moving from the explanatory synthesis (an explanation of the current discourse on the subject, aka, review of the literature) to an argumentative synthesis (google that, too).

 

However, the bigger problem you have is one of invention (the first of Aristotle's Five Rhetorical Canons). You went into your thesis without an argument, also known as a claim, or a purpose for the research. In the English field, you're not testing hypotheses, but you are making a claim that you will support with supporting argument and supporting evidence, all backed by one or more theoretical perspectives. So, go back to invention. You've read the critical literature on your topic, now brainstorm, or free write, or loop, or cluster, or whatever it is that you do to generate ideas, and figure out your opinion on the subject. Many people find it helpful to start with questions. Examples: Is Shakespeare really the most important British writer? Is the Oxford comma proper grammar? Should college students in a composition course choose their own topics to write about for major papers or should those topics be assigned? Is it pronounced new-kew-ler or new-clee-er? Answers to controversial questions that you're interested in (Yes, it is grammatically correct to say "to boldly go where no one has gone before"! Thtpthpt on you Byron!) tend to present arguments that you'll want to defend. Take your stand and defend it.

 

A college student is supposed to be able to go out and do research on a topic, collect a variety of information from a variety of sources, organize the information, evaluate the information, and generate a position (stance, hypothesis, argument) that they can successfully argue in concise, academic language. There are how to manuals on writing argumentative papers (a thesis is just a large argumentative paper) that you can get from the library or purchase. You can hit the OWL at Purdue (owl.english.purdue.edu) and find all kinds of help on writing.

[yatto]

To figure out how to write a good article, read tons of good articles; to figure out how to write a good short story, read tons of good short stories; to figure out how to write a good master's thesis, try reading some great master's theses in your field (or at least skim them for structure and to see how they develop and maintain their arguments)! Look in particular for the ones which have won awards (departmental or otherwise) and the ones written by people who would go on to be tenured/tenure-track professors. 

[DissertationCoach]

In your school's library, there should be a section on the shelves where approved theses are stored.

 

Look for recently approved theses, preferably chaired by your supervisor - or at least in your department.

 

If you read them carefully, they will give you important clues. Use them as guidelines in constructing your own thesis.