Hi, I'm Ellen.
In this video,
I'll talk about research questions and
thesis statements in academic essays.
Academic essays differ from
other types of essays because
instead of addressing topics,
they deal with problems or questions.
Your job as the author of
an essay is to identify one or
more specific problems or
questions to address.
It's important to keep in mind your target
audience when identifying these questions.
Will your target audience find
these questions interesting?
Ask yourself whether problems or questions
you come up with are significant.
In an academic essay,
you shouldn't try to present everything
you know about a topic but rather look for
evidence that helps you to answer
your question or solve your problem.
The questions that you identify
are called research questions.
Identifying these research
questions involves,
in a way, identifying a gap in knowledge,
and then attempting to fill this gap.
But how do you know if your
research question is interesting or
significant to your target audience?
An interesting and
significant research question
is one that leads to something
that is new to the audience or
something that they cannot find by
merely consulting an encyclopedia.
A good research question will
also need to be problematic.
This means that the research question
should lead to a claim that is debatable.
What I mean by a debatable claim is an
assertion that could either be accepted or denied.
Just because you argue for
one particular answer to the question or
solution to the problem, it doesn't mean
that they aren't other possible answers or
solutions out there.
Your job as an author is to
respond to your problem or
question by proposing a solution in
the form of an assertion or claim.
It is up to you to persuade the target
audience that the assertion or
claim that you make is worthwhile and
backed up by evidence.
Not all questions that you can ask
about your topic are problematic.
What I mean by this is that some questions
lead to answers which are either right or
wrong and therefore, not debatable.
Take the following example, for instance,
asking a question along the lines of,
what were the events in the Wars
of the Roses in the 15th century,
can be answered by merely listing
a series of historical events.
A list of historical
events can't be denied.
What's the point of trying to convince
your audience of something that
is already fact?
The same goes for questions such as
what's the capital city of Denmark?
The answer, Copenhagen, cannot be denied.
At least, not after members of your target
audience have consulted an encyclopedia.
Let's talk a little now about providing
an answer to your research question.
The claim that you will
need to make in your essay,
the claim that can either be accepted or
denied, is called the "central idea".
Another term for
this is the "thesis statement".
Thesis statement is a sentence that
presents your position on the topic and
predicts how the topic will be developed,
as well as revealing
your stance on the topic.
It also functions as
a guide to your reader.
Your thesis statement can function
as a kind of road map to your essay.
This road map or blueprint predicts
the scope, the purpose, and
the direction of your essay.
Having a strong thesis statement shows
your audience that you have a clear idea
of how you want your essay to deal with
the topic in terms of solving a problem or
answering a question.
In other words, in terms of a claim that
you have carefully thought through and
that you can justify with
the help of evidence.
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