Go: daily assignment (thesis)

Although this is labeled as a daily assignment, it does have the potential to increase your grade on your research paper.

1. In your e-mail to me, copy down your thesis from your research paper.

2. Assess your thesis. Is it appropriate for a thesis paper? Does it force you to relate your topic to issues of values? Does it say something specific that is interesting or surprising? Is it worth arguing, or is it already self-evident without even reading the paper? Is the language powerful?

3. Draft a new (and better) thesis based on your research topic. You need not have provided evidence for this thesis in your paper, nor will you be asked to provide evidence. Think of this as the thesis you would have written if you had it all to do over again from the start.

4. Lastly, please state what additional research you did on your topic since you did your presentation a month ago.

Sample theses from last year's fts entitled, "Money"

• (Tulip bubble) The unusual and rapid economic success along with a weak government led the Dutch to believe they were invincible, which ultimately gave rise to rash decisions in the futures market.

  Nice thesis: Specific, an interesting cause and effect relationship. Worth arguing, since it's not at all obvious that these are the primary causes of the tulip bubble.

• The natural resources of Sweden impacted the currency more than the political systems running the nation, which facilitated the disruption of many unions it would be a part of.

  OK thesis. The notion that natural resources mattered more than politics was worth arguing. The next step, the word "facilitated" doesn't specify the nature of the cause and effect all that specifically, so that would need to be spelled out in a nearby sentence.

• In fact, the drive to obtain platinum pieces in Everquest has created a cycle that produces both in-game and real-life benefits, but also causes a dangerous, nearly debilitating addiction to the game among those who play it.

  What makes this thesis good is that Everquest is a big game, and platinum pieces is only one goal. So the student had to argue that this particular goal trumped the others.

• The currency in Germany caused a psychological effect on the people ultimately allowing Hitler to rise to power.

  This thesis is weaker. The words, "pschological effect," are too vague, and the work "allowing" is a bit weak. These are sufficiently non-commital that it's hard to imagine an opposing viewpoint.

• Security of property has become an all important issue in the United States; therefore with the proper security implementations, digital money could become a mainstay currency of large and small transactions negating the use of physical money.

  This is a less interesting thesis. There isn't much surprise, and it's not that bold a prediction. To make this paper compelling, the author will need to provide very strong evidence that people will be eager to give up paper money. But once such a paper is written, the thesis can be strenghened to identify how and why this transition will take place.

• The perception of currency influenced societal instability in the Weimar Republic; equally it can account for the societal stability of modern day Germany.

  It's this last clause that is surprising here.

• The Bank of International Art Money (BIAM) and its currency have brought a greater interest to Danish art and culture than the Danish Golden Age of Art ever did.

  This thesis is reasonably simple (in terms of cause and effect), but it's quite surprising. One wonder how the author is going to convince the reader that a major historic time period is less important than this recent curiosity.

• (Beannie baby and tulip bubbles.) The connection between these two fads is that people of the time traded the product as if it was currency, and that both fads ignited some pretty strange behavior in the community.

  Theis thesis is weak because the relationship between the two ideas isn't very compelling. So, they were both fads... so what.