+ What makes a strong thesis?

A strong thesis does at least three things:

① Puts forth arguable or falsifiable claims

② Is explicit, readily identifiable, and appears early on in the paper

③ Directly responds to all of or a significant portion of the prompt with a sophisticated argument that is not self-evident

+ How do I make my argument readily identifiable?

A strong introduction does three things.

  • First, a strong introduction motivates the paper by telling the reader the question you are going to answer or the puzzle you are going to solve.

  • Second, it states the argument. You should be able to state your argument in no more than 1-2 very carefully thought out sentences – a good statement of the argument here is clear, precise, concise, and falsifiable. Your should clearly identify your independent variable, dependent variable, and often your mechanism here.

  • Third, a strong introduction often previews the rest of the paper by walking the reader, briefly, through what the remainder of the essay will do.

A reader should be able to read only your introduction and get a good sense of what the rest of the paper will look like. You should avoid including anything in the introduction that is not serving a clear purpose. This especially includes unnecessary “windup” or “throat-clearing.” As a rough rule of thumb, if your introduction is more than 5 or 6 sentences, you may want to look it over for excess or unnecessary material.

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+ How do I make my argument falsifiable?

Your argument is falsifiable when it is clear what evidence would prove it wrong. Falsifiable arguments often, though not always, make a causal claim about the effect of some independent variable (IV) on some dependent variable (DV).

While it may not always be obvious, most prompts are pushing you to make some causal claim about the effect of some IV on some DV.

Each step in your argument, from your IV to your mechanisms to your DV, is a claim that you can unpack and offer evidence for. In the diagram below, each of those steps is an arrow This can be a useful way to structure your essay.

Finally, it can be useful to think through the counterfactual that your argument implies. If your argument is that “X” causes “Y,” then you may want to tell the reader what happens when “not X”. This can be done at every step in your argument, and is diagrammed below in darker circles.

Example:

“I argue that democracy can be stable only with a strong civil society, because a strong civil society encourages norms of toleration that help political opponents work together.”

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