In the last lesson, you read about the stages in the writing process. In this lesson, we'll return to those stages and also learn about the research process. Understanding both is important as you build the foundation upon which the rest of the MTL program is built. You will be spending the rest of this course - and the entire MTL program - engaged in these two processes.
Recall that the pre-writing stage is where you develop your ideas, visit the library, do background reading, take notes, and refine your ideas. An important part of of that phase is to begin thinking about a thesis statement for you paper. Before continuing in this lesson, let's think about how to define "thesis statement." How would you describe it?
The Internet has many definitions for thesis statement. Take a look at some definitions of thesis statements on the Web. To do that, visit the Google search engine and type define: thesis statement in the search box. Review the results. In your writing assignments, you should pay close attention to your thesis statement because it guides the writing for the rest of that assignment.
In the the last lesson, you may have visited University of Maryland University College's Chapter Two of the Online Guide to Writing and Research. Please return to the section on writing a thesis statement to take a more detailed look at the thesis statement now.
Review your understanding of the REACH Model from lesson 2 and begin to think about a topic you might like to address in your research paper. Your topic should relate to one of the components of the REACH model, but a very narrow slice. To help you narrow and overwhelming broad topic, such as Effectiveness, consider looking looking for intersections between the component that most interests you and something else that is interesting. For example, you might want to explore the effectiveness of a particular teaching strategy within your own discipline. Another option is to research the effectiveness of a specific teacher behavior in communicating with parents. You could also specify a particular age of children and examine the effectiveness of a particular reinforcement strategy in changing behaviors. The possibilities are endless. Once you have identified an area of interest, think about the direction you'd like to take in your investigation. What is a possible thesis statement? You can revise it later, but identifying an area of interest will focus your activities in the next lesson. This would also be a good time to set up a "Research Log" or method of keeping track of your ideas and progress as you develop your projects throughout the course.
If you'd like more help on writing a thesis statement, you can work through this brief tutorial from The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. It offers advice for developing a thesis statement.
As an MTL student, you will also participate in the research process. To be honest, you'll find there is a lot of overlap between the writing process and the research process. Be sure you're familiar with both to guide you through the rest of this semester and subsequent semesters. The library at Cornell University has developed a clear and easy-to-follow tutorial on the research process. Take a look at it now, but know that we'll revisit several of the phases over the coming weeks.
| Many thanks to the Graphics Communications classes at City College of San Francisco for making the icons used on this page and for making them publicly available. |