Cleveland State University
EEC 414/503, ESC 720
Writing in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Lecture 5 – State Your Thesis
Dan Simon
State Your Thesis
• Thesis = Focus
– A one-sentence statement of the main message of
your report
• How to define a strong thesis statement
– You have your topic (topic  thesis)
– You have your sources and summaries
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State Your Thesis
What do you know about your topic?
Absolute view:
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History
Major subtopics
Cultural issues
Controversies
Contrasting theories or approaches
Current research directions
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State Your Thesis
What do you know about your topic?
Relative view:
• Under what classifications does your topic fall?
• What are some related topics?
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State Your Thesis
• Based on the following …
– What you know about your topic
– The questions you asked in your source summaries
• … ask a question you want to answer in your report
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The question must point to your references
The question must be challenging to you
The question must be interesting to you
The answer must fill 12 pages of text
The answer must be able to be summarized in one sentence
• The answer to your question is your thesis (focus)
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State Your Thesis
Qualities of a Good Thesis Question
• Requires explanation
– Not a yes/no question
– Not answerable with well-known facts
– Requires analysis, synthesis, experiment, etc.
• Specific – not too general
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Thesis Examples
Analyze the following thesis examples:
• Hydrogenated oils are bad for you.
• The government should regulate the use of hydrogenated oils
in fried fast foods because scientific studies have linked these
oils to cancer and heart disease.
• Hydrogenated oils deposit fatty acids and clog arteries.
• We should get the FDA to label every package of cookies with
the content of hydrogenated oils.
• Scientific studies link hydrogenated oils to cancer and heart
disease.
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Thesis Examples
Analyze the following thesis examples:
• Hydrogenated oils are bad for you. Too General
• The government should regulate the use of hydrogenated oils
in fried fast foods because scientific studies have linked these
oils to cancer and heart disease. Good
Too
• Hydrogenated oils deposit fatty acids and clog arteries. Factual
• We should get the FDA to label every package of cookies with
the content of hydrogenated oils. Too Informal
• Scientific studies link hydrogenated oils to cancer and heart
disease. Too
Factual
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Thesis Examples
Analyze the following thesis examples:
• Impedance control is better than position control for
prosthetic legs.
• Impedance control can optimize a wider range of cost
functions than position control in prosthetic legs.
• Prosthetic legs should be made more widely available in thirdworld countries.
• Prosthetic leg research is a waste of time because people
need to take better care of their own health so they don’t
have to get their legs amputated.
• Prosthetic legs have greatly advanced in capability since the
introduction of the microprocessor.
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Thesis Examples
Analyze the following thesis examples:
• Impedance control is better than position control for
prosthetic legs. Too General
• Impedance control can optimize a wider range of cost
functions than position control in prosthetic legs. Good
• Prosthetic legs should be made more widely available in thirdworld countries. Too General
• Prosthetic leg research is a waste of time because people
need to take better care of their own health so they don’t
have to get their legs amputated. Too Informal
• Prosthetic legs have greatly advanced in capability since the
introduction of the microprocessor. Too Factual
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Make Your Thesis Strong and Focused
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It should be a product of your literature review
It should be the answer to an interesting question
It should have a clear wider significance
It should be as short as possible, while still being long
enough to be specific
• It should be reworded five times to sharpen it – start
with a long thesis, and then try to shorten it
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Make Your Thesis Strong and Focused
• It should be interesting to your audience
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What does your audience know about your topic?
How does your audience feel about your topic?
Your audience is open-minded.
Your audience wants to learn.
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Thesis Examples
“Impedance control is good.”
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Thesis Examples
“Impedance control is good.”
• Too broad
• No criteria for “good”
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Thesis Examples
“I decided to research impedance control
because it is an interesting and important topic,
a lot of papers have been written about it, and I
think it can help a lot of amputees.”
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Thesis Examples
“I decided to research impedance control
because it is an interesting and important topic,
a lot of papers have been written about it, and I
think it can help a lot of amputees.”
• Too long
• Too personal
• Not formal enough
• Not specific enough
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Thesis Examples
“American students are prone to plagiarism in
their writing because of the laziness that is
inherent in American culture.”
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Thesis Examples
“American students are prone to plagiarism in
their writing because of the laziness that is
inherent in American culture.”
• Prejudicial and biased
• Too broad to make a strong case
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Thesis Examples
“There are big differences between the ADRC
and PID control approaches.”
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Thesis Examples
“There are big differences between the ADRC
and PID control approaches.”
• Too general
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Thesis Examples
“Model-free control is a way to control an
engineering system without having a
mathematical model for the system.”
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Thesis Examples
“Model-free control is a way to control an
engineering system without having a
mathematical model for the system.”
• Too factual
• Does not include the writer’s viewpoint
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State Your Thesis
Your thesis can include broader implications
• The government should regulate the use of
hydrogenated oils in fried fast foods because
scientific studies have linked these oils to cancer and
heart disease.
• Impedance control can optimize a wider range of
cost functions than position control, and is thus a
more flexible and effective control method for
prosthetic legs.
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Acknowledgments
• CSU Writing Center
www.csuohio.edu/academic/writingcenter
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