Program / Course 23: Research Methodology / Lesson 1.3
What you will learn
- Define a thesis and a working thesis, and explain how each differs from a topic or a question.
- Write a working thesis that is specific, arguable and tied to evidence.
- Revise a thesis honestly when the sources point elsewhere.
- Explain why this course asks for a thesis statement for one paper but does not require a thesis or dissertation in the academic degree sense.
The big idea
A thesis is the main answer a paper gives to its question, stated in a sentence or two that the paper then defends. A working thesis is the provisional version you hold while still researching. It gives direction and helps you decide what to read, but it must be allowed to change. The mark of honest research is not that the final thesis matches the first guess, but that every change can be traced to evidence. A thesis in this sense is part of one paper, not a degree requirement.
Key terms
- Thesis
- The central claim of a paper, stated clearly, which the rest of the paper supports with evidence and reasoning.
- Working thesis
- A provisional answer to the research question, held while the research is under way and open to revision.
- Arguable
- Able to be supported or challenged with evidence, so that a reasonable person could disagree. A fact is not arguable in this sense.
- Hypothesis
- A proposed explanation to be tested against evidence. A working thesis often begins as a hypothesis.
- Qualification
- A limit placed on a claim so that it says no more than the evidence supports, such as ‘in most cases’ or ‘in the surviving sources’.
- Counter-evidence
- Evidence that tells against your claim. Honest research looks for it and deals with it.
- Dissertation
- A long, original work of research required for a doctoral degree. This course does not require one.
Background
A thesis is not a topic (‘Augustine on grace’) and not a question (‘What did Augustine think about grace?’). It is an answer: ‘In his later writings against the Pelagians, Augustine argued that grace precedes every human act of will, and this position differs from the view he held in his early works.’ A reader can disagree with that sentence, and the paper’s job is to show why the evidence supports it.
Some students think that a thesis must be fixed before they begin, and then bend their reading to fit. Others avoid forming any answer until the end and drift through the sources. A working thesis lies between. After preliminary reading, state your best current answer. Then test it. Read for evidence for it and, with equal effort, for evidence against it. Revise it when needed. The thesis in your final paper is the one that survived testing.
A word about the larger meaning of the term. In universities a thesis or dissertation is a long project submitted for a degree. This course asks for neither. It uses the word in the smaller sense: the main claim of one paper of ordinary length. The independent assignment in this course is a paper of a few thousand words with a thesis in this smaller sense. Nothing here confers a degree or credit, and the exercise is for your own training.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Draft a first answer after preliminary reading
Once you have a question and have read a few reference works and a few primary sources, write a sentence that answers it as well as you can at this stage. Mark it ‘working’ so that you remember it is provisional.
A first answer may be wrong. That is acceptable. A written guess is easier to test than a vague impression.
Step 2: Make it specific and arguable
Compare ‘Tertullian wrote about baptism’ (a fact, not arguable) with ‘Tertullian’s advice to delay baptism rests on his view that post-baptismal sin is especially serious, not on doubts about the baptism of children’ (specific, and open to challenge). The second tells the reader what the paper will prove.
A useful test is to ask what a reasonable opponent would say. If no one could disagree, the sentence is probably a statement of fact or a platitude.
Step 3: Look for evidence for and against
Read the sources to see what supports the thesis. Then read as if you were trying to refute it. Search for scholars who disagree, for passages that seem to say the opposite, and for sources from outside your tradition.
Keep a list headed ‘Evidence that does not fit’. Do not delete items from it. They will become the material for your section on objections.
Step 4: Revise by evidence, and record why
When the sources show that the thesis is too strong, weaken it with a qualification. When they show it is wrong, replace it. When they show it needs a different question, return to Lesson 1.2 and revise the question.
Write a short note each time: ‘Changed from X to Y because of passage Z.’ These notes keep you honest and become useful when you write about the limits of your research.
Step 5: State the final thesis early in the paper
The introduction should give the question, the thesis and a short map of how the paper proceeds. Readers of scholarly work expect this. It is not a spoiler. It lets them judge the evidence as they go.
Check that the thesis you stated at the start is the one the paper actually proves. If the body drifted, adjust one of them.
- What is my best current answer to my question, in one sentence?
- Could a reasonable person disagree with it?
- What evidence would show that it is wrong?
- Have I looked for that evidence as hard as for the supporting kind?
- Is the thesis stated no more strongly than the sources allow?
- What did I change since my first draft, and why?
Examples
A topic, not a thesis
‘The Council of Chalcedon and the person of Christ.’ This names an area. It makes no claim and nothing in it can be proved or refuted.
A fact, not a thesis
‘The Council of Chalcedon met in 451.’ This is accurate and necessary background, but there is nothing to argue.
A thesis
‘The Definition of Chalcedon in 451 relied on language from earlier letters of Cyril and the Tome of Leo, and its wording was a compromise between two ways of speaking, not a victory for one.’ This is specific and can be tested against the council documents and the scholarship. A scholar might refine or dispute it. (Constructed example. Check it against the sources before treating it as established.)
A thesis revised by evidence
A student begins by thinking that Origen taught the eternal pre-existence of every human soul as settled doctrine. After reading On First Principles and the scholarship, she finds that Origen presents several of his views as speculation and that scholars debate how to read him. She revises the thesis to say that Origen offered the idea as a proposal, and that later critics treated it as a firm teaching. (A constructed example of the process.)
Different perspectives
Academic historians
Most historians say that a good thesis arises from the evidence and is judged by it. They distinguish description from interpretation, and expect an interpretation to be offered as the best explanation of the evidence, with alternatives considered. Many warn against forcing sources to fit a favored narrative.
Catholic
A Catholic scholar may hold that certain teachings are settled by the Church, and still carry out research on how those teachings developed, what arguments were used and how particular writers understood them. A thesis in such work usually concerns the history or meaning of a text, not whether the Church’s teaching is true, and the two levels are kept clear.
Orthodox
Orthodox writers often prefer to speak of describing the mind of the Fathers, not inventing a personal theory. This can make a thesis modest in form, such as showing how a Father’s statement fits into the wider tradition. The honest researcher still has to say what the sources do and do not show.
Protestant
Protestant scholars often make a thesis about what the text of Scripture or a Reformer’s argument says. The principle that Scripture judges later tradition makes some Protestants especially willing to revise historical claims when the evidence requires, while others hold firmly to a confessional reading. Either way, the paper has to show its evidence.
Why it matters
Without a working thesis, reading has no direction and note-taking turns into copying. With a thesis held too tightly, reading turns into recruiting evidence. The working thesis keeps both dangers in check: it gives focus and it is exposed to correction. A student who learns to revise a thesis honestly has learned one of the most useful habits of scholarship, and one with moral weight, since it means accepting that the truth may not be what one hoped (Romans 12:3).
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Changing my thesis means my research failed.
Correction: It usually means the research worked. A thesis that never changes may mean that nothing was really tested. Keep a record of the changes and the reasons.
Misunderstanding: A thesis is the same as the topic sentence of the introduction.
Correction: A topic sentence opens the subject. A thesis states the argument that the whole paper will support. They can be in the same paragraph, but they are different jobs.
Misunderstanding: A strong thesis must be dramatic or surprising.
Correction: Strength comes from precision and support. A modest, well-defended claim is stronger than a bold one with thin evidence.
Misunderstanding: This course requires me to write a dissertation.
Correction: It does not. The thesis here means the main claim of a single paper. No academic degree or credit is involved.
Knowledge check
What is the difference between a question and a thesis?
A question asks something you do not yet know. A thesis is the answer that the paper gives and defends. For example, ‘How did Tertullian understand baptism?’ is a question, while a sentence stating what his reasons were and how they relate to his view of sin is a thesis. The question points the research. The thesis summarizes the result.
What makes a thesis arguable?
A thesis is arguable when a reasonable person could disagree and when evidence can be given for and against it. A plain fact, such as a date, is not arguable. A claim about why a document was written, or what a writer meant, usually is.
Why should you look for evidence against your working thesis?
Evidence that fits is easy to find and proves little. Evidence against a thesis tests it. If the thesis survives, it is stronger. If not, it needs to be revised. Looking only for supporting evidence is confirmation bias and weakens the paper.
Does this course require a dissertation?
No. The word thesis here means the main claim of one paper of ordinary length. A dissertation in the university sense is a long original work for a doctoral degree, and this program neither requires nor offers one. Nothing in the course confers a degree or credit.
Think it through
- Think of a time you changed your mind after reading something. What evidence moved you, and how did it feel?
- How would you word a thesis on a question where your tradition has a settled answer, so that the paper stays honest about evidence?
- What makes some people reluctant to qualify their claims? Is the reluctance ever justified?
- Romans 12:3 urges sober judgment. How does that apply to the way a thesis is stated?
Independent assignment
Three versions of a thesis
In your own notebook, write about 300 words. Take the question you wrote in Lesson 1.2. Write a first working thesis. List three items of evidence you expect to support it and three that might count against it. Then write a second version that qualifies the claim to match what you could actually prove. Finish with a short note on what would make you change it. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Philosophy of History Read the parts on explanation to see how historians justify interpretations.
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Fallacies Look at the sections on begging the question and cherry-picking, two dangers for a thesis.
- Bruce M. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament Read a chapter to see a scholar reason carefully from limited evidence to a modest conclusion.
- Romans 12:3 Think with sober judgment.
- Proverbs 12:15 The wise listen to counsel.
- Acts 17:11 The Bereans tested what they were told against Scripture.