On doing an argumentative/persuasive research paper, why are students expected to...?

Question

...submit a thesis statement (i.e., the stance of your argument) PRIOR TO doing the research? This is illogical. Don’t professors remember that a stance comes ONLY AFTER you at least do a preliminary research? How can you have a reasonable argument when you hardly know anything about a subject matter? Please explain.

Froggie,
That’s another thing. They’re hoping, and not saying. Why can’t they just speak it out instead of just hoping? They talk about everything else but this, it seems like. The students then don’t really have to play guessing games.

Brandon,
Of course, I want to follow the directions. It’s the reason I’m asking. But the issue is, it’s not a workable plan. As I said, you can’t come up with an argument without knowing enough about the material. My question is why are they asking you to do it if it doesn’t work.

SMS,
You are right on key! I see that you know exactly what I'm talking about. Thanks for letting me know i'm not hallucinating.

SMS,
Btw, your argumentative college course knew what they were doing -- they had better! right?! That's the way it should be done: have the students choose what they're already familiar with or tell them that preliminary research is expected instead of just hoping the students will catch on.

Hi hbar12,
I’m one of those rare, weird people who actually am very grateful for and immensely enjoy all of her classes. But this particular issue of writing instruction is something that I keep finding very bothersome, but also keep forgetting to ask my profs about at the same time. It’s one of those things where a question just swims in your head, then you forget it once the work is done because your mind has to quickly adjust to the next thing. This time, I will make a point not to forget to ask, & will ask soon enough when I see them after the break or so. In any case, I did want to hear an answer as quickly as, and as many as possible from the yahoo community. Thanks for the input.

Answer 1

In some cases, I agree with you. In others, I don't. It depends on the class.

For instance, I am in a senior seminar studying very specific details about the presidency of Gerald Ford. We were expected to come up with a thesis for a 20 page paper way at the start of class before we even covered 10% of the material. That made no sense! No student learns anything about Gerald Ford in depth during high school or any other period in their college studies, so how were we supposed to know what we might want to write about?? So I just turned in some general BS thesis and ended up changing my topic later.

However, in a general english class, they generally let you chose the topic you want to write about. Students usually pick a topic in which they already have a strong opinion or background knowledge. When I took an argumentative writing course in college, we could pick our own topics, so I just chose things I either already knew something about or had a strong opinion about.

I see where you are coming from, but it totally depends on the class!

Answer 2

You have to psych yourself up for a class you don't like. Ir's hard to find a reason (positive) for something if your feeling negative. Life is a mine field also. In a job interview they give you these half questions and you have to guess what they want. It's really good to be positive and let your intuition do some of the work. Yes, psych the teacher/interviewer out also. The English club/sorority would know what that teacher wants.

Answer 3

Do college students EVER stop whining over such nonsense things? Yeesh.

The professors do this to understand where YOUR direction is on a topic. And if you had chosen the topic yourself, they want to know you understand the material well enough to develop a strong thesis along with supporting arguments once you've done your research. And if you didn't, they want to at least see you're paying enough attention to grasp the subject matter.

Answer 4

Well, when you get your Master's Degree and start teaching at a College/University, you can make up your own rules on writing essays. But, for now, follow the directions of your instructors if you want to get full credit for your work.

Answer 5

I think they just want to make sure you're thinking about the paper, working on it, and have picked a reasonable topic. They don't need your answer at this point; just a reasonable beginning.

Answer 6

They also might hope that you were mature enough to look into the topic a bit before submitting it as your thesis.

Answer 7

Use a question.

Like: "How can we decide...(what ever you plan to show)"?