Writing a thesis
Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: Scholarly Pursuits
Forum Name: The Academy
Forum Discription: Discussions about how to write history and conduct research
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=23235
Printed Date: 29-Apr-2024 at 02:57
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Topic: Writing a thesis
Posted By: Kevin
Subject: Writing a thesis
Date Posted: 16-Jan-2008 at 02:51
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I've got a midterm exam in Advanced Placement US History coming up in three days and I need help stating a thesis with a prompt like this for an essay. .To what extent and for what reasons did the policies of the Federal Government from 1865 to 1900 violate the principles of Laissez-Faire. Which advocated minimal governmental intervention in the economy? Consider with specific reference to the three following areas of policy: railroad land grants, control of interstate commerce and antitrust activities. Thank you to anyone who would like to help me with this I'm in kind of a rush with everything else going on. |
Replies:
Posted By: Constantine XI
Date Posted: 16-Jan-2008 at 04:21
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How many words is this "thesis" meant to be?
Mine had 20,000 as a minimum, and it ended up being 34,000 ------------- |
Posted By: Ponce de Leon
Date Posted: 16-Jan-2008 at 05:15
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Thesis' are overrated
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Posted By: Constantine XI
Date Posted: 16-Jan-2008 at 05:47
Theses
And yes, they kind of are. ------------- |
Posted By: Parnell
Date Posted: 16-Jan-2008 at 15:14
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How hard are they? I have to do one in two years time. That;ll be fun. ------------- |
Posted By: Catalán
Date Posted: 16-Jan-2008 at 16:40
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AP US History is a high school class, so it's a thesis for ... I'm guessing ... a DBQ. In other words, a sentence which provides what the essay is going to be about and what he/she is trying to prove. Everyone hated DBQs and I loved them; if his AP US History was anything like mine, then they don't allow the use of outside information (just what the documents provided in the prompt give you), which makes them less fun.
If this is for a DBQ then he should have 'three' groups, or three subtopics for three essays. DBQs are pretty straightforward and require only five paragraphs:
1. Introduction
2-4. Information
5. Conclusion
It's a high school essay aimed at helping you develope the skills necessary for a good university thesis.
So, more specifically when talking about the question he gave - he needs three reasons, or two reasons and the 'extent' of the government's reforms. The prompt kind of gives you your thesis statement though, since it already gives you your three groups that you can talk about in the essay.
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Posted By: Kevin
Date Posted: 17-Jan-2008 at 00:40
I think it is just more of a straightforward thesis based essay, However I have done DBQ's and I think they are overrated in terms of difficulty, But again thats me. ------------- |
Posted By: hugoestr
Date Posted: 17-Jan-2008 at 01:24
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What is a DBQ?
Do research in wikipedia about the tree topics that you were given. Of all of those, I would pick to stress railroads since this was one area where the violations of Laissez-Faire were probably the greatest. Interstate commerce and anti-trust policies can be argued as a way of preserving free and fair competition. Not so with railroad grants 
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Posted By: Kevin
Date Posted: 17-Jan-2008 at 17:20
A DBQ is a document Based Question, What they give you on a test is a series of documents you read the documents then after that you form a thesis and write an essay. So a typical excersise in gathering information and forming an arguement and a conclusion. ------------- |
Posted By: Maharbbal
Date Posted: 17-Jan-2008 at 20:16
| About your theses, of course there are several ways that made the US government infringe on the laissez-faire ethos (other you did not mention such as the interventions in Central America) but in my view the most important was the barrier on import which together with a massive influx of capital and labor created the perfect storm (in a positive sense) that allowed the US economy not only to take off but also become the first in the world by far. |
Posted By: Catalán
Date Posted: 17-Jan-2008 at 21:35
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For those interested, here's a sample DBQ:
http://www.edteck.com/dbq/eiq/5_ss_dbq1.pdf - http://www.edteck.com/dbq/eiq/5_ss_dbq1.pdf
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