Supporting Your Thesis Is Zen
Last week, you learned how to form a thesis statement. This week I wish to talk about evidence.
Here's the weird thing about History: the discipline suffers from the old "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" conundrum. Think of the cute little chickie as the thesis and the egg as a yolk-filled sac of reading materials. The thesis cannot exist without first considering the readings and discovering the evidence that lies within! But the evidence does not come to light unless there's a thesis to make them shine! Maddening.
So let's clear this up. Your thesis, if done right, is really a statement about YOUR interpretation of reading materials. However, History demands that you prove yourself. "Because I said so!" doesn't cut it. If you make the mistake of not supplying evidence, then all your work looks to be opinion rather than scholarship. YOU are a scholar, and supplying ample evidence is what you do.
So, what exactly is "evidence"?
Great question! In this class, evidence comes in three guises - primary, secondary, and current events.
Primaries
According to the University of Washington, primary documents are created by witnesses or participants during a past "event." I'll add in the word "trend." Primaries can be a letter, a diary entry, "interviews, oral histories, photographs, newspaper articles, government documents, poems, novels, plays, and music," basically anything that involves human language.
But (there's always a but), some of those "witnesses or participants" to past events were likely biased. In fact, you should always assume that those from yesteryears saw things way differently than you and I do today in the here and now. The bigger element, though, is that primary materials are the windows by which we travel, the portal to comprehending past viewpoints, and an opportunity to understand why long ago people made the choices they did.
Secondaries
In the field of History, secondaries exist because scholars asked questions. These scholarly questions likely arose when they read the primaries. Scholars then form their own ideas about the primaries (and the past they represent) and write it down in the form of a thesis. Aha! Then, the scholar will work to prove their thesis is correct using - get this - evidence.
Warning: evidence should be primaries AND secondaries. Also, scholars are humans and they, too, can be biased.
The most important element to remember here is the end result. Secondaries can be books, journal articles, documentaries, lectures made by your professors, basically anything that involves the human language but in an interpretive and scholastic way.
Both primary and secondary evidence should be used to gussy up that thesis of yours. BOTH.
Current Events
The Connections Paper assignments ask you to connect the past and to the present. Thus, in that third and final paragraph of your work, evidence is necessary from current sources. Again, anything a human produces in the here and now is considered a current event. Mostly, when we think of current events we think of media outlets. But we live in an age where "media" comes in all sorts of forms, can be done on the cheap, and produced by humans that relish in their biases.
Warning: Be extremely careful, here. Do you really wish to quote an article from the RT News Network (Russian Times), Fox News, MSNBC, Breitbart, OAN, The Palmer Report, some vlogger spouting neo-Nazi conspiracy theories?
Listen, your arguments will fall apart if you choose to utilize disreputable sources. You can hedge your bet by using the interactive Media Bias Chart, but that's just a tool and a conversation for later.
How do I use Evidence and Why...?
The simple advice I place before you is this: only use evidence that supports your thesis. Fall in love with your thesis, get to know it, and then send your thesis gifts of evidence, but only the gifts your argument will enjoy.
Transitioning to a hypothetical: Let's say you have a significant other that is really into cooking, but on that person's birthday you gift them with a ceramic chicken figurine. Is that significant other going to feel supported in their cooking efforts?
As we are practicing scholars, playing the role of a historian during this semester, the one question I know you are going to ask is, "How much evidence should I use?" My usual response used to be, enough to prove your thesis - but that's too trite. Instead, I will suggest that you use at least three pieces of evidence in the first paragraph of your Connections Paper to support your interpretive argument (thesis). At this level of your collegiate career, if you use three, at the least, then you have proved that you can make connections between what you read and what you write with a whole bunch of thinking in between.
Note: Evidence should appear in each of the three paragraphs.
Examples of Evidence in Support of a Thesis
Last week we looked at how to create a thesis using the reading materials to the right. Here is that thesis:
"Between 1828 and 1855, Texas and Mexico loomed large in American politics. The United States failed to merge two stalwart elements: Manifest Destiny to the institution of slavery, and the result was increased political tensions."
Now comes the evidence. Which documents above mention the concept of Manifest Destiny, either directly or indirectly? Which documents talk about slavery? Which mention both concepts all at once?
Certainly, Santa Ana in 1836 objected to U.S. citizens moving west into Texas and bringing their slaves with them. Mendivil stated in 1837 that Yanks would not be satisfied with Texas but would continue to move west taking California and other Mexican lands. Henry Clay stated that this movement west must not infringe upon Mexico as the end result would be war. In 1847, Wilmot argued against the expansion of slavery westward. The secondary by Kelley addresses this situation as well.
Look, the more evidence you use, the more love your thesis feels. And if your thesis is defended, the happier you will be. Zen.
Image Source: "Chicken or the Egg" by DonkeyHotey is licensed under CC BY 2.0