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How to Use the Baby Thesis Method for Cohesive Essays

Krystal N. Craiker

Teaching writing to students is a major challenge for every teacher. One of the hardest parts for students is writing a cohesive essay. They might have great introductions and solid body paragraphs, but their essays can often lack unity and flow.

As teachers, we harp on about the importance of having a strong thesis statement. Usually, we teach students to list their three main points in their thesis statement. This is an easy way to show students that their main points should relate to the essay topic.

But then the body paragraphs fall flat. They cover each of the main points, but the students haven’t shown how those points relate to the entire topic of the essay. They are little more than fact dumps, and they don’t tie back to the thesis statement or the prompt of the paper.

Teachers live for light bulb moments. And that light bulb moment for cohesive essays might be as simple as a terminology change.

The DBQ Project has two unique terms for their writing process. First, they refer to the major points in an essay as “buckets.” They also changed the term from topic sentence to “baby thesis.”

What Is the DBQ Project?

The baby thesis, words matter.

The DBQ Project is a program for social studies teachers to encourage writing across the curriculum and historical thinking skills. DBQs, or document-based questions, are a type of history essay that provide a series of primary and secondary sources that relate to an overall prompt. AP history tests include DBQs, but these skills are adaptable for all levels.

DBQ essay prompts are not just explanations of a historical topic. They ask students to defend a particular argument using primary and secondary sources and prior knowledge. The DBQ Project makes teaching this writing skill accessible for every level of learner.

The lessons that come from the DBQ Project are not just for social studies. How DBQs are taught can help students write stronger arguments in a more cohesive essay across all subjects.

A good scholar lets the evidence inform their argument, not the other way around. This requires two major steps: analysis and categorization.

Categorization is not a skill that comes naturally to many students. It’s considered one of the highest-level activities in both Bloom’s and Marzano’s levels of thinking. But it’s the skill that is necessary for creating strong body paragraphs .

DBQs are a great way to teach this skill because the documents are provided to the students. However, if you’re writing in English or science class, you’ll need to help teach this skill differently.

For higher-performing students, encourage them to research a topic, write down facts or quotes on notecards or a graphic organizer, and then practice putting this information into “buckets.” For lower-level students, provide excerpts of research for them to categorize. If necessary, you can even provide them with the categories and have them sort the research into those specific categories.

Visual aids are helpful for this step. Teach that “like goes with like.” You can even model with actual plastic buckets or a bucket template if you want. Use kinesthetic learning to have students physically place their research in different groups.

Once their research is divided into buckets, it’s time to take a look at the prompt again. This is where you’ll teach writing a strong thesis statement for the whole paper. After that, introduce the concept of a “baby thesis.”

Students are likely familiar with the phrase “topic sentence.” But a topic sentence can miss the entire point of strong body paragraphs. A topic sentence can tell you what a paragraph is about, but it might not tie in to the overall thesis of the paper. This is where cohesion begins to drop off.

I’m arguing semantics here, but how we phrase things in the classroom can trigger those light bulb moments for students.

The Purpose of a Baby Thesis

A strong topic sentence should do two things:

Tell what the paragraph is about, and
Tie back to the thesis of the whole essay.

Students can fairly easily give you a simple sentence that explains what the paragraph is about, but they struggle to relate it back to the overall thesis of the paper. Calling it a “baby thesis” reminds the students that this sentence should support their thesis.

When I modeled pre-writing, I drew a lot of arrows back to my thesis statement to really hammer home the idea that they relate back to their thesis. Let’s look at an example of a thesis statement along with weak and strong topic sentences.

Thesis: The New Deal programs had long-lasting effects on the political, social, and economic systems in American, many of which are still present today.

Weak Topic Sentence: There were also many economic programs in the New Deal.

Strong Topic Sentence: The New Deal also established many economic programs that affect Americans every day.

The first topic sentence is structurally sound. It has a clear transition and lets us know that the paragraph is about economic programs of the New Deal. However, it doesn’t show that the paragraph is specifically about long-lasting or present-day programs that are still in place. With this topic sentence, students might put in examples of economic programs that only lasted a few years.

The stronger topic sentence is a “baby thesis.” Not only does it tell us that the paragraph is about New Deal economic programs, it reminds us that we are only looking at those programs which are still in place. This ensures that your student puts only information that is relevant to the thesis in the paragraph.

A “baby thesis” also reminds students that they need to relate every fact or bit of research back to the thesis . Too often, students write a basic topic sentence and deliver several facts, but they don’t provide any analysis. In the above example, a weak paragraph would list the FDIC and US Employment Service as examples of economic programs without explaining how they affect Americans today. The “baby thesis” reminds students to provide the analysis needed for a cohesive essay.

Baby Thesis as Pre-Writing

When we teach pre-writing, we start with a thesis statement and an outline. We always tell students to decide what their major points are before they write.

The DBQ Project takes this one step further. To ensure an essay that flows well and stays on topic, include the baby thesis as a pre-writing step. Have them write these strong topic sentences before they write the essay as a whole. It will help them organize their thoughts and create a more solid outline.

You can also use this pre-writing step to provide feedback on their baby thesis statements. Offer suggestions to improve these before they begin writing the essay. Strong baby theses will help your students stay on-topic and write an essay that flows well.

Teachers and writers know that it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. Teachers especially know that you can explain something a dozen times to a student who doesn’t understand, but as soon as you explain it differently, they get it.

If you’re struggling to get your students’ essays to be well-organized and cohesive with a strong argument, take a note from the DBQ Project. Change your word choice and how you explain the parts of an essay. It might just be the light bulb you’ve been waiting for.

What is the hardest part about teaching essay-writing? Let us know in the comments.

Editing technology like ProWritingAid provides immediate, personalized feedback that will help students to better understand grammar and writing techniques.

In this guide , we walk you through exactly how to use prowritingaid in your classroom and give you tools and templates for creating a rigorous, effective independent writing practice with your students..

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Krystal N. Craiker is the Writing Pirate, an indie romance author and blog manager at ProWritingAid. She sails the seven internet seas, breaking tropes and bending genres. She has a background in anthropology and education, which brings fresh perspectives to her romance novels. When she’s not daydreaming about her next book or article, you can find her cooking gourmet gluten-free cuisine, laughing at memes, and playing board games. Krystal lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband, child, and basset hound.

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Think of yourself as a member of a jury, listening to a lawyer who is presenting an opening argument. You'll want to know very soon whether the lawyer believes the accused to be guilty or not guilty, and how the lawyer plans to convince you. Readers of academic essays are like jury members: before they have read too far, they want to know what the essay argues as well as how the writer plans to make the argument. After reading your thesis statement, the reader should think, "This essay is going to try to convince me of something. I'm not convinced yet, but I'm interested to see how I might be."

An effective thesis cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no." A thesis is not a topic; nor is it a fact; nor is it an opinion. "Reasons for the fall of communism" is a topic. "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" is a fact known by educated people. "The fall of communism is the best thing that ever happened in Europe" is an opinion. (Superlatives like "the best" almost always lead to trouble. It's impossible to weigh every "thing" that ever happened in Europe. And what about the fall of Hitler? Couldn't that be "the best thing"?)

A good thesis has two parts. It should tell what you plan to argue, and it should "telegraph" how you plan to argue—that is, what particular support for your claim is going where in your essay.

Steps in Constructing a Thesis

First, analyze your primary sources. Look for tension, interest, ambiguity, controversy, and/or complication. Does the author contradict himself or herself? Is a point made and later reversed? What are the deeper implications of the author's argument? Figuring out the why to one or more of these questions, or to related questions, will put you on the path to developing a working thesis. (Without the why, you probably have only come up with an observation—that there are, for instance, many different metaphors in such-and-such a poem—which is not a thesis.)

Once you have a working thesis, write it down. There is nothing as frustrating as hitting on a great idea for a thesis, then forgetting it when you lose concentration. And by writing down your thesis you will be forced to think of it clearly, logically, and concisely. You probably will not be able to write out a final-draft version of your thesis the first time you try, but you'll get yourself on the right track by writing down what you have.

Keep your thesis prominent in your introduction. A good, standard place for your thesis statement is at the end of an introductory paragraph, especially in shorter (5-15 page) essays. Readers are used to finding theses there, so they automatically pay more attention when they read the last sentence of your introduction. Although this is not required in all academic essays, it is a good rule of thumb.

Anticipate the counterarguments. Once you have a working thesis, you should think about what might be said against it. This will help you to refine your thesis, and it will also make you think of the arguments that you'll need to refute later on in your essay. (Every argument has a counterargument. If yours doesn't, then it's not an argument—it may be a fact, or an opinion, but it is not an argument.)

This statement is on its way to being a thesis. However, it is too easy to imagine possible counterarguments. For example, a political observer might believe that Dukakis lost because he suffered from a "soft-on-crime" image. If you complicate your thesis by anticipating the counterargument, you'll strengthen your argument, as shown in the sentence below.

Some Caveats and Some Examples

A thesis is never a question. Readers of academic essays expect to have questions discussed, explored, or even answered. A question ("Why did communism collapse in Eastern Europe?") is not an argument, and without an argument, a thesis is dead in the water.

A thesis is never a list. "For political, economic, social and cultural reasons, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" does a good job of "telegraphing" the reader what to expect in the essay—a section about political reasons, a section about economic reasons, a section about social reasons, and a section about cultural reasons. However, political, economic, social and cultural reasons are pretty much the only possible reasons why communism could collapse. This sentence lacks tension and doesn't advance an argument. Everyone knows that politics, economics, and culture are important.

A thesis should never be vague, combative or confrontational. An ineffective thesis would be, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because communism is evil." This is hard to argue (evil from whose perspective? what does evil mean?) and it is likely to mark you as moralistic and judgmental rather than rational and thorough. It also may spark a defensive reaction from readers sympathetic to communism. If readers strongly disagree with you right off the bat, they may stop reading.

An effective thesis has a definable, arguable claim. "While cultural forces contributed to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of economies played the key role in driving its decline" is an effective thesis sentence that "telegraphs," so that the reader expects the essay to have a section about cultural forces and another about the disintegration of economies. This thesis makes a definite, arguable claim: that the disintegration of economies played a more important role than cultural forces in defeating communism in Eastern Europe. The reader would react to this statement by thinking, "Perhaps what the author says is true, but I am not convinced. I want to read further to see how the author argues this claim."

A thesis should be as clear and specific as possible. Avoid overused, general terms and abstractions. For example, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because of the ruling elite's inability to address the economic concerns of the people" is more powerful than "Communism collapsed due to societal discontent."

What is baby thesis?

A baby thesis is written in a special way. You write your arguments and facts, after you tell the reader what is going to happen. A sample of a baby thesis would be writing about a wonderful marriage. You would first let the reader know that the couple lived happily ever after. You would then write the reasons why this was the case.

A baby thesis is when you explain what is going to happen. If the head line was A House was on Fire, the baby thesis would be the house was caught on fire by. You then wright your argument and evidence.

gumagawa ka lang ng baby tapos yun na may baby thesis ka na :D

A thesis on babies should address topics that are important to new mothers. A thesis could focus on development, learning, safety, and nutrition.

Although these little things are very adorable, there are many flaws about them that can bring you down to your nees...

hope you enjoy!

Add your answer:

What is a baby thesis for a history essay?

Its where two grown up thesis's have sex and have a baby thesis

Example of a baby thesis?

If you would like to have a baby thesis.. just ask mr. guzman

What are vthe possiblre Title of a baby thesis for HRM student?

title of thesis

What is a baby thesis?

Sometimes when two grown up thesis's love each other very much, they hug in a very special way and create a little baby thesis.

What are the parts of baby thesis?

parts of a Babythesis

What is the best topic for a baby thesis?

A baby thesis is one that is a small size, more like a research paper. The topic should be something that is based on what you were studying. Some common science topics are related to drugs or genetics. Some common literary topics may be focused on one author's works.

What is a weak thesis?

A weak thesis is one that is vague, broad, or simply states a fact rather than making a clear, arguable claim. It lacks a coherent argument and does not provide a strong foundation for the essay or research paper.

How to write a thesis statement on the importance of education for youths?

The correct format of a thesis:Title Page "Guidelines"Thesis "Title Page"Thesis "Table of Contents" Thesis "Introduction" Thesis "Body of Thesis" Thesis Quotes and References" Thesis "Conclusion/Summary"

What is the possessive for thesis?

The possessive form of "thesis" is "thesis's" or "thesis'".

A sentence for thesis?

I am a thesis

Sample of tagalog thesis?

example of tagalog thesis example of tagalog thesis

What is descriptive thesis?

a thesis about TMNT

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Chapter 1 Baby Thesis

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Mom delivers baby in car hours before defending her Rutgers doctoral thesis

Updated: May. 08, 2024, 3:05 p.m. |
Published: May. 08, 2024, 11:30 a.m.

Tamiah Brevard-Rodriguez delivered her son, Enzo, hours before defending her dissertation at the Rutgers-New Brunswick Graduate School of Education. Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University

Tina Kelley | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Giving birth and defending a doctoral dissertation could easily be considered among the most stressful items on a bucket list. For Tamiah Brevard-Rodriguez, it was all in a day’s work. One day’s work.

She even grabbed a shower in between.

On March 24, Brevard-Rodriguez, director of Aresty Research Center at Rutgers University, was finishing up preparations for her doctoral defense the next day. Eight months pregnant with her second child, she didn’t feel terrific, but she persisted.

She was trying to hone down to 20 minutes her remarks on “The Beauty Performances of Black College Women: A Narrative Inquiry Study Exploring the Realities of Race, Respectability, and Beauty Standards on a Historically White Campus.” The Zoom link had gone out to family, friends, and colleagues for the defense, scheduled for 1 p.m. the next day.

“Operation Dissertation before Baby,” as she called it, was a go.

But at 2:15 a.m. on March 25 her water broke, a month and a day early.

As the contractions came closer and closer, her wife drove her down the Garden State Parkway, trying to get to Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair before Baby Enzo showed up.

But the baby was faster than a speeding Maserati and arrived in the front seat at 5:55 a.m., after just three pushes. He weighed in at 5-pounds 12-ounces, 19 inches long, and in perfect health for a baby four weeks early.

“I did have to detail her car afterward,” the new mom said of her wife.

Brevard-Rodriguez was feeling so good after the birth that she decided against asking to reschedule her thesis defense.

“I had more than enough time to regroup, shower, eat and proceed with the dissertation,” she said. She had a quick nap, too. The doctors and nurses supported her decision and made sure she had access to reliable wifi at the hospital.

She gave her defense with a Rutgers background screen. When she learned she had passed, she dropped the fake background, and people could see Brevard-Rodriguez in her maternity bed, and Enzo in her wife’s arms.

“I said, ‘You guys missed the big news,’ and they just fell out,” said Brevard-Rodriguez, who waited for the reveal because she didn’t want extra sympathy from her dissertation committee.

Melina Mangin, chair of the Educational Theory, Policy & Administration Department at the Graduate School of Education, was astounded.

“Tamiah had delivered a flawless defense with zero indication that she had just given birth,” she said. “She really took the idea of productivity to the next level!”

Finishing her doctorate in education and having her last child were fitting 40th birthday presents to herself, Brevard-Rodriguez said. She turned 40 in November and returns to work in late August.

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Sunday will be a special day for Tamiah Brevard-Rodriguez as it is her first Mother's Day and her graduation.

Six weeks ago she became a mom and earned her PhD on the same day.

Baby Enzo was born a month before his due date and on the same day, Tamiah Brevard-Rodriguez was scheduled to deliver her dissertation.

"I was physically prepared for a pregnancy. Mentally, my brain was not on a baby. So I was having a very emotional response to knowing that I was in labor, knowing that I had this defense, like I was literally shaking," Brevard-Rodriguez said.

Brevard-Rodriguez had everything planned out with staff and faculty at Rutgers University to examine the standards Black college women face on historically white campuses.

She had named her plan Operation Dissertation Before Baby.

However, things went off schedule when Brevard-Rodriguez's water broke on the morning of March 25 and baby Enzo was working on his own timetable.

Brevard-Rodriguez's wife then rushed to their car after their doula told them to get moving as contractions increased.

"Doula's trying to tell me like, 'Don't grunt him out like', you know, like, you know, just breathe. Let's be like... and I'm like, ha like this baby is coming," Brevard-Rodriguez said.

"So I had three pushes. So the first one was baby's head, he was crowning. Second push, he was out, he was in my hand. Third one, we were just, we were just there," she said.

Once at the hospital, Enzo was checked out and was all good. And since Brevard-Rodriguez was well rehearsed for her dissertation, she delivered her defense about seven hours after Enzo came into the world.

"I was prepared for it. Like what I do is some final touches on the, on the presentation. Like I did the study, I had the support. I just needed to take a nap, take a shower and regroup," Brevard-Rodriguez said.

No one knew about the delivery until after the successful defense was complete.

BabyThesis.com

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Baby Thesis introduction sample

Baby thesis introduction is the most important section of a thesis as it is the opening section of any baby thesis and it eventually decides if the reader will continue to read that thesis or not. If the opening of a research article is appealing, the reader will continue to read it until the end but if the introductory section is not pleasing, the reader will choose to leave it and switch to some other article. Introduction of a baby thesis should be quite engaging so that reader is compelled not to leave the research and it should grab the reader until the very end.

Thesis Introduction Sample

Baby thesis introduction sample:

To highlight the importance of a baby thesis introduction, Baby thesis introduction sample is given to provide guidance to the new researchers so that it may be helpful in writing an interesting and appealing introduction of their baby thesis.

For a research article with the topic of “Child Development, Parenting, and Culture” the opening section of the introduction may be: “Parenting style has a strong impact on the development of a child (Bornstein, 2003). It is also proved by different researchers that parenting style and different techniques of parenting usually forecast and predict the educational, intellectual, and emotional variations in the children (Steinberg, Elmen, & Mounts, 1989). The way in which parents bring up their children and their parenting behavior has a great impact on children’s future practices and patterns of their lives. However, some other researchers illustrate that influence of parenting style on children varies along with the variation of culture and status of the family (Frankel & Roar-Bornstein, 1982). The specific purpose of the current study is to scrutinize that impact of parenting style and culture on child development especially by focusing on first generation colonizer from African Diaspora. This study is specifically focused on the relation of parenting style and children development of Somalian immigrants.”

In the above paragraph, it can be noted that any of the stated statement is not too much general. Moreover, all the statements written in the opening paragraph are empirical as they are adopted from the researches of some other researchers and all the published researches are made through proper procedure of making an article, test and analysis so none of them is just an opinion of some writer but it can be explained with proper logic and reasons. Most significantly, every statement includes a citation so that its source can be accessed at any time in the future. Proper citation and referencing of a baby thesis tends to increase its credibility.

Moving forward in the introductory section of the opening paragraph, statements are generalized gradually to make a clear sense of your research topic and a better understanding of the research. Furthermore, another important thing to be noticed in the opening paragraph is the inclusion of two contrasting statements. So this is the point which makes it obvious that there is a room for more research. If already a solitary point of view has been discussed by all the previous researchers and all of them prove the same viewpoint about the relation of two variables, then it leaves no room for more research. A topic is only worthy of research in case different perspective and different opinions of researchers are present. So now the researcher has to find out which of the viewpoint is proved to be factual by this new research by using new sample and methodology.

It has been discussed already that opening or the introductory portion of the baby thesis has literally two main purposes:

To give a brief outline of the whole baby thesis that why it has been written, what is the purpose of the research and which points the reader will be able to understand by reading the whole baby thesis. So introduction section leaves a sudden and overall impression of the complete research, from problem statement to the end results. This is the crucial point from where the interest of a reader is created to read it thoroughly in order to investigate the methodology and whole research process and find out the results. This is the second purpose of the introduction portion as well to create the interest of the reader in reading the whole baby thesis.

Read about: Parts of a thesis