Develop an Argument

Common Ways to Develop an Argument

General Writing 

HarvardWrites provides the following suggestions:

1. Challenge an initial impression or surface-level reading.
2. Challenge a published view. 
3. Explain an inconsistency, gap, or ambiguity.
4. Explain unexpected conclusions.
5. Intervene in a scholarly debate. 
6. Point out how a piece of evidence encapsulates a larger issue.
7. Point out how an insignificant moment is actually critical.
8. Point out the limits of the existing literature.
9. Point out a problem others don’t usually see.

Classics Writing

The important point is that you’re using the evidence to say something new. In Classics, good examples of theses may include:

1. Taking a side in a historiographical debate.
2. Offering a new interpretation of a historical or literary source.
3. Arguing against another scholar’s theory.
4. Clarifying an ambiguity.
5. Applying a new methodology to a source.
6. Bringing new or not usually compared sources into the conversation.

Make sure you check out examples of a range of thesis statements, with comments and feedback