ASIA 1030: Thesis & structure

Yeah. Hello, everyone.

I'm Gillian.

I'm a learning advisor with academic skills.

And in this video, we're going to talk about structure

and look at some examples structures.

So thinking about the purpose of creating a structure, your

thinking about how you're going to communicate, convincing argument to

your reader.

So in that case that writing is going to be

persuasive and not just descriptive.

You're not just going to explain things and provide factual

information. You have to think about how to use that

factual information in order to persuade your reader to be

convinced of your point of your answer to the question.

So every part should be written to persuade your reader

of your position.

So your argument determines that structure.

So as we saw in that previous video, um, whatever

your thesis statement says, that's gonna determine what you're really

gonna cover and dig into in in the rest of

your essay in your body paragraphs and then wrap up

in your conclusion.

So, thinking about that planning process, we really highly strongly

recommend that you create an outline that identifies your main

ideas, can identify the counter arguments and how you're going

to acknowledge them.

and refute them.

It really helps you determine the best order for your

points to appear in.

You want to be asking yourself, Is the structure convincing?

Have I missed anything?

Is it to one side it?

Can I make it more balanced?

Not just in an evaluative way, like the answer could

be this.

Or it could be that, um, but that you don't

want to just sound totally biased to one side, but

that you've acknowledged the other side of the argument and

can then also refute that and still say, However, my

argument is more convincing for these reasons.

Um, okay and then moving forward onto looking, at example,

structures. So thinking about our question again about masculinity in

Korea, the historical ideas that have shaped it on how

they influence contemporary practices as well as any new practices

of masculinity in Korea today.

So thinking about that argument, we saw a really good

thesis statement in the last video that I've shortened here

on so thinking about our argument as confusion, gender ideals,

mental association with the economic production and the military create

a masculine culture based on strength and dominance.

However, a softer side is emerging.

And so I'm thinking about that is our core idea

of the argument in answer to that question, if we

just have loose even a loose essay outline that just

covers defining masculinity, uh, militaristic masculinity, the Asian financial crisis

and male beauty salons, that's not going to be a

great outline.

That's not gonna help you to write a really good

essay. It's too vague.

And like most e outlines, I see it's on Lee

topical. It doesn't give any indication of how you're going

to be providing any reasons or any critical points that

support your your actual argument, which is about that link

between the historical ideas and contemporary practices of masculinity.

So it's not clear how these points are going to

answer the question.

So here's a better one, but not quite so thinking

about our argument.

And then what are the points we've got here?

In the outline how confusion gender ideas affect Korean society

today, how the rise of capitalism further enforced the idea

of male dominance, how the military reinforces, ah, masculine culture

of strengths and challenges to hegemonic masculinity.

So that's better.

But it does need more detailed to make those connections.

So it is kind of alluding to some connections by

saying how I'm going to explain how this how these

gender ideals affect Korean society, how the rise of capitalism

has this effect and how the military has this effect.

But it probably you would need more detail in your

essay outline in order to really think through and then

be able to write clearly in your actual essay the

connection between each point so that the argument, you know,

you're just making your argument crystal clear in your own

mind, so that when you go to write it, it

will be a new, easier experience.

So here's another one that's not quite there yet, but

getting better.

Confucianism continues to pervade Korean conceptions of masculinity.

Today. Capitalist ideals promoted the notion of the male as

provider as a normative state endorsed ideal.

The ever present threat of North Korea in the post

division era lead to the creation of a highly militarized

regime and dominant sense of masculinity arise in representation of

a softer form of masculinity, particularly within popular entertainment.

So they're clear connections there between the ideas.

But more clear ideas are actually needed, and we need

to see how these ideas relate to the overall argument,

and we might also need a sense of the state

of Korean masculinity today.

We might need to get that sense of if it's

more traditional today or if it is indeed softer today.

It kind of leaves you wondering about the state of

Korean masculinity today.

So more even more clear connections are needed in this

outline to have a really, really good, strong outline that

you can then take to your were document and really

right from in a very focused and convincing way.

So here's a clear and connected outline, and you can

clearly see the connection of what I've highlighted in purple.

You can see the connection between the elements of that

nice argument statement that thesis statement we saw in the

previous video and how that then connects to this outline.

So you want to be able to do something like

that. You want to have your really nice thesis statement

that you're really proud of, and then think about how

you can extend that out into your outline so that

there are very clear connections between that argument statement and

then the reasons that you're picking out about Confucianism, about

the notion of the male provider about the highly militarized

regime and about masculinity, the softer side of masculinity within

popular entertainment.

Um, and then they do say at the end, despite

the emergence of new and challenging concepts of masculinity, historically

entrenched hegemonic norms continue to dominate within Korea.

So we do get that sense of what is the

state of Korea today?

Is it like becoming more of a softer sense of

masculinity, or is that traditional mode still the most popular?

And we get that within this essay within this outline.

So try for, you know, the outline that is is

really going to make it be balanced and clear and

give you the best start to then go ahead and

write your essay.

Okay, okay.

And so finally, just looking at and thinking a little

more deeply about essay planning for your 2000 words.

Eso you've got, um, 1 50 to 200 words per

paragraph, including the intro and conclusion.

So you might want to think about your introduction, which

is going to be about 200 words, because that's 10%

of the word count that leaves you with 6 to

10 paragraphs and another conclusion of about 200 words.

So how many points are you going to be able

to provide in those 6 to 10 paragraphs?

What's the order going to be?

What are your big points going to be?

And then how are you going to think about the

paragraphs that are going to fit within with underneath underneath

each of those main points?

And that's something to really spend time figuring out the

most important point you want to make and distributing that

weight of words and paragraphs to those mawr important points.

So you want to identify even that supporting evidence for

each point and counterpoint and rebuttals.

Put all of that into your outline so that your

essay writing experience can be much more effective.

So some final advice.

Think about writing, you know, several drafts.

Um, your first draft could just be rough and for

your eyes only, and you're just trying to get those

main ideas down.

It's okay if there's repetition, everything is is okay.

Don't worry about getting the right words down on Dhe.

Then you know, in those subsequent drafts you could be

polishing and then you can really be start thinking about

in the subsequent drafts your reader and how your readers

going to understand and be convinced by your argument on

what's going thio.

Help them feel more and more convinced.

So think about that timeline.

Your time management as you go is well, you give

yourself enough time to do that polishing.

So wish you the best of luck in essay to

help you write a great thesis statement and have a

great structure with a great s a plan.

ASIA 1030: Thesis & structure

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