Guessing Game

Preliminary Thesis And Research

When you take a long car trip, do you play games to pass the time and keep things lively? On this part of the journey, you are going to play a guessing game. This guessing game is similar to the one you play in science when you set up an experiment and make a hypothesis or an educated guess at the results of the experiment. In this case, you will make a best guess at what your overall theme will be while you research your topic. Follow the steps below to make your hypothesis and to develop a preliminary or working thesis.

1. Remember your big question? Now is the time to attempt to answer your question with the knowledge you already have. This is NOT the destination; it's just a pit stop. You get to make a guess here, and later you will see if your research supports your guess. This will help guide your process by using what you already know. Now, write down an answer to your question. Later you will revise this question as a thesis to reflect your research. [Sample: Question: How do violent video games affect the players? Possible Answer: Playing violent video results in real world violence by the players.]
2. At this point, consider your audience and your purpose. Why are you writing this? Who are you trying to convince? In this project, you can inform, persuade, entertain or express. Now, choose your audience and purpose. [Sample: I want to address my presentation to gamers to warn them about what they could be doing to themselves, so my purpose is to persuade and inform.]

Write down the following information on your own topic, and keep it for reference for the rest of the project.

You will have another chance to check your audience and purpose with your instructor soon, after you do some initial research. Go to the next section to begin.

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