(excerpted from:   D. Rosenwasser & J. Stephen, eds., Writing Analytically, New York:  Harcourt, Brace & Co.
1997.)

1. A thesis is an idea that you formulate and reformulate about your subject. It should offer a theory about the meaning of evidence that would not have been immediately obvious to your readers.

2. Look for a thesis by focusing on an area of your subject that is open to opposing viewpoints or multiple interpretations. Rather than attempting to locate a single right answer, search for something that raises questions.

3. The body of your paper should serve not only to substantiate the thesis by demonstrating its value in selecting and explaining evidence but also to bring the opening version of the thesis into better focus.

4. Evolve your thesis-move it forward-by seeing the questions that each new formulation of it prompts you to ask.

5. Develop the implications of your evidence and of your observations as fully as you can by repeatedly asking, "So what?"

6. When you encounter potentially conflicting evidence (or interpretations of that evidence), don't simply abandon your thesis. Take advantage of the complications to expand, qualify, and refine your thesis until you arrive at the most accurate explanation of the evidence that you can manage.

7. Reason forward to conclusions by reasoning backward to premises.

8. Arrive at the final version of your thesis by returning to your initial formulationthe position you set out to explore-and restating it in the more carefully qualified way you have arrived at through the body of your paper.

9. To check that your thesis has evolved, locate and compare the various versions of it throughout the draft. Have you done more than demonstrate the general validity of an unqualified claim?