文档介绍：Chapter 5
Writing thesis statement and outline
Points to learn in this lecture
Methods of narrowing down a topic
Understanding the thesis statement
Working out an outline
Methods of narrowing down a topic
Revision
As English major, you can write your graduation thesis on a topic from any of the following subject areas:
English literature;
English linguistics;
English language teaching and learning;
English to Chinese and Chinese to English translation studies.
After you decide your subject area

You should first of all go to library or read an introductory
book about the subject area to broaden your understanding.
When you are broadened about the area, you know how you can narrow down.
Suppose you decide to write about English language teaching and learning.
There are three major sub-areas:
teachers /teaching
learners/learning
language/culture
You cannot write them all in your graduation thesis; you need make further decision and choose one from the three.
If you choose the second one
English learners and learning, and go on reading, you will find that within this sub-area there are further fine classifications, such as
learning theories
learning styles,
learning strategies
individual learner’s differences.
You should go on reading and narrowing down until you arrive at an easy-to-manage and well focused topic.
(You can do the same with other subject area).
选题要控制在适中的范围内,不能过大或过小
选题过大

在有限的篇幅里难以驾驭,不能写深写透,论文自然会显得抽象浅显,聚焦不足,游离主题。例如:
“文化迁移与商务英语翻译”
“劳伦斯小说中的人性观研究”
“中学英语新课标改革措施之我见”

大而无当,盲点百出。即便是博士论文恐怕也难以企及
选题过小,范围太窄
研究视角自然会受到制约,论点则无法深入开展,井小难储水,最终只能堆砌材料,乱塞例证,敷衍了事。例如:
选择英》中的“红酒”作为论文选题,
对《纽约时报》中的新闻主题句进行研究。
由于选题过小过窄,结果越写越觉得难以挖掘下去,最后只好换题重写,白白浪费了时间和精力。
大小适中的选题原则与方法
对过大的选题进行“缩水”处理
对过小的选题进行“扩容”处理
“缩水”也罢,“扩容”亦好,人们往往都会根据论文的许可长度,写作的准备时间长短,作者能占有的资料数量和质量等因素,通过三次过滤的赛选整合而最终敲定论文选题,以达到“小题大做,小中见大”的选题效果。
论文选题的缩水例示
第一次选题(太宽泛): The Human Nature in D. ’s Novels
第二次选题(限定范围):Which Novel of D. H. Lawrence’s Writing