This section will help you figure out where to get the components for your research argument.

Here, again, are the components we’ll cover:

• Your research question
• Your claim or thesis
• One or more reasons for your thesis
• Evidence for each reason
• Others’ objections, counterarguments, or alternative solutions
• Your acknowledgment of others’ objections, counterarguments, or alternative solutions.
• Your response to others’ objections, counterarguments, or alternative solutions.

Your Research Question

You learned how to develop research questions in Chapter Three. Though vitally important, research questions are often not stated in essays or term papers but are usually stated in reports of original studies, such as theses, dissertations, and journal articles.

Your Claim or Thesis

You write the claim or thesis–it doesn’t come directly from a source. Instead, it is the conclusion you come to in answer to your question after you’ve listened to read/engaged with some sources. So it is a statement, not a question or a hypothesis that you plan to prove or disprove with your research.

After you’ve read/listened to/viewed more sources, you may need to change your thesis. That happens all the time–not because you did anything wrong but because you learned more. Check out Chapter 10 to learn more about composing a main claim or thesis statement.

One or More Reasons

You write what you believe makes your claim or thesis (the answer to your research question) true. That’s your reason or reasons. Each reason is a summary statement of evidence you found in your research. How many reasons you need depends on how complex your thesis and subject matter are, what you found in your sources, and the scope of your research paper (length guidelines). It’s always a good idea to write your reasons in a way that is appropriate and persuasive for your audience and follows the conventions of the scholarly genre.

Evidence for Each Reason

You write this also. This is the evidence you summarized earlier as each reason your thesis is true. You will be directly quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing your sources to make the case that your answer to your research question is correct, or at least reasonable. Circle back to Chapter 6 for a review of quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing.

Others’ Objections, Counterarguments, or Alternative Solutions

Do any of your sources not agree with your thesis? You’ll have to bring those up in your paper. In addition, put yourself in your readers’ shoes. What might they not find logical in your argument? In other words, which reason(s) and corresponding evidence might they find lacking? Did you find clues to what these could be in your sources? Or maybe you can imagine them thinking some aspect of what you think is evidence doesn’t make sense.

Your Acknowledgement of Others’ Objections, Counterarguments, or Alternative Solutions

What will you write to bring up each of those objections, counterarguments, and alternative solutions? Some examples:

• I can imagine skeptics wanting to point out…
• Perhaps some readers would say…
• I think those who come from XYZ would differ with me…

It all depends on what objections, counterarguments, and alternative solutions your audience or your imagination come up with.

Response to Others’ Objections, Counterarguments, or Alternative Solutions

You must write your response to each objection, counterargument, or alternative solution brought up or that you’ve thought of. (You’re likely to have found clues for what to say in your sources.) The reason you have to include this is that you can’t very easily convince your audience until you show them how your claim stacks up against the opinions and reasoning of other people who don’t at the moment agree with you.

References

Gray, L. K., Gylander, T., Mbogga, M. S., Chen, P., & Hamann, A. (2011). Assisted migration to address climate change: recommendations for aspen reforestation in western Canada. Ecological Applications, 21(5), 1591–1603. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23023103.

Handler, S., Pike, C., & St. Clair, B. (2018). Assisted Migration. USDA Forest Service Climate Change Resource Center. https://www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/topics/assisted-migration.

Adaptations

This section has been adapted from Where You Get the Components in Choosing & Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research by Teaching & Learning, Ohio State University Libraries, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.