A thesis statement is not "I will build a working atomic bomb." A thesis could, however, be "I intend to prove that an atomic bomb can be designed and built using readily available documentation and materials."

Only the latter is attempting to PROVE something. As such, whether or not the student is able to build the atomic bomb, he cannot fail. His thesis can simply be disproved - and he ends a winner.

This is the crucial difference between a thesis project and the commercial world; it is this luxury you are paying for, and that we will force you to take advantage of.

ABSTRACT: THE THESIS STATEMENT

If you understand how to formulate a thesis statement, you should have no problem embarking on a win-win thesis experience. If your thesis statement is formulated properly, you cannot fail - except by simply stopping to work.

A thesis statement has two main parts: FOCUS and DIRECTION. The focus is where you begin - the thing you're actually interested in. The direction is the way in which you will explore your focus.

EXAMPLE ONE

Focus: The ready availability of extremely dangerous technologies

Direction: To build an atomic bomb using publicly available tools.

Fine. The focus and direction then combine into something like: "I will prove that extremely dangerous technologies are too readily available by building an atomic bomb using plans and materials I purchase online."

EXAMPLE TWO

Focus: Moments of transition in interactive stories.

Direction: Everyone at ITP is wrong! Interactivity doesn't require the user to have any control over story.

Interesting. This was the real thesis idea for a student last year. The focus and direction combine into: "I will show that a compelling interactive story does not require the user to have any control of the narrative at all, but only the ability to move back and forth over moments of transition."

Notice: the project itself has not been described, here. Unless it's really part of the thesis statement, it doesn't have to be described until Methodology, below.

EXAMPLE THREE

Focus: gesture needs to be brought back into music performance

Direction: computer instruments don't allow for enough gesture - they are increasingly counter-intuitive and abstracted from the body.

Combined thesis: Computer music can be generated more expressively through controllers designed around natural gestures of the human body.

Notice: except for the very first thesis statement, none of the others even mentioned the thesis project being built or created! This is because the project is not the thesis. It is simply the methodology through which you will prove your thesis.

In general, a thesis will involve either technology, art, or writing.

A technology thesis must either involve creating something genuinely new (a transporter), or dong something in a new way (using cell phones as a social networking tool). An art thesis can certainly focus on the creation of a work of art, but must be justified in terms of its theoretical or historical context. A thesis of scholarship need not have a production element, but must demonstrate the mastery of an area of inquiry related to interaction, technology, or media, and represent the culmination of field research or extensive scholarship.

PERSONAL STATEMENT

This is all yours. Really, it's the justification to yourself of why you're going to spend your energy this way. For the reader, it is a way for us to understand how this project fits into your own narrative. More importantly, it gives your advisor and your the Thesis Seminar instructor a better sense of why you are pursuing this field of inquiry, so that they can help you focus on the parts in which you are really interested, and spend your time more fully involved in the most personally satisfying and enriching activities.

What experiences have brought you to ask this question, pursue this interest, or right this wrong?

The student building the atomic bomb, for example, may have lost a parent in the 9/11 bombing, may have gotten in trouble as a kid for exploding a cherry bomb, or may have been investigating the limits of a censorship-free mediaspace.

The student creating interactive stories without user control may have simply disagreed with everything her teachers have been trying to tell her about interactivity for the past two years, and wanted to prove that a pop-up book is more interactive than a holodeck fantasy.

The student developing gestural music controllers may have been a musician before coming to ITP, and is looking to create new tools for his own performances in the real world after ITP.

The painter of the Mona Lisa may have been surprised to learn that cultures other than his own represented the Madonna with great sexuality.

Your personal statement cannot be wrong if it is honest, and you are genuinely interested in your thesis. You do not need to sell your thesis in your personal statement. You merely need to explain what brought you here, and what you hope to get out of it.

Page last modified on July 18, 2006, at 03:11 PM