Let’s face it: we are all busy Northwestern students with a million things to do. Often—too often—we end up pushing that pesky paper off until the last possible minute because…well, we’re Northwestern students and we have a flair for the dramatic. So what do you do when you have a deadline coming up and all of the appointments at the Writing Place are full? One solution is to address some of your paper’s potential problems yourself. In my tutoring experience, one of the most common problems with a paper is the thesis. Specifically, students often worry that their thesis isn’t strong enough. Therefore, I designed the following flow chart to help you to self-diagnose the strength of your thesis. It’s based on strategies that tutors often employ at the Writing Place. Now you can train yourself to do the same thing at home! Click here to view the presentation.
–Alexandra Zaretsky