修订导论和结论

导论是论文的第一印象，非常关键。在修订的最后时刻，我们会发现经过全文的写作，我们最初定下来的临时性的论点已经发生了改变，所以也需要重新修改导论的内容。

导论有5个功能：

吸引读者注意力
把读者引导到你的主题（topic）
把读者的注意力聚焦到你的论点上
解释你的论点和它的重要意义
介绍整个论文的章节安排

通过这些内容，你的贡献就会变得引人入胜的、情境化的、具体的、重要的和组织良好的（engaging, contextualized, specific, significant, and well-organized），我们就成功了。

我们也重新修改结论，反映我们的最终发现。

参考文献

Department of History, Harvard University, A Handbook for Senior Thesis Writers in History, 2010， PDF 链接
哈佛写作中心，学位论文写作指南，网页链接

Index

附录：哈佛原文

While you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, your thesis reader may judge your project, to some degree, by its introduction. First impressions matter. With only a few weeks left before the final submission deadline, you want to prioritize your remaining tasks for revision. Your introduction may be the best place to start. A well-constructed introduction may not make or break your entire thesis project, but it can significantly improve just about any senior thesis.

At this stage in the writing and revision process, you will likely find yourself in one of two positions:

1) You wrote a draft of all your body chapters before turning to your introduction; or

2) You wrote a draft of your introduction before composing the rest of your body chapters.

In either scenario, rest assured that you have a wealth of accumulated materials from which to draw. In the first scenario, while you may not yet have a formal draft of an introduction, you do have a “first stab” at many of its components in the form of your initial prospectus, histiographical essay, and conference presentation, as well as the paragraphs expressing your central argument in each of your body chapters. In the second scenario, you have all of these materials, plus a first draft of your introduction, to help you polish your opening chapter.

When you refer to your prospectus, histiographical essay, and conference presentation, you’ll no doubt notice that your provisional assessments will have changed over the past few weeks and months. Now is the time to update your arguments! The need for revision, however, should not stop you from drawing upon these resources, as well as the previous exercises in this handbook, as you work through your introduction’s five major functions.

Five Functions of Your Introduction

Engage your reader’s attention.

Grab your reader’s interest from the opening lines with a “hook” that makes them want to read more.
Reread the introduction from your conference presentation and, if it proved successful, let it serve as a foundation for your opening “hook.”
See “Choosing an Opening Gambit,” page 45 for inspiration and examples of potential introductory strategies (i.e., the anecdote, the funnel, and the paradox).

Orient your reader to your topic.

Provide your reader with any necessary background information (e.g., names, dates, places, terms, and issues) so that they can locate your topic within its historical context.
Situate your argument within its relevant historiographical context(s). Think in terms of “clusters” (e.g., schools of thought or bodies of scholarship) to avoid a laundry list of authors and titles, but make sure to address the most important works for your thesis.
Consult your own annotated bibliography and historiographical essay for provisional assessments of the relevant historiography.

Focus your reader’s attention on your argument.

Describe as clearly as possible the particular historical and historiographical questions driving your thesis project.
Introduce the primary sources and unique methodology that will form the basis of your analysis. Explain why these sources and this methodology will allow you to answer (as best you can) your central questions. Consider any potential limitations to your approach.

Explain your argument and its significance.

Spell out your central argument in a thesis statement (whether a single sentence or a concise summary).
Answer the proverbial “so what?” question! In other words, justify why your prospective reader should devote a day to reading the argument you have constructed.
Refer to your provisional argument (from your annotated bibliography) for a draft of this section of your introduction.
Think back to your conversations about your thesis project over the past year. How did you explain your argument and its significance to your adviser, your peers, your friends, or your family members? What strategies worked in these conversations that you might incorporate into your introduction?
See “Learning from Model Theses: Introductory Materials,” page 49, for examples.

Outline the layout of your entire thesis.

Construct a “road map” of your thesis so that your reader knows what to expect, and in what order, in the subsequent chapters.
Work backwards. Create a template for your “road map” by cutting and pasting the central argument (i.e., thesis sentence or paragraph) from each of your body chapters and arranging these sentences in the proper order. Revise this template to avoid redundancy and ensure readability.
Refer to an outline or a provisional table of contents for a sense of the “big picture” or entire trajectory of your thesis, as well as the key terms or markers that might differentiate the various sections or chapters.

If you address these five major functions in your introduction, you will go a long way towards establishing your credibility as a historian. With the proper investment in revision at this stage, your introduction will demonstrate to your reader that you are in command of the subject matter and that you have an engaging, contextualized, specific, significant, and well-organized contribution to make.

Drafting Your Introduction

The Introduction may be the most important part of your thesis. Many readers will judge your topic, argument, and method based on the summaries you provide at the start, and even based on your style. Above all, readers will expect to be told what the thesis is about, why you chose to write it, and what you hope they take from it. Otherwise, they may be frustrated and suspicious of your work even before reading the majority of it. If this is your first draft of an Introduction you may spend most of your time answering the “So what?” question. As was true when compiling your Annotated Bibliography, your answer will likely resemble one of the following three scenarios:

• Scenario #1: No one has written about my topic. My thesis explains the significance of this neglected topic and offers a provisional interpretation of this new material. • Scenario #2: A few scholars have written about my topic, but gaps and deficiencies in the literature exist. My thesis examines new or different evidence to correct these shortcomings. • Scenario #3: Many scholars have written about my topic. While its importance is established, my thesis calls for a reassessment of the existing literature based on recent findings, new methodologies, or original questions.

Assessing Your Introduction

Now that you have body chapters for the thesis you provisionally introduced, use this checklist to make sure the introductory chapter fits the actual thesis written: Does your thesis start with a hook that captures the reader’s attention? Is the opening of the thesis engaging overall? Does the introduction provide a basic idea of the historical context of the argument? Are all of the most significant characters and issues introduced? Is the argument situated within a historiographical context? Is the argument’s relationship to other bodies of scholarship made clear? Does the introduction succinctly spell out the argument of the thesis? Does it make clear the historical questions from which the argument arises? Does the introduction indicate which primary sources form the basis of your analysis? Does it explain why this set of sources best allows you to answer the central historical and historiographical questions posed? Have you answered the dreaded “so what?” question? That is, have you made a good case for the project’s significance? Does the introduction give the reader a sense of the layout of the entire thesis? Is there a “road map” that walks the reader through the thesis, quickly summarizing the content and argument of each chapter?

Assessing Your Conclusion

The conclusion is often the last thing a thesis writer drafts. Since time and energy may be in short supply, use this checklist to make sure your conclusion serves its basic functions:

Is there a clear and thorough summary of the argument outlined in the introduction and elaborated upon in each body chapter?

Does the conclusion reinforce the fact that you have delivered what you promised at the outset of the thesis?

Is the reader reminded that the thesis engaged a significant and interesting topic? How so? Does the thesis challenge some aspect of the historiography? Does it provide seeds for further research? Does it shed light on contemporary issues?