418 Fall 08 THESIS STATEMENT AND LIST OF REFERENCES FOR RESEARCH PAPER DUE DATE FOR DRAFT: 11/5 in class DUE DATE FOR FINAL ASSIGNMENT: 11/12 in class Length of thesis: A paragraph List of references: Generate a typed and double-spaced list of references following R# 1, “Acknowledging Sources” or a citation style you are comfortable using. SEE RESEARCH PAPER GUIDELINES HOTLINKED FROM THE ONLINE SYLLABUS FOR NUMBER AND TYPES OF REFERENCES REQUIRED FOR YOUR PROJECT. Thesis Submit a typed, double-spaced, paragraph-length argument for your paper based on your family or library research or research based on interviews and library resources (hybrid project). Reminder:   AVOID general, vague, or universal statements (for eg., “Women have always worked,” or “Women have always been  oppressed” OR "Prostitution is the oldest profession").  Start the statement by saying something meaningful about your topic.  USE active verbs and make sure your sentences are, for the most part, active sentences.  USE argument words such as because, even though, however, on the one hand and on the other  A thesis statement is NOT a research proposal. I do not want to know what you intend to research but what you have found through your research. I don't want to see sentences that say, "I will find/I expect to find" or "I will be doing so and so"  Feel free to use first person singular ("I") Example of a thesis: For Family based projects: Three generations of women in my family reflect the changes in Asian American women’s status in Hawai’i and perceptions of unpaid work at home.  Because the time in which they lived shaped their experiences, they led very different lives.  However, two common themes run through their lives.  First, they all struggled to balance work and family amid gender and racial inequality at work and home (cite relevant literature from course material).  Second, they overcame the struggles they faced by embracing the importance of their family. As a pillar supports a bridge, my grandmother, mother, and my sister sustained their families.  Without them, their families would have fallen apart.  In this paper, I detail the ways in which they combated challenges in their workplaces – some feminized, others non-traditional – with the strength they gained through their roles in their families.  The importance of family for the three women runs counter to claims by White middle class feminists that families simply oppress women (citation).    For library-based projects: A review of websites that feature “mail-order brides” reveals that the advertisements promise women from the Third World economic security, emotional nurturance, and material comfort (citation).  Men from the First World, mostly White, describe themselves in these ads as financially stable and emotionally gentle.  However, research on mail-order brides demonstrates that the reality of these women’s lives in the First World often depart from what the ads lead them to expect (citations).  This paper discusses emotional and economic strategies that mail-order brides adopt to adjust to their broken dreams so that they can continue to meet their goal of providing themselves and their families with greater security.