If you have a thesis, your first sentence will be your thesis.
If you don't have a thesis, your first sentence will be
your unthesis.
What if you run out of writing time before you can figure out an
overall, final answer to the question as you understand it at this
time? No problem, just work out your overall "takeaway" on the
topic. What do you currently think about the whole thing?
How much progress have you made towards a thesis? What parts do
you understand so far? What parts do you not yet
understand? What questions do you still have at this
point?
If you don't have a thesis, an "unthesis" is a short statement or
summary of where you are at the point you have stopped
prewiting and are about to start writing. This may be an
explanation of why you can't make up your mind at this point, or a
question you think needs answering, or what you think you need in
order to go on and figure out a thesis. Your "unthesis" is thus
your biggest, or most significant, or most comprehensive overall
point about the subject.
So, if you don't have a
thesis, your first sentence should be your unthesis.
Ths could be a single question, such as "I think the main question
is ___________ " or, if it's more than one question, you could say
something like "I have several questions. They are ____ and ____
and ______"
If you don't even have a glimmering of even an unthesis, you should resort to the thinkathon option. (In which case your unthesis would be "I don't really have a handle on this topic just yet, so I'm just going to do a thinkathon, which is just a collection of whatever random thoughts I happen to have about the topic".
Copyright © 2025 by Martin C. Young
