Dr. Matt Kuefler

9. A RANGE OF EXAMPLES

Why is it important to find a range of examples?

Since examples constitute the "proof" of your thesis, a range of examples, taken from different sources or from different parts of a source, allows you to argue your points with greater confidence. On a practical note, using a range of examples also helps to show me that you've read and taken into consideration the whole of the source you're analyzing.

Will I have to reread my sources to find a range of examples?

No. Since you've already read the source or sources that you're using in order to create your thesis and the reasons for believing in it, you should already have a good general sense of the work and its outline. If you don't think you're memory is good enough to find specific incidents or details by skimming the work, it would be best to take brief notes while you read the source the first time, including page numbers or other means of locating the examples. Do not rely on your memory for the details, since you may have remembered them wrongly, and in any case, you'll have to provide the page number or other indicator of a precise location in the notes to your essay. In the absence of your own notes to the source or sources you've been reading, or a good memory, the table of contents and/or index can help you zero in on that specific detail you're looking for.

How many examples constitutes a "good range" of examples?

In most cases, you should have two or three good examples to support each of the reasons for holding your thesis. These examples should follow that reason, formulated as a topic sentence, in the same paragraph. If you can only find one example of something that you feel is a good reason to hold your thesis, perhaps you should rethink that point, and reword it as a broader or more general point, so that you can find two or three examples. If you have two or three examples of each reason, and four or five reasons to support your thesis, that amounts to ten to fifteen examples of specific incidents or details from a source or sources for your overall essay. That should be enough for a short essay.