From Hypothesis to Thesis

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
         - Sherlock Holmes, “A Scandal in Bohemia” (189)

When you set out to research something, hopefully you already have some basic understanding, some background in the field. With that background, you should have an idea of what specific topics you are interested in, and an understanding of how things work in that field. Therefore, you can hypothesize and make reasonable assumptions about how you think the research is going to end and what your eventual thesis will be.

There's a problem, though. Sometimes, the tendency is to find research that supports a hypothesis, rather than research for the sake of learning and becoming more knowledgeable about the topic. Research is learning, and learning is gaining a better understanding of something. That information you already knew becomes more refined and more specific. Therefore, your hypothesis, which will become your thesis, should change.

There are really two ways that your thesis can change: first, by becoming more specific and more nuanced, the second, is to qualify it to avoid expressing unfounded absolutes.

More nuanced, more specific

Part of what happens in research is you become more aware of the complexities of your subject, especially if you realize the subject you started researching is really two, or three, or a dozen different topics. Be careful you don’t try to address additional topics that aren’t essential to your topic, or that will make your topic too broad and vague.

For example, you may want to write and research the middle ages. A little research should show there are thousands of facts relevant to the middle ages. You'll learn that situations varied considerably from century to century, from place to place, across social strata, etc.. It then becomes dangerous to say something about “the middle ages” because it won't be the same everywhere. You then have to focus your research on a specific place, a specific time, a specific social class, etc. It then becomes a matter of filling in the Six Journalistic Questions and returning to that tool as a way to refine and limit one's topic so that it doesn't get out of hand.

Becoming Qualified

We like to think in absolutes, but the world is rarely so easily distinguishable into black and white. For example, maybe you hypothesized “all medieval British nobles were faithful and loyal to their king,” then any British nobles who weren’t loyal to their king would disprove your thesis (for this example, you don't need to look much further than the Magna Carta to disprove it, but, to be fair, King John was a jerk). You can then qualify your thesis by replacing the “all” with words like “Most” or “some” or “few.”

This little change, though, will have repercussions in the rest of the essay:

If it’s “all” then all of your evidence should show that, yes indeed, all medieval British nobles were faithful and loyal to their king. No exceptions.

If it’s “most” then you should have evidence showing the majority were loyal while acknowledging that some weren’t.

“Some” and, more specifically, “few” suggest most were not loyal to the crown, and so most examples you reference should show disloyalty among medieval British nobles.

Conclusion

Whatever the path you take as you research, your hypothesis should undergo changes, becoming more nuanced, more specific, and, if needs be, qualified, as you go through your research. Use your hypothesis as a way to gauge the effectiveness of your research. If your thesis doesn't change, then odds are you aren't paying enough attention to your research.

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Works Cited

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Vol. 1. “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Barnes & Noble Classics: New York, 2003. 187-205. Print.