Writing A Statement Of Controlling Purpose printable pdf download

Writing A Statement Of Controlling Purpose

Writing a Statement of Controlling Purpose

Your statement of controlling purpose is an assumption about your topic, a premise to be

supported, and a controlling idea that will determine for what kind of material you look. As you

discover more information about your topic and/or evidence that changes your original idea, you

will begin to formulate this statement into a working, and, eventually a final, thesis. Refer to the

following handout “Writing a Statement of Controlling Purpose”.

WRITING A STATEMENT OF

CONTROLLING PURPOSE

This is a sentence or pair of sentences that tells what you want to accomplish in

your paper. It is called a statement of controlling purpose because it controls,

or guides, your research. The statement of controlling purpose usually contains

one or more key words that tell what the paper is going to accomplish. It also

asks key questions about your chosen topic. Key words that often appear in

analyze, classify, compare, contrast,

statements of controlling purpose include

define, describe, determine, establish, explain, identify, prove,

support.

and

Your paper, being persuasive in nature, will require some specific words such

as the bolded ones in the preceding list.

Examples:

The purpose of this paper will be to prove that the prose writing of Sandra

Cisneros has a poetic quality.

The purpose of this paper will be to contrast animal communication and

human language to show which is more effective.

STATEMENTS OF CONTROLLING PURPOSE

A controlling purpose can be to:

Support (or to argue against) a policy **

Establish (or to prove false) one or more statements of fact. **

Determine the relative value of two or more things. **

Analyze something into its parts and to show how those parts relate to one

another.

Define something.

Explain causes or effects.

Establish a cause-effect relationship. **

Describe the development of something over time.

Identify and describe a general trend.

Writing A Statement Of Controlling Purpose