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The thesis statement is the single most important aspect of your paper; it
is, essentially, the justification for its very existence. A good thesis
sentence should contain:
Too General: "There are many similarities between Madame Bovary and
Anna Karenina, but there are some differences as well."
More Specific: "Though both Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina pivot
around the tension between individual liberty and societal mores, Flaubert
concerns himself with the decadence of self-indulgence, while Tolstoy
focuses on the notion of feminine entrapment."
Tension - Perhaps most important, make sure that your argument can be
controversial. If you set out to prove something that is a given (like "the
1960s were an era of American cultural upheaval" or "Hamlet undergoes
numerous psychological changes") your paper is not only uninteresting,
but entirely pointless. When you think you've decided on a statement, see
if you can make a counterargument to refute it. Your job is to show how the
evidence of your sources should be interpreted in a particular light, but
crucial to its being worth reading is the fact that other interpretations are
possible.
One more note: Contrary to popular belief, your thesis does not have to
be just one sentence. If you cannot construct an adequately complex
thesis without making a heinous run-on, by all means, break it up.
The Introduction
Once you've decided what your thesis is going to be, you must be able to
frame it in a manner that provides an effective entry into your work. No
matter how great your argument is, it will not do much good if no one is
enticed into reading it. The two most important functions of your
introduction are to serve as a grabber (a stylish, creative lead-up to what
youre trying to say) and as justification (an explanation of why your
argument is even important in the first place).
DON'T keep reiterating your thesis - Your thesis should appear in your
intro as the culmination of the previous thoughts, not just something you
mention and then keep restating to fill up a paragraph.
Some Freebies
The quotation - Find a quote from one of your sources or, even better,
from elsewhere that seems to get at the problem you're dealing with. State
it at the beginning of your intro and discuss how it relates to what you're
trying to prove.
The anecdote - This works particularly well for a historical essay, and even
better if you have some ability at creative writing. Pick a specific incident
that represents the underlying conflict of your piece, and briefly narrate it
like a story. Explain afterwards how the instance reflects a problem you're
attempting to solve.
Topic Sentences
Each body paragraph of your paper builds towards proving one particular
aspect of your thesis, and each of these aspects should be crystallized into
a strong topic sentence.
If your paper is quite short, these sentences might represent the main
points you mentioned in the blueprint part of your thesis, but they might
each be more specific aspects of one of those points, particularly if your
paper is longer.
Defining your topics - First and foremost, a topic sentence is a piece of
analysis, NOT summary. Think of it in a similar manner to how you thought
of your thesis; in other words, an original interpretation based upon the
textual evidence of your source. The first of the following examples
illustrates a statement of fact, rather than an argumentative topic sentence.
Close reading is a term used to describe how you ought to be using your
sources. The most important element of close reading is questioning; it is
imperative that you actively engage the text in order to develop your own
ideas to use as arguments.
If at all possible, make your close reading your second reading of the
source. If you've read it once already, you will have a basic understanding
of the text, and you can focus on a more intensive questioning.
Use highlighters - Take note of any and all points of interest in the text. If
you've got a thesis in mind already, use several different colors of
highlighter, each for information relevant to a separate prong of your
argument. This will make your life much easier when you go back to
integrate your sources, particularly if you've got an extensive amount of
text to cover.
Ask questions - In expository work, continually ask yourself "Is this true?
What evidence supports this statement? Can other conclusions be drawn
from the facts of this text?" By deciding whether or not you agree with the
arguments of your source, you'll begin to crystallize more subtle arguments
of your own. In literature, question the author's purpose in using particular
narrative structures. "Why is this metaphor used? What does the
comparison signify? Why do we learn this particular piece of information in
such a manner? Why is the setting dwelled on so much in this passage?
What is the relationship between setting and character? Write these
questions in the margins as you go along.
Get down to the details - One of the most sophisticated close reading
techniques you can incorporate into your work is an analysis of the multiple
connotations of a specific word. Be aware of every single word the author
uses. When you find one of particular interest, literally look it up in the
dictionary and consider how each and every definition might be applied to
the text. Even if the author uses it with one literal definition in mind, see if
the connotations of the other definitions can be applied to your idea (This
is particularly true of Shakespeare).
From Coleridge's Kubla Kahn: "In Xanadu did Kubla Kahn a pleasure
dome decree; Where Alph the sacred river ran through caverns
measureless to man; into a sunless sea."
Your assignment is to write about how the poem illustrates the power of
human creativity. In light of this, here are some questions to ask yourself
right off the bat:
1.
What is Alph, and does Coleridge use it as the setting for his poem?
The meat and potatoes of your body paragraphs will be a mixture of textual
summary and your analysis of it.
Once you've done your close reading and structured your topic sentence
for a paragraph, go back and pull out the details you've highlighted.
In putting these details into your paper, it is absolutely imperative that you
balance each one with YOUR analysis of their significance. It might help,
at least until you're used to the idea, to maintain a mental ratio: three
sentences of your interpretation for every one concrete detail of the text.
The concrete detail - Paraphrase the gist of the actual textual information
as CONCISELY as possible. It is important for your reader to understand
what you're talking about, but only as an illustration for your own ideas.
Note how very little textual detail was necessary to come up with quite a bit
of interpretation.
Keep an eye on the big picture - As tempting as it is to fill space with any
interesting idea you come up with, do not put a single thought onto the
page that you cannot relate directly to the proving of your topic sentence.
Remember, your paper must act as the impetus for an idea, not merely a
description of your sources, however subtle that description might be.
Bad Integration: Keats describes the Grecian urn as follows: "Thou still
unravish'd bride of quietness; Thou foster child of silence and slow time;
Sylvan historian who canst express; The flowery tale more sweetly than
can rhyme.".
Now that you've done some good analysis within your paragraphs, it's
necessary to examine how they fit in to the goal of your overall paper.
Make your paragraphs build off of each other - It's best to try to arrange
your paper in a manner that grows increasingly more specific. In
subsequent paragraphs, try to refer back to what you mentioned in
previous ones, and explain how your current subject extends or re-
examines it in a new light.
Transitions - In order to give your paper unity and flow, it's important to
always make smooth transitions between paragraphs. Consider the
relationship between the two paragraphs, and use it as a way of moving
from one to the other. You might address a similarity in argument, by
saying "In a similar manner...", "This argument may be allied to "subject B"
in terms of... ", "Likewise... ", or "The idea of X recurs again with respect
to... " To express a dissimilarity, you might use "In contrast...", "On the
other hand... ", or "Nevertheless".
Before putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) it will make your job
much easier to have an idea in mind of exactly how your paper is going to
be framed.
If you're writing on a pre-assigned topic, its nature will likely affect the way
in which your paper is structured.
When thinking about your structure, then, it's best to come up with the
general areas you'd like to discuss (this will largely be determined by the
amount of space you have), and to divide your paper mentally between
those.
The Comparative Analysis
The first thing to remember (which will be explored more extensively in the
thesis section) is that your paper cannot just compare the two pieces in
general, exhaustively mentioning all similarities and differences with no
specific argument.
Once you know exactly what your argument is, your structure will be
crucial to the techniques you use to make it.
The sequential method - This means discussing all of text A and then
moving on to text B.
Example: Discuss "The Rape of the Lock in terms of mock epic, with
reference to Homer's The Illiad.
In this case, the second text should be used as a continual reference point,
but should not be analyzed in and of itself.
A way to structure this sort of paper is to break down your argument with
respect to your main text into a number of points, as you normally would
with a "discuss" paper. Within each paragraph, insert segments of analysis
as to how your new arguments function within the paradigms established
by the lens text.
The Conclusion
As the very last impression your reader gets of your paper, the conclusion
is your opportunity to sell your argument once and for all. It's a place for
reflection, for looking back at the relationship between the numerous ideas
of your paper. Most importantly, however, it ought to be the site of your
most complex analysis; that which incorporates everything that's gone
before.
DON'T view it as merely an ornamental way to end your paper - its role
should be to justify your paper at the highest level.
DON'T begin your conclusion with the opener "In conclusion...". That
makes your paper awkwardly self-conscious and contrived, rather than
naturally unfolded.
DO attempt some sort of unified closure, with respect to what you set up in
the introduction. If you used one of the previously mentioned clever
introductions, make reference again to the quote, questions, or anecdote
you incorporated.
Citations
Itsimportanttorememberthateverysinglepieceofinformationyouobtainfroma
sourcemustbecitedinyourpaper.Thisappliesnotonlytoquotes,buttoeverysingle
factyouincorporate.Thereareseveralmethodsfordoingcitations,butit'sbestjustto
chooseoneandremainconsistent.BelowaredirectionsfordoingcitationsintheMLA
style,oneofthemostwidelyrecognizedformats.
Bibliography
Thefirststepistomakeabibliography,inclusiveofallworksyou'vecitedinyourpaper.
Whatfollowsisalistofproperformsforvarioustypesofsources.
Book
Vendler,Helen.Poems.Poets.Poetry.Cambridge:HarvardUniversityPress,1995.Ifthe
bookyouareusingisaneditionotherthanthefirst,includethisinformation(e.g."Ided.
")directlyafterthetitle.
ArticleorotherworkinaJournal
Sedgwick,Eve."SymbolismandSexualityinFaulkner."MississippiQuarterly10
(1987):6978.
Article,chapter,excerpt,orworkinaneditedcollectionoranthology
Jonson,Ben."ThoughIamYoung."TheNortonAnthologyofEnglishLiterature.6thed.
Ed.M.H.Abramsetal.NewYork:Norton,1993.12401241.
Iteminacollectionoftheauthor'sworkwithnoseparateeditor
Lawrence,D.H.TicketsPlease."InCollectedStories.London:Heinemann,1974.314
325.
Iteminacollectionoftheauthor'sworkwithnoseparateeditor
Lawrence,D.H.TicketsPlease."InCollectedStories.London:Heinemann,1974.314
325.
Articleorinterviewinamagazineornewspaper
Clift,Eleanor."Clinton'sRightTurn."NewsweekJuly1999:5556.
Articleinanencyclopediaorotherreferencework
"Aardvarks."EncyclopediaBritannica.1975.
Revieworeditorial
Leys,Simon."Balzac'sGeniusandOtherParadoxes."Rev.ofBalzac:ALife,byGraham
Robb.TheNewRepublic20December1994.267.
Preface,introduction,forward
Lewis,C.S.Preface.Phantastes.ByGeorgeMacDonald.NewYork:PenguinBooks,
1945.
Lettersorpapersfromanarchive
Reagan,Ronald.Papers.RonaldReganPresidentialLibrary,SimiValley,CA.
PersonalLetter
Sheley,ErinL.Lettertotheauthor.10January2000.
Unpublishedpaperordissertation
Borelli,Jessica."OutoftheDarkness:DreamsandtheirRelationtoChildhood
Sexuality."Diss.UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley,1999.
Letterinapublishedcollection
Montagu,LadyMaryWortley.ToAlexanderPope."7September1718.Selected
Letters.Ed.RobertHalsband.NewYork:VikingPenguin,1986.
LegalCase
Watsonv.DunhillInc.135USPQ882dCir1967.
Bookwithanauthorandaneditor
DanteAlighieri.TheInferno.Ed.RobertPinsky.Boston:BostonUniversityPress,1996.
Bookinseveralvolumes
Keats,John.CollectedPoems.Plays,and.Letters.2vols.EdJonStallworthy.Oxford:
OxfordUniversityPress,1988.
Booksinaseries
Peterson,MargaretWallaceStevensandtheIdealistTradition.StudiesinModern
Literature24.AnnArbor:UmiResearchPress,t983.
ReprintedBook
Douglas,Frederick.NarrativeoftheLifeofFrederickDouglas.1857.NewYork:
PenguinBooks,1993.
TranslatedBook
Nietzsche,Friedrich.TheGayScience.Trans.WalterKaufman.NewYork:Vintage,
1974.86.
Work,article,information,orgraphicontheWeb
Sheley,Erin."StrangeBedfellows:ShouldtheRepublicanPartyCozyUptothe
HomosexualVote?"http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~hprcited10January1999.
TelnetorFTPsite
"Aardvark."OxfordEnglishDictionary,2ded.1971[Onlinebook].
<telnet://UWIN.U.WASHINGTON.EDU/I/REF/OED/aardvak>.
Contributiontoalistservornewsgroup
Raner,Claude.raner@wiz.bristol.ac.uk(1995,May3).Againstguns.3May1997.
<alt.weapons.ops>.
Emailmessage
Shankar,Ganesh.gshankar@leland.stanford.edu"I'MSorry."Personalemail.23March
1999.
Classlecture,conferencepaper,speech,orperformance
Eck,Diana.LectureonShaivism.LiteratureandArtsC18,HarvardUniversity.
Cambridge,MA.14December,1999.
Personalortelephoneinterview
Engell,James.Telephoneinterview.6March1998.
Artwork,illustration,orcartoon
AlmaTadema,SirLawrence.TheRiteofSpring.J.PaulGettyMuseum,LosAngeles.
Musicalrecording,score,orlinernotes
Gerswhin,George.RhapsodyinBlue.Cond.JohnWilliams.BostonPopsOrchestra.
DeccaDM3988,1995.
Film,video,ortelevisionprogram
StoriesoftheCity.Videocassette.Dir.GregStone.Narr.PariaKooklan.Panorama
Entertainment,1999.
IntextCitations
Theeasiestwaytociteyoursourcesthroughoutyourpaperisbyusingtheparenthetical
technique.
Forahumanitiespaper,youincludethelastnameoftheauthor,andthepageinwhich
thereferencewasfound,attheendofthesentence.
Example:"TheLeviathansuggeststhatinastate(ifnature,manlooksoutonlyforhis
owninterests(Hobbes56)."
Forasocialscienceorsciencepaper,includetheauthor'slastnameandthedate.
Example:"Theregressivemotionsoftheplanetswere,foratime,explainedintermsof
epicycles(Koestler,1992).
Quotations
Whenusingdirectquotationslessthanthreelineslong,youmayintegratethemas
describedintheprevioussections.Whenusingaquotethatislongerthanthreelines
long,followtheseguidelines:
1. Skipdowntwolinesfromtherestofyouressaytobeginthequote
2. Indentalllines10spacesfromtheleftmargin
3. Singlespacethequote
4. Don'tputanindentedblockinquotationmarks
5. Indicatethespeakerandthecontextofthequotebeforeyouinsertit
6. Endthesentencedirectlybeforeitwithacolon
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