Objective for Today

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Objective for Today

• To craft and construct a clear and concise THESIS
  statement.
• You will need paper and pen.

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Thesis statement
THESIS SENTENCE
INTRODUCTION
BODY PARAGRAPHS
CONCLUSION
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Preparing to Write

• Good writing is close reading
• Read a work more than once looking for symbols,
  foreshadowing, character development.
• Annotating, marking your book.

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Introductions

• To interest your reader
• To introduce your subject
• To state your thesis (hint to what is to come)

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How to?

• Opening lead Hook
• Authors name and title
• Brief plot of work with a narrow focus
• Thesis statement

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Avoid

• Opening with a question or quote.
• Parroting prompt.
• Vague generalizations

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Inverted Pyramid

• Introduction
• Generalizations
• Title and author
• Thesis

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Function of a thesis

• It is the main point or purpose of a
  paper/analysisit is what you intend to prove.

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• Your thesis statement should include two parts
  WHAT and WHY.
• WHAT What claim are you making about the text?
• WHY Why should we care? Why is your claim
  important? Your thesis should answer the so
  what? question.

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• Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn is a great
  American novel.
• Whats wrong with this thesis statement?

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• In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a
  contrast between life on the river and life on
  the shore.
• Better? How so? What is still missing?

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• Through its contrasting river and shore scenes,
  Twains Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find
  the true expression of American ideals, one must
  leave civilized society and go back to nature.

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• In everyones life, there comes a time when one
  must leave behind the innocence of childhood and
  face the harsh realities of the adult world.
  Although, most teenagers handle this period with
  few problems, young Connie in Joyce Carol Oates
  short story Where are you going? faces her
  initialization into the experienced world with
  much hardship. Connie makes a mythic journey from
  innocence to experience as she journeys with
  Arnold. Through, characterization, Oates suggests
  that Connie realizes she cannot return to her
  innocent world, so she forges ahead to encounter
  the harshness of her adult world.

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• We as a species are torn between emotion and
  reason. Often, the struggle is greatest when we
  are put in the most dire circumstances. The Road,
  by Cormac McCarthy begins with a human head on a
  stake in the middle of the road. It later follows
  with a boy staring at a bloody mattress. McCarthy
  demonstrates extreme graphic violence to reflect
  the animalistic side of human behavior and the
  constant struggle with the inner beast.

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• Toni Morrisons Beloved is a poignant look at the
  Black-American experience in a time when society
  was dominated by the inhumane treatment of
  slaves. Beloveds character provides not only
  suspense of supernatural forces but is used to
  highlight Morrisons overriding themes of
  ancestor-elder relationships and the attempt to
  erase the past.

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• As the hawk flies through the sky during the
  failing light of the coming evening, the world
  grows still. In the poem Evening Hawk by
  Robert Penn Warren, the hawk is used to represent
  an all knowing and all seeing figure, such as
  death. Here Warren sets the scene with specific
  word choice utilizing many different mathematical
  terms to emphasis the precision and swiftness of
  the hawks movements.

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Writing Body Paragraphs

• Helps the reader follow your argument.
• Each body paragraph begins with a TOPIC SENTENCE
  that relates to some aspect of the THESIS. (HINT
  this can be achieved by repeating words from the
  thesis as the controlling idea in your topic
  sentence.
• The analysis should focus on how the theme is
  revealed.
• Quotations are part of evidence.
• Each paragraph develops some aspect to Thesis

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• So, if the thesis is
• Through characters and their actions, Ibsen
  illustrates the theme that pride leads to mans
  downfall.
• TS The power of pride is clearly seen in the
  Torvalds character.
• Analysisembedded text (quote)
• Torvalds perception on what would others think
  establish his hubris.

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Writing Conclusions

• Lets the reader know you have come to an end.
• Should be a paragraph.
• Show how theme relates to everyones life because
  of the universal condition.

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The Four Ss

• Signal thus, then, therefore, so
• Summary creative rewording of ideas (like a
  final bow)never repetition of thesis verbatim.
• Significance drive home point. What should we
  glean from your paper.
• Speedchange tempo and styleend with a clincher
  (never a quote).

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Conclusion (specific to general)

• REMIND Additional statements about the paper
  topic. Mention some of your best points.
• RELATE General statement that ends the essay
  (clincher).

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Embedding quotes

• Guidelines for Quotes
• Cannot stand alone as a sentence.
• Should not be back-to-back (must interpret
  evidence and explain after each quote).
• Should not begin or end a paragraph (they are
  support for statements made and need commentary
  after).
• Should all be four or fewer typed lines.
• Should be worked right into your writing.
• Do not always need to be full sentences / can be
  phrases (use ellipsesto indicate left our part).
• Need to be in present tense since the paper is
  written in present tense (must flow).
• Should not be dropped into writing suddenly.

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• We learn about Mrs. Ramsey's personality by
  observing her feelings about other characters.
  For example, Mrs. Ramsey has mixed feelings
  toward Mr. Tansley, but her feelings seem to grow
  more positive over time as she comes to know him
  better. At first Mrs. Ramsey finds Mr. Tansley
  annoying, as shown especially when he mentions
  that no one is going to the lighthouse. But
  rather than hating him, at this point she feels
  pity "she pitied men always as if they lacked
  something . . ." (85). Then later, during the
  gathering, pity turns to empathy as she realizes
  that Mr. Tansley must feel inferior. He must
  know, Mrs. Ramsey thinks, that "no woman would
  look at him with Paul Rayley in the room" (106).

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• Finally, by the end of the dinner scene, she
  feels some attraction to Mr. Tansley and also a
  new respect "She liked his laugh. . . . She
  liked his awkwardness. There was a lot in that
  man after all" (110). In observing this evolution
  in her attitude, we learn more about Mrs. Ramsey
  than we do about Mr. Tansley. The change in Mrs.
  Ramsey's attitude is not used by Woolf to show
  that Mrs. Ramsey is fickle or confused rather it
  is used to show her capacity for understanding
  both the frailty and complexity of human beings.
  This is a central characteristic of Mrs. Ramsey's
  personality.

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• As you choose quotations for a literary analysis,
  remember the purpose of quoting. Your paper
  develops an argument about what the author of the
  text is doing--how the text "works." You use
  quotations to support this
• argument that is, you select, present, and
  discuss material from the text specifically to
  "prove" your pointto make your case--in much the
  same way a lawyer brings evidence before a jury.
  Quoting for any other purpose is
  counterproductive. Don't quote to "tell the
  story" or otherwise convey basic information
  about the text assume the reader knows the text.
  Don't quote just for the sake of quoting or just
  to fill up space. Don't make the reader jump up
  and shout "Irrelevant!"

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• All quotes should have signal phrases (lead-ins).
  These serve as the introduction to the quote and
  should provide the context needed to interpret
  the quote. Do not depend on the quote to make
  the point for you.
• You MUST
• 1) lead-in to quote
• 2) give the quote in present tense
• 3) cite the author and page number (unless a
  single work
• 4) give commentary

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Types of Lead-ins

• The somebody said lead-in
• Ex. After he hears of Kemmerichs death, Paul
  comments, I become faint, all at once I cannot
  do any more. I wont revile any more, it is
  senseless (Remarque 32).
• The blended lead-in
• Some of the quoted material is left out . What
  is retained is blended right into the sentence.
• Ex. Paul becomes disillusioned early on by the
  war and views it as senseless (32).
• The sentence lead-in
• This lead-in is followed by a colon.
• Ex. Paul evidently suffers from despair after
  the death of his fellow soldier it is
  senseless (32).

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Common Lead-in Verbs

• Argues, asserts, believes, claims, comments,
  declares, illustrates, notes observes, reasons,
  reports, suggests, thinks, writes.