Hints & Tips ENGL 1102 Writing a Solid Thesis Think of your thesis as the guide to your paper. Your introduction has the power to inspire your reader to continue or prompt them to put your paper down. Almost all assignments can be reduced to a single question or statement; however, this does not mean that your thesis should be stated as a question. For assignments in this course, please do not state your thesis as a question. Ask yourself: What am I going to try to prove in this essay? In what order do I think I need to discuss my talking points? 1. Include the name of the piece(s) you want to analyze 2. Include the author s full name 3. A well-worded thesis statement clearly identifies your goal in the paper 4. To get started, brainstorm the topic a. Do this on a piece of paper; b. Create an outline or flow chart 5. Narrow the topic so that you can thoroughly address it within the guidelines of the paper 6. Understand your position on the topic; what do you want to say? 7. Use specific language; utilize the appropriate terminology 8. Remember you must support what you claim with examples Examples A strong thesis statement takes some sort of stand and states what the paper is about. Weak: Strong: There are some negative and positive aspects to drinking pomegranate juice. Because the antioxidant properties in pomegranate juice are necessary in a hearthealthy diet, cardiologists recommend that patients drink one eight ounce glass each day. A strong thesis statement inspires further discussion Your thesis needs to indicate your discussion points; don t make the reader guess. Weak: Strong: Welty created a great character in Phoenix Jackson. Once assembled, each characteristic Welty carefully assigned Phoenix Jackson in A Worn Path results in a puzzle-like glimpse into the struggles, assumptions, and life of an elderly black woman in 1941 traveling the same worn path that her ancestors walked in an on-going search for equality.
A strong thesis statement leaves the reader with a clear understanding of the purpose of the paper Weak: Companies need to exploit the marketing potential of the Internet and Web pages can provide advertising and customer support. If you read the above sentence, you may ask, is this about the potential of the Internet or is it about the pros and cons of creating a Web page? Strong: Because the Internet offers a variety of marketing venues, companies should explore its potential by using Web pages that offer a variety of services and opportunities. The Body of your Paper Prewrite I cannot stress this enough please do not procrastinate o Revise your notes into paragraphs about each of the areas above and include quotes from the text that back up your ideas In the least, make a note of the page numbers where the quotes are so you don t forget to properly cite within the text Once you get your thoughts down on paper, select the ones from which you can get the most mileage; but, don t trash anything yet; you may need these Support your theories using the text o Exact quotes o Paraphrase o Be sure to include parenthetical citations o Read your notes carefully and discuss what these examples tell you and how it is important to the story o Many of these ideas will make super topic sentences for your paragraphs; make good use of them o Order or reorder your ideas Your first draft is seldom in the most logical order o Get it into some order and type it up o Revise for clarity Omit unnecessary words Strive for conciseness If you are a constant comma user, STOP. Revise those sentences, even if it means breaking them into shorter sentences. It is better to go back and create correct compound or complex sentences than use so many commas your grade suffers. Develop your analysis in a Logical Order o This often means that after draft one or two, you may need to reorder your thoughts o Be sure that your thoughts flow smoothly from paragraph to paragraph in an order that the reader can follow with a clear understanding of why your thoughts are ordered in the way you present them.
Your Conclusion Summarize your interpretations and insights This is the ideal place to offer an opinion, if you feel so inclined Your paper must arrive at a logical, proven, supported, and thoroughly discussed conclusion Do not restate your thesis statement word-for-word in the conclusion Proofread The best piece of advice I can give you is this: Do not trust that you have no mechanical errors. I urge you to print your final draft and read it aloud with a pen or pencil in your hand. If you already know that you have issues with spelling, comma placement, subject/verb agreement, comma splices, or any other of a host of grammatical issues, seek out another set of eyes. The tutors in the writing center are most helpful when you present them with your concerns. They will not write a paper for you, but if you schedule an appointment and let them know with which particular area you require assistance, they will focus on that with you. Reminders not an all-inclusive list 1. All Margins 1 2. Double space entire paper including Works Cited 3. Paragraphs are indented.5 4. Reset Paragraph Before and After settings to 0 or add an additional page in length to the paper. 5. Revisit MLA format guidelines a. Know where the punctuation belongs b. Know when to use or not use the writer s name in the parenthetical citations c. Use only the assistance I made available for formatting Works Cited entries i. Ms. Thompson s MLA handout ii. University Writing Center iii. Penguin Handbook issued for ENGL1101 iv. Purdue s writing Lab http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ v. Diana Hacker & Barbara Fister s online resource Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/ 1. This is the link to the main page. For this class, use Humanities. For other academic fields you may need one of the other links on this page.
Fiction Analysis You have been asked to compose an analytical essay regarding one or two works of fiction. If you have never done this before, the task may seem daunting. Many writers struggle to just get started. If your instructor gives you topics, that certainly makes things easier; otherwise, your task is to identify some aspect or two of one or more selections you read and decide what may have sparked your interest. Brainstorm topics; writing them down is a great place to start. Don t let the term analysis mystify you. Your mission is to understand and interpret the writing. Think about what the author s purpose may be and how she or he developed a story to achieve that purpose. Perhaps there is an identifiable pattern in a story. For example, think about imagery or diction. Does the writer repeat certain things and if so, to what end? How does the writer use images to direct your attention to a meaning outside the obvious plot? Refer to your text and handouts for other ideas. Towards Writing a Character Analysis Read or scan the story o To formulate a basic opinion o To annotate the text Read your annotations o Sometimes this sends you back into the text Sort your notes into one of these categories related to character analysis; remember, all stories have strengths and weaknesses o Appearance o Diction all characters o Setting o Thoughts/Feelings o Devices Metaphor Simile Foreshadowing Use your list of rhetorical terms A few more notes: Characterization, Point of View, & Structure These are only a few of the many terms that you need to complete an analysis. Your text and the handout I gave you offer definitions and examples of theme, characterization, thematic elements, setting, irony, symbolism, plot, and many, many more. I advise you to focus on one to three at the absolute most. The current assignment is a short paper, so don t take on too many terms. You will, of course, refer to other terms as you relate how the topic you are discussing contributes to the story and the point you are making. In other words, if you complete a character analysis, you will discuss how the character develops in relationship to the plot; however, you will not be completing a plot analysis in the process.
Characterization Characterization broadly refers to the description and development of characters. This describes some of the terminology writers and critics use to discuss a narrower and more conventional sense of characterization. Primary and Secondary Characters The primary characters drive the story The primary character develops and the reader should recognize the changes or development in relationship to the action of the story Another way to say this is that primary characters are generally dynamic, or changeable, whereas secondary characters are generally static, or unchanging Secondary characters help create the circumstances surrounding the transformations of the primary character You may add a third category that is something like "extras" in films--the minor and sometimes nameless characters that add functional realism but nothing else Direct and Indirect Characterization Direct characterization tells the reader about a character; indirect characterization shows a character in action and leaves the reader to infer the rest. Point of View Point of view describes the perspective from which a piece of fiction is told. Remember that a single work of fiction can have many narrators and many points of view. What About First Person, Second Person, Third Person? Most authors of fiction choose either first-person narration or third-person narration. The first-person narrator speaks as "I." Narration in the third person describes action from a more detached perspective. In third-person narration, characters will appear by their names or the thirdperson pronouns (he, she, and they). Rarely, the writer may choose second-person narration, which directs the story at "you," the reader Subjectivity Objectivity Omniscience A point of view can be objective or subjective, limited or omniscient (all-knowing). Subjective narrators generally speak in the first person and are necessarily limited because they offer one of many possible perspectives on the action they describe. They often participate directly in that action. Unreliable narrators are subjective, though subjective narrators are not necessarily unreliable. Objective narrators act as observers. An omniscient narrator has access to all the actions and thoughts of the story A limited narrator will "know" only some of them
Structure Structure does not mean that fiction is composed or comes together successfully by formula. These elements of structure help us understand some of the ways in which fiction writers shape elements such as character and setting. Story and Plot We use these terms broadly. The story is a narrative of events arranged in a sequence. Plot is also a narrative, but the emphasis is on cause. The plot is often an aspect of the story that causes you, the reader, to ask and then? Story is driven by events alone; plot by events and motivations. Theme and Meaning Theme is the main idea explored in the story. Flannery O Connor says in Writing Short Stories, "I prefer to talk about the meaning in a story rather than the theme of a story. People talk about the theme of a story as if the theme were like the string that a sack of chicken feed is tied with. They think that if you can pick out the theme, the way you pick the right thread in the chicken-feed sack, you can rip the story open and feed the chickens. But this is not the way meaning works in fiction. "When you can state the theme of a story, when you can separate it from the story itself, then you can be sure the story is not a very good one. The meaning of a story has to be embodied in it, has to be made concrete in it. A story is a way to say something that can't be said any other way, and it takes every word in the story to say what the meaning is. You tell a story because a statement would be inadequate. When anybody asks what a story is about, the only proper thing is to tell him to read the story. The meaning of fiction is not abstract meaning but experienced meaning, and the purpose of making statements about the meaning of a story is only to help you to experience that meaning more fully." Conflict, Climax, and Resolution The collision of forces, like characters who have motives that are contrary to one another, produces conflict. Normally, conflict will gradually increase until the climax arrives. The climax is the point at which some event or decision turns the action of the narrative and releases the building tension. The resolution brings it all to some kind of conclusion. Remember, the resolution of the story does not necessarily mean that the conflicts are resolved, only that the narrative is complete.
Epiphany Epiphanies, or realizations, are common but not necessary elements of works of fiction. In other words, your protagonist may not experience an epiphany. Setting The setting is the context surrounding the characters. Analyze elements of the setting to determine their importance to the plot. Setting includes: Physical environment Time period Emotional atmosphere Summary and Flashback Think about it: fictional time differs from "clock time" or "real time." A great example of this is the TV series 24 that begins with a summary of past events and then portrays events that supposedly happen in "real time" that a digital clock occasionally registers. Shakespeare's plays generally open with secondary characters providing summary of past events. Flashback uses a character's memory to give the reader details from an earlier time that contributes something to the main action. Write Well!