Chapter 6 Inventing your Argument

Essays in English Studies: Arguments about the meaning, power, or structure of works of literature. The definition of argument is „A connected series of statements or reasons intended to establish a position (and, hence, to refute the opposite); a process of reasining.”

In literature, literary works are not restricted to one meaning, theres no single right answer. However, there are stronger and weaker arguments.

The aim is not to produce never-before made arguments, but to make arguements from your own perspective. These should make sense, pique interest and present new ideas. Gathering evidence is key to making strong arguments.

Evidence should be gathered from primary and secondary sources, and labelled and categorized. Making notes about first impressions and close reading the work are crucial when gathering evidence.

Arranging Your Evidence:
REVIEWING LABELLED EVIDENCE:
Other than the two basic sources of evidence (first impressions and close reading of the work) you might find collect evidence from:

-other works by the same author

-other works by contemporary authors with the one you are researching

-biographies

-encyclopedias

-critical essays and books
etc.

Label the evidence gathered from the different sources.

CATEGORIZING YOUR EVIDENCE:

-Re-read all of the evidence. Review whether the collected evidence is strong enough to make arguements with.

-Reduce the number of labelled evidence to around 5. In the case of „This Is Just To Say”, the labels are:
1.Language (communications, poet/persona, everyday language, definite articles)

2. Material reality (food, domesticity, things and relations)

3. Marriage (marriage in society, Flossie as wife, Willams and marriage)

4. Sensuousness (sensual pleasure, visual word)

5. Emotion (intimacy, naughtiness, transgression, imperative mood)

All of the „Language” ones can be moved to another category, reducing the categories to 4.

-After the categories are created, review your first impressions. They should be supported and supplemented by the categories.

-This ensures that you understand and have a unique perspective on your topic

CHARTING YOUR EVIDENCE:

-The evidence should be arranged into charts, using the created categories.

-There are programs for this, but classic methods are also effective (sheet of paper, index cards, highlighting etc.)

-The pieces of evidence are put into the categories in the chart

-„Reference works” is added as another source for evidence, new pieces of evidence are put into the corresponding spaces in the chart

-After this, two new sources of evidence, „Social and Historical Context” and „Criticism” are added to the chart, evidence gathered from these sources is also put into the chart in their right places

-Evidence that doesn’t fit into any of the categories can be set aside

CONCLUSION

Once the chart is completed, it can easily be used to refer to. The evidence is gathered and categorized, and the writing of the essay can begin. This way, you won’t be distracted while searching for certain sources.

Chapter 7Composing your Argument

1.Thesis statement

- Most important part of your essay

- It tells people why they should read your essay

- It sets the first impressions

- Summery of your arguments

- Arguments have to be based on evidence

- It contains your interpretations of this evidence

- It must be written as clearly and precisely as possible

2.Arguments (inductive reasoning):

- analyzing examplesbroader conclusions

- moving from particular pieces of evidence to broader generalization about the work of literature and its meaning, emotional power, and aesthetic value

- not examples of deductive reasoning (from general principles to specific qualities)

3.Composing the thesis statement:

- Arguments depend on the quality of our evidence

- making a chart from the evidences

- summarizing the contents of each of the categories of evidences

- create sentences with summarizing the facts

4.Composing the Body of the Thesis statement:

- deciding which summary sentences best convey the overarching idea of your essay

- after the main sentence, connecting other ideas with small changes to one another

5.Concluding thesis statement:

-At the end of the paragraph thesis statement that point to how my argument contributes to our understanding

-rereading of the paragraph

-stressing the main focuses

-It has to contain all of the most important ideas, you would like to write about

-it may change later

-It provides a strong template to guide you as you write the rest of the essay

6.Trouble shooting the thesis statement

-Before leaving your thesis statement, read it again and ask yourself the following questions:

-Does it state your topic?

-Does it offer answers to the basic questions we ask about literature?

-What does it mean?

-How does it work?

-Why does it produce the effects it does?

-Does it argue inductively, moving from the particular to the general?

-Are the statements logically connected?

-Is each word in its right place, and does each place have a word to go in it?

The aim is to share with your reader the ‘aha!’ moment that you had when you first figured out something special about the literature you are studying.

Chapter 8 Writing the Body of the Essay

The body paragraphs contribute to your argument  each one has to be complete, well structured, has to follow the previous one, and provide transition to the next one.

-Avoid unfinished ideas, and changes in topic

-Make your message clear: pay attention to grammar, spelling and word choice.

-Each paragraph should have an opening sentence and a concluding sentence. Concluding sentences are also important!
- assert the relevance of the ideas and the evidence to the overall argument
- provide transition to the next paragraph.

Features of strong paragraphs:

-not longer than a page of double-spaced text

-not shorter than a quarter of a page

Paragraph = mini essay: opening sentence with the topic + body + concluding sentence

Make sure that the topic of the paragraph is clear, and it supports the part of your argument you are dealing with in that paragraph.

Check the concluding sentence: move forward to the next paragraph.

Writing the conclusion and revising the introduction

By writing the conclusion you can summarize your argument the same was as in the introduction, but try to use different vocab, sentence structure, or use some quotations from the work you are writing about.

Revising:

-Take a break (1-2 days, or longer)

-‘Defamiliarize’ yourself with what you have written: Did you really say what you meant to say?

-Make minor changes if it’s needed: correct errors, alter vocabulary, add phrases, or change sentence structure.

Chapter 9
Editing and Proofreading Your Essay

  • Consider asking someone to proofread your essay and make suggestions for final changes
  • Make sure your essay is letter perfect – There aren’t errors that will slow down the readers: An incomplete sentence makes your readers wonder where the rest of the thought went. A wrong word or misspelling makes them stop and have to figure out what you were trying to say.
  • English is full of homonyms, which are words that sound the same but mean different things, e.g.: To/two/too.
  • Diction means the manner in which something is expressed in words – refers to the choice of words.
  • The essay is a formal, logical argument – closely resembles to forensic rhetoric
  • If you are not sure about the meaning of a word you should look it up
  • If your diction is logical, rational and formal, your vocabulary should be as well – no slang or dialect and no profanity, unless these are the words that appear as part of your evidence. When you proofread try to make sure that your conjunctions and adverbs are precise and appropriate.
  • Make sure you use correct grammar in your essay – misplaced modifiers (If your hamster won’t eat its food, feed that food to your cat.) and unclear pronoun references (When Hamlet was at his wits’ end, he killed Laertes.) are quite common. The most frequent problems are errors with apostrophes, with demonstrative pronouns, with pronoun agreement, and with verb tense.
  • You should never use a contraction in your essay unless it is part of the evidence that you are citing (Therefore, “it’s” will never appear any of your essays.)
  • Apostrophes can only appear in your essay if it indicates possession
  • Demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those) replace nouns that have previously been mentioned. However, sometimes we use them improperly. Demonstrative pronouns should refer to a previous, particular idea, and use them only when what it refers to is absolutely clear. Furthermore, restate the noun or idea after the demonstrative pronoun, adding layers of meaning. (e.g.: that assertive request for forgiveness)
  • Pronouns must agree with the nouns they replace in number and case. Pronoun agreement is one reason among many to let your essay rest for a while before you the final proofreading. (I gave the ball to Dave  him)
  • You should use present tense in your literary criticism as if the things that happen in the work happen in the present. If something happened before the beginning of the story we speak of it in the past tense. If we are talking about two actions or episodes in a work of literature and one happens before the other, we where we are in our discussion of the work as our “base” present tense and refer to an incident that happened previously to this time using the past tense and to one that will happen after this time using the future tense. (Hamlet is not remorseful when he kills the innocent Polonius, although he will feel remorse upon killing Laertes.)
  • The most common punctuation and sentence structure problems are errors in the use of semicolon, comma splices, and sentence fragments.
    - Semicolon, unless it is being used in a long list whose items contain commas, whatever comes before or after it must be a fully independent clause that could stand alone as a sentence.
    - Semicolons are sometimes used in place of commas in long lists – if the list items have internal commas, we need a stronger punctuation mark to sign the end of the item.
  • A comma cannot attach two independent clauses. If both parts of the sentence that are joined by a comma could stand independently as sentences, then you have a comma splice. – separate them into two sentences or replace the comma with a semicolon. Sometimes you can insert a conjunction to join the two clauses.
    - The words however, therefore, and furthermore do not have the power to join two independent clauses together; they need a semicolon in front of them.
    - If you have two independent clauses a comma cannot join them.
  • If your sentence is lack of the essential components of a sentence (e.g.: a subject, a verb, etc.) then it is a fragment. They tend to be short and you can usually pick them out of your essay that way.
  • Subordinate conjunctions join dependent clauses (could not stand alone) to independent clauses – they help to connect ideas. (e.g. because, although) You can certainly start your sentence with a subordinate conjunction. You can also start your sentence with an “and” or “but” – you just have to make sure you have an independent clause.
    - 1. main clause 2. subordinate clause = no comma
    - When you start your sentence with a subordinate conjunction you need a comma
  • “However” is actually two different words
    – conjunctive adverb – shows a relationship between 2 independent clauses
    - adverb of degree
  • Conjunctive adverbs usually connect two main or independent clauses and show relationship between the actions they represent. They can show: cause, effect, contrast, difference and any number of other relationships between the 2 clauses;
    - When 2 clause joined by a subjunctive you use a semicolon at the end of the main c.
    -You can start a sentence with a conjunctive adverb
  • Proofreading is better done after leaving the essay for a couple of days

– CHAPTER 10 –

Documenting Your Sources and Presenting Your Work

-final steps in completing your essay:

1) check whether you have documented your sources correctly

2) check that you are presenting your essay in a way that either meets your instructor’s expectations or is conventional to literary studies

Documenting Your Sources

main reason: readers will want to see clearly what is original to your thinking and what belongs to someone else

  • PLAGIARISM:

-it is a serious charge (that can result in severe setbacks and punishments)

-it is the use of another’s work, either directly or in close approximation without acknowledgement

-it is a form of theft (intellectual property)

-ignorance and accident are not excuses

-you should know what plagiarism is and how to prevent it happening in your work

  • What is a paraphrase?

-a rewording of sth written or spoken by someone else

-you should paraphrase when you want to summarize a much longer argument from your source

-you should use your OWN WORDS (not just change the order of words or replace a few of them)

  • Documentation Practices:

-several different systems of documentation

-most common: MLA system (Modern Language Association)

-most instructors ask you to use this one

-within each of these systems there are various options:

footnotes/endnotes/parenthetical citations (author’s name and the page number of your source are in parentheses after the quotation or paraphrase – and this parenthetical material refers to readers to a list of “Works Cited” for complete information about your source)

  • “Bibliography”List of “Works Cited”

includes all of the works thata list of the works that you

you have consulted in preparing have quoted, paraphrased

your essayin your essay

(even those that you have read but

you haven’t quoted or paraphrased

in your essay)

Presenting Your Work

  • Layout and order

-use a 12-point font and double space

-at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) margins on all sides

-number your pages

-put your “Bibliography” or “Works Cited” on a separate page at the end

  • Titles

-books/book-length works (long poems)  underlined/italicized

-poems/short stories  quotation marks (without any underlining or italicization)

  • Illustrations

-you can include illustrations in your essay (in order to support your argument)

BUT two important things:

>an image that looks good on the internet will not necessarily look good on the printed page

>images on the internet usually belong to someone (report their sources!)

-they must have some relationship to the text to which they correspond

1)Exemplary Illustrations

give examples of things that you are writing about

2)Complementary Illustrations

echo the verbal statement/statements they accompany/can reinforce your point

3)Supplementary Illustrations

extend the argument outside the boundaries within which the verbal argument is made

  • Last-minute Checks

-Is the word or page count close to what the assignment called for?

-Make sure you have spelled your instructor’s name correctly!

-Check the first paragraph and the first sentence! They are important!

-Check whether you have numbered your pages!

-Make sure you have attached the “Works Cited” or “Bibliography”!

  • Talking to your instructor about your grade

-if you are disappointed in your grade, make an appointment to see your instructor and ask for help understanding where you lost marks!