How to Have an Idea. .
How to Have an Idea. . .
Claim, Evidence, Analysis: The Basics
Claim or Thesis:
ü Opinion, not fact
ü Debatable
ü Provable (Reasonable)
Evidence:
ü From the poem, reading or play
ü Specific
§ For The Namesake: “Quote quote quote” (Lahiri 221-223).
Analysis:
ü Explanation
ü How and why evidence proves the claim (thesis)
Refining your use of
Claim, Evidence, and Analysis:
Claim: --May be simple or complex. A complex claim will give you more to write about.
--Must be insightful. Must say something interesting.
Examples:
OKAY Simple, insightful claim: “Frank has the most power in this book because he has the power to separate the family, dead or alive.”
GOOD Complex, insightful claim: “Although it seems as though Grendel is the most powerful character in the epic, Beowulf, he is in fact, the least powerful character in this poem, because he lives on the outskirts, he does not have God on his side, and he his bereft of the feudal allegiance that the other characters experience. “ (notice the format: “X is true, because of A, B, and C”)
Evidence: --Must be specific
Example:
BAD Unspecific evidence: “…because everyone’s lives revolved around his problem (167)”
BAD More unspecific evidence: “such as what happened on page 21.”
GOOD, specific evidence: “for example, in Act 3, Scene 2, Hamlet says “blah blah blah”(3.2.33-34), which shows us that he really is contemplating suicide, because he uses the word “blah.”
Analysis: --Explains how and why your evidence supports your claim.
--Must have something to do with your thesis!!!
Example:
BAD analysis doesn’t connect: “No matter who David was, he was always on this journey to find what was going on, so therefore he is the least racist character in the book.”
How to Have an Idea:
Places to look for an interesting thesis
*Motifs/symbols and how they develop thematic messages
*Literary techniques (flashback, allusion, etc.) and their significance to meaning/theme
*Parallel scenes and their function in the narrative
*Opposites/Contrasts and what they represent
*Changes/Surprises/Secrets and what they reveal
*Relationships—how they change and what this reveals
Requirements:
MLA format. 12 pt. Times New Roman. NO external sources EXCEPT your novel. MINIMUM length for credit is 5 paragraphs (2 full pages). Most well done idea papers are three full pages. Your will turn in your paper on the due date with the rubric attached. You will also save an electronic copy to my Inbox by your class period on the due date in this format: Last name_First name_Namesake.
LATE PAPERS WILL LOSE A LETTER GRADE PER DAY AND WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED AFTER TWO LATE DAYS.
The objective of this assignment, in addition to practicing your writing skills is for you to do some ORIGINAL thinking about the readings. You cannot do this if you do not read the assigned work. The only sources you should be using in these papers are the textbook, the teacher, and your own mind. Papers that suggest that you have read Spark Notes or other like-resources will not be accepted and will not receive credit. I cannot help you get better, if you are not the one doing the thinking. All papers will be submitted toTurnItIn.com, and any evidence of plagiarism will result in a 0 grade.
Suggestions:
Idea papers are short critical papers. Critical means analytical. These papers are NOT summaries (i.e. book reports). I expect you to know WHAT happened. But I want you to write about why that matters. Find some “idea” that interests you. Most often you should be considering theme. Ask yourself, “What is the writer’s point and how does he express it?”
Your paper should have a point. Make it something worth writing a paper about. Use passages from the text, properly cited, as examples and fully explain the importance of those examples.
As with everything you write, your papers should be clear and coherent. Avoid grammatical errors such as comma splices, run-on sentences, fragments, shifting tenses, faulty pronoun/antecedent agreement, etc. Know the difference between its and it’s. Write in the third person for formal essays such as this. That means no you, your, yours, I, we, our, us, etc., except when quoting. Avoid contractions and write about literature in the present tense. We will work on common problems in writing and grammar throughout the year. You are responsible for APPLYING that work to subsequent writing.
Your paper should have an introduction with a thesis, a body, and a concluding paragraph. See the next page for a sample outline.
ESSAY OUTLINE:
Introduction
- Grabber example: In Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror,” a mirror says, “A woman bends over me,/Searching my reaches for what she really is./Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon./
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.”
- Bridge to BIG IDEA: Mirrors are supposed to reflect the objective truth, and yet, depending on the gazer, reflections may be distorted by society’s expectations. This motif of mirrors and reflections occurs frequently throughout Plath’s, The Bell Jar, a novel that follows Esther Greenwood, a young woman trying to forge an authentic identity amid the rigid gender expectations of the 1950’s.
- Roadmap: From the beginning of the novel, Esther has a conflicted relationship with her own reflection suggested in the scene where…
Her sense of alienation grows as…
Yet the most telling reflection in the entire novel is…
- Thesis statement: Esther’s evolving perception of herself (BIG IDEA!) throughout the novel illustrates the destructive effects of conformity and social expectations on the developing identity (UNIVERSAL THEME!).
Body Paragraph 1
- Topic Sentence:
- Set up/Context of 1st Example:
- Integrated Quotes that are appropriate and attributed to someone:
- Analysis that links to thesis:
Body Paragraph 2
- Transition and Topic Sentence:
- Set up/Context of 2nd Example:
- Integrated Quotes that are appropriate and attributed to someone:
- Analysis that links to thesis:
Body Paragraph 3
- Transition and Topic Sentence:
- Set up/Context of 3rd Example:
- Integrated Quotes that are appropriate and attributed to someone:
- Analysis that links to thesis:
Conclusion
- Restatement of your thesis (not word for word!):
- Bridge from thesis to extension
- Extend your thesis meaningfully by connecting the theme to the time period in general, to the present time, or perhaps other related themes of the work (Consider a full circle ending in which you relate back to your grabber in some way.)