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Writing a good English paper Part II

Writing a good English paper Part II. The Thesis Revisited You paper NEEDS a thesis. If you forget everything else, don’t forget this!. Some characteristics of a good thesis Simple and clear Interesting and not obvious Debatable; not statements of fact

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Writing a good English paper Part II

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  1. Writing a good English paperPart II

  2. The Thesis Revisited You paper NEEDS a thesis. If you forget everything else, don’t forget this!

  3. Some characteristics of a good thesis • Simple and clear • Interesting and not obvious • Debatable; not statements of fact (IOW, if no sane person will disagree, and you don’t have to convince the reader you are right, it’s not debatable) In English papers, theses often present an interpretation of some kind or attempt to explain the significance of some element of the work.

  4. Examples of weak theses • There are many symbols in Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” • This paper will examine the symbols/images in Death of Ivan Ilych. • This paper will examine the setting of (X) These are more like topics. They are uninteresting, and are statements of fact. No one would argue about these, and the reader will probably go “so? I knew that”. Revised 

  5. In Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilych, the imagery effectively advances the theme of reversal. • The setting of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is symbolically significant, and helps develop the theme of alienation. • Although Conrad’s Heart of Darkness seems on the surface to endorse colonialism, it is in fact profoundly anti-colonial. These are far more interesting. You can see how the author would have to use textual evidence to back up these claims.

  6. Can you do a comparison and contrast essay? • Yes, but... • You can’t simply compare two stories; you can compare and contrast any two conceivable things (desks and chairs, cars and sandwiches). • You MUST have some sort of focus. For instance, if two works are war narratives, or if both are love stories, or both have ostensibly the same theme or moral. • You still need a thesis, so an argument about how one similarity or difference is significant.

  7. Examples of comparison/contrast theses • Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Coppola’s Apocalypse Now are different and similar in many ways. [weak] • Although Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now undoubtedly share certain similarities, there are significant differences between their treatment of colonialism. [good] • The adaptation of Bartleby the Scrivener, though based on the story by the same name, contrasts significantly with its treatment of alienation. [good]

  8. Introducing Quotations • You must always introduce quotations, whether from the primary or secondary text • Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning ...”. • You must never leave a quotation alone • Introduce. Example: • The first sentence of Kafka’s famous story sets up the major theme of transformation: “as Gregor Samsa...” (1)

  9. Even if you introduce properly, tell the reader what the passage you quoted is doing • In other words, don’t quote something and hope your reader can figure out why you quoted it, or why it’s there. Spell it out for the reader. • This is why you should never start a sentence, or end a paragraph, with a quotation. • “As Gregor Samsa...” This passage does... • Make your reader do as little work as possible!

  10. Secondary Sources: you need two. • Primary Text = the poem, story, etc, that you are reading • Secondary = what someone else (critic/scholar) has said about a text, or anything you use to shed light on that text not written by the author.

  11. So you have a story you like, and maybe even an idea or provisional thesis. • How do you find secondary sources? [shown in class] • You can find journal articles, etc, using the MLA Bibliography database, which you can access through our library’s website You must use academic/scholarly sources. In other words, it must be something you found through the university library catalogue. Wikipedia, etc, doesn’t count, but feel free to follow the sources in an article there.

  12. Incorporating Secondary Sources • Let’s say your secondary text is Conrad’s Heart of Darkness by Cedric Watts. • Blab bla blab bla bla. As Watts has noted, “ssssssssss” (47). • OR, as one critic has noted, “sssssssss” (Watts 47) • Cite it in Works Cited as you would any other text: Watts, Cedric. Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. New York...

  13. A note on style • Always sacrifice cleverness or flourishes for clarity. • Having clear ideas is more important than being rhetorically clever. • So, avoid lack of clarity or awkwardness

  14. Simplify, simplify, simplify • Because of the fact that Gregor turns into a bug... • Because of the fact that Gregor turns into a bug... • The character of Gerasim represents... • The character of Gerasim represents... • For King Lear, because of the one fault he makes, he pays for it dearly [Brainfreeze!] • King Lear pays dearly for the one fault he commits

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