The Analysis Paper and Thesis

The Analysis Paper and Thesis

THE ANALYSIS ESSAY FOR LANGUAGE ARTS EVERYBODY’S FAVORITE ASSIGNMENT

THE NATURE OF THE BEAST • An analysis essay in a language arts class is a test of student skills concerning writing and organization, argumentation and addressing a variety of types of literature/printed material. An essay can be assigned in response to a story, a book, a poem, a speech, a letter, or any number of other types of texts. Literary essays examine writing devices and techniques in both fiction and nonfiction.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS AGAIN? AND AGAIN? Essays measure so many skills at once. Writing an essay is much more complicated than memorizing facts for a test or even creative writing. In a good essay, many things have to come together in the right order and with high quality. Therefore, using writing skills to analyze complex texts is one of the strongest measures of your skills as a student in a language arts class. THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE EASY, SO IT IS POSSIBLE YOU DON’T LIKE WRITING THEM. THAT IS UNDERSTANDABLE.

THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM Many students don’t like writing essays, so they don’t work on them in the manner they’ve been taught. Students know that drafting and revision are necessary for a strong final product, but they often skip these steps to avoid working. As a result, they produce writing that is sub-standard, and give the instructor the impression that they can’t write good essays.

CAN’T LIVES ON WON’T STREET.  Or so my grandma used to say…

THE LITTLE ENGINE • Everyone in this room CAN write an excellent essay, but it takes time and attention to writing. Making excuses or avoiding the problem will not make it go away. Just like weight loss, there is no quick fix to an essay assignment. If it were easy for everyone to write an excellent essay in 45 minutes, I wouldn’t waste your time with the request.

AN ESSAY IS A PARTY!METAPHORICALLY SPEAKING… • FORMATTING/HEADER • What are you wearing? Food in your teeth? • INTRODUCTION • Be cordial, sound sane. Introduce the topic. • BODY PARAGRAPHS • Show that you know what you’re talking about. Prove it with evidence. • CONCLUSION • Don’t leave without saying goodbye.

NEVER! 1st person: I, me, my 2nd person: you, your Slang Boring words Vague words Words you don’t know CAREFULLY! 1st person plural: we, our, us Pronouns The same word “obvious” or “obviously” “to be” verbs (only 10% present in paper.) If you have 1000 words, you should have 10 max. AN ESSAY IS A FORMAL PARTY!Remember to use the following…

DO WE HAVE TO WRITE IN FULL SENTENCES? Yes, and answer yes to all of these… • Do your sentences make sense? • Do they have agreement between subject and verb? • Do they have agreement between noun and pronoun? • Do they start in a variety of ways? • Are they of various lengths and structure?

DOES SPELLING COUNT? Again, YES. Good editing should catch mistakes in the following categories: • SPELLING • GRAMMAR • PUNCTUATION • CAPITALIZATION Correcting these simple mistakes is YOUR JOB. Take pride in the final product!

ALL THIS AND MORE You’ve been taught all this and more. Some of you have forgotten it. Some of you think it is no longer important because your teacher is not reminding you to do it every other day. THIS IS JUST SILLY LAZINESS. The coach doesn’t keep reminding the players to dribble in the NBA. IT IS EXPECTED THAT THEY KNOW HOW TO DRIBBLE BY NOW.

NOW GO KICK ESSAY BUTT No more whining, no more excuses, no more slacking off, no more procrastinating, no more feeling like an essay victim. This means YOU. Come to tutorial with specific questions. Ask for help. Bring your draft. Be willing to sit down and write. Be willing to sit down and rewrite. OWN YOUR EDUCATION. IT IS YOURS.

INTRODUCTIONS • A standard introduction to a literary analysis paper will have three parts: • Lead • Context • Thesis

THE LEAD • The lead is a sentence (or sentences) that draws your audience into the paper. It can be a broad statement, a rhetorical question, a fact or statistic, a quote by a recognizable person, or a number of other options. The lead should be related to the topic of your paper and should immediately reveal the sophistication level of your analysis.

LEADS TO AVOID • Because of their overuse, there are some leads that you should try to avoid. • The Webster: “Webster defines [theme word] as…” • The Carl Sagan: “For billions of years…” AKA “Since the beginning of time…” • The Reading Rainbow: “Have you ever…?”

BRAINSTORM… Consider the paper we are working on now. Brainstorm a lead for each of the categories below. • A BROAD STATEMENT • A RHETORICAL QUESTION • AN OBSERVATION Make sure each is representative of the sophistication of your overall analysis.

CONTEXT The context is the information that your audience will need to understand your analysis. It usually includes identification of the author, the text, and the situation being discussed. Putting your paper in context does not require a lot of background synopsis; rather it should merely include the setup information to prepare your audience for your argument.

CONTEXT CLUES Remember that all your contextual information should be ABSOLUTELY CORRECT, down to the punctuation and capitalization. Don’t leave anything out! Your argument will not be effective if your audience is left with unanswered questions related to the original text that are significant to understanding.

BRAINSTORM Consider the paper we are working on now. What context must you offer to prepare your audience for your analysis? Remember to include significant titles and names of writers or characters/figures in the text. How are names and titles properly capitalized and punctuated?

THESIS Everyone knows the thesis is important. It provides a roadmap for the rest of the paper, and sums up the entire argument of the analysis in one statement. Your thesis statement directs all of the ideas, quote selection, and commentary in your essay. Therefore, a muddled or imprecise thesis statement will lead to an essay that lacks clarity and/or meaning.

A thesis statement is NOT • A simple observation of an abstract concept. For example, simply pointing out that “greed” exists in a passage is not a thesis statement. • A general “universal” truth. For example, stating that “for thousands of years, man has been greedy” is not a thesis statement.

A thesis statement IS • A statement that provides direction for the analysis of a theme or idea presented in the text. • A determination of what a text is suggesting about an concept, such as greed. • CONCEPT (audience, target of satire) + • OPINION ABOUT THAT CONCEPT IN A PARTICULAR TEXT • (specific references to rhetorical devices under scrutiny) + (the purpose of the target) • = THESIS STATEMENT

ASSEMBLING THE PARTS When you have begun with an effective lead, offered all the necessary context correctly, and included your insightful thesis statement, you have assembled all the parts of a complete introduction. A transition to the first body paragraph will be necessary, and may appear as the last line of the intro or as the first line of the next paragraph.

Thesis Creation • Example the handout I provided that asks you to assess various theses and topic sentences. • We will practice together and in your table-top pairing, making the best thesis and topic sentences possible as this is part of your homework over the weekend. • Complete the rest of the graphic organizer and be prepared to share your revisions. • The goal of this activity is to remind you of how to revise your thesis and topic sentences as you will need to create these for your for your thesis homework and our outline (on one of the 4 articles included in the packet).

The Analysis Paper and Thesis