A
good essay must have four
elements:
an appropriate tone,
a clear thesis,
a coherent structure, and
ample, appropriate evidence.
Use
formal language-big words,
varied syntax.
Imagine you are writing for an
educated audience who is
familiar with the text. (No
summary is necessary.)
Use present verb tense—always.
 Elevate
tone by --changing words,
adding dependent clauses, reordering
words in sentences.
1.
2.
Hamlet is really mad at Gertrude when
Gertrude marries Hamlet’s uncle,
Claudius.
2. Medea should have kicked Jason out
when she found out about him fooling
around with another girl.
Your
thesis is your
argument statement.
It must state something
about your chosen text
which is debatable.
 1. Hester
has an affair with Reverend
Dimmsdale in The Scarlet Letter.
 2. Medea
is angry when Jason marries
another woman.
 3. Nora
wants to be independent and not
be judged by society.
 For
each of the following state whether
the statement is fact or thesis.
 The
Kite Runner focuses on life in
Afganistan during a turbulent 20th
century.
 The
Kite Runner focuses on life in
Afganistan during a turbulent 20th
century.
FACT
 Rewrite:
 Amir
must come to terms with his past in
order to have a future.
 Amir
must come to terms with his past in
order to have a future.
THESIS
 Khaled
Hosseini uses many conflicts in
the plot of the The Kite Runner.
Khaled
Hosseini uses many conflicts
in the plot of the The Kite Runner.
FACT
Rewrite:
 The
kite is a symbol of redemption in the
novel, The Kite Runner..
 The
kite is a symbol of redemption in the
novel, The Kite Runner.
THESIS
A
good argument in an essay on
literature has:
A
tight, specific focus
 Rather
than broad sweeping statements,
a good argument teases out a single
aspect of a piece of literature and
analyzes it in minute detail: literature
under the microscope.
 Example: “Amir
learns a lot from his
experiences in the novel.”
 Problems:
 1.Too
big. You would have to write a book to
do the subject justice.
 2.Too general. What does he learn? What
experiences? What insight exactly is the
audience to gain?
 Solutions:
 1.Small. Rather
than lessons in general,
focus on a particular lesson. Rather than
experiences in general, focus on particular
experiences.
 2.Specific. Make
an arguable claim about
the implications of the lessons Amir learns
and what these lessons suggest about the
work as a whole.
 All
the theses in the previous examples
involve interpretive claims—claims about
how to interpret a literary text. It usually
conveys the overall message of the work
as a whole.
 However, there
is also the evaluative
thesis. Evaluation entails judging or
assessing.
 Usually
an evaluative thesis involves
philosophical, ethical, or even socially or
politically based judgment, the question
being whether an idea or action is wise
or good, valid or admirable.
 Interpretive: “How
I Learned to Drive"
demonstrates that, in Paula Vogel’s words, "it
takes a whole village to molest a child.“
 Evaluative: By insisting that sexual abuse is
a crime perpetrated by a "whole village"
rather than by an individual, Paula Vogel lets
individual abusers off the hook,
encouraging us to see them as victims
rather than as the villains they really are.
 Interpretive: The
speaker of John Donne’s
"Song" is an angry and disillusioned man
obsessed with the infidelity of women.
 Evaluative:
John Donne’s "Song" is a
horribly misogynistic poem because it
ends up endorsing the idea that women
are incapable of fidelity.
 INTRODUCTION
should draw readers in and
prepare them for what’s to come by:
articulating the thesis;
providing basic information readers
will need to follow the argument; and
creating interest by demonstrating
that there is a question that needs
resolution.
 BODY
 Each
of the body paragraphs must begin
with a debatable idea directly related to,
but smaller and more specific than, the
thesis.
 Each body paragraph then PROVES the
truth of the debatable claim that began
the paragraph. This MUST include
evidence.
 CONCLUSION
 Conclusions
work to show them why and
how the experience was worthwhile. You
should approach conclusions by thinking
about what sort of lasting impression you
want to create.
 CONCLUSION-Effective
conclusions
often consider three things:
 Implications—What picture of your
author’s work or worldview does your
argument suggest?
 Evaluation—What might your argument
about the text reveal about the literary
quality or effectiveness of the text as a
whole or of some specific element?
 CONCLUSION Areas
of ambiguity or unresolved
questions—Are there any remaining
puzzles or questions that your argument
and/or the text itself doesn’t resolve or
answer?
 Above
all, DON’T repeat what you’ve
already said.
 Primary
evidence comes from the
primary text.
 Quote
directly from the text when its
wording is significant. Keep direct
quotations short unless there is real
reason not to do so. Otherwise, refer to
SPECIFIC detail from the text for
evidence.
 Direct
 Amir’s
quotation:
redemption is realized when he
runs the kite for Hassan’s son, Sohrab.
“For you a thousand times over,” he says
(Hosseini 294).
 Even
more effective is to weave the
author’s words into your own sentence:
 Amir
realizes that he “can be good again”
and begins his journey towards salvation
(Hosseini 2).
 You
try it:
 Choose
a quote from the novel and write
a sentence that weaves Hosseini’s words
with your own.
 Above
all,
 YOU MUST ANSWER THE QUESTION.
 Find
the key words in the question and
be sure to repeat them in your thesis and
in your argument.
 Have
fun and teach me something.