Great Works \’09

The most important aspect of a successful critical writing assignment is your thesis, your argument.  It organizes your essay, and without a viable thesis, your essay will fail. In order to generate a thesis, you must ask questions.  Remember:  intellectuals think and ask questions.  Trust yourself and what you know. What themes in the novel or poem preoccupy you? What were you thinking about when you read the book you plan to write a paper about?  Was there any part of the discussion that made you think?  What confused you? As you will learn, your answers are arguments.

Before you can develop your thesis, you must choose a topic.  A topic is a general subject such as “free will in Goethe’s Faust,” or “the Great Chain of Being in Pope’s “An Essay on Man.”  Once you identify your topic, you can develop a thesis and find specific textual evidence to support it.

Here are some writing tips:

1.    A thesis should have more than one point that you will have to prove.  A thesis is more complex than a topic; and, if you think your argument is obvious, it isn’t worth arguing.  In order to generate your own thesis, you must ask yourself questions and answer them.  Ask more questions.  Taken together, the answers can become an argument. Be sure to offer a thesis/argument you can prove through specific textual evidence and discussion.
2.    Define your terms.  Avoid vague definitions, especially if those definitions are part of your thesis.  Take the time in your essay to show your reader how you mean to use terms.
3.    Consider the implications of your thesis.  How does your argument nuance your topic?  In other words, what difference does it make that you offer your argument?  What will your reader learn from your insights?
4.    Concerning textual evidence/discussion:  be sure to show your reader what you see.  Tell your reader what your passage means; in your own words, translate the passage. After you translate the passage, you should interpret it:  explain its metaphorical or figurative significance.  Show your reader where you see meaning in a quoted passage. Use that discussion to advance some aspect of your thesis.
5.    Strong nouns and strong verbs don’t need to depend on adjectives and adverbs.  When you find yourself using too many adjectives and adverbs, you may be writing a sentence that has little content.  Choose strong verbs and strong nouns so that you won’t have to fake it with adverbs and adjectives.
6.    Avoid passive voice; name your subject as the subject.  We often use passive voice when we are unsure of what we mean to say.  For example, “In the novel, the difference between men and women can clearly be seen and are direct causes for many of the problems that occur later on in the story.” should read, “In the novel, the difference between men and women causes the many problems that occur later.”
7.    Avoid historical and sociological generalizations.  Delete sentences like these:  “Generations since the slave trade have engaged in the quest for freedom, some references are MLK, Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass, to mention a few.  These noble men and women have fought for the eradication of slavery and the ills that are accompanied with it.”  Your argument and discussion should emerge from your primary text—the novel, the story, or the poem.
8.    Always use the present tense when writing about literature (even when you describe events in the novel or story).
9.    Write more than one draft of your essay.  Great writing comes from revision. Eliminate extraneous words and phrases.  After you revise, be sure to proofread and spell-check your work.  Proof-reading is not the same as revising!
10.    Always submit a paper with a title and with page numbers.

Some Reference Material:

Jane E. Aaron and Janice Okoomian, The Little, Brown Handbook
William Strunk and E.B. White, The Elements of Style
Ann Raimes, Keys for Writers