FRESHMAN COMPOSITION, RHETORIC, GRAMMAR II

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INTRO. TO LITERARY RESEARCH & WRITING

INSTRUCTOR: James Maxfield

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Ex. 28
 

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English 1010 Exercise # 28

James Maxfield, Instructor Instructions and Example

Expanding Your Ideas

After you complete Exercise #27—generating some preliminary topic ideas, this exercise will help you focus your topic idea into an eventual thesis question to be argued and answered. Write down one of your most interesting ideas from Exercise #27 and one of the stories to start with.

Then, draw 2 columns on a sheet of paper and label them as follows:

Passages, Sentences, or Places in the Story / Your Values, Expectations, or Observations

Passages, Sentences, or Places in the Story

Your Values, Expectations, or Observations
the main character is having a mid-life crisis Why don’t the other characters seem to notice?
Most of the other characters are mean to Neddy Why is he so nice to them; his positive attitude
Neddy’s house is abandoned and locked Why is he surprised? Where is his family?
Neddy crosses the highway full of traffic Is this where he begins to come back to reality?
The weather and tone of the story get darker Does this show the passage of time?

Place phrases or ideas from the story that you find interesting, puzzling, or confusing on the left side. In the right columns, place your thoughts concerning the marked passages. There will often be a clash or tension between the two columns. This is good. It will help you to form an eventual focus sentence (thesis) that you can discuss and reason out as an essay argument.

Now, generate at least three questions, ones that you do not know the answer to, for one of your possible topics that is most interesting to you. The questions should be challenging and not have quick and easy answers.

Example: Why does time seem to jump forward in "The Swimmer?" The story begins in June, but in ends at the end of summer, even though the action is supposed to happen during one day.

After you have written several questions on the same topic, then choose the most interesting question for the next step.

Explore your question by freewriting, brainstorming, or clustering for additional ideas. Keep working on exploring your question until you have generated at least 3 pages of notes of some type.

Leave your notes for at least one day. Then look at them again. Go back to your original question and try to answer the question from your notes and ideas. This will become your working thesis question or statement (which can be revise later if needed). Some of the other notes, material, or rough paragraphs will become part of your evidence for your term paper essay.

Write your focus or working thesis here:

In "The Swimmer," the mid-life crisis of the main character, Neddy, is expressed by the author’s use of ambiguous references to the passing of time, especially changes in the summer weather.

 

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Last modified: 04/30/06