FRESHMAN COMPOSITION, RHETORIC, GRAMMAR II
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INTRO. TO LITERARY RESEARCH & WRITING
INSTRUCTOR: James Maxfield
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FRESHMAN COMPOSITION, RHETORIC, GRAMMAR II&INTRO. TO LITERARY RESEARCH & WRITINGINSTRUCTOR: James Maxfield
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English 1020 James Maxfield, Instructor Ex. #3 (Use for all papers and essays) Generating Ideas for Your Term Paper From some of your literature readings, either from the general class lecture and discussions or from you own selected readings, write down at least 5 ideas for a term paper. Each idea should focus on only 1 or 2 of the poems. For poetry, utilized some of the poetic terms discussed in class, from your textbook, or from the weekly video lectures, such as metaphor, tone, structure, literal meanings versus figurative meanings, theme, word selection, and other poetic techniques and mechanics. For short stories or plays, be sure that your ideas have something to do with the 8 general categories from your note taking sheets: Plot, Characterization, Setting, Theme, Language and Style, Narrative Exposition, etc. Focus on all of the poetic or literary terms discussed in your textbook, the handbook, or from the class lecture videos and discussions. Sample Ideas: Discuss how the author’s use of metaphor supports the narrative strategy of the poem. Compare or Contrast how the authors use or handle the concept or subject of "time" in their poems. Explain and discuss how the author’s use of first person narrative (point of view) helps to tell the story in the poem. Expanding Your Ideas After you generate some preliminary topic ideas, this exercise will help you focus your topic idea into an eventual thesis question to be argued and answered. To start, write down one of your most interesting ideas from one or two of the poems or stories. Another way to think of this activity it to relate your responses to specific lines or passages. This can be in terms of your Values or Expectations or what you would have anticipated from the poem text—or perhaps something you thought was missing. Then draw 2 columns on a sheet of paper and label them as follows: You should be able to generate at least 10 or 15 entries in each column. Passages, Sentences, or Places in the Story / Your Values, Expectations, or Observations
Place phrases or ideas from the poem, short story, or text 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 necessarily know the answer to, for the one possible topic that is most interesting to you. Your questions should be challenging and not have quick and easy answers. |
Example: How does Browning’s use of rhyming couplets in his dramatic monologue "My Last Duchess" contribute to our understanding and appreciation of the poem?
Note: After you have written several questions on the same topic, then choose the most interesting question for the next step.
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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 revised later if needed). Some of the other notes, material, or rough paragraphs will become your supporting points and evidence for your term paper essay.
Organizational Plan
It is now time to begin organizing some of your ideas. Use your working thesis idea and frame your thesis in the form of a focusing (limiting) question to answer. Your Focus Question has to meet 3 requirements:
| The question must refer back to your text (specific poems or stories)—not outside reading |
| The question should be challenging for the writer to answer. |
| Will the answer to the question generate a 5-6 page essay or paper? |
Now you’re ready to explore your question more deeply with additional brainstorming, clustering, or freewriting. The final answer to your Focus Question will be the focus or thesis of your argument essay paper.
Proper Planning makes writing your first paper draft easy. Now go back to your original focus question and write it down at the top of a page. Then answer the question in one sentence using your readings and your own values, opinions, thoughts, and attitudes. You will find this information in your brainstorming and freewriting notes. You should also consider your audience, the potential readers of your paper (the instructor, the class, others interested in your topic) and provide the readers with a good reason to continue reading your work. We call this answering the "So What?" question. Tell the reader why your argument is interesting or important.
Remember, to consider who your audience is—the instructor and other students. This is who you are writing for. In your writing, consider the nature of your audience and how much they know about your topic. Also consider the values and expectations regarding your topic. Draw a mental picture of your audience reading your paper. It is your primary purpose to persuade with this paper, so you must present and support a good argument as well as provide information and entertain your readers.
Another Sample Question and Answer:
Focus Question: What is Isaac Bashevis Singer saying about the Jews after the Holocaust in NYC (in Shadows on the Hudson)?
Answer/Thesis: In Shadows on the Hudson, Singer is saying that the Jews after the Holocaust experienced impossible moral tension as a result of knowing obliquely their religious heritage and not being able to live it out because of a lack of faith due to the Holocaust—once they left their heritage, they left their identity and felt only isolation.
Organization Plan—cont.
Note: An organization plan is not a formal outline, but a method of organizing your ideas in a progressive or logical arrangement as well as determining the purpose and relevance of each idea or evidence in your paper, kind of like a loose road map. This will help you to stay on focus. It may have taken you several tries to get your thesis sentence in its final working form—this is normal. But it’s important to get the wording and phrasing just right.
Your next step—Organizing your ideas (again make two columns):
On the left side, place your key points or ideas; examples.
On the right side, show your reasoning or purpose of including this material.
Another Sample
Focus Question: How does James McBride use his narrative metaphors to help achieve his goals of self-discovery and to form a tribute to his white mother?
Answer or Thesis: In writing a tribute to his mother in The Color of Water, James McBride uses a series of metaphors and similes that increase in frequency and depth as his narrative becomes more personal and self-revealing, allowing him to discover himself as he unravels his own secretly guarded heritage.
Your Organizational Plan (Sample)
Note: Your entries here will often be used to form specific paragraph openings. That means that each entry below will likely become either its own paragraph or a key component in a paragraph.
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Focus or Key Points and Ideas |
Purpose or Relevance of the Material |
| Address and Dismiss the alternating Points of View in the narrative (Intro); Answer the "So What?" question | Clears the stage for my argument; Provides a reason for the reader to continue |
| Show the quantity of metaphors in the text | Statistical data for support |
| Divide the metaphors into stylistic groups | Establishes more focus |
| Explain each group briefly | Leads into primary focus point of thesis |
| Review the Definitions of Key Elements | Establishes common frame of reference |
| Discuss briefly metaphors with deleted words | it shows how one character is more creative in their speech that the other; more interior |
| Focus on exterior and interior figures of speech | Leads to the author’s voice; more emotional and more thoughtful and reflective |
| Figures of Race and Metaphor | These are the most interior metaphors |
| Show metaphors used by the mother at the end | Shows how these compare to her son’s metaphors prior to his self-discovery |
| Concluding Remarks and Summary | Re-state and re-emphasize the thesis |
| Closing | a final comment and quotation |
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Send mail to james.maxfield@tri-c.edu
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