Thesis Construction
Settling on a driving interpretive
question or “problem”:
As we
have been discussing, questions serve to unlock important clues in your
discovery of a text’s meaning(s). Ideally, these questions enable you to increase
the level of specificity in your understanding of a work as you foray new
dimensions of analytical inquiry. As you begin writing toward a particular
assignment, you want to ask yourself increasingly focused, theoretical
questions in search of a well-sized driving and provocative question or
“problem” (as in something about the text that is puzzling or problematic and
warrants exploration and explanation). This driving question or “problem” should sustain a paper of the
required length, intrigue you personally, and move you from a more “obvious” to
more complex examination of the story, poem, or play at hand.
Responding to your question:
You will
present the driving question in your
paper in the form of the thesis or thesis statement (found in the
academic essay, it consists of one or more sentences that attempt to establish
the writer’s main idea, purpose, problem, or question). Your thesis comprises your way of viewing, reading, and
interpreting a text. Keep the following protocols in mind when you work toward
developing a thesis[1]:
ü
Your thesis should be both clear and specific: A reader who is familiar with
the story, poem, or play you are writing about (and it is fair to assume a
basic familiarity) should have a good sense of what your thesis means and how
it relates to the literature.
ü
Your thesis should be relevant: not every paper is going to change lives or minds, of
course, but you should at least state your thesis in such a way that your
reader won’t have the most dreaded question, “Who cares?”
ü
Your thesis should be debatable: Your thesis should not be obvious in the text.
It must be arguable. If your topic is already obvious, then you have a
statement of fact or plot instead of an assertion or way of reading the text
that you must support.
ü
Your thesis should be original: Originality doesn’t imply that every thesis you write
must be a brilliant gem that nobody but you could have discovered. But it
should be something you have thought about independently, it should avoid
clichés, contain something of you, and do more than parrot back something said
in your class or written in a textbook.
ü
You should be able to state your thesis as a complete sentence: This sentence, generally
referred to as the thesis statement,
should first identify your topic and then make a claim about it—why is it
significant. (Occasionally, especially for longer papers with more complex
ideas behind them, you will need more than one sentence to state your thesis
clearly).
ü
Your thesis should be appropriate to the assignment: This may seem obvious, but as
we work with literature, taking notes, asking questions, and beginning to think
about your queries and theses, it is possible to lose sight of the assignment
as it was presented. After you have come up with a tentative thesis, it’s a good idea to go back and review the
assignment as your instructor gave it, making sure your paper will fulfill its
requirements.
“The
word tentative is important. As you start to gather support and write your
paper, your thesis will help you focus clearly on your task and sort out which
of your ideas, observations, and questions are relevant to the project at hand.
But you should keep an open mind as well, realizing that your thesis is likely
to evolve as you write. You are likely to change the focus in subtle or not so
subtle ways, and it’s even possible that you will change your mind completely
as you write and therefore need to create a new thesis from scratch. If this
happens, don’t regard it as a failure. On the contrary, it means you have
succeeded in learning something genuine from the experience of writing, and
that is what a literature class is all about” (Gardner 17-18).
Ø
There
is no simple formula for developing a thesis. Everyone may take a different
approach. Understand, however, that thesis development is a discovery process.
You may write three pages of rough draft and discover the thesis on page 3!
Just be open to the process, unruly and time-demanding as it is. Here’s process
that works for me:
1)
Locate
something in the text that puzzles or intrigues you and formulate
a question. Remember, the question should “theoretical,” as in
something that warrants further investigation and renders the possibility of complexity
and a wealth of interpretation (you can’t go wrong with “why” and “how”
questions). The question should be appropriate to the assignment and its length
requirement.
2)
With
that question in mind, revisit the text.
Perform a close textual reading of places that “speak to” your question. If you
are writing a research paper, you would also want to consult secondary sources
with your question in mind. Take copious notes: write down explanatory remarks
and continue to ask questions (you may find that your question leads to
another, entirely new and more intriguing question or that your question
intersects with other connecting ones). Don’t limit your focus just yet—play
out multiple possibilities and continue to embrace the process of inquiry.
3)
You
should be able to locate patterns of meaning as
you revisit the text. These patterns of meaning will tell you something about
your question(s). Look for the “glue” that ties all this together.
4)
Now,
answer your question. If your question(s)
is/are truly compelling, you’ll find that your answer is not simplistic,
surface-level or one-dimensional. It should yield multiple possibilities for
interpretation and provide rich soil for analytical investigation.
5)
When
you answer your question, you have a tentative
thesis. By tentative I mean work-in-progress.
6)
Revise!
Keep the ever-questioning mentality alive and be open to new prospects as you
continue to write and think through the terms of your thesis.
STUDENT EXAMPLE: A Driving Question or “Problem”
The “problem”: The trope of the mother as an
archetypal figure for all that is nurturing, caring, and loving is everywhere
in literature. In Toni Morrison’s Sula,
however, mothers are portrayed in a radically different light! Eva burns and
kills her own son,
SAMPLE: Introduction and Thesis (thesis
idea underlined in the text)
Marva Bell
American Literature 2130
Professor McFarland
Mother
It
has been said that something goes missing in an individual if one’s relationship
with their mother is askew. In her
novel, Sula, Toni Morrison explores
the enigmatic aspects of motherhood. She
acknowledges those characteristics of mothers that are not written about in
greeting cards. Morrison deliberately
depicts a much more complicated version of the relationship between a mother
and her offspring. She reveals both the
amazing heights and awful depths of her love.
She shows that its real nature includes both altruism and
self-interest. Her telling of this
mother love challenges the traditional sweet, gentle, care giving role most
often assigned to the nurturing soul called Mother. In fact, Morrison’s mothers do not conform to
any specified standard of behavior. They
themselves are the products of imperfect mothers’ doubts and fears, and
oftentimes their expressions of love are misunderstood by the very ones they
cherish. Toni Morrison breaks with
the typical expectations surrounding the mother figure in order to refashion
the archetype. Morrison’s portrayal
certainly provides her readers with a fuller picture of a mother with a hint of
suggestion for them to embrace the whole.
[1] These guidelines are taken directly from Janet E. Gardner’s Writing About Literature, pgs. 16-17.