Following the model of Dawn's post, I've decided to answer all of Dr. Burton's questions concerning the process of literary analysis and developing a thesis.
1. Review your recent writing, notes, discussions, etc. to find topics and issues that have intrigued you.
I've found that all of the topics that have caught my interest have to do with either the internal thinking process and/or thoughts of certain characters, social issues present in era/plot, and authors' intentions.
2. Review your recent reading-- perhaps looking at passages you have annotated or notes you made in the margins. What are the ideas, characters, or issues that most interested you?
I really enjoyed reading "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid because it raises social issues and I feel that there is a lot to be discussed there. As I mentioned in another post, I really like Petrarch's work and brought to attention his interest in his feelings for Laura and not necessarily Laura herself.
3. Review others' recent posts or comments to see which of these elicited from you interest or a desire to respond.
Dr. Burton's, Charly's, and Andrew's comments on my Petrarch post gave definitely raised new ideas to discuss within my questions.
4. Pose some questions to yourself in private document, or even better, do so publicly (as I modeled in this post posing questions about fiction / nonfiction).
I would want to start along the lines of "What were the author's intentions?" I find this is an easy way to dive into deeper themes within the text.
5. Transform questions into provisional claims. Try out different categories of claims in order to see which type might fit best to your topic and interests.
When answering the above mentioned question, I would take the theme or idea that is most appealing to me (like I said most having to do with internal thoughts and social issues present in the text) and go from there!
6. Circulate your working thesis statements (or "tweethis"). I recommend doing this over your social media as well as in person. Invite others to comment on a claim that you are working on. (Here's a successful example). One way to do this can be to recast your claim as a question to which you then invite responses within a blog post, Facebook post, etc.
This is what I am most nervous about. I think I'll post it to my blog instead of Facebook to get in touch with a more separated audience.
I am eager to get a topic and get going!
2. Review your recent reading-- perhaps looking at passages you have annotated or notes you made in the margins. What are the ideas, characters, or issues that most interested you?
I really enjoyed reading "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid because it raises social issues and I feel that there is a lot to be discussed there. As I mentioned in another post, I really like Petrarch's work and brought to attention his interest in his feelings for Laura and not necessarily Laura herself.
3. Review others' recent posts or comments to see which of these elicited from you interest or a desire to respond.
Dr. Burton's, Charly's, and Andrew's comments on my Petrarch post gave definitely raised new ideas to discuss within my questions.
4. Pose some questions to yourself in private document, or even better, do so publicly (as I modeled in this post posing questions about fiction / nonfiction).
I would want to start along the lines of "What were the author's intentions?" I find this is an easy way to dive into deeper themes within the text.
5. Transform questions into provisional claims. Try out different categories of claims in order to see which type might fit best to your topic and interests.
When answering the above mentioned question, I would take the theme or idea that is most appealing to me (like I said most having to do with internal thoughts and social issues present in the text) and go from there!
6. Circulate your working thesis statements (or "tweethis"). I recommend doing this over your social media as well as in person. Invite others to comment on a claim that you are working on. (Here's a successful example). One way to do this can be to recast your claim as a question to which you then invite responses within a blog post, Facebook post, etc.
This is what I am most nervous about. I think I'll post it to my blog instead of Facebook to get in touch with a more separated audience.
I am eager to get a topic and get going!
I do worry about seeing writing as a popularity contest rather than crafting what we say. I know I have very different social network on Facebook, Gmail, or for the website I wrote for.
ReplyDeleteI'd really like to see some of these preliminary ideas reworked into some specific thesis statements to which I and others could respond.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you can use the clear formatting button on the dashboard, if you'd prefer to get rid of the white highlighting when copy/pasting.
ReplyDelete