AGENDA

Ques+ons?
Finding a thesis
The essay structure
Cri+cal moves
Signpos+ng
Transi+ons
Analysis and close reading
Conclusions and so what?

TONE
[An essay] is not a decision with
regard to form only. It also has to
do with content. There does not
exist one idea that can be ar+culated in two ways.
Two dierent sentences are two dierent thoughts (11).
What is the tone of the essay?
How might we understand
and dene the criteria
for that tone?

Dude, Wheres My Thesis?

Using close reading as a thesis magnet
Texts as a puzzle
Moving from Observa+on ! Analysis ! Interpreta+on ! Claim
But was it really like that? As painful as I remember? Only mildly. Or
rather, it was a produc+ve and fruc+fying pain. Love, thick and
dark as Alaga syrup, eased up into that cracked window. I could
smell ittaste itsweet, musty, with an edge of wintergreen in its
baseeverywhere in that house. It stuck, along with my tongue,
to the frosted windowpanes. It coated by chest, along with the
salve, and when the annel came undone in my sleep, the clear,
sharp curves of air outlined its presence on my throat. And in the
night, when my coughing was dry and tough, feet padded into the
room, hands repinned the annel, readjusted the quilt, and rested
a moment on my forehead. So when I think of autumn, I think of
somebody with hands who does not want me to die (12).

The Essay Structure

Compare backwards outlines in groups
Debatable Claim
Logical Development
Transi+ons
Close Readings/ Evidence
Stakes

Structural observa+ons?
What purpose does each paragraph have? Which
dierent components and func+ons did you nd in this
essay?
How did it develop its ideas?

Cri+cal Moves
How do ideas relate to
one another?
How do ideas build
on one another?
What is the logic
of development?
What story does this
essay tell?

Transi+ons: Gebng Your Reader to

Walk Up Your Essay Staircase
What is a transi+on?
What does a transi+on
demonstrate?
What does it do in an essay?
How to signal transi+ons?
Therefore, thus, however, in order to, since,
although, moreover, in contrast, by doing x, y
can then, (and more!)

Analysis and Close Reading

But was it really like that? As painful as I remember? Only
mildly. Or rather, it was a produc+ve and fruc+fying pain.
Love, thick and dark as Alaga syrup, eased up into that
cracked window. I could smell ittaste itsweet, musty,
with an edge of wintergreen in its baseeverywhere in
that house. It stuck, along with my tongue, to the frosted
windowpanes. It coated by chest, along with the salve, and
when the annel came undone in my sleep, the clear, sharp
curves of air outlined its presence on my throat. And in the
night, when my coughing was dry and tough, feet padded
into the room, hands repinned the annel, readjusted the
quilt, and rested a moment on my forehead. So when I
think of autumn, I think of somebody with hands who does
not want me to die (12).

Conclusions and the big So What

That is to say that the essay enables the mul+plica+on of perspec+vesthat
is, works of art (essays) and thereby ways of living (selves)as an end in
itself. Performa+ve and ctocri+cal essays work this way. The subjec+vity
implied by this form of essaying might be described as ironic (Kofman
1998). As such, it would permit a dierent reading of Flusser on the essay
as a point of departure for a commiied existence (2002: 194): the essay
would embody irony as a style of existence as Claire Colebrook puts it, in
which [t]he subject is nothing other than an ongoing process of
crea+on (2004: 52). To explore such an idea of academic wri+ng would be
to nd ourselves in unknown territory (terra incognito), but its dragons
might well guard great riches (17).
! How is the conclusion related to the introduc+on?
! What does it add to the essay?
! Where and what are the stakes?

1. Paragraph 1: The State of Things + Thesis Statement

What is the current state, or cri+cal situa+on in which we nd the subject of the
essay? What is the landscape?
2. P 3 In short, then, to map out the essay can give us a sense of the essay as shaped
inwardly and outwardly, as an aesthe+c whole (a structure) and an ins+tu+onal medium (a
construc+on).
!Why is the author wri+ng this danged thing? What problem is she trying to solve? What
knowledge can she contribute to the conversa+on, in its current state?
3. P 4 Historical Context
4. P 5 Explana+on of terms and prac+ces
AIMRaD formulas: The logic of essay wri+ng

a) Abstract

b) Methods

c) Results

d) Discussion
!Logic of development: chronological
!! Essays= like a STORY or PLOT

The PF and PL Essay

P8: Explains the sebng, provides context
P9: Arguments for and against PF Essay
P11: Arguments for and against PL Essay
! What and where is the authors evidence for
her case?

It is not a decision with regard to form

only. It also has to do with content.
There does not exist one idea that can
be ar+culated in two ways. Two
dierent sentences are two dierent
thoughts (11).

 P15: How might the essay create an

interac+on between reader and writer?

The Conclusion
P17
!How is it related to the introduc+on?
!What does it add to the essay?
! Where and what are the stakes?