Writing Your Thesis Statement

1. Writing Your Thesis Statement A How-To on Literary Analysis

2. The Thesis Statement • Like the essay itself, the thesis statement can be either simplistic or sophisticated. • The thesis statement prepares the reader for what you are about to say. • If a reader looks at your thesis and says, “so what?”, your thesis has failed to do its job. • Make sure your thesis statement is provocative and open to reasonable disagreement. • Write persuasively enough to convince those who disagree with you.

3. Avoid the Obvious • Many thesis statements are unsuccessful because they are obvious or incontestable. • Example: • Dorothy Parker’s “Résumé” uses images of suicide to make her point about living. • An alternative might be: • Dorothy Parker’s “Résumé” doesn’t celebrate life, but rather scorns those who would fake or attempt suicide just to get attention. • The first example just describes something. The second statement offers an interpretation or opinion about the poem.

4. Use Literary Terms with Care • Most works of literature use devices such as rhyme, meter, imagery, simile, metaphor, stanzas, characters, themes, settings, etc. • It is not enough to state that an author uses these devices. You must say how an author uses them, and why. • Use literary terms to explain how the terms contribute to the work’s meaning or understanding. • Example: • Don Marquis introduced Archy and Mehitabel in his Sun Dial column by combining the conventions of free verse poetry with newspaper prose so intimately that in “The Coming of Archy,” the entire column represents a complete poem and not a free verse poem preceded by a prose introduction. • This statement is both arguable, and it relates the literary terminology to the work, and creates a relationship between terms.

5. Balance Your Thesis • You must keep your thesis balanced. If it is too general, it becomes vague; if it is too specific, it cannot be developed. If it’s merely descriptive (like the bland example from slide 2), it gives no reason to continue reading. • Thesis statements should be dramatic, and create tension. They should need to be proved. • Too General: Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote many poems with love as the theme. • Too Specific: Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote “Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink” in <insert date> after <insert event from life>. • Too Descriptive: Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink” is a sonnet with two parts; the first six lines propose a view of love and the next eight complicate that view.” • Good: Despite her avowal on the importance of love, and despite her belief that she would not sell her love, the speaker in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink” remains unconvinced and bitter, as if she is trying to trick herself into believing that love really does matter for more than one night she is in some lover’s arms.

6. The Thesis as a Blueprint • The thesis statement should be used as a blueprint or map for your paper. • Example: • In “Résumé,” Dorothy Parker subverts the idea of what a résumé is – accomplishments and experiences – with an ironic tone, silly images of suicide, and witty rhymes to point out the banality of life for those who remain too disengaged from it. • This thesis refers to specific poetic devices (irony, rhyme, imagery) in a way that goes beyond merely saying that they are present. It makes a claim as to how and why the poet uses irony, rhyme, and imagery. • It also previews structure, as the reader will expect to see your examples in the order listed.

7. A Formula for Writing a Thesis • If you are genuinely struggling to write a thesis statement, consider the following formula to prepare your argument: • In <title of poem, novel, or play>, <author’s name> uses <literary device(s)> to <show, criticize, explain, etc.> <some aspect of human nature, culture, etc.> • Example: • In “If You Were Coming in the Fall,” Emily Dickinson uses simile, diction, and syntax to describe how people wait, hoping to fall in love.