Essay Process

In the interest of moving things along, I think it would be best if I had a report from each of you before spring break on the progress of your essays. The best form for this to take, I think, is that of a Research Project with Annotated Bibliography -- that is, give me a brief account of your argument so far (thesis and explanation; premises) and a list of what you are reading with a short paragraph after each explaining what it does and does not do for your project. It is an excellent idea to include in this bibliography all of your blind alleys -- things you looked into that did not prove to be helpful -- so I can begin to understand how your mind works and how your research is proceeding.

Course Readings

I notice that if we read about 60-80 pages of Beauvoir a week, that will take us within two weeks of the end of the semester. So I say we do just that, and I will add in selected essays from the Griffiths and Whitford volume after spring break. It will be fun, and you will be able to tell your grandchildren that you were one of the last students ever to have read an entire large, important book cover-to-cover. While there were still books with covers.

Sample Assignment

Here is a sample thesis paragraph and list of premises, based on a famous Monty Python sketch:

 

 My Theory

by Anne Elk

All Brontosauruses are little at one end, get big in the middle, and are little again at the other end. A Brontosaurus is a large, herbiverous, land-based dinosaur living in the Jurassic period. “Little” and “big” are of course vague terms; the claim is merely that the middle of the Brontosaurus is very much bigger relative to the two ends, so the absolute values are immaterial. This claim might appear too obvious to need demonstration, but several prominent paleontologists have seemed in their writings (for example: Gould, 2001, Eldridge, 1994) to suggest otherwise.

•   All known fossil remains of Brontosauri have the prescribed shape.

•  Fossil remains of smaller dinosaurs thought to be ancestral to the Brontosaurus have similar shapes.

• As with all vertebrates, he shapes of dinosaurs are largely determined by heredity from the shapes of their parents.

• Leading scientific journals refer regularly and unproblematically to the iconic shape of the Brontosaurus.

Essay Process

For next week I would like you each to begin the process of crafting an essay. I am of course also open to the possibility of collaborative projects. To that end, please email me by the end of the day next Thursday (let's say 8 pm for convenience) a preliminary topic, working thesis, and thesis paragraph (containing the thesis, any necessary explanation of what you do and don't mean by it and its terms, and any useful framing of the issue, such as why the thesis needs proving, in case it might seem obvious to the uninitiated).

Be careful to exclude from your thesis paragraph any grounds (textual, reasoned, observed) for thinking it is true. Instead, list all such grounds as premises, that is, single declarative sentences, after your thesis paragraph (hint: these will later become topic sentences of paragraphs in your essay).

I recognize and accept that you may cast around awhile for a topic, and for a solid thesis (one that is both interesting, probably true, but in need of support), so some adjustment will take place as the essay takes shape. Sometimes one must write an entire paper before being certain what one is arguing for. So the more feverish brainstorming and attempting to nail your ideas down in writing you can do before next Thursday, the better it will probably be for all of us.

Book Analysis Assignment

It's time to start exploring what book you will choose to read and analyze for the class this semester. The list on the syllabus is one place to begin, but it hardly exhausts the possibilities. Please let me know via email by next Wednesday at the latest what you are thinking about reading, and we will discuss its suitability.