Thesis Ideas Prewrite Draft

picture: Beatrice , a cat, moving so fast she is omitted except for her paw.

Instructions for Integrating Secondary Material via Counterargument, or, "lie by omission"

note: though the steps are spelled out in 6 steps, I would recommend trying to do it in the form of a paragraph or two--perhaps a potential introduction, or a solid body paragraph to your paper??

1. Quote detail (passage/lyric/graphic/scene/etc...) of primary source

2. Recopy passage from secondary, scholarly material that offers an interpretation of this detail (note: does not have to be direct interpretation, but could be simply a frame for thinking about the detail, concept, or passage).

3. Paraphrase secondary material claim: “X claims that ….”

4. challenge assumptions of claim: pick evidence (words) from original passage that are subject to double meaning, i.e. that you interpret differently from secondary source:

word----common meaning----expert def.----associations----your redef.

5. if you spell out these steps in your prose (i.e. your argument), you will have done analysis. again, like the idea here that argument is developed by omission and inclusion (and we can see this also in Kluger's own work, in terms of what she does and does not include), you will have to artfully decide what you need to include/exclue and spell out or not spell out.

6. since analysis is the act of "taking apart," you will now need to put together, to interpret--this means to fully develop your reading of the primary source detail by reconsidering the whole passage (or detail of primary material). you can do this by identifying a question--a large, puzzling, ambiguous, interpretive, unanswerable question--that is raised by looking at the detail in this way. perhaps there are now other parts of this detail (passage/lyric/art/scene/etc...) that become important and that you need to "read," or interpret.

... and so on... as you continue to work on your paper, continue to develop this method of approaching both primary and secondary material. keep in mind that the main assignment is to analyze your primary source, to be critical of secondary sources that engage in a similar discussion of the primary source and its genre, and from these things to develop your own, original interpretation (and thus interpretive argument) of the primary source.