While you read Dante’s Inferno, you will be keeping a thesis log.
The purpose of this exercise is to improve your skills in looking for paper topics while you’re reading, rather than after you’ve read. The thesis log will also be a way for you to share your ideas for paper topics with the rest of the class.
For every reading assignment, you must make two entries in your thesis log. A log entry consists of at least three complete sentences forming a possible thesis or suggesting a possible paper topic for an essay on this book.
Questions to consider in a log entry include: What struck me as significant in this reading? Why? How might I frame a paper around this idea? Will this emerge as a major theme of the work? If I were to write a paper about this, what should I pay attention to as I continue reading? What would be compelling or challenging about a paper on this topic?
Of course, for a thesis log entry to serve its purpose of helping you write a paper later on, it should include quotes and page numbers where appropriate.
Here’s an example of a thoughtful thesis log entry:
I am intrigued by the character of Ajax, “a twenty-one-year-old pool haunt of sinister beauty” (pg. 50). In the ice cream scene, I noticed that he’s the only guy that Morrison gives a name to or describes in any detail, so I am wondering if he will emerge later in the book as an important character. If he does, it might be interesting to write a paper on what purpose he may serve in the novel.
[from a thesis log on the novel Sula by Toni Morrison]
Of course, when you’ve just started the novel, your thesis log entries will feel like educated guesswork: maybe this, possibly that. You will be suggesting general topics and making predictions because you don’t have enough information yet. But as you approach the end of the novel, your log entries should start testing specific arguments:
Ever since Gilman described the forest as “petted” and the birds as “tame” (back on page 11), I’ve been paying attention to how her utopia treats the idea of wilderness. Now on page 86, the Herland women recount with pride how they have waged war on a particular moth they don’t like: “We have been trying to exterminate them for centuries” (pg. 86). There is other evidence like this, and in a paper, I could definitely prove that the women of this novel believe in the idea of “cultivation” rather than wilderness, which I think is a very paternal, rather than maternal mindset. How about a thesis along these lines: “In her utopian vision, Gilman’s conception of nature fails to challenge the patriarchal status quo of Western culture.”
[from a thesis log on the novel Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman]
Thesis log entries can reference earlier entries. You can also explain why a paper topic you suggested earlier might be problematic:
With Hannah and Plum both burning to death, I had been thinking that fire plays some important symbolic role in Sula. I was hoping that Morrison would use fire in some way again later in the book, but she didn’t. So I don’t know how I would structure a three-page paper around the symbol of fire, unless maybe I compared it to other forms of death in Sula, like drowning. Well, that’s a possibility I could think more about.
Class discussion will often be prompted by what you’re writing in your thesis logs. Use this opportunity to develop your ideas and fine-tune your thesis statements with the help of your peers.
Your logs will be collected from time to time to assess how you’re doing. You will turn in your thesis log with your final paper after reading the novel. You will receive a thesis log grade based on your effort and the quality of your critical thinking.
Posted by Justin Wells : 10/11/2007