כתיבת טיעון ספרותי

A thesis is an interpretation, defended

• A thesis statement expresses an interpretation of a literary text and requires a defense through use of textual evidence and a line of reasoning.
• Both are named, and both are explained in an essay through commentary.
• So a thesis creates three obligations at once: evidence, reasoning, and the commentary that connects them.

A thesis without evidence is a confident book review written before the book was opened.

Interpretation, not observation

• An interpretation says what the text means or does, not what it contains.
• The novel has two narrators is observation; the second narrator exists to make the first unreliable is interpretation.
• The test is the same as for a claim: could a careful reader disagree?

A literary thesis is about what the text does, not what it contains

A thesis may preview the line of reasoning

• A thesis statement may preview the development or line of reasoning of an interpretation.
• May — the CED is explicit that this is optional.
• A thesis that previews tells the reader the shape of what follows, which is usually worth doing.

But it need not be a list

• The CED says outright: this is not to say that a thesis must list the points of an interpretation, literary elements to be analyzed, or specific evidence.
• So the taught three-part formula — through imagery, structure and diction — is permitted, never required.
• A listed thesis often forces an essay into three unrelated paragraphs, which is worse than none.

A thesis check

• Does it say what the text means or does, rather than what it contains?
• Could a careful reader disagree with it?
• Can I state, in one further sentence, the sequence of claims that will defend it?