THE ESSAY: THE 3 LEVELS OF COMPOSITION

AN OVERVIEW OF THE 3 LEVELS  I. LEVEL ONE = MOST THEORETICAL (INCLUDES YOUR THESIS)  II. LEVEL TWO = DEFINED AND DEVELOPED THEORETICAL IDEAS  III. LEVEL THREE = EXAMPLES

GENERAL PRINCIPLES  1. You need a thesis, which is the most abstract idea in your paper. It can come at the end of the first paragraph or elsewhere, but you need to know it and know where it is in your paper.  2. Two important points about a thesis: 1. You must know what it is at all times in the essay. 2. It is very helpful if your readers know it as well.

The thesis contains an abstract idea (at level one) with key elements that need to be fleshed out at level two and level three. It is your job to flesh out the thesis in a paper. That is one way of understanding what an essay is and what an essay does: an essay introduces an idea that needs to be developed in more concrete terms. It introduces that idea in its thesis. Your Thesis Presents an Abstract Idea

Let Your Thesis Guide Your Development

The Thesis Presents an Abstract, Theoretical Idea  As you know a theoretical idea must be explained for your readers and you need to give examples for your readers as well.  In other words, the thesis needs to be developed.

DEVELOP THE THESIS BY BREAKING ITS KEY IDEAS INTO SEGMENTS

Here is a literary-theoretical thesis for your consideration  While life seems to take place “out there” in what we colloquially call “the real world,” in fact human existence takes place in three interrelated registers simultaneously. We live at once in a material world of being, a representational “world” of consciousness, and an emotional “world” of feeling. In Richard Matheson’s novel, What Dreams May Come, Matheson puts forth the proposition that the latter two are far more important in influencing human behavior than is commonly known. He insists counterintuitively that the world of consciousness and the emotional world of feeling are not solely inside a person, but are discursive in nature, formed through varying inside-outside and outside-inside logics that, when combined, form a powerful force that can consign a person to his or her “designated” site in the afterlife – that is, to that person’s particular heaven or hell.

Your Thesis Presents Various Points: Part One  Part One: While life seems to take place “out there” in what we colloquially call “the real world,” in fact human existence takes place in three interrelated registers simultaneously. We live at once in a material world of being, a representational “world” of consciousness, and an emotional “world” of feeling.

Your Thesis Presents Various Points: Part Two  2. In Richard Matheson’s novel, What Dreams May Come, Matheson puts forth the proposition that the latter two are far more important in influencing human behavior than is commonly known. He insists counterintuitively that the world of consciousness and the emotional world of feeling are not solely inside a person, but are discursive in nature, formed through varying inside-outside and outside-inside logics that, when combined, form a powerful force that can consign a person to his or her “designated” site in the afterlife – that is, to that person’s particular heaven or hell.

IF YOU ARE THE AUTHOR OF THIS THESIS, THEN YOUR JOB IS TO DEVELOP THESE TWO SECTIONS IN YOUR PAPER

YOU CAN DIVIDE YOUR PAPER INTO TWO SUBSECTIONS TO MAKE YOUR TASK OF DEVELOPING YOUR THESIS EASIER.

YOU CAN CALL SUBSECTION ONE: “THE THREE REGISTERS OF EXISTENCE”

YOU CAN CALL SUBSECTION TWO: THE TWO LOGICS OF INTERRELATIONAL BEING

Your Mission:  1. Never lose consciousness of your thesis  2. Make certain that you are working on its behalf when you are in a subsection, a paragraph within that subsection, or a sentence within that paragraph.  3. In some way or another, you are always developing your thesis, whether you are defining a term, developing a term, or providing an example of a term.

Your Progression of Ideas and the Thesis  This Thesis enables you to create two subsectional headings so that your essay is more manageable to you and to your readers.  Know that you are developing a SUBSECTIONAL THESIS in each subsection. Let it control your development of ideas.  Each subsectional thesis flows through the subsection like a river. Build a canal through the words and sentences and paragraphs as they progress through the subsection. And make certain that your progression of ideas stays within the boundaries of the canal.

Your Progression of Ideas and the Thesis  By creating a canal through which your ideas flow, you create a line of progression. This line should be easy to follow as one idea flows into the next idea into the next idea.  That is your intention: to create a flowing movement of prose that follows a line of progression that your readers can follow without getting lost. Always ask yourself three questions:  (1). where am I in my progression?  (2) can my readers follow the point I’m currently making?  (3) can they relate this point to the point before it and the point that will follow it?

The 3 Ways to Develop your Thesis

 Since the thesis is abstract, it needs to be brought into view (so to speak).  One of the ways of bringing a thesis into view is to define your terms.

 Define your term by going to the text for a quotation.  Let me say this again: Define your term by going to the text for a quotation.

 Find a quotation in the text that has some substance and is worth explaining.  Before you present that quotation, introduce it.  Once you present that definition, explain it.

 Before you explain a quotation, study it.  Study its component parts or key elements.  Then explain that quotation fully for your readers so they know what you are talking about.

 Theory is difficult and you need to show your readers some consideration. When they see a theoretical quotation for the first time, they need it explained.  A theoretical quotation does not explain itself to the first time reader.  You need to explain it for that person.

Because the definition is the most abstract sequence besides a thesis, its key elements must be explained. Reflect Back Before Moving Forward: always reflect back and explain the key elements and their relationship before moving forward in your progression.

The quotation you just presented existed in a progression of ideas that is absent to your readers. You have placed it in another progression of ideas: your own, which is the one they are following in your paper. Therefore, you need to explain the definition you just presented as it fits within your progression of ideas as it relates to your thesis.

 You have already defined your term, so that work has been done.  By defining your term, you have presented information about your topic.  Now is the time to present more theoretical information about your topic.  Now is the time to introduce secondary points of theory (secondary points of theoretical elaboration) that need to be defined and explained.

 introduce secondary points of theory that need to be defined and explained.  You can turn to the essays you’ve read for your definitions or you can summarize your defined point and explain it at length.  Always be thorough; don’t drive by your ideas and dispense with them too quickly.

 Don’t get lost in the presentation of quotation after quotation: in this way you lose track of your thesis, your subsectional thesis, and your progression of ideas.  You also lose track of your voice and your progression of ideas.  It is, after all, your essay.

 On the other hand, present enough quotations from the essays you study to give your readers a grounding in the theory.  Too much summary and not enough quotation of material will not give your readers enough grounding in the material.

 Too many quotations and no summary stops the progression of ideas so that you cannot follow the essay’s logic and clear movement from one point to the next.

 Maintain a delicate balance between summary and quotation when you first introduce a point at level two.  Always make certain, however, that you fully develop the concept for your readers.  Always make certain, as well, that you link it to the last concept and the one that you are about to develop.

LEVEL THREE EXAMPLES

Go to the literary or filmic text for your examples and make certain that each example presents a powerful illustration of your point.

LEVEL THREE EXAMPLES Typically, this is the easiest part of the writing process. You are finding that magical (level 3) example in a literary text to present. Have some fun with this. Go to the literature (or to a film) and find that example you believe will captivate your readers, but make certain it is the most appropriate example to illustrate the concept under consideration.

LEVEL THREE EXAMPLES ONE MORE TIME: Make certain it is the most appropriate example to illustrate the concept under consideration.

LEVEL THREE EXAMPLES Your example is a level 3, concrete aspect of the theory you are developing.

LEVEL THREE EXAMPLES The thesis and your definitions and your theoretical development and your examples = aspects of themselves.

LEVEL THREE EXAMPLES BEINGASPECTS OF THEMSELVES MEANS THAT THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM IS THE LEVEL OF ABSTRACTION.

LEVEL THREE EXAMPLES YOUR EXAMPLE IS JUST THAT, AN EXAMPLE THAT IS A MORE CONCRETE EXPRESSION OF THE IDEA UNDER CONSIDERATION.

LEVEL THREE EXAMPLES YOUR EXAMPLE IS MORE CONCRETE BECAUSE IT IS CLOSER TO LIVED EXPERIENCE, SO PEOPLE CAN RELATE TO IT. THAT IS WHY WE NEED COMPELING EXAMPLES.

FINALLY: don’t get lost in explicating the text by giving example after example

FINALLY: let your example be powerful, but let it act in the service of the ideas being developed in the progression that follows from the thesis.

FINALLY: let your development of ideas from one paragraph to the next be powerful, but let them act in the service of the ideas being developed in the progression that follows from the thesis.

FINALLY: let your definitions be powerful and useful, but they too serve to foster the progression of those ideas emanating from the thesis.