Aphorisms on Structure for Single-Source Essays
Introduction
The Q-and-A
Paragraph 1: The Question
- Orientation
- Evidence
- Analysis
- Question/Problem
Paragraph 2: The Answer
- Terms
- Thesis
- Stakes
Notes
- When to use: most of the time; when in doubt; when your goal is to unpack a certain text or topic.
The Surface Reading / Closer Reading
Paragraph 1: The Surface Reading
- Orientation
- Evidence
- Counter-Analysis (i.e., Surface Reading)
Paragraph 2: The Closer Reading
- Response (i.e., Question/Problem)
- Terms
- Thesis
- Stakes
Notes
- When to use: when your text is well-know; when there’s a common consensus on the meaning of your text that you’re looking to complicate or dispute.
The Abstract
Paragraph 1:
- Orientation
- Text
- Question/Problem
- Thesis
- Stakes
Notes
- When to use: when using lots of quantitative analysis (data, statistics, charts); when adopting a scientistic rather than humanistic voice
The Exemplar
Paragraph 1: The Exemplar
- Orientation
- Evidence
- Analysis
Paragraph 2: The Terms
- Terms
Paragraph 3: The Thesis
- Thesis
- Stakes
Notes
- When to use: when there’s an especially clear example that (1) illustrates your central argument, and (2) you can get through quickly.
- Because the exemplar starts by making a point, not asking a question, it’s important to make the driving question/problem of the essay clear in the first body paragraph.
The Cannonball
Paragraph 1: The First Sentence is the Thesis
- Thesis
- Stakes
Notes:
- When to use: when you know it will take multiple paragraphs to map out your driving question/problem.
- Here is the first sentence of the essay is the thesis. There’s no messing around with setting up a question. You just straight into the thesis.
- This thesis can be very difficult to write because it needs to include just enough orientation that your reader will know what text you’re talking about, in addition to your central claim.
- Because the cannonball starts with a thesis, not a question, it’s important to develop that driving question problem at the start of the body of the essay.
The Stakes First
Paragraph 1: What’s at Stake
- Orientation (related to the Stakes)
- Evidence (related to the Stakes)
- Analysis (related to the Stakes)
- Question/Problem (related to the Stakes)
Paragraph 2: The Turn to the Text
- Method / Text
- Terms
- Thesis
Notes:
- When to use: when you want to emphasize the implications of your argument; when writing a presentist essay; for interdisciplinary essays.
- Start by laying out the Question/Problem that your Thesis is the answer to: not the problem in your text that needs interpretation, but a bigger-picture problem. That’s what’s at stake in this essay.
- The key sentence is the Method / Text Statement at the start of Paragraph 2. This is where you explain that the Question/Problem for Stakes can be resolved by turning to your text and argument.
- Then deliver your thesis.
- Since you started with the Question/Problem for Stakes, you need to start the body with the question problem in your text.
Body
Go chronologically: It’s usually best to go chronologically. Tell a story from start to finish. There are certainly exceptions to this guideline— If, for example, you’re looking at quantitative statistics about the whole text. But the key to structuring the body of a single source essay is to figure out what story you’re trying to tell: what comes first, who did what, what are the key episodes or moments in this story, how does one event lead to another, etc.
Don’t repeat yourself: if you said something in the introduction, don’t say it again in the body of the essay. Repetition is a sign that you need to restructure.
Match body to introduction: The structure of the body depends upon the structure you’ve chosen for your introduction. Most especially, some introductions don’t include the driving question/problem of the essay, so it’s important to put that at the start of the body.
Conclusion
Argument Paragraph
- Counter
- Response
- Argument
What’s at Stake Paragraph
- Method/Text for the Implications
- Orientation for the Implications
- Evidence for the Implications
- Analysis for the Implications
- Question/Problem for the Implications
Implications, Part I: The Idea Paragraph
- The Argument of the Implications
Implications, Part II: The Illustration Paragraph
- Evidence and Analysis supporting the Argument of the Implications
Notes
- Transition from the end of the body into the start by addressing the most compelling counter argument to your thesis.
- Responding to that counter – showing the error of his ways, describing how your position is ultimately more satisfactory – sets you up to synthesize together the totality of your main argument. Remember that an argument statement is different from a thesis statement: The thesis is a short, accessible, easy to understand, one or two sentence statement of your central idea; the argument is a summary of all the thinking and evidence that support your thesis, written out in a full paragraph.
- Transition from your argument to your implications by describing how the ideas presented in your argument bring with them the power to elucidate other things. That’s what you describe in the key sentence on your Method/Text for the Implications.
- Your text for the Implications is the topic thing being interpreted in your conclusion, which should be different the text Dash the thing being interpreted Dash in the overall essay. Your method for the implications is your description of how you’re using your argument to interpret that new text for the implications.
- Note that, if you spent significant time in the introduction developing what’s at stake, you don’t need to rehash that material in the conclusion.
- After explaining how that you’re going to use your argument to interpret text your applications right a short question problem statement for the text of your implications. A little orientation, a little evidence, a little analysis, and then the question/problem that will be resolved by looking through the lens of your argument.
- Next comes Part I of your implications – the Idea. This is where you see rise your argument into abstract terms that are not bound to the specifics of the text from which it came.
- Part II of your implications— The illustration –returns to some concrete examples to show your the idea in action.