Idea Outlines

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Idea Outlines

• English 1302

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• Most weeks you will have an Idea Outline due. 
  The main point behind an idea outline is to get
  you to think about the work you're looking at and
  make an argument about it.  The Idea Outline is
  set up in a form that you can download at
• http//www.zianet.com/kelliwm/Idea_Outline_Form.rt
  f
• I suggest you save the file, and each time you do
  an outline, save it using "save as," and give it
  a new title, for example IdeaOulineFrost.rtf. 
  This way you can always go back to the original
  document and not have to erase what you write
  before.

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First, we have to think about the general
structure of writings about literature.
Basically, most critical writings about
literature a structured like this

• Introduction
• Sets the context by sharing the general topic.
  Ie something specific about the human condition,
  character, or certain situations
• Provides the name of the author and title of the
  work, properly formatted. (Often this is in
  conjunction with the thesis.)
• Provides a clear thesis, that can be checked by
  answering the following questions

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Thesis checklist

• Does the thesis go beyond an apparent fact or
  conclusion from the story?
• Is the thesis arguable?
• Is the thesis supportable with specific (direct
  quotes or very specific) examples from the story?
• Is the thesis related to an element of fiction?

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Body

• The body of the essay should work to explain and
  illustrate the main point made in the thesis.
  With each point you make, you should
• Provide specific reasons for your belief in your
  thesis.
• Support those beliefs with evidence from the
  text direct quotes, paraphrases, or very
  specific examples.
• Interpret the evidence youve given explain how
  the evidence shows or illustrates the reason.
• Connect the evidence and interpretation to the
  thesis. Make sure to explain how this specific
  moment plays a role in or supports the thesis.
• Sometimes the last two points will be merged.

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Conclusion

• The conclusion should bring the paper together.
  Options for this include
• Discussion of how the specific examples add up to
  illustrate something more about the general topic
  set up in the introduction.
• OR
• Discussion of how the work gives us a deeper
  understanding of the human condition, character
  or situations through the authors use of the
  particular element.

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Where to start

• When you start to get ideas for an essay, the
  best place to start may not always be at the
  beginning.
• Sometimes you may know exactly what you want to
  talk about (you may be blessed with a working
  thesis) if so, then you can start with
  developing your thesis.
• For example, if you have been given a question to
  answer about a story, then the answer to that
  question is your thesis.
• You can work through the outline beginning with
  your thesis, then go back and develop your
  introduction to round it out.

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• However, it doesnt always happen that way. If
  youre working with a wide open choice of what to
  write about, the first thing you want to
  familiarize yourself with are the basic elements
  of literature and how they work.
• In your literature textbook there are chapters
  that deal with each element (plot, character,
  setting, etc.). At the beginning of the chapter
  is a discussion of the basic workings of the
  element at the end of the chapter is a
  discussion of how to write about the element.
• In this case, you should be using your literature
  book as a reference tool. We will of course
  discuss these elements in our course, but each of
  you will select different things to write about
  so should review the specifics on your own.

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Starting with Evidence

• If you find a specific element stands out for you
  in a story or a poem, think about what it is that
  makes it work or makes it unique in the story.
• For example, you might decide that you want to
  look carefully at setting and how it relates to
  character in Greasy Lake. After reviewing the
  discussions of setting and character in fiction
  as discussed in your literature book, you are
  ready to go.
• One of the easiest places to start is with
  evidence. You can go through and find places in
  the story that the setting seems to play a role
  in showing the characters or compares to them.
• Here are a few quotes Ive found that might work

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The characters

• We were dangerous characters then. We wore
  torn-up leather jackets, slouched around with
  toothpicks in our mouths, sniffed glue and either
  and what somebody claimed was cocaine. When we
  wheeled our parents whining station wagons out
  onto the street we left a patch of rubber half a
  block long. We drank gin and grape juice, Tango,
  Thunderbird, and Bali Hai. We were nineteen. We
  were bad. We read Andre Gide and struck
  elaborate poses to show that we didnt give a
  shit about anything (120-1).

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The lake

• Fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with
  broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the
  charred remains of bonfires. There was a single
  ravaged island a hundred yards from shore, so
  stripped of vegetation it looked as if the air
  force had strafed it (121).
• (The numbers in parenthesis are my in-text
  citation. It shows the page number where I read
  the information. See pages 370-373 in you
  Writers Reference for instructions on how to do
  this.)

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• However, I can't just throw it out there in
  between my sentences and think it's clearly
  related and that my point will be evident to my
  reader.
• Instead I need to blend it with a sentence that
  places it in context, considering cutting out
  those details I won't need, or at least
  summarizing them. I might do that like so

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• At the first of the story, the narrator describes
  himself and his friends as dangerous
  characters, and he talks about their drinking
  cheap alcohol, sniffing glue, taking drugs, and
  driving their parents cars recklessly (121-0).
  Similarly, he describes the lake with a dim view,
  saying it was fetid and murky, the mud banks
  glittering with broken glass and strewn with beer
  cans and the charred remains of bonfires. There
  was a single ravaged island a hundred yards from
  shore, so stripped of vegetation it looked as if
  the air force had strafed it (120-1).

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• First I've summarized or paraphrased much of the
  quote I selected to use. Use only the details
  that support your point. Also, in the second
  half of the sentence, I've blended my words with
  the authors, but am careful to show where his
  begin with the use of quotation marks. The
  general rule of thumb is if you use three or more
  words sequentially as they appear in the text you
  use quotation marks.

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Discussion/Interpretation

• If you don't explain how that evidence shows or
  illustrates your points, then you've left your
  ideas out of the work.  So, I ask what this shows
  me about my these characters as revealed through
  the setting.  I would answer that by saying

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• From the start, its clear that both these
  teenagers and this lake dont have an outward
  appearance that is the clean freshness often
  associated with both youth and nature.
• In essence, I'm telling you what I read between
  the lines when I read these quotes.  Now there's
  just one more step, then we'll take a look at how
  this process comes together.

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Connecting

• As you work with each reason, your connection
  should show the role it plays in your thesis. If
  you dont have a thesis yet, think about how the
  evidence and interpretation illustrates some main
  idea. Heres an example of what I might say about
  the quote and my interpretation

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• While we are used to authors describing
  characters or using characters descriptions to
  give us clues as to who the characters really
  are, the use of setting to reflect that gives us
  a deeper understanding of the place from which
  these young men begin in this story, illustrating
  their attitudes and viewpoints.

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• Here I've shown not only how Boyle uses character
  at the beginning of the story, but how that
  character mirrors who these young men are. 
• While this one paragraph does not illustrate the
  whole of the thesis, and it shouldn't, it sets
  the stage for the readers.

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Thesis

• To develop your thesisif youre working from
  evidence firsttake a look at your evidence and
  discussion/interpretation together. What does it
  point out about that main topic, here character
  and setting?
• To put this together for your reading pleasure, I
  had to go through Greasy Lake and look for
  other points about character and setting. When I
  put those together with the one Ive shown you
  here, I came up with this thesis

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• In Greasy Lake, by T. Coraghessan Boyle, the
  setting mirrors the changes the narrator goes
  through, and by looking closely at it we can see
  more deeply into the narrators transition from
  boyhood to manhood.

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• While the single example Ive given you above,
  does not reveal all of the ideas in the thesis,
  other parts of the work do. Ive made sure that
  my thesis fits the thesis criteria
•  
• its not a simple fact or basic conclusion from
  the reading,
• its arguable and supportable, and
• its linked to literary ideas.

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Beyond The Idea Outline

• While your idea outlines are homework, you should
  also use them to develop your essays. To do
  that, you put the parts together, filling in and
  smoothing out as necessary. To give you a quick
  picture of that, heres how a body paragraph
  using the evidence and discussion/interpretation
  Ive shown you above might look in a final draft

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• At the first of the story, the narrator describes
  himself and his friends as dangerous
  characters, and he talks about their drinking
  cheap alcohol, sniffing glue, taking drugs, and
  driving their parents cars recklessly (121-0).
  Similarly, he describes the lake with a dim view,
  saying it was
• fetid and murky, the mud banks glittering with
  broken glass and strewn with beer cans and the
  charred remains of bonfires. There was a single
  ravaged island a hundred yards from shore, so
  stripped of vegetation it looked as if the air
  force had strafed it. (120-1)
• From the start, its clear that both these
  teenagers and this lake dont have an outward
  appearance that is the clean freshness often
  associated with both youth and nature. While we
  are used to authors describing characters or
  using characters descriptions to give us clues as
  to who the characters really are, the use of
  setting to reflect that gives us a deeper
  understanding of the place from which these young
  men begin in this story.

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Dos and Donts

• Do quote the text and correctly cite it!
• Do use the correct convention for a writers
  name!
• Dont summarize the whole work!
• Dont use a quote or specific example unless it
  directly relates to your thesis or point.

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• Questions?