The Essay: the 3 Levels of Composition

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The Essay the 3 Levels of Composition
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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

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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.

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Your Thesis Presents an Abstract Idea

• 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.

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Let Your Thesis Guide Your Development
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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.

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Develop the thesis by breaking its key ideas into
segments
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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
  Mathesons 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 persons
  particular heaven or hell.

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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.

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Your Thesis Presents Various Points Part Two

• 2. In Richard Mathesons 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 persons
  particular heaven or hell.

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If you are the author of this thesis, then Your
job is to develop these two sections in your paper
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You can divide your paper into two subsections to
make your task of developing your thesis easier.
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You can call subsection one the three registers
of existence
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You can call subsection two the two logics of
interrelational being
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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.

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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.

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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 Im currently
  making?
• (3) can they relate this point to the point
  before it and the point that will follow it?

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The 3 Ways to Develop your Thesis
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Define Your Term
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Define Your Term

• 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.

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Define Your Term

• 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.

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Define Your Term

• 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.

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Define Your Term

• 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.

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Define Your Term

• 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.

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Define Your Term

• 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.

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Define Your Term

• 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.

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Once you have introduced your definition, defined
it, and explained it you can continue with the
aim of developing your thesis
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Now you can develop your thesis by introducing
other parts of it level two development by
explanation or by providing examples level
three development through literary or filmic
examples
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Now you can develop your thesis by introducing
other parts of it level two development by
explanation
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Treat level two development in the same way as
you treated a definition
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Level two development offers a lesser level of
abstraction that is still somewhat abstract

• 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.

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Level two development offers a lesser level of
abstraction that is still somewhat abstract

• introduce secondary points of theory that need to
  be defined and explained.
• You can turn to the essays youve read for your
  definitions or you can summarize your defined
  point and explain it at length.
• Always be thorough dont drive by your ideas and
  dispense with them too quickly.

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Level two development offers a lesser level of
abstraction that is still somewhat abstract

• Dont 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.

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Level two development offers a lesser level of
abstraction that is still somewhat abstract

• 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.

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Level two development offers a lesser level of
abstraction that is still somewhat abstract

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

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Level two development offers a lesser level of
abstraction that is still somewhat abstract

• 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.

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Level three examples
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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.

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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.

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Level three examples

• ONE MORE TIME Make certain it is the most
  appropriate example to illustrate the concept
  under consideration.

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Level three examples

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

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Level three examples

• The thesis and your definitions and your
  theoretical development and your examples
  aspects of themselves.

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Level three examples

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

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Level three examples

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

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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.

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FINALLY dont get lost in explicating the text
by giving example after example
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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.
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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.
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FINALLY let your definitions be powerful and
useful, but they too serve to foster the
progression of those ideas emanating from the
thesis.
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AND REMEMBER what Ive presented here is a
logic the logic of the essay.
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AND REMEMBER any essay will be comprised of
these components. My intention was to make you
conscious of this logic.
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AND REMEMBER but writing an essay is a creative
act of intention, so you decide where to put an
example or when to define a term, or what order
of abstraction you want to introduce.
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ABOVE ALL study
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ABOVE ALL study the essays and study the novels
and films.
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ABOVE ALL really study them because that is
where the power is in your learning how to
read and to write. Those skills will teach you
how to think differently.
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ABOVE ALL really study the essays and spend
time a lot of time writing the essay.
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ABOVE ALL make it yours because otherwise the
entire process will fall upon deaf ears.
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ABOVE ALL the entire process will fall upon
your deaf ears.
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ABOVE ALL be creative
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ABOVE ALL be creative by recreating yourself in
the process