Chapter 4: From Thesis to Essay
Conclusion
In Part II, we will discuss conclusions in more depth. For a close reading you must culminate the reading you proposed in your three-storey thesis. While there is a certain satisfaction that comes from analyzing the author’s argument and guiding your analysis logically to the end of an essay, this does not mean that you copy and paste your thesis from the introduction into the conclusion. You cannot simply close by return at this level. You need to do more than restate your introduction in your conclusion. Your conclusion should be a reconsideration and culmination of the reading you proposed in your thesis presented for a final time in the light of the analysis you conducted in your body paragraphs. What have you and your readers learned from your analysis of the text?
Your essay outline now looks like this:
Example
Introduction: First two storeys of your three-storey thesis
Paragraph 1 (First Storey): Quote and unpack the contrast of “cooperation” and “conflict” (para. 11)
Paragraph 2 (First Storey): Quote and unpack the repetition of the word “common”
Paragraph 3 (Second Storey): Overlap the contrast of “cooperation” and “conflict” with the repetition of the word “common” by answering what the two pieces of evidence have to do with each other? How are they similar? Contrasting?
Paragraph 4 (Second Storey): Explain how those two pieces of evidence lead to Justice’s argument that “humans have become distanced into “occupying different places” (para. 11) to technological, agricultural and domestication evolution”
Paragraph 5 (Second Storey): Explain how those evolutions are offset by the fact that “it is the shared historical fact that humanity grew from the same original roots of collective language construction that unites every modern person to their human counterparts around the globe.”
Paragraph 6 (Third Storey): Explain what Justice means by “a level-playing field” (para. 6) and how it links to “ the same original roots of collective language construction that unites every modern person to their human counterparts around the globe.”
Paragraph 7 (Third Storey): Explain how this level playing field leads to “a call to arms encouraging humans to understand their ethical responsibility to each other, and to “share” (para. 12) the concerns of a globalized human population in “Earth’s biosphere” (para. 12).
Conclusion: Your full three-storey thesis
Remember: While you have now completed one of the more difficult stages of writing your close reading essay, you are not done thinking about your essay. This outline is meant to be a bridge between your pre-writing and your thesis and your final essay. This outline may change as you go through the process of drafting and revising your essay.
Your outline is a tool to further complicate your thesis as your write your full essay. This broad outline will provide the sturdy framework you need to start writing.