Chapter 4: From Thesis to Essay
Second storey
Example
From this, Justice is arguing that while humans have become distanced into “occupying different places” (para. 11) to technological, agricultural and domestication evolution, 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.
Now that you have a solid foundation of evidence, you are ready to propose our analysis of the author’s complex argument. In the second storey part of our essay you want to explain how the two pieces of evidence from the first storey overlap and how that overlap produces the author’s complex argument. Look again at your second storey to see the elements that deserve their own paragraph. Underline each part of the complex argument in the second storey so you know what deserves its own paragraph.
Activity
Paragraph 3: Overlap the contrast of “cooperation” and “conflict” with the repetition of the word “common” by explaining what the two pieces of evidence have to do with each other? How are they similar? How do they contrast with each other?
Paragraph 4: 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: 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.”
Now we have linked our evidence from the first storey into the complex argument that the author is making. Notice that each paragraph is rooted in the original text. Remember: the purpose of a close reading is to reconstruct the author’s argument. Every paragraph must return to the author’s argument and present a new complex component of that argument.