sample theses

sample from Class 11/26:
"The importance of these changes is that in the second ending, the level of interiority for each character is greatly increased, allowing the reader to identify more strongly with each character and become more interested in the eventual outcome of the story."

Commentary:
the evaluation: shows/tells which ending is better (good, subtle implication)
the focus: what the "issue" is (in this and in most WD's this will need further development)
induction: tells what new thing the writer has discovered about the issue (this claim does not do this yet. it merely tells us: "the resolution was good." this part should make some argument about how "the issue" of focus is resolved).

From Linda Bree, in the introduction:
"By bringing other characters to Bath, and creating two key scenes at a hotel where various characters can come and go, meet and overhear, miss, or misunderstand each other, Austen is able not only to resolve the romance between Anne and Wentworth, but to embed this personal relationship firmly within the larger themes she has been developing: of the importance of spontaneity over calculation, and friendship over family, and of the roles, conventions, and choices of men and women in the early years of the nineteenth century."

Commentary:
the evaluation: shows/tells which ending is better (subtle, descriptive)
the focus: what the "issue" is (here: all these themes--interesting, generative, too numerous for 4-page essay)
induction: tells what new thing the writer has discovered about the issue--does Bree tell us something about how the issue(s) are resolved?