Description
State the problem – For example, Menetra rejected the established privilege hierarchies the France of his day had inherited from the middle ages. (1-3 sentences) Transition to thesis: prepare the reader for your line of argument and the kind of evidence you will use. What does he reject? What alternative does he offer? What is the evidence? Don’t go into detail or analyze the evidence, but your should characterize it. What kind or kinds of evidence? (3-5 sentences) Thesis statement – a clear, analytical claim, the answer to a question. Your thesis sets the logical structure for the entire paper. It implies a beginning, a middle, and a conclusion. (1 sentence – although you may build up to it in the prior 2-3 sentences). Model thesis: Menetra rejected prevailing social distinctions by presenting himself as a self-made-man, independent, quick-witted, with large appetites and abilities. Incomplete thesis statements: Menetra issued a powerful challenge to the prevailing status hierarchies of his day. Menetra rejected the very notion of a society of inherited privilege in powerful, irreverent terms. Menetra saw social class as an illusion. The above model is only an example. Your thesis should correspond to the emphasis of your paper and the examples you have selected. To concentrate on religion, you should prepare the reader by stressing Menetra’s view of rationality and freedom of thought. To concentrate on gender, emphasize his obsession with his own physical prowess. The model thesis can also be recast (note the passive; you can recast it) to call attention to his hypocrisy. Menetra put himself forward as a self made man while depending on family money and connections. His pretensions to fairness disappeared entirely with his dealings with women. Bragging appears to compensate for deep insecurity. At all events, you should pick a single focus. Make a single claim. The more precise you can be, the more clearly connected your examples are to one another and to your central argument, the better. All together, an introductory paragraph should be roughly half a page. The first sentence of each successive paragraph (the topic sentence) should refer clearly back to the thesis statement. Be sure to use short, clear, concrete sentences in key passages, especially your introduction and topic sentences. Menetra paper description Select and analyze the theme of your choice in Ménétra’s journal. For one possible example, explain the significance of social class to Ménétra in 3-5 pages. He does not define the term explicitly. But, implicitly, he has a great deal to say about social distinctions. How does he mark the boundary between different classes? What, for him, were the most important social groups and social distinctions in French society in his day? Were those ranks inherited? How does he understand merit and virtue? You should grapple with what he meant rather than what we understand today about social class. Other possibilities include the role of religion, reason (or wit), and the problem of sexual violence. Whatever theme you select, you must define your terms and be careful to engage with Ménétra on his terms. What was he thinking? Avoid judging him from a present-day perspective. I urge you not to consult the various on-line sources that discuss Ménétra. They are uniformly bad and contain mistakes, and none will help you answer the question above. I will provide background in class. If you have difficulty with the text — do not despair, it is quite alien and complex to contemporary readers — please come see me during office hours. I am interested in your engagement with the text and not your ability to research at this point. You may indicate the source of Ménétra’s passages you discuss in parentheses in the text. You should, however, pay attention to the rules of punctuation for quotations. As a general rule, you should keep quotations brief; if there is a compelling reason to quote an extensive passage of four or more lines, it must be set off as a new paragraph, single-spaced, indented 1/2″ on both sides, without quotation marks. If you need help, consult the handout on quotations from the UNC Chapel Hill Writing Center, available (here). Your paper must be typed, double-spaced in twelve-point Times New Roman, with normal margins (1″ top and bottom, and 1.25″ left and right). Please remember to spellcheck and proofread.