Writing Analytically, 6th Edition - Rosenwasser, David & Stephen, Jill [156]
Formulate an idea about your subject. This working thesis should be some claim about the meaning of your evidence that is good enough to get you started.
See how far you can make this thesis go in accounting for evidence. Use the thesis to explain as much of your evidence as it reasonably can. Try it on.
Locate evidence that is not adequately accounted for by the thesis. Actively search for such evidence because the initial version of the thesis will incline you to see only what fits and not to notice the evidence that doesn’t fit.
Make explicit the apparent mismatch between the thesis and selected evidence. Explain how and why some pieces of evidence do not fit the thesis.
Reshape your claim to accommodate the evidence that hasn’t fit. This will mean rewording your thesis to resolve or explain apparent contradictions.
Repeat steps two, three, four, and five several times, until you are satisfied that the thesis statement accounts for your evidence as fully and accurately as possible.
EVOLVING A THESIS IN AN EXPLORATORY DRAFT: THE EXAMPLE OF LAS MENINAS
The example is a student writer’s exploratory draft on a painting called Las Meninas (Spanish for “the ladies-in-waiting”) by the seventeenth-century painter Diego Velázquez. The method of analysis used here will, however, work with anything, print or non-print.
Look at the painting in Figure 11.3, and then read the student’s draft. As you read, you will notice that much of the essay consists of list-like description, which leaves it somewhat unfocused. But careful description is a necessary stage in moving toward interpretations of evidence, especially in an exploratory draft where the writer is not yet committed to any single position. Notice how the writer’s word choice in her descriptions prompts various kinds of interpretive leaps. We have added in brackets our observations about how the writer’s thinking is proceeding, and we have used underlining to track her various attempts at formulating a thesis.
FIGURE 11.3
Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez, 1656 Approximately 10’5” x 9’. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
SCALA/Art Resource, NY. Diego Rodgrigues Velázquez. Las Meninas. 1656.
Velázquez’s Intentions in Las Meninas
[1] Velázquez has been noted as being one of the best Spanish artists of all time. It seems that as Velázquez got older, his paintings became better. Toward the end of his life, he painted his masterpiece, Las Meninas. Out of all his works, Las Meninas is the only known selfportrait of Velázquez. There is much to be said about Las Meninas. The painting is very complex, but some of the intentions that Velázquez had in painting Las Meninas are very clear. [The writer opens with background information and a broad working thesis (underlined).]
[2] First, we must look at the painting as a whole. The question that must be answered is, Who is in the painting? The people are all members of the Royal Court of the Spanish monarch Philip IV. In the center is the king’s daughter, who eventually became Empress of Spain. Around her are her meninas or ladies-in-waiting. These meninas are all daughters of influential men. To the right of the meninas are dwarfs who are servants, and the family dog who looks fierce but is easily tamed by the foot of the little dwarf. The more unique people in the painting are Velázquez himself, who stands to the left in front of a large canvas; the king and queen, whose faces are captured in the obscure mirror; the man in the doorway; and the nun and man behind the meninas. To analyze this painting further, the relationship between characters must be understood. [The writer describes the evidence and arrives at an operating assumption—focusing on the relationship among characters.]
[3] Where is this scene occurring? Most likely it is in the palace. But why is there no visible furniture? Is it because