This post is for students who feel “frozen” and have not yet produced a provisional essay, but it may be helpful for anyone. Read through the post and note where it surprises you.
Notice: a “provisional essay” is “code” for a zero draft (what many might call a “bad” essay, because it is not organized by a thesis and does not focus on arguing a thesis). If you followed my instructions for the annotated bibliography, you’re 75% finished.
Question: Why do I keep sending you back to your Annotated Bibliography and your Research Proposal?
Answer: Because this is an inquiry-based assignment, and to produce an inquiry I want you to really engage with your texts.
Requirements for the Annotated Bibliography
- An introduction that proposes your research question and incorporates 4-5 source references supporting the relevance of your line of inquiry (why it is important to readers).
- An exhibit that establishes a “local” example of your comparatively “global” problem. The exhibit may be a social media post, a news article, a blog post, or a personal story, and you may choose more than one exhibit to illustrate your intellectual problem.
- Each section of your annotated bibliography should have a summary and a reflection and quotes. Your reflection must include answers to the following questions: How does it help you analyze an exhibit and resolve an intellectual problem related to your seed text? Which 1-2 functions can it serve from the ExACT functions? How do you wish to engage with the author (confirm, contradict, complicate, or extend)?
Main steps for producing your provisional paper:
Paste your annotated bibliography into a new document. Between the introduction and the entries, introduce your exhibit and either a context, argument, or theoretical source that helps you analyze your exhibit (lens analysis). Extract the MLA citations from the annotated bibliography portion and paste them, in alphabetical order, into a Works Cited section at the end. Include any other references you use in your Works Cited section. With the remaining text, find points of intersection and write in transitions to show your reader how you connect the sources you’ve found with your research question. Your reflection is especially useful here. If you wish to reorganize your sections and text, do so, but resist the urge to polish it before you’ve finished the entire draft. The provisional essay is an inquiry-based exercise in thinking about a problem. It is a “bad” essay in that it does not need to flow or be completely resolved or polished.
Reflective Conclusion
Add a new section, likely toward the end of your document, in which you answer the following questions:
What tentative thesis have you come to, and was it the thesis you envisioned at the beginning of your research project?
What gaps remain in your research?
What new questions arose from your research and writing process?
What next steps would you take if you had more time to research this problem? That is, what additional research would be required to further develop and strengthen your hypothesis?
Getting to the finish:
Once you have a full draft, read it over and make sure it is basically readable (spelling and grammar) and that all references are in MLA citation format (this is very important). Be sure block quotation formatting is used for quotations that are aprox. four lines or longer.
Make sure it has a title.
Make sure you’ve answered all of the questions in the reflective conclusion section.
Resist the desire to make it perfect. Inquiry and insight are ten times more important than polish. If you found yourself getting repetitive, you didn’t engage with your sources enough and have likely wasted time writing for an imagined assignment rather than the one you have been given.
Send me an email notifying me that you have finished the above activities, and have a well-earned and restful Winter Break.
