Revising Your Odyssey Essay:

Thinking About Your Title, Introduction, & Conclusion

(From Nicole Stanton … she’s so nice)

TITLES

Complete your essay by giving it a title. They’re the first thing readers encounter and a writer’s first opportunity to create a good impression and to shape readers’ expectations.

A good title is one that both informs and engages your reader.

Here are some model titles from MA students:

• Odysseus and Han Solo: Reluctant Heroes

• “Trying to Please Everybody, I Please Nobody”: Richard Wright’s Isolation in Black Boy

• Selfish Love in The Bluest Eye

• Lost and Found: Searching for Freedom in Their Eyes Were Watching God

• Tess of the D’Urbervilles and the Redefinition of “Purity”

• Fulfillment or Failure?: Marriage in A Secret Sorrow

• Tragedy in Five Stanzas: Maxine Kumin’s “Woodchucks”

A GOOD INTRODUCTION SHOULD CONTAIN:

• A “hook” that engages your reader – some sort of provocative quotation or question or claim;

• The name and author of the work you are discussing;

• A brief description of whatever basic information—about the text, the author, and/or the topic—readers will need to follow the argument;

• A clear, specific, and arguable thesis statement;

• And a “blueprint” phrase or sentence that explains how you will go about proving your argument (i.e. a suggestion of how your essay will be organized).

Here’s a model introduction paragraph:

Herman Melville and Fyodor Dostoevsky, both writing in the nineteenth century, explored in their fiction the nature of man. Melville, in his story, “Bartelby the Scrivener,” and Dostoevsky, in his prose manifesto, “Notes from the Underground,” focus on two very different “modern men” who were unhappy with their lives. Although Bartelby and the Underground Man are both alienated from their society, they suffer their alienation in radically different ways: Bartelby gradually withdraws from all human contact in an attempt to fade into the background of life, while the Underground Man rages against the world because he feels he has already faded out of existence.

STRATEGIES FOR WRITING A GOOD CONCLUSION

You might want to begin by playing the "So What" Game. If you're stuck and feel that your draft does not say anything new or interesting, then ask a friend to read it with you. Whenever you make a statement from your conclusion, ask the friend to say, "So what?" or "Why should anybody care?" Then ponder that question and answer it.

Here's how it might go:



You: Basically, I'm just saying that education was important to Douglass. 


Friend: So what? 


You: Well, it was important because it was a key to him feeling like a free and equal citizen. 


Friend: Why should anybody care?


You: That's important because plantation owners tried to keep slaves from being educated so that they could maintain control. When Douglass obtained an education, he undermined that control personally. Maybe I should say that?

Friend: Totally! That seems really important and interesting!

You can also use this strategy on your own, asking yourself "So What?" as you develop your ideas or your draft. 

1. Also, remember to synthesize, not summarize: Include a brief summary of the paper's main points, but do NOT merely summarize or repeat what you have already said in your paper.

2. Then, after that brief summary, address the “big picture” mentioned in the “So What” game above. How does your specific argument about one part of The Odyssey fit into your interpretation of The Odyssey as a whole? For example, how does your argument about how a “virtuous” woman is defined in The Odyssey relate to the role of women in the text in general? Or, what might your argument about The Odyssey imply about some contemporary and real-world issue or situation? Or, how might your argument change our experience of the text, or of a specific theme or character? Is there a specific claim or question you want to leave your readers with?

A model conclusion

It is through the adventure on the Mississippi River that Huck changes from a typically racist white boy of the 1850s to a devoted comrade of Jim the slave, and Jim grows from Miss Watson’s pathetic piece of property to a faithful confidante and father-figure for Huck. Without each other, neither character would have grown either spiritually or morally by the end of the story. Huck’s motive while journeying was to find freedom for both himself and Jim. Without Jim, his quest for self-satisfaction and freedom would seem meaningless. But with Jim as a companion, Huck gains the moral support that was lacking in his previous existence around Petersburg. While they are two very different people, Huck and Jim act as a unit. As William Blake states, “Opposition is true friendship.” In friendship, differences can bring people together, as shown with the duo of Huck and Jim.