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This is for high school; the school I go to requires all juniors to write one on a book we read and I read Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos. My thesis is:
The way Passos wrote Manhattan Transfer was so his readers could visualize and feel the life of living in the city.
Suprisingly, my teacher thought it was a good thesis but asked why is it important to the reader?
We exchanged emails and this is what he said:
You need to think about what would make people curious about cities? Remember, even to this day, people in rural areas avoid cities because they feel they are "too big" or "dangerous." You might think about important events in society and what caused people to WANT to move to the cities, or at least to learn about cities. Once you identify these things, then, you can talk about it. Write to me again when you have thought about it more.
Thanks
On Feb 27, 2009, at 4:37 PM, wrote:
> This is Sunghwan and I wanted to ask you about the thesis; you wrote on the outline asking why it's important. I'm guessing that it is important, or at least readers will be interested if they are curious about the city life. Is that why readers would care to read the paper? Thank you
Hmmm... please help!
 
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United States22883 Posts
It's a book report, not a research paper. o.o And do this first.
Write to me again when you have thought about it more.
You'll figure it out if you just think about what your teacher wrote.
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You need to think about what would make people curious about cities? Remember, even to this day, people in rural areas avoid cities because they feel they are "too big" or "dangerous." You might think about important events in society and what caused people to WANT to move to the cities, or at least to learn about cities. Once you identify these things, then, you can talk about it. Write to me again when you have thought about it more.
this should be obvious
I don't really want to give you answers, but what does a city offer that living in the countryside does not? (think:money, jobs, shorter work hours, places to spend that money etc)
One important event that caused people to move from the countryside to cities was the industrial revolution. Some quick research should tell you why people made that move if you can't guess.
also, assuming I grew up on a farm, and I stay on the farm all my life, what are the chances of me doing something substantially different from my father? And if thats the case, what are the odds of me doing something as work that I would be tailored to, or specifically enjoy?
In other words, is it possible to be a lawyer, or an engineer on a farm?
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....interest in being cosmopolitan, glamour, industrialization, chance to make big bucks, new atmosphere, new experiences, romanticized in literature and TV
I have no idea what time period that book was written during but those things above are pretty constant ideas of the allure of cities to da country folkz.
Your thesis also sounds really elementary, try wording it differently
And since I don't know the time period I can't say what events he might be referring to but the biggest was the industrial revolution
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Ok thanks guys, and sorry for not giving the background. It's set in the 1920's so its right afer WWI and alittle after the Industrial Revolution. Immigrants, proggressivsm, stuff like that going on
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United States22883 Posts
Ok, so now elaborate. Like fusionsdf said, this is obvious.
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Ok I just emailed my teacher another thing aftering getting ideas from you all (thanks), he said he liked it alot, all I have to do is expand on it. However, I don't get how my original thesis can tie up to what you all said.
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....are you serious?
"The way Passos wrote Manhattan Transfer was so his readers could visualize and feel the life of living in the city."
You've been GIVEN a big list of things that can apply to this. Talk about how he portrayed those things so you could "VISUALIZE AND FEEL THE LIFE OF LIVING IN THE CITY"
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Yeah it should be pretty easy at this point
all the positive and negative feelings/thoughts/ideals can be used to create visuals for the reader. So find those instances where feelings/thoughts/ideals are referenced (ie all the things that make living in a city different from living in a city, all the characteristics of life in a city etc), make a list, and explain what those references mean, why he uses them, how they help the reader understand/visualize a city etc.
We really cant give you much help other than that. You have to go through your book, pick out those examples that support your thesis and expand on them.
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Oh, well I meant using the ideas and putting it actually on my thesis, not the explanation part of it.
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Geez man, write introductory sentence, then next sentence put "The way Passos wrote Manhattan Transfer was so his readers could visualize and feel the life of living in the city."
THAT is your thesis! Think up three instances in the book that support your thesis and expand those into paragraphs.
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It's a research paper, it has to be at least 7 pages.
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EPT
