1. What is the work (title and author, at least)?
2. What part of the work are you referencing? (if necessary)
3. What is the context for what you are about to say? (remember to treat your reader as if they have read the same text but might simply need reminded what happened in the particular part you are discussing in order to have context for your argument)
4. Why is the section or aspect of the text that you mentioned important? In other words, why do we need to stop and look more closely at this part specifically?
5. PART #1 of THESIS: OBSERVATION: What is your close observation about this part? What might someone else have missed? (This is the point at which you show that there is something interesting going on if only your reader will look a bit more closely with you. This isn’t the true thesis yet because you haven’t yet provided your interpretation of what it means, but it should be stating something that is not obvious.)
6. PART #1 of THESIS: INTERPRETATION: What do you believe this observation means? (When trying to come up with this, it might be helpful to consider what you might be saying that will change your reader’s understanding of the text so that they see it in a whole new way. In other words, why put forth your idea at all?)