Outlines!

I’m fairly satisfied with the organization of my chapter thus far, which is good since that is what I needed to work on last week. However, the chapter still has a long way to go in terms of prose (which is apparently lacking in style, in spite of my good writing ability) and focus. I’m getting ahead of myself in terms of the argument and the sub-arguments in my thesis. My advisor suggested today that I let the chapter sit for a week or so before trying to edit it again, and that I try to develop my arguments more clearly. Outlining, in other words.

Actually, I’m not so much a fan of outlines. When I use them they tend to make my prose rather dull and technical and choppy. I get too bogged down in trying to follow the format rather than letting words flow. That, and being forced to write notes as an elementary kid made me loathe the I.A.i.a. formality. But I understand the utility of the device, and have seen myself slowly progress in comprehension of my topic as I’ve had to make successive revisions of my thesis outline for various purposes and people. As much as I want to just write my heart out, I think I will force myself to make outlines for the moment.

The other day for a class we had to bring in an outline of our thesis to turn in. Initially, I had just stripped the last one I had done (in September) to its barest bones and changed a few titles of chapters around to fit what the thesis’ latest draft looked like. Yes, I got lazy. However, with two and a half hours between classes on Monday, I decided to think about what I was saying in each chapter and ending up rewriting the assignment before turning it in. Since I’ve been having problems keeping the overall argument and the sub-arguments clear, I forced myself to offer a tentative statement for each chapter/section. That’s progress, I think. Now that each section has an argument which relates back to the whole, I think I can go into each chapter and make even more specific arguments. This will help me process all the data swirling in my head and figure out where I’ll use certain sources so I can avoid repetition. So, I’m going to outline some more…urgh.

Aside from that, the thesis has been coming along well. Chapter six on political participation is developing slowly but surely, and I intend to have it mostly polished by the time I need to send off graduate school applications. (Joy.) Since I need to let it sit still for a moment, though, I’m moving on to two other chapters. Chapter four will talk about immigration to Quebec, specifically looking at Haitian patterns. It’s one of the many many sections in which I will bring the reader up to speed on Quebec’s history so s/he can actually understand what I’m talking about in the heart of the paper. My advisor wants me to work on that because, as she put it, the topics discussed in chapter six “beg the questions of immigration” in a comparative and specific context. Chapter five, which is what I want to work on, will discuss the cultural implications and contributions that Haitians have made to Montreal during their time. Basically, the chapter’s purpose is to understand what effect Haitians could have had on making Quebeckers more culturally aware of their ever-diversifying population. Also, its purpose is to understand what effect cultural insertion could have had on making Haitians more politically and culturally aware of their new social environment.

So, even though I don’t like outlines, the to-do list this week is: 1) outline Chapter four to the best of my ability; [[Done; now I just need to fill in gaps.]] 2) begin to wade through cultural output by Haitians in Montreal; and 3) review primary sources and secondary sources on political participation [[I got back into the research and quickly remembered who spoke about what.  Lovely feeling.]] and obstacles to integration. Fun times.