Using Positionality to Form a Thesis 

 

Many students, regardless of their background, have trouble generating an idea, or angle, for their student work, especially when writing about a topic about which they feel they have little, to no, experience. 

Combining critical reading and thinking, while accessing your positionality and lived experiences, is the “way in” to an assignment.

Have you ever read a book, essay, article, poem, or some other text for school and seen something that no one else did, not even the teacher? Something that you are sure was there because it kept coming up in different ways as you read? 

This something is your “way in,” or your tesoro (treasure) because you dug deep and found it. This something that you saw in the reading, is likely something you saw because of your positionality and/or your lived experience (maybe your positionality is the tesoro!). This something is your angle. This something is what your essay should be about. 

When students bring their culture, positionality, and lived experiences to their school work, they do work that is fresh, innovative, and uniquely their own. But how?

• Reading closely and annotating is a first important step
• Read and annotate using the lens of your positionality
• Slowing way down and accessessing (in your mind) what you know about the topic already, as you read, will also help
• Annotating about where, and why, you agree and disagree is important
• Reading other texts/perspectives on the same topic can also help
• Make lists of ideas for essay topics based on ‘your read’ of the text "‘Your read"or "my read" of a text refers to how we interpret what we read based on the words on the page, the author’s implied meaning, use of symbols and imagery, and other literary devices that prompt ‘your read.
• How we interpret what we read is always filtered through our positionality even when we don’t realize it    

 

Unfortunately,  some students have been discouraged from accessing their positionalities, and some turn to the internet to “get ideas” for their essays or assignments.

 

If a student isn’t given a chance to use their positionality, they are not allowed to really connect to the material they are learning which could lead to a higher chance of plagiarism ~A. Salcido/LPC Student  

What’s wrong with looking on the internet for essay/project ideas?

• Using another person’s idea is theft of intellectual property
• Stealing another’s intellectual property (ideas, words, research, etc) without citing them is plagiarism/cheating
• You’re not doing work that is original or your own
• You’re not trusting yourself to have an original idea
• Not doing your own work lacks integrity
• Praise for an idea not your own is hollow praise which can ultimately undermine your self-confidence
• Why deprive yourself and others of your fresh ideas or perspective?

 

When you learn to trust that you do have original ideas and you do the necessary work of reading carefully through the lens of your positionality, you will not need to look on the internet for ideas because you have learned that your postionality and your lived experience are a true tesoro.