ENGL-2240-014

A Brief Guide to Writing Literary Analysis

 

 

This guide will assist you in all phases of the writing process, from generating topic ideas to proofreading, editing, and formatting your essay.  For most of you, this will serve as a review of skills you developed in your composition courses.

 

1. Deciding on a subject:

 

Begin with a few basic questions:

-What text(s) do I find interesting?  Thought-provoking?  Disturbing?  Fascinating? 

-Why?

-What questions did I raise when reading it?  During class discussion?  During discussions with friends, classmates, or others who have read it?  (Look back at your notes to jog your memory).

 

2. Generate a topic:

Again, begin with questions, but establish a focus:

-What appears problematic in the text(s)? 

-Why is this problematic?  How or why does it differ from expectations or the status quo?

-What function does this element play in the text? 

 

3. Develop a thesis statement:

Consider why this topic is worth writing about. 

-Why is this problem important?  How does it make the story mean what it means? 

-What can I say about the meaning that will engage my reader.  Why should he or she understand what I have to say?

*Your introductory paragraph should do three things:

            A. establish common ground with your reader: begin with a statement or observation

about the text with which all reasonable readers would agree.  This establishes a

sympathetic appeal, and garners your reader’s tacit support.

            B. Identify a problem in the text that challenges the normative approach described above. 

            C. Present your argument (why we should read this problem in this way) and provide

some sense of its consequences.

 

4. In the body of the essay, support your thesis with a series of secondary claims that, taken together, provide clear, logical, and persuasive evidence that will convince your reader that your reading of the text and, more specifically, of the specific element in the text, is a valid and compelling one.  Map out the argument process before you begin writing.  Start with your least difficult or least controversial point, and work toward the most important and most complex.  Be sure to indicate clear transitions from one paragraph to the next.  Support each claim with direct textual evidence and clear, logical argumentation.

 

5. Your concluding paragraph should:

            -synthesize the evidence you have compiled in the body paragraphs

            -articulate the results of the argument and its significance

            -bring the argument to its completion; this is often done by returning to a question raised

in the introduction or an observation used to introduce the argument.  How does your

argument fulfill its promise?

Your concluding paragraph should not:

            -simply restate your thesis or any part of the introductory paragraph

            -introduce new elements to the argument or new information

            -rely on broad generalizations to summarize the argument

 

 

Essay grades are assigned according to the following criteria. 

 

1)  INTRODUCTION & THESIS

            a)  Does your essay have an intriguing title? 

            b)  Does your introduction give a clear sense of why you are writing this particular paper?  Does it express

            to your reader why he or she should be reading it?  

            c)  Does the introduction lead gracefully into the thesis and engage the reader's interest?  For

            example, good essays might begin in one of the following ways (though some of these are not suitable for literary analysis):

                        ~ an intriguing question                                               

                        ~ a definition to dispute, illustrate, or supplement           

                        ~ a provocative story or quotation                                   

                        ~ a startling statistic or unsettling description           

                        ~ a paradox or seeming contradiction

            d)  Does the essay have a solid thesis statement?

            e)  Does the introduction provide a sense of the argument’s structure?

 

2)  ORGANIZATION & SUPPORT

            a)  Are the paragraphs arranged logically and effectively (e.g. time, space, weakest to strongest point,

            etc.)?

            b)  Have you used effective transitions to smooth changes in ideas or paragraphs?

            c)  Does each body paragraph contain a clear topic sentence to provide an overall summary of the

paragraph?  Or is the paragraph clearly organized such that the reader can infer the implied main idea

 despite the absence of a clearly stated topic sentence?

            d)  Are the topic sentences supported by highly specific and relevant details?  Have all irrelevant

            details been deleted? 

            e)  Do you stay with your subject long enough to convince your reader that you have thought carefully

about it and yet avoid rambling? Are you thorough yet concise?  Do you develop your ideas enough that

 your argument can be followed, and that your reader will grant you authority for what you say?  Do you

 make your argument in terms that are as specific as possible? 

            f)  Does the conclusion ease out of the topic gracefully, leaving the reader to reflect on the subject?  Do you sum up the argument and main points without using the same words you did in the

 introduction or body?  Some of the same methods used to introduce your essay will work to conclude it.

 

           

3)  STYLE & VOCABULARY

            a)  Have you selected precise and vivid verbs over weak and overly general words and chosen specific,

            concrete nouns over vague ones?   Have you avoided these broad, unexciting, non-descriptive terms: good, bad, nice, pretty, ugly, beautiful, great, very, really, basically, aspect, factor, situation, thing?[1] 

            b)  Have you avoided the passive voice and created a more vigorous impression through the active voice? 

            c)  Have you remembered to include variety in the length/construction of your sentences?  Or all they

            all short and choppy?  Do too many overly long passages slow the reader down and make the writing difficult to follow?  Do they all follow the same dull pattern of subject/verb, subject/verb? Could you combine sentences or try varying the sentence patterns? 

            d)  Have you avoided first person (I, me, we, us, my, mine, our, ours) and second person (you, your,

            yours) and stuck to the more accepted and formal third person (he, she, it, they, one)?

 

4)  MECHANICS

            Does the essay contain grammar, spelling, or punctuation errors, distracting the

            reader from ideas?  For example: 

            a) Fragments (incomplete sentences or thoughts)

            b) Run-ons (two complete thoughts with no punctuation or connecting words between them)

            c) Comma splices (two complete thoughts with only a comma separating them)

            d) Subject-verb agreement errors or other verb use errors

            e) Garbled sentences (not exactly fragments or run-ons, but strange, indecipherable combinations of subjects, verbs, & other words that just don't make sense together)

            f) Punctuation errors (other than comma splices), including misused or missing commas, colons, semicolons, apostrophes, quotation marks, hyphens, etc.)

            g) Misused words (or homophones – its, it’s; their, they’re, there…) OR Spelling errors

            h) Capitalization/title demarcation (underlining, quotation marks) errors

 

 

5) INSIGHT AND ORIGINALITY:

            a)  Does the thesis reveal careful critical thought, going beyond common or simplistic responses?

            b)  Do the body paragraphs illustrate sustained critical focus and incisive analysis?

            c)  Is supporting evidence analyzed carefully and rigorously? 

            d)  Are opposing viewpoints accounted for, and not simply dismissed?

 

 

 

Guide to Turnitin.com

 

1. Using any internet browser, access www.turnitin.com.

 

2. Near the top right corner of the page, click on “Create Account.”

 

3. Toward the bottom of the next page, under “Create a new account,” click the “Student” tab.

 

4. Fill in the Class ID, Class Enrollment Password, and your personal information to create an account.

 

            Class ID: 5941378            Class Enrollment Password: Balint

 

5. Remember your personal password for future use of the site.

 

All of your essays for the semester must be submitted through Turnitin.com.  Within two weeks of your submission, you may return to the website to see my comments on your essay.  If you then have questions or concerns, please contact me to schedule a meeting, or simply stop by during office hours.

 



 

Course Summary:

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