Critical Analysis Paper

In the Critical Analysis Paper, you are analyzing/interpreting the literature on your own and coming up with your own thesis. You may need to conduct research and cite other authors in order to provide evidence for the thesis. If you have to conduct research and are including it in the essay, you must include in-text citations and a works cited page. Likewise, any quotes from the literary selection must be included as in-text citations and listed on the works cited page. You must follow the MLA format! This assignment will follow a typical essay structure and must be 3 to 5 pages in length.

Directions: Choose any one and/or two of the literary texts read and discussed in class (whether it be a poem or short story, and analyze it from either the  formal lens, biographical lens, psychological lens, Marxist lens, postcolonial lens, or feminist lens. 

Keep in mind that most of the lenses focus on and around certain themes. When thinking about a thesis, refer back to the discussions we had in class about the text. You can use ideas from class or any understandings that you came up with on your own.

Remember that there is no right or wrong when it comes to analyzing literature. You can argue that a text means anything as long as you can back it up with evidence/quotes from the text and/or outside sources.

One last tip: make sure you are not writing a summary of the literature in any part of the essay; you are quoting sentences from the literature to provide evidence for your thesis statement.