literary essay

Literary Essay:

I’m asking you to compose a 3 to 5 page essay arguing for the significance of a particular aspect of a chosen literary work. You will want to incorporate at least two secondary sources via the campus databases, and your peace may be influenced by one or more of the various literary theories that will be discussed in class.

This assignment will be due posted to blackboard at the end of week four. I will assess the assignment as follows: depth of the thesis: 30% depth of analysis: 30%

quality and integration of evidence: 30% grammar, formatting and proofreading: 10%

Thesis:

Understanding the difference between an observation and a thesis is essential to writing an effective essay. An observation simply denotes a detail. One doesn't have to delve very deeply into the plot of The Secret Life of Bees for instance to observe that the author uses a great deal of bee imagery; however, arguing that Mary is the "Queen bee" in the novel is quite a different matter. Here you have a stated theory that can be supported or argued against. This is a thesis.

Strategy:

If I were to argue the thesis above, I would need to develop a strategy for doing so, a structure for my essay. Every one of us in this class has had the five paragraph essay format drilled into us since time immemorial. As you've probably come to discover, this format is almost always inappropriate for any sort of substantial writing that you'll produce on the college level and beyond, so don't think in terms of the five paragraph essay; think in terms of saying what you need to say to substantiate your thesis. For instance, if I were to address the "Queen bee" thesis, I would want to define exactly what the role of "Queen bee" entails in terms of the novel. I would want to address as many aspects of the metaphor as needed to define my terms such that any character embodying all of those terms or aspects would be qualified as the "Queen bee." I would then want to show how various characters embody certain aspects but not all of them and that those aspects are relative to the degree of realization of marry within themselves.

Quoting From Primary and Secondary Sources:

Most inexperienced writers have a tendency to want to quote large portions of text, but in essays as brief as the ones we are writing here, not only is this not practical, to a certain degree it's a copout. Quote only the specific language in the text the best supports your ideas. Conform the syntax of the quote to the syntax of your sentence. To do this, use ellipses "..." to indicate omitted text and use brackets "[]" to indicate text that you've added either for emphasis or to adjust the syntax. Consider the following example. Note that in the example, I both introduce the quote and explicate, or explain, the quote using the language of the quote itself:

Throughout most of the novel, Lily frames August as the Queen bee. When they visit Zack in jail, she comments, "It ["the fire" in August's eyes] was a hearth fire you could depend on, you could draw up to and get warm by if you were cold, or cook something on that would feed the emptiness in you.... all we had was the wet fire in August's eyes. But it was enough" (Kidd 181). In terms of archetypes, the hearth is intrinsically related to motherhood. It is the locus of nurturing and safety. Lilly equates this hearth fire with grounding because fire affects chemical change just as August is affecting change within Lily. August's eyes are mirrors through which Lily spies the Mary within August that has yet to awaken within herself.

Try to glean as much as you can from each quote. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of explicating the quote. Make sure you address specifically how the quote supports your argument. Quotes up to three lines at length may be integrated into a sentence as in the example above. Quotes of four or more lines should be set off from the parent sentence by skipping a line before and after the quote. These block quotes do not need quotation marks, and the parenthetical notation should follow the last period rather than be included in the last sentence before the period.

A note on puritanical notation: if you only quote from a single text through out your entire essay and the text is clearly named in the essay, you need only indicate the page number of a given quote within the parentheses. If however you quote from several texts, indicate both the author's last name and the page number in the parentheses as in the example above. If you quote from multiple texts from the same author, indicate the author's last name, a specific title of a work and the page number of a quote in the parentheses. For more on MLA go here: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/

Avoid Logical Fallacy:

Logical fallacies find their way into academic writing usually with the author of a given essay has not clearly thought his or her argument through to its conclusion before beginning to draft the essay. The inclusion of something ill founded is much more likely when an author is clamoring to meet a length requirement, essentially rambling and not contributing anything substantive. You do not find yourself in this position. Logical fallacy discredits your argument and your authority on the subject matter. Learn more about logical fallacies here: http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/

Style Tips:

I usually deliver the following stylistic advice in a lecture I like to call "how not to make your essays boring as hell," but I figured that it is to your advantage to have this information documented. The following is a list of general guidelines to help you draft affective, concise, engaging essay:

Avoid Passive Voice

Some of you may be asking what the difference between active and passive voice is. Active voice implies that the subject of the sentence is the agent (or doer) of the action; passive voice occurs when the subject of the sentence is not the doer of the action. Consider the following example of active voice: Sue Monk Kidd authors The Secret Life of Bees between 1993 and 2001. Here the agent of the action (Sue Monk Kidd), the action itself (authoring, or writing) and the object of the action (the novel The Secret Life of Bees) are all explicitly evident. The following sentence is in passive voice: The Secret Life of Bees was written between 1993 and 2001 by Sue Monk Kidd. The agent of the action is clearly not the subject of the sentence. This type of sentence should only be used when trying to be intentionally vague. As far as the type of academic writing you're doing here is concerned, the buzzword is "explicit." You want to convey as much meaning as possible as concisely as possible, so by sheer economy of words passive voice is not efficient. One has to read to the end of the sentence to discover who authored the book. Passive voice implies a lack of authority and knowledge of the subject matter.

Avoid "It is... that" and "There is/are/was/were" Statements:

Here again we come to the issue of brevity, depth and the economy of words. Instead of saying, "It is evident that August most fully embodies the qualities of Mary throughout the novel," one could more directly say, "August embodies the qualities of Mary throughout the novel." The verb "embodies" conveys far more meaning than the verb "is." Usually in the sentence begins with the above mentioned phrases, it can easily be reworked into a more transitive one.

Only use "you" when referring directly to the reader:

The pronoun "you" is second person; therefore, only use it to refer directly to your reader.

Qualify the pronouns "this" and "that":

Again, you want to be as specific as possible, so when using the above pronouns, indicate this or that "what."

Avoid the phrases "I think" and "I feel":

The above phrases are not only redundant, but as such they weaken your argument because the whole of the essay is understood to be your opinion; so you don't need to reemphasize that point.

Maintain the appropriate tenses:

Oftentimes, student essays will shift tenses from paragraph to paragraph. A tense shift may be warranted under certain circumstances, but generally one should maintain a constant tense throughout the essay. Generally literature is discussed in the present tense. You should conform the tenses of your quotes to that of your essay, also.

Use appropriate possessive pronouns:

"Their" is a plural possessive pronoun, not a singular one. To show possession when using a singular subject, use "his or her." Often times, the use of the singular inclusive pronoun "one" through out the essay when speaking in general terms is more appropriate.

Don't state the obvious:

Assume correctly that your primary reader is familiar with your primary text; therefore, erroneous plot summary, fawning praise of the author, etc. are all unnecessary. Statements like, "the civil rights movement marked a difficult period in American history," are equally unnecessary. Use specific instances from the text or specific information regarding the setting to support elements of your argument, not generalized information.

Don't over generalize:

Statements like, "all Americans in the 1950s bought into Eisenhower's notion of "the American dream," tread on dangerous territory because they amount to little more than gross generalization, and in so doing, imply a lack of scholarship and authority. Remember specific is always best.

Avoid words and phrases that can be little or no meaning:

Words such as "interesting," "awesome," "strange," etc. convey little or no meaning and should be avoided.

Avoid Typos and General Grammatical Errors:

Please proofread your essays for the above-mentioned errors. A properly formatted and proofread essay goes a long way towards an "A." Setting your spellchecker on "Formal" is a good strategy, but it tends to overemphasize long sentences and will not catch all typos. In addition to formal spellchecking, I suggest you read your paper aloud carefully to account for typos.

If you consider and apply all the above information when composing your essay, your grade should fare rather well.

I. Catchy Title

VI.

A. B.

C. D. E.

Topic sentence (what this paragraph will discuss, how it will prove your thesis) Context for the quote

1. Who says it?

2. What’s happening in the text when they say it?

Quote from the text (cited appropriately) Analysis of the quote: How does it prove your thesis? Closing sentence (wrap up the paragraph to effectively transition to the next paragraph

Conclusion (You do not necessarily have to follow this order, but include the following): A. Summarize your argument.

2. Extend the argument.

3. Show why the text is important.

Outline Structure for Literary Analysis Essay

II. Paragraph 1: Introduction (Use HATMAT)

1. Hook

2. Author

3. Title

4. Main characters

5. A short summary

6. Thesis

III. Paragraph 2: First Body Paragraph

1. Topic sentence (what this paragraph will discuss, how it will prove your thesis)

2. Context for the quote

1. Who says it?

2. What’s happening in the text when they say it?

3. Quote from the text (cited appropriately)

4. Analysis of the quote: How does it prove your thesis?

5. Closing sentence (wrap up the paragraph to effectively transition to the next paragraph)

IV. Paragraph 3: Second Body Paragraph

1. Topic sentence (what this paragraph will discuss, how it will prove your thesis)

2. Context for the quote

1. Who says it?

2. What’s happening in the text when they say it?

3. Quote from the text (cited appropriately)

4. Analysis of the quote: How does it prove your thesis?

5. Closing sentence (wrap up the paragraph to effectively transition to the next paragraph

V. Paragraph 4: Third Body Paragraph

1

1. A Catchy Title

Parts to a Great Essay same as above, just worded differently

2. Introduction: the opening paragraph. The introduction should include the following:

1. Hook, Author, Title, Main Characters, A Short Summary, Thesis

2. Hook: The beginning sentences of the introduction that catch the reader’s

interest. Ways of beginning creatively include the following:

·  A startling fact or bit of information

·  A meaningful quotation (from the work or another source)

·  A rich, vivid description

·  An analogy or metaphor

3. Introductions should identify the work of literature being discussed, name the author, and briefly present the issue that the body of your essay will more fully develop (your thesis). Basically, introductions suggest that something interesting is occurring in a particular work of literature.

3. Body: The body of your paper should logically and fully develop and support your thesis.

1. Each body paragraph should focus on one main idea that supports your thesis statement.

2. These paragraphs include:

i. A topic sentence – a topic sentence states the main point of a

paragraph: it serves as a mini-thesis for the paragraph. You might think of it as a signpost for your readers—or a headline—something that alerts them to the most important, interpretive points in your essay. It might be helpful to think of a topic sentence as working in two directions simultaneously. It relates the paragraph to the essay's thesis, and thereby acts as a signpost for the argument of the paper as a whole, but it also defines the scope of the paragraph itself.

ii. Context for the quote

1. Who says it? What is happening in the text when they say it?

2. This prepares the reader for the quote by introducing the speaker,

setting, and/or situation.

iii. Quote/Concrete details - a specific example from the work used to

provide evidence for your topic sentence/support thesis.

iv. Commentary - your explanation and interpretation of the concrete detail.

Commentary explains how the concrete detail proves the thesis.

v. Clincher/Concluding Sentence - last sentence of the body paragraph. It

concludes the paragraph by tying the concrete details and commentary back to the major thesis.

2

4. Conclusion: the last paragraph where you are given one last chance to convince the reader of your argument and provide a sense of closure.

1. Summarize your argument AND extend your argument.

2. A sophisticated conclusion does not simply restate the thesis of the introduction or

summarize the logic presented in the body of the essay. Your conclusion, most often, will try to suggest the broader significance of your discussion – why is it important?

In other words, suggest in your introduction that some literary phenomenon is occurring. In the body of your essay, use examples and fully developed logic to prove that the literary phenomenon takes place. Finally, in your conclusion suggest why such a phenomenon is significant.

Source: amundsenhs.org/