Literary Analysis – Cheap Research Essays

Literary Analysis
Literary Analysis Paper Instructions
Your assignment is to write a four to six page literary analysis essay to carefully examine and/or evaluate a work of literature or an aspect of a work of literature. Follow the rubric guidelines in the rubric folder of our class to view specific grading instructions.
Your essay should
• introduce your idea/stance
• convince the person reading your essay that you have supported the idea you are developing
• use transitions to link sections of text and clarify the relationship between your ideas and the information from the selection or outside sources
• establish and maintain a formal style and an objective tone
• use the literary present tense in writing a literature essay
o Essentially, within the story, the action is still taking place. Use the past tense to talk about biographical facts or publication data but the present tense to talk about what goes on in a work of fiction or poetry. For example, “Plath’s ‘Ariel’ was published after her death, but the poems show many premonitions of disaster to come.”
• provide a conclusion that supports the stance presented
• use MLA format
o Access the sample paper provided in the Blackboard course under “Course Documents,” or refer to your Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers’ MLA section, or access the Purdue OWL’s MLA section at this web address: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/
Process:
1. Pick Your Topic: Your essay will analyze one or more of the works we have read in this course. You will develop a thesis concerning a theme, a genre, a problem, an author, or an approach to literature relating to the selection (or selections) that you choose. You will find an explanation below to help you develop a topic idea for your essay. You are welcome to email me ideas and questions about your topic to receive feedback.
• Theme: Explore one of the main ideas that have animated literature from the ancients to today—Childhood, Growth, Initiation, Sibling Rivalry, the Hero, Womanhood, Manhood. These ideas and others of your own would serve well as a theme essay. The goal of such an essay would be to examine the definitions and example of these ideas in one or more of the texts.
• Problem: Literature is a problem, a character, and a setting. In the problem essay, you should choose one of the key problems developed in the text(s). This problem can be one of tension between two value systems—loyalty to self as opposed to loyalty to one’s social group, or family values and sense of self. This is a rich vein of interest.
• Author: Obviously, this essay is about a writer whom you find particularly interesting. Pick an author from our required texts and read at least one additional unassigned work from his or her other works. Then, describe and analyze the key features of the works: for example, what are the characteristics of style and theme in the works.
• Figurative Language: You can also examine how a work uses language: imagery, metaphor, and symbolism.
• Opening Chapter, Lines, or Scene Analysis: Study carefully the opening paragraphs of a short story or novel, or study carefully one scene in a play. Analyze the information the paragraphs give the reader in terms of time, place, tone, point of view, character, irony, and theme. Show line by line how the opening tells the reader how to read the rest of the story and how it foreshadows events. Link sentences, words, phrases to the rest of the story. Show how the opening resonates throughout the story.
• Examining Cultural Perspectives in a Work: You may wish to examine the ways in which a work reveals cultural values (abstract, general ideas) and norms (guidelines for behavior from which values may be inferred). In the U.S., for example, we value individuality (a cultural value), and this is expressed through a variety of norms, including personal dress, tastes in music, the cars we drive, the variety of best-selling self-help books available in bookstores, and high divorce rates. Additionally, you may wish to examine how your own cultural values and norms shape and influence your readings of and reactions to a particular text.
• Tracing a Topic through a Work: Choose a frequently repeated topic in the chosen text(s) and trace its course through the work. For example, look for references to one topic such as work, love, religion, politics, art, sex, male/female relations, or moral conduct. Note when and where each reference appears in the text (note page numbers). Copy down one or two significant passages on the topic and try to explain its context, associations and role in the story. Finally, show how the presentation of the topic helps illuminate the main conflict and resolution of the text. What observations about theme can one make through such a topic study?
• An Approach to Literature: For some of you who may be English majors, an approach essay could be a productive route. You might want to use one of the many critical approaches used by literary and rhetorical critics today. Apply one of the critical approaches to a work, or look at the work and a critical essay about it. (You may find critical essays about literature in the electronic databases in the RMU electronic library.)

2. Develop Your Thesis: Write down the thesis or position that you will develop in your paper. In a literary analysis essay, your thesis statement tells your reader what to expect: it is a carefully worded declarative sentence that states the purpose of your essay — the point you are trying to make. Your thesis should also include a preview of the main points that you are going to cover in your paper. Finally, your thesis statement should appear as the LAST sentence of your introduction. The following bullet point is an example of an exemplary thesis statement.
• In Alice Walker’s novel,The Color Purple, the suppression female characters endure leads them to feminist tendencies as is displayed through the characters’ relationships and sexual orientations, as well as by the society around them.

3. Organize Your Essay: Write an outline that organizes your essay into paragraphs with support and detail. This is an important step, because it ensures that each of your main body points supports the thesis. Additionally, it improves the coherence and flow of your essay.

4. Write Your Rough Draft:

• Write the Introduction: Begin by writing the introductory paragraph or paragraphs of your essay. Your introduction should include
o Hook that arouses interest in your reader. To bring immediate focus to your subject, you may want to use a quotation, a question, a personal anecdote, a startling statement, or a combination of these.
o Then, you need to connect your hook to your topic. You may also want to include background information relevant to your thesis and necessary for the reader to understand the position you are taking.
o In addition, you need to include the title of the work of literature and name of the author.
o Finally, your thesis and preview should be the last sentence of your introduction.

As you write, establish a formal style and an objective tone. In formal writing, you should write in third-person (do not use personal pronouns, e.g. I, we, you, me, we, us) point of view; avoid using conversational language, slang, and contractions; and use an objective tone or attitude so readers think the argument is reasonable.

• Write the Body:
o In this section you present the paragraphs that support your thesis statement. Good literary analysis essays contain an explanation of your ideas and evidence from the text (short story, poem, play) that supports those ideas. Textualevidence consists of summary, paraphrase, specific details, and direct quotations. Each of the paragraphs of your essay should contain a topic sentence (the first sentence of the paragraph) which states one of the topics associated with your thesis, combined with some assertion about how the topic will support the central idea. The purpose of the topic sentence is twofold:1. to tie the details of the paragraph to your thesis statement and 2. to tie the details of the paragraph together.
o For a literary analysis essay, you must use textual evidence to support your claims. You also must include at least two direct quotations with citations. Textual evidence — summary, paraphrase, specific detail, and direct quotations — can illustrate and support the ideas you are developing in your essay.
 a key event or series of events in the literary work support a point you are trying to make, you may want to include a brief summary, making sure that you show the relevance of the event or events by explicitly connecting your summary to your point.
 You can make use of paraphrase when you need the details of the original, but not necessarily the words of the original: paraphrase to put someone else’s words into your own words. Below is an example of how to “translate” original material into part of your own paper: Be sure to include a parenthetical citation if the idea is unique or not common knowledge.
 Quotations can illuminate and support the ideas you are trying to develop. A judicious use of quoted material will make your points clearer and more convincing. As with all the textualevidence you use, make sure you explain how the evidence is relevant — let the reader knowwhat you make of the quotations you cite.