The Literary Analysis

1. The Literary Analysis

2. The Goal • The function of the literature essay is to be able to read closely and come up with your own interpretation based on your feelings about the story (note that this is still formal, though!). • Analysis essays are good because they force you to think critically about what you read and see, which is really a basic life skill.

3. What it is and isn’t • Be sure that your analysis is debatable. For example, you cannot write an essay on “A Jury of Her Peers” claiming that Mrs. Wright killed her husband. That is a fact that anyone could get from reading the story. However, you can write about the symbolism of the weather and objects in the house and how they reflect Mrs. Wright’s personality. That is a topic that can be debated. • The biggest flaw I see when grading these essays is that the topics are not debatable. A topic that can’t be debated can’t earn you higher than a D since you haven't met the goal of the essay. Feel free to email me your topic ideas!

4. All literary analysis essays are based on personal opinion of the text. This is NOT a general opinion of if it’s good or bad, but a focused interpretation of a specific point in the work. • There is no right or wrong so long as what you say can be supported!

5. Essay Structure

6. The form of the analysis essay is very similar to the form of the argumentative essays from 110. You are making a point that is debatable and then arguing that you are correct. The big difference is that there is no outside research required. • All support comes from the text itself. • All the basic parts of the essay are still present in an analysis essay.

7. Essay Structure • Intro: this is usually the general social context of the work or a summary of the specific part of the work that’s relevant to your argument. It is NOT a summary of the whole work. It should be about a half page. • Body: paragraphs that are specifically focused on one aspect of the work and clearly argue how that aspect is important • Conclusion: generally a recap of the essay with heavy focus on the purpose. This is also about a half page.

8. Paragraph Structure • Topic Sentence: will clearly state what the para is focused on and how it ties to the overall analysis in the essay • Body: this will be the support that your analysis is correct as well as why it’s relevant (why did the author do this? That’s the purpose of your analysis). • Concluding sentence/transition

9. Things to Remember • Well-developed body paras are about ¾ of a page. • Well-supported paras have about 2-3 pieces of support. • Not all support has to be quoted. You can summarize scenes and then cite. Though the lit analysis generally DOES have more direct quotes than 110 essays. • In text citations are always a must!!!!! • As is a works cited page. • Tone is still formal. Your personal feelings on a story are not relevant in academic writing – that’s the point of the reading responses. • If you discuss historical context more than what was discussed in the intro lecture, you need to have citations for it.

10. Supporting a Literature Essay

11. For literature interpretations support will always come in the form of quotes from the work or a summary of scenes from the work. • You will quote short lines or phrases you directly reference and you will summarize large passages or scenes you need to reference so that half your paper won’t be quotes. • You will find that you need all the pages allotted to this essay. If you feel you've said everything you could about your topic and you are still short on length, then your topic was not broad enough or you have not thoroughly covered the evidence in the story. • Note that this is NOT a summary of the story. Your essay has to be an analysis, so you only summarize enough of the situation to orient the reader to your claims.

12. Summarizing • When discussing a large scene you will need to summarize what is going on without using the exact language of the story; otherwise you will be plagiarizing. • When you finish describing the scene and before you get to your own point about it you need to cite that scene as coming from the work with an MLA in text citation

13. Citing a summary • When you are done quoting or summarizing you need to cite where that info came from so it doesn’t look as though you are claiming it for yourself or so the reader can reference it themselves. • A citation for a summary follows: A summary of the scene would be here (Arenson 4). • In place of my name would be the author’s last name and in place of the number would be the page number you got the scene from if using a hard copy or .pdf document with page numbers. • If citing an online document without page numbers, you will only cite the author’s last name (unless it’s Shakespeare).

14. Direct quotes • If you are only citing a short line or two of material then it is best to directly quote the material so the reader can see exactly what it says in the author’s own words. • A good rule of thumb is that you will have about two-three quotes per paragraph. Any more than this says you are either cramming too many points into one paragraph or you are not making enough points and keeping offering quotes for the same point over and over – neither is good!

15. Citing a direct quote • A citation for a direct quote follows: “The quote is here” (Arenson 4). • Note that, just as in the summary citation, the parenthesis are inside the punctuation and the last name and page number appear with no punctuation between them. • Shakespeare is done differently. That will be discussed when the time comes.

16. Special Cases for Citations

17. Author’s last name • Citations can be difficult because there are sooooo many special circumstances involved. • The author’s last name does not have to appear in the parenthesis if it mentioned earlier in the sentence because you have already credited them. • An example of the above: Mrs. Arenson claims that citations can sometimes be confusing (4).

18. Omissions • Sometimes you will not want to quote all of a sentence so you will need to show that you have altered the sentence. • An example of the above: “Sometimes . . . Citations can be difficult” (Arenson 4). • Note that where words have been taken out three periods with a space between each one and on either side of the end ones have been added. The rest is still the same. • This is a must in many cases. Quoting more than is needed to prove your point confuses the essay!

19. Changes to the quote • Even though you are quoting, you must always make sure that the sentence is grammatically correct. You may change a quote by adding brackets around what you have changed to make the sentence correct. • An example of the above: The boys must make their own heat by “play[ing] until [their] bodies glowed” (Joyce 30). • The verb has been conjugated to make it grammatically correct and “our” has been replaced by their. When replacing a word entirely you must put brackets around the whole thing and leaver out the word you have changed.

20. Insertions • Sometimes you will have to add information to the quote so that is makes sense. • An example: “They [the students] hated writing essays” (Arenson 4). • Typically, unless already stated in the sentence or quote, you will do this for pronouns.

21. Introducing Quotes • A quote can never stand alone as a sentence. In other words, your words must appear in the sentence that contains a quote. This generally is you orienting the reader to the scene/situation. You do not give authority as the intro in lit essays since it is understood you are quoting the author of the text. • You only cite in the middle of a sentence if what follows is complete sentence itself that is connected to the first half. • This is a basic part of good writing and is expected for you to get a good grade!

22. Example • See class website for an example of a strong literary analysis. • Don’t forget that if you want a good grade, I am always willing to look at drafts before they are due. Succesful students are proactive, not reactive, about their work/grades.