Essay Tips and Rules

1. Essay Tips and Rules Reminders, suggestions, and good habits to develop

2. Necessary Elements of an Introduction 1) Title and type of literary work – e.g., novel, short story, poem, play, etc. Example: In Langston Hughes’ poem entitled “Theme for English B,” the poem’s speaker is a twenty-two year old black college student… 2) Thesis statement that is arguable and previews what you will discuss NOTE- Author’s full name should be given the first time ONLY (thereafter, you should refer to the author by last name only).

3. Textual evidence Textual supports MUST be presented in the form of quotations taken from the literary work. • “Quote” means that you EXACTLY repeat thewords of the author. Be careful that you are precise. • Quotations should agree in verb tense, gender, and number with your discussion. (If they don’t , you need to make adjustments.) Any changes made to the quotations should be noted with [brackets].

4. Integrating Quotations- Rules • The rules for using quotations can be summarized as follows: • • Introduce. Explain what is happening in the text when the quotation occurs; introduce any characters and situations but do not summarize everything. • • Integrate. “Embed” the quotation into your own sentence. Do NOT EVER let • a quotation stand alone as a sentence. • • Explicate. Make a connection between the quotation and your controlling idea. • How does the quotation suggest that your controlling idea is true? (this is referred to as “analysis”) • • Quotations should be cut to the necessary words that prove the point being made. A good rule of thumb is anywhere from 5 to 20 words. Don’t overuse block quotations.

5. ANALYSIS • Definition: Analysis is an explanation of why your quotations help prove your thesis. In other words, how does your quotation relate back to your thesis? • • Analysis is the backbone of your essay! Without it, your essay simply becomes a list of quotations that have no meaning for the reader. • • Location: *** • • In the same sentence as your quotation • • In the sentence after your quotation • • After a series of related quotations • ***The more you practice the craft of writing, the easier this decision will be.

6. Example of Integrated Quotations • (please note, analysis is NOT included in the following paragraphs!) • The sniper is in a particularly dangerous location. He is “on a rooftop near O’Connell Bridge,” and he alertly watches for his enemies as “the long June twilight [fades] into night.” (narrative; uses quotations written in present tense; note that the quotation is NOT separated by a comma)

7. Example of Integrated Quotations Lady Macbeth then utters her immortal words, “’Out, damned spot, out, I say…yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?’”(when you employ a direct quotation, use a comma and then a single quotation mark inside a double quotation mark)

8. How to Integrate Quotations Blend your lead-in and quotation. Knight views the symbolism in Jones' play as a "creation and destruction pattern" (164).

9. How to Integrate Quotations Use a complete sentence lead-in. Follow with a colon and two spaces before the quotation. Edith Hamilton describes Hera perfectly: "She was the protector of marriage, and married women were her particular care" (223). Again the main character hears the words spoken by his grandfather: "I never told you, but our life is a war" (154).

10. Punctuating Quotations Use an ellipsis [. . .] to indicate material omitted from the quotation. Hamlet tells Ophelia, "you jig and amble . . . and make your wantonness your ignorance" (III.i.140-142).

11. Punctuating Quotations Introduce long quotations with a complete sentence followed by a colon. In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Wolff speaks about women in literature and history: A very queer, composite being thus emerges. Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant. She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history. She dominates the loves of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact, she was the slave of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger. (60)

12. Punctuating Quotations Always put periods and commas inside quotation marks, except when there is a parenthetical documentation. Though Thoreau wrote that most men "lead lives of quiet desperation" (98), much of his book about Walden Pond "expresses joy" (96).

13. Punctuating Quotations Put other marks of punctuation (question marks, dashes, exclamation points) inside when they are part of the quoted material, outside when they are not. When King Hamlet's ghost reveals that he was killed by Claudius, young Hamlet exclaims, "O my prophetic soul!" (I.v.40). What are the implications of Hamlet's statement, "To be, or not to be" (III.i.55)?

14. How to Integrate Quotations Use an introductory phrase or clause. According to Wally Lamb, “The workshop sessions have been a journey rich with laughter, tears, heart-stopping leaps of faith, and miraculous personal victories" (5). As Bartholomew’s mother continuously intervenes for her ex-husband, she argues that “maybe it’s not his fault at all. . . . Maybe that old cat’s drugging him" (303).

15. How to Integrate Quotations Use the author's name and/or his authority to introduce quotations from secondary sources. Frank Kermode, a prominent critic, claims that Hamlet "is a delaying revenger" (1138).

16. Transitions Transitions • Words, phrases, or sentences which connect what you are about to discuss with what you were discussing previously • Transitions are a verbal and logical bridge between ideas that you provide in order to help your reader move from one topic to the next • Location: at the beginnings of paragraphs AND between ideas within paragraphs.