Writing analytically about literature takes time, both for complex reasoning and for writing. Students and scholars alike strongly benefit from a writing process that involves multiple drafts—either through the creation of outlines, journaling, the writing of partial or full drafts, the preparation of abstracts, or a combination thereof—prior to final editing.

Approaching writing as a multi-phase process allows us to accomplish smaller steps along the way and build on our successes. By making time to focus on key aspects of analytical writing over several work sessions, you can build strong, well-developed final papers. As you develop your literary analysis paper, you may complete several smaller assignments that your instructor has devised. These may include a pre-writing journal assignment, group annotations of passages, topic selection, thesis workshop, rough draft, outline, annotated bibliography, citation review, and so forth. All of these exercises are designed to help you submit a well-written and properly documented literary analysis.

This structured approach to writing and research as a process is not something only asked of students. Professional writers, whether journalists or literary authors, engage in similar multi-phase approaches to creating and polishing their best work. Most, if not all, professional writers will admit that frustration and fatigue will occur at some point during the writing process. Such feelings are deeply human and are not signs of limited ability. Indeed, the best writers learn to acknowledge and work with these feelings or perceptions as they steadily craft their next great piece. Smaller stakes writing assignments are designed to encourage you to work in at least a few stages in the paper writing process. Following these steps will not only help ensure your final paper is of higher quality; working in this way also will help instill good habits for future writing, research and project completion.

Remember, also, to cite from the work, or your primary text. Literary criticism involves close reading of a literary work, regardless of whether you are arguing about a particular interpretation, comparing stories or poems, or using a theory to interpret literature. Do not summarize the story. The purpose of the document is not to inform the readers, but to argue a particular interpretation. You only need to cite parts of the work that support or relate to your argument and follow the citation format required by your instructor.

You might also cite other critics’ interpretations of the work. These would be your secondary sources. You may want to find out what other students and critics have said about the work and to include their ideas in your paper. Below is a sample passage that illustrates how other critics’ works can inspire an author and guide him or her in constructing a counter argument, support an author’s interpretation, and provide helpful biographical information.

In her critical biography of Shirley Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when Shirley Jackson’s story “The Lottery” was published in the June 28, 1948 issue of The New Yorker it received a response that “no New Yorker story had ever received”: hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by “bewilderment, speculation, and old-fashioned abuse.” It is not hard to account for this response: Jackson’s story portrays an “average” New England village with “average” citizens engaged in a deadly rite, the annual selection of a sacrificial victim by means of a public lottery, and does so quite deviously: not until well along in the story do we suspect that the “winner” will be stoned to death by the rest of the villagers.

Critical Theory Paper Sample Prompt 1

This assignment asks you to apply a critical lens to a literary text.

You are to write an essay about the novel or play that we’ve been reading using one of the critical perspectives discussed in class. To achieve this assignment, you must understand the critical approach you choose, asking and answering applicable questions.

Choose one critical approach. Do not pick more than critical approach. Go back through your notes on the novel or play and see what jumps out at you as relevant to this approach. Look back at the definition of the critical approach in this chapter and review it further online. What kinds of questions do you need to ask to write a paper fitting the critical approach you have chosen?

Then, craft a working thesis statement that sets forth your argument about how this critical perspective made you more aware of the assumptions that underlie your thoughts about the novel or play. Your thesis tells your reader your argument about the text or what your analysis will address.

Thesis statements must contain a subject and a predicate and be complex enough to sustain the length of the paper. Keep in mind that your thesis may change as you draft and revise your essay.

Develop your ideas carefully. Don’t get sidetracked. Concentrate on the details, quoting from the novel/play to indicate your understanding of how characterization, narration, or setting work in the story.

You must quote from the assigned text and include a complete and accurate Works Cited page.

Unless you pick biographical criticism, do not concern yourself in this paper with the author’s life or times, this paper should not be about the author.

Do not spend time summarizing the plot. Summarizing the plot is a common error of inexperienced essay writers.

Limit any summary to a single brief sentence or two, highlighting the character’s role within any summary. Do not provide a chronological analysis of primary plot points.

Sample thesis:

In the headnote to John Updike’s “A & P” (1961), Ann Charters writes that this short story “somehow squeezes the whole pathos of Cold War life into a tiny, perfect anecdote” (930). To best understand how the Cold War informs the story’s background, a historical perspective is necessary. Only when the contexts of the Cold War are unpacked does the reader truly understand why Updike crafted Sammy as an ineffective hero.

This thesis links a character in Updike’s story to the story’s cultural contexts: the Cold War. The quote from Ann Charters provides a critical voice (she’s a professor of American literature and a highly-respected editor of The Story and Its Writer, an anthology of short fiction). Using her quotation to situate your analysis of “A & P” locates your argument within a critical framework.

Your Works Cited page would need to include an entry for where you located Charters’s quotation.

Critical Theory Paper Sample Prompt 2 (with two choices of prompts)

This assignment asks you to synthesize information from multiple sources, drawing on a definition and a secondary source read in class to analyze a literary text.

Assignment: Analyze Fences using one of the following prompts:

Prompt I

The opening sentences of your analysis should introduce and summarize the play, define “drama,” set the historical contexts for play and/or author, introduce a secondary source discussed in class (Koprince or Shannon), and set forth your thesis (that raises a “So What?” question). The body of your paper should systematically analyze the play, discussing what you find, part by part. In this paper, I expect to see Fences quoted, paraphrased, and/or summarized, with the text appropriately cited though taglines and in-text citations. “A” papers will conclude by stating what is significant about your analysis (answering the “So What?” question).

Prompt II

Choose one word that you think best describes a character from Fences. Craft an introduction that sets the contexts for the play and presents your thesis. Remember to incorporate a definition of “drama” and quotations from at least one scholarly source (Koprince or Shannon). The body of your paper should reference Fences (quotes, paraphrases, and/or summarizes), with the text appropriately cited though taglines and in-text citations. “A” papers will conclude by stating what is significant about your analysis (answers an implied “So What?” question).

Reminders:

Pay particular attention to formulating a thesis, developing the paragraph-by-paragraph logic of the paper, and drafting and revising your analysis. Answer the “So What” question (why should your readers want to read your analysis?) and attribute sources appropriately (taglines, in-text citations, and Works Cited entries).  Remember, your analysis should demonstrate your understanding of how the parts of Fences work to create a larger effect.

Questions to ask when drafting your analysis:

• Are the facts accurate?
• Are my opinions supported by evidence?
• Are the opinions of others authoritative?
• Are key terms clearly defined?
• Is the presentation logical?
• Are all parts well developed?
• If someone could object to this reading, have I addressed the opposing view? (optional, but encouraged)

Your Works Cited page must include complete and accurate citations for all sources summarized, paraphrased, or quoted in your paper.

Critical Theory Paper Sample Prompt 3

This assignment asks you to analyze a literary text through the lens of a particular definition provided through a secondary source that we have read and discussed in class.

You are to analyze The Things They Carried using all or part of this quotation from bookgirl:

“Contemporary literary fiction may draw the scorn of those who do not see its treasures. But it’s a genre that extends, reworks and plays with its boundaries even as it delves into the depths of the human heart and the scope of what people are capable of dreaming, destroying, grieving and creating” (qtd. in Brecht).

I should see all or part of this quote early in your paper, plus a Works Cited entry (not just the URL) in your list of Works Cited.

Sample Thesis:

Applying bookgirl’s definition of contemporary literature to Tim O’Brien’s novel allows us to analyze the destruction of Lieutenant Cross’s dreams about Martha, telling us how his hopes turned into grief.

What this thesis statements does:

• sets up a connection between bookgirl’s definition (quoted in introduction) and the story
• targets a particular part of the definition to apply to one character
• exemplifies a more-than-surface level awareness of the story’s implications

Tips for Staying on Track

• Develop your thesis. Don’t get sidetracked. Concentrate on the details, quoting from the story to highlight details others may have missed.
• Do not concern yourself in this paper with the author’s life or times; this paper should only be about the story, though you should identify the author by name early in your paper.
• Do not spend time summarizing the plot. Summarizing the plot is a common error of inexperienced essay writers. Limit any summary to a single brief sentence or two, highlighting your chosen story element within any summary.
• Craft strong topic sentences that relate to your thesis. Bring in evidence from the story to support the claim made in your topic sentence. Analyze your evidence. Paragraphs should focus on a single topic.

You must use evidence from the assigned texts to support the claims you make in your papers. Textual evidence may consist of quotations, paraphrases, or summaries, all of which must be identified and attributed within your papers.

Remember, you will create an entry for Brecht, using this formula:

Author’s last name, first (and middle name)—if given. “Article Title.” Name of website. URL. Date of access.

Then, when quoting bookgirl’s definition in your paper, you will introduce her in a signal phrase, quote the definition, and include a citation like this: (qtd. in Brecht).

Quoting, Summarizing, Paraphrasing

Quotations are taken word for word from the source; they must be identified through quotation marks or block quotations, and the original author must be attributed. Paraphrases are condensed versions of source material written in your own words; the original author must be attributed. Summaries are short overviews of source material, or restatements of key points in your own words that require attribution to the original author. In other words, quotations, paraphrases, and summaries all require attribution.

Introduce all quotations, paraphrases, and summaries by name/title of work, provide an in-text citation in a parenthetical reference, and include an entry for each quotation, summary, and paraphrase on your paper’s Works Cited page.

All summaries, paraphrases, and quotations must be integrated smoothly into the paper and cited with a parenthetical reference; a complete and accurate Works Cited page must be included for all papers. Any and all sources used must be referenced in the paper and on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited page must be part of your paper file; it is not to be a separate document.

Papers must be written in your own voice—that is, you must have a writing style uniquely your own. Any paper found to be substantially similar to someone else’s paper in content and/or form will be regarded as plagiarized.

Have your own ideas. Write your own papers. The voice and style of your papers should reflect the same writing voice that I see in answers to quiz questions and in posts made to class discussion boards.

Your writing voice should be as distinct as your fingerprint. Do not file share or borrow ideas from other people without crediting them.

Submitting a paper with your name in the four-line heading and/or your last name in the header means that you are claiming the paper as your own, that it is your original writing wherein you have conformed to the academic conventions regarding sourcing and citing that are outlined in this syllabus and in the Canvas modules.

Useful Resources

1. Purdue Owl
2. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy