Writing Literary Analysis

Guidelines and Web Sites

1. Click on the linked titles below. Study several sample literary analysis papers.

Read these papers to see samples of the kind of paper I am asking you to write.

"Sample Literary Analysis Essay: 'The Use of Fantasy in Langston Hughes's "On the Road,"'" Peter A. Smith English class page, Kentucky State University

"Sample Fiction Analysis: 'Why Sammy Really Quits," Peter A. Smith English class page, Kentucky State University

"The Practices of Dr. Rank," a sample literary analysis paper by Denise Coday, Roane State Community College Online Writing Lab

"Deep Desires that Transcend Time," a sample literary analysis paper by Alyssa Ensminger, RSCC OWL. [THIS PAPER USES SECONDARY SOURCES - ARTICLES BY LITERARY CRITICS - TO SUPPORT THE STUDENT'S POINTS.]

Sample Literary Analysis Paper, from the University of Maryland University College Asian Division

2. Choose your story.

Be sure that you select a short story that interests you. As with any paper topic, a literary topic has to have some appeal to you for you to write a good paper about it. This doesn't necessarily mean that you have to "like" the story that you write about, but you do have to be interested in it in some way. Perhaps you identify with one of the story's characters. Perhaps the story makes you mad or puzzled or happy. Perhaps you simply think the story is well-written. Choose a story that "speaks" to you on some level.

3. Read your selected story several times and take notes on it. Click on the links below to learn more about how to read and take notes.

You will want to make a list of quotations and passages from the story that seem significant to you. Read the following links for more information.

Read "Literary Workshop: Fiction," The Norton Introduction to Literature. This site takes you through a study of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. Read the linked notes on the "Re-Reading Study Text" site. You have already encountered this story in The Little, Brown Handbook, but the marginal notes in this version are more extensive.

Read "Some Basic Guidelines for Reading Literature," by Laura Grossenbacher, for the Undergraduate Writing Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

Read "Critical Reading: A Guide," by John Lye, of Brock University.

4. Determine what you think the main point of the story is. This called the story's theme. Decide what you think the story means. This is your interpretation. Click on the links below to learn what an "interpretation" is.

Read the story "On the Road" by Langston Hughes, linked to Peter A. Smith's English class page, Kentucky State University Then read Dr. Smith's "PowerPoint Presentation on 'On the Road.'" You will get a very clear and concise visual presentation of what you should do when you analyze a short story.

Read "The Problem of Meaning in Literature," by John Lye, of Brock University.

5. Use literary terms to help you articulate the story's meaning. The following web sites give explanations:

"Literary Analysis: Terms," by Jennifer Jordan-Henley, for the Roane State Community College Online Writing Lab

"Literary Terms," The Norton Introduction to Literature

6. Brainstorm to come up with an idea for a thesis statement.

As with all of your previous papers this semester, your thesis statement should be an argument about the topic — that is, an argument about the story.

Make sure that you have a solid argument to make about the story. A good stand-by is to figure out something that works in the story, like a certain character or a certain setting, and then explain in your paper why it works so well. How do you know whether it works or not? The important thing is to show how it supports the story's main theme or central idea. What do you learn from the story? What parts of the story help to get that point across? Write about one or more of those parts (character, setting, etc.) that help to get the point across.

Click here to read How to Write a Thesis in a Literary Analysis Paper ("Developing your thesis in a literary analysis paper") by J. Burges of Longwood College.

7. After you have decided what argument you want to make about the story, gather up your evidence to support that argument and write your paper.

Your supporting evidence will come from the story itself. You should make a list of quotations that illustrate what you are saying. You should also make a list of certain events and passages in the story that show what you are arguing. Look at the sample paper, "Ironies of Life in Kate Chopin's 'The Story of an Hour,'" in The Little, Brown Handbook if you have kept yours from composition class. Do you see how quotations from the story are used to prove the thesis? The thesis is "The ending is believable partly because it is consistent with other ironies in the story." Do you see how the writer used quotations to prove that the ironies are there?

The following web sites contain more helpful information. If you are not sure how to write a literary analysis, these pages will help you. Click on the titles to read the pages.

"Using Literary Quotations," from Writer's Handbook, by The University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center

"Writing Papers of Literary Analysis: Some Advice for Student Writers," by Seamus Cooney of Western Michigan University

Anatomy of a Successful Literary Analysis, by Elizabeth Burrow-Flak, Valparaiso University

"Writing Literary Analysis," by Jennifer Jordan-Henley, for the RSCC OWL

Dr. Smith's ENG 211 Resource Page, a page full of excellent handouts and lessons in PowerPoint by Peter A. Smith of Kentucky State University

"Writing about Fiction," by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab

"Writing about Literature," by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab

Writing about Literature, The Norton Introduction to Literature. This site contains a full-length lesson on reading and writing about literature. You may find the following sections especially helpful:

8. Do not write a plot summary as a paper.

You can rest assured that I will have read the story you write about! You do not have to retell everything that happens in it. Just pull out essential events from the story to make your point. If you find yourself saying "then ____ happens; then ____ happens," you'd better stop and look carefully at what you're doing. If your essay only tells what happens in the story in a chronological order, you have written a plot summary. Your paper probably won't get better than a "D" grade. Remember that we are writing argument papers in this class, not reports. You have to make an argument about the story, not simply tell what happens in it.

9. Do not plagiarize.

If you are stuck, contact me so I can help. I have ways of checking whether or not your paper is your own.