Literary Analysis Writing Module Overview

Introduction

Now that you have finished two very detailed works of literature, it is time to delve into some literary analysis writing. Writing about literature is different than reporting what you read. Literary analysis writing is not a book report, but rather an in-depth look at a particular aspect(s) of the literature itself.  Look at the difference between writing factually and writing analytically in the example to the right. Rather than explain what happened in the literary work, your writing should make a claim about something you noticed in the literary work and it should use research to support/prove the claims you are making.

In this module, you will choose to examine one of the following texts:

To Kill a Mockingbird
Romeo and Juliet

Then you will write a literary analysis paper about a particular aspect of the text.

Potential ideas to consider are:

character analysis
theme
plot analysis
metaphors
symbolism, and more.

Essential Questions

What are the differences between literary writing and book reports?
What elements can be included in a character analysis?
How does citing sources in my paper increase its reliability?

Key Terms

Your understanding of these terms will help you with the material in this module.

Thesis: A claim or theory that must be supported with evidence to argue for or against an idea or position.

Expository: A type of writing that explains, informs, or describes a process or concept.

Literary Analysis Writing: A piece of academic writing that closely studies a text, interprets its meanings and explores why the author made certain choices.

Transitions: Connecting words needed between paragraphs in writing.

Thesis: A short statement, usually one sentence appearing at the end of the introduction, that summarizes the main point or claim of an essay, research paper, etc., and is developed, supported, and explained in the text.

Topic Sentence: A sentence that expresses the main idea of the paragraph in which it occurs.

Introduction Paragraph: The first paragraph of an essay that introduces the main idea of the essay.

Body Paragraph: The main part of your essay or paper. Each body paragraph contains a topic sentence that tells readers what the paragraph is going to be about, supporting sentences that discuss the idea or ideas in the topic sentence using examples and/or evidence to support that discussion and a concluding sentence that emphasizes the importance of the supporting examples or evaluates the connections between them.

Development Sentence: Occurs after the topic sentence in the body paragraph and provides a perspective on the topic that will allow for an understanding of the importance of the evidence that will follow--your opinion, thought, or idea regarding the topic.

Evidence: All words, ideas, facts, or data from another source (other than the brain) that backs up the statements and opinions expressed--must be cited.

Analysis Sentence: Explains why the evidence is important and how it connects to the thesis--do not restate or summarize the evidence.

Conclusion Sentence: Last sentence in the paragraph that carefully links the ideas that have been proven and provide the reader with some sort of critical evaluation of the overall importance of the argument.

Conclusion Paragraph: The final paragraph in the essay that provides a call to action and not a summary. The conclusion paragraph should give your readers something to think or discuss about the points in the essay.

Works Cited: A list of all source citations of the sources used in a piece of writing.

In-Text Citation: The short version of the Source Citation that appears directly after the evidence used.

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