RWU - The Literary Analysis Essay Lesson

The Literary Analysis Essay

The Literary Analysis Essay

In the first module, the writing focus was crafting Persuasive essays. In Persuasive essays, the writer needs to convince the reader that the writer's opinion is correct with regard to an issue. However, in a literary analysis, the writer still makes an argument, but instead of an issue, the writer argues that his or her interpretation of a certain aspect of the text is correct. For example, the writer might argue that two characters are foils or argue that a text has a certain theme. A literary analysis must focus on a literary aspect of the text. In order to prove an argument, a writer includes literary criticism as support.

Literary Criticism

Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Therefore, one might argue that a literary criticism and a literary analysis are the same. However, literary criticism is the formal name for an analysis of literature.

So, because people will interpret a literary text in different ways, each literary criticism might reveal something different from one another or shed light on different pieces of the text. Literary criticism is considered an academic article. Academic literature professionals (often college professors) who work in literature departments typically write these articles, or criticism.

Literary criticism is a type of support that writers include in their essays to prove their claims.

Literary Criticism as a type of support

Remember that any kind of analysis—even a project—needs to include support. The support in a literary analysis essay will be from reliable primary and secondary sources. In our brainstorming example, if we write that there are societal conflicts in The Crucible, the essay information from the text must support that claim. So, we could use the example where the society comes together and judges people who sin. Any information from the text that you find to back up, or prove your idea is considered support.

Much support will come from literary criticism about the literary text. Literary criticism can be found in many places. If your school or library provides access to Gale or Galileo—these are two online databases that provide several articles classified as literary criticism. Literary criticism can also be found in certain books at your local or school library, and your librarian can help you find these books.

Reliable Sources Review

Reliable sources come from a variety of locations. With the growing popularity of the Internet, writers must be careful to use reliable websites. Sparknotes and Wikipedia are NEVER reliable sources—do not use proof or quotes from these. If you have access to Gale or Galileo at a school or local library, the articles on those databases are reliable. Remember that the following are explanations on how reliable various websites are:

Plagiarism

A major issue occurring in education today is plagiarism. "Plagiarism ... is the uncredited use (both intentional and unintentional) of somebody else's words or ideas."

Examples of plagiarism include buying, stealing, borrowing, or copying a paper from an outside source. This includes copying and pasting an entire paper or article from a website. Copying parts of an article (even just a sentence) is plagiarism. Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional, but both are still plagiarism.

Intentional Plagiarism - submitting someone else's words, ideas, research, or artwork as original work or not differentiating between someone else's ideas and one's own so as to appear responsible for both.

Unintentional Plagiarism - the writer is careless or inadequate in citing ideas and words borrowed from another source. (This often happens when students use a quotation or statistic in a draft, but then forget to add the source on subsequent edits.)

Certain things must always be documented or credited, which means you must cite (provide author name and page number directly after using information from a particular source). The following needs to be cited:

• Words or ideas appearing in any source that is not common knowledge
• Any information coming from interviews
• Any diagrams, charts, pictures, audio, or video you use in your presentations or papers
• Summarizing or paraphrasing an idea from a source that is not common knowledge and not citing

Some things do not need to be cited. These include:

• Anything that is your own life experience, your own thoughts or opinions, and your own observations
• Your own diagrams, charts, pictures, audio, or video
• Common knowledge—generally accepted facts or facts that are widely known and understood. If you can find the same information undocumented in at least 5 credible sources, it is considered common knowledge.

When in doubt about citing a piece of information, make sure to ask your teacher.

Reading Assignment: Novel Reading Reminder

Remember that you should have finished your chosen novel that you selected from the list provided by your teacher. If you have not finished your novel, you need to do so now to complete the work in this module.