Step 1 - Prewriting and the Literary Analysis

When you begin planning your analytical essay, some things need to be considered including the following:
- purpose
- audience
- focus.
Purpose and Audience

There are many purposes for writing a paper that not only explores, but also seeks to argue. In a literary analysis you must explore and argue in this paper. Essentially you are blending analytical writing and argumentative research writing. This will require you to take a position and present an argument explaining and justifying your position. This process involves careful consideration of other approaches to the topic/issue, and a recognition of those approaches in your essay. For this assignment, you must write in an academic tone and style, which involves writing for an academic audience. (Source)

Now that you have an understanding of who will be reading your paper, and what the focus should be, it is time to do some prewriting. Take a look at the presentation below which discusses some of the common prewriting techniques. Please be patient while the presentation loads.

Considering the Literary Analysis Essay

There are three levels of response in essay writing:

A successful literary analysis essay uses Level 3 analysis and reaches the third level of response. This is called critical thinking.

At the third level you must show the reader that you:
- Understand the text at the simple plot level
- Understand how characters and events interrelate
- Understand the themes, meanings and ideas that drive the characters and action
- Understand and appreciate the place occupied by those themes in the real world
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