LWR - Step One - Prewriting & the Literary Analysis Lesson

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, and focus.

Purpose and Audience

There are many purposes for writing a paper that not only explores, but also seeks to argue. We have noted the often blending of analytical and argumentative research papers. Inevitably, you must both explore and argue in this paper. 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 Links to an external site.)

So, 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 Essay

There are three levels of response in essay writing:

Three Levels of Response LEVEL 1: shows that you have read the text and understood its most obvious features, e.g. what happens. We can think of this as reading on the line. LEVEL 2: shows that you have read the text, have understood and can interpret attitudes and motivations within the text, e.g. why characters behave as they do, how character relationships develop. and the links between characters and plot. We can think of this as reading between the lines. LEVEL 3: shows that you have read the text, have understood and can interpret and explain the themes, meanings, and ideas within the text, eg. what the author is trying to tel/show us, and what ideas drive the plot We can think of this as reading beyond the line

A successful literary 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:

  1. Understand the text at the simple plot level
  2. Understand how characters and events interrelate
  3. Understand the themes, meanings and ideas that drive the characters and action
  4. Understand and appreciate the place occupied by those themes in the real world

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