Writing Tip: Literary Analysis

Literary analysis is a genre of essays that involve multiple skills, which go beyond the act of writing.  When you're tasked to analyze a work of literature, you're required to read and think critically before you can even think about writing.  You want to ask questions about the material and try to answer them, but don't stop at basic plot type questions.  As, I'll explain, the plot is just the beginning.

If it helps to think of yourself as a journalist investigating the story, do so.  Begin with the classic journalism questions:  Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.  Look at the plot and characters, first.  What's actually going on in the story?  Then, think about the setting.  Is the setting important?  If you're unsure, ask yourself how the story would be different if it were set in another place or time.

What about themes?  Are there any obvious themes in the work?  Remember:  Themes are not morals.  Themes can be simple words or phrases like love, death, time, childhood, or parenthood.  It is your job to figure out which themes are present in the work and analyze them.

When I read, I have a pen in my hand.  I make marginal notes of important details.  I underline key passages.  This makes my job a lot easier when it comes time to pull quotes from the text into my paper.  Now when I underline things, I underline what seems important to me. I have my own slant, my own ways of viewing the world, and they impact the way I read literature too.  This is where working with literature becomes fun.

In many cases, the assignment you'll have will be relatively open-ended.  Professors will ask you to "trace" a theme throughout a text or multiple texts, for example.  It's up to you to figure out what's important to you, ask yourself why it's important to the text(s) and in what way.  Once you figure out your angle, it's a matter of putting it into words.

At this point, it's much like any other writing assignment.  You have a question you're supposed to address and other requirements.  You take your angle and start thinking about how to organize your paper.  An outline is a great tool for this.  You want to take your focus and turn it into a thesis.  Once you have a thesis, it's all about proving the thesis.  This should be your primary concern in organizing your paper.

Like in any genre of writing, there are several pitfalls in literary analysis.

This first one is my biggest pet peeve:  Avoid plot summary.  Now this is a very tricky topic of discussion because you do need to summarize.  You need to provide context in your writing.  However, you don't want to give us the blow by blow plot summary.  Remember:  If I wanted to read the story, I'd read the story.  The trick is to provide only the most crucial context, and follow it up with analysis.  In other words, tell us what happened, but then tell us why it happened, why it's important, why the author wrote it that way, etc.  Ultimately, we care about what you think about the story more than your ability to summarize it.

Along the same lines:  Don't overuse direct quotations.  Quotations signal to your reader that what you're quoting is really important.  Quotes are the evidence with which you support your claims.  You want to be very choosy about which quotes use and only use the parts that specifically pertain to your argument.  Your goal is to make the quote fit your usual writing style as closely as possible.  For all of these reasons, you don't want to use too many quotes in your paper.

These are some things to keep in mind when writing a literary analysis essay.

Writing Tip: Cause and Effect Essays

When writing cause and effect essays, there are several things to keep in mind.  First of all, you need to know whether you have the "cause," or the "effect."  For example, is your assignment to examine the causes of global warming, (effect) or the effects global warming will have on the world (cause)?  That's right, sometimes a single concept can be both a cause and effect, depending on how you look at it.  Your job is to know what the assignment requires of you, and fulfill the requirements.  Remember:  When in doubt, ask your instructor.

Another thing to keep in mind is cause and effect essays address why something occurred.  You're not interested in how.  You're not meant to evaluate the end results (the effects).  You're explaining why.  You're either beginning with the effect, (global warming) and writing about the causes, or you're beginning with the cause, (global warming) and writing about the effect(s).  Either way, your primary concern is why.  

The next thing is very important:  Be careful about causality.  Your textbook probably mentions the post hoc fallacy.  I know the one I'm referring to does.  Basically, you don't want to make the mistake of assuming that because one event follows another event, the first event caused the second event.  Just because the moon comes out after the sun goes down, doesn't mean the sun setting causes the moon to rise (and in fact, the two can be out at the same time).

Also, don't oversimplify your causes and/or effects.  You want to be realistic and accurate in your essay.

Finally, like in any essay, you want to follow an organized pattern.  I would peruse your textbook for examples if you need further help with this.  In general, you know you want to begin with an introduction that briefly explains the cause(s) and effect(s) you'll be addressing.  You'll write a thesis in that paragraph.

After that, you'll want to devote one (or more) body paragraph(s) to each cause or effect, depending on which pattern you're following.

Be sure to transition between each new idea.  Cite any sources you use.

Finally, you're ready to write your conclusion.  Restate your thesis and major points.  And tie it up with something you've learned from writing the paper that you want your audience to remember the clearest.

And that's a cause and effect paper in a nutshell.  Remember those key items--and seek help if you need it.

Writing Discussion: The Power of our Words

Something we should think about is the power our rhetorical acts have.  Our rhetorical acts define us, affect others, and can contribute to the common good.

When we write or speak, what are we really doing?  What impact will that email I wrote after midnight the other night have on its audience?

What about the various situations and locations surrounding our rhetorical acts?  Do they define us in different ways?  Are there some acts that contribute to the common good, while others don't?

When I'm in "tutor" mode, I'd like to think my actions define me as someone who is educated and helpful.  I aim to affect others' moods in positive ways:  I want people to "feel better" by the time they're done with me.  Those actions may contribute to the common good in a small way.

I guess my point in all of this is to encourage us to think about what our words really do.  Our words are a major part of how we get along in the world:  We use them to create and communicate meaning.  We could never function without them.  That's why it's so important to learn how to speak and write effectively.  It makes existence in this great big interconnected web much easier.

I'm glad to be part of this world with all of you.

Writing Tip: Break it Up!

This concept applies to much of life, but it certainly applies to writing.  Whenever you have a large project like a term paper, you want to break it up into manageable chunks.  Now I like to take each clump and write it on a to-do list, so I commit myself to following through with each step of the process.  This is good for time management and organization.

The following "clumps" are the steps I've taken when writing term papers.

When I had a research project, my first step was to choose a general topic I wanted to study further.  Then I gathered all of the resources I could find:  Google or Google Scholar, my school's online library resources, and Amazon are all great ways to see what's out there.

Before I could write a word, I needed to see what was already written.  Remember:  good papers are like conversations.  You want to learn about what's being said and prepare to enter the conversation with your own ideas and perspectives.  Research is the essential first step of that process.

I should add a few things about research here:  Expect to do more research later.  You'll get to a point while you're writing where you'll realize you don't know as much about a topic as you should.  The flipside of this is that you can't possibly read everything that's ever been written on a subject.  Eventually, you'll have to stop reading and start writing.  This is the part I've always struggled with the most--and continue to do so.

After I concluded my research, I looked for "a way in."  I looked for an angle that's never been taken before.  A "new"way of looking at a work of literature (or whatever I'm researching).  This is what scholarship is all about.  This is how we add to the "conversation."

Once I figured out my angle, I built off of the previous "conversations."  Those made up my citations and paraphrases.  The rest of the paper essentially "wrote itself."  I had a foundation and a direction in which I wanted the paper to go.  It was just a matter of getting it there.

In short, manageable clumps make large projects much less painful.

Writing Tip: Keep Going

Students and writers (myself included) like to have a nearly perfect first draft that doesn't need much revision and/or editing in the final draft.  Now maybe there are people who can pull this off, but I'm certainly not one of them.

What I do, and tell the students I sit with to do, is remember the first draft is the "vomit draft" that no one will see but you (and maybe a tutor who won't judge you).  This is your place to put everything you can possibly imagine would go in your essay.  It's your "test zone." Use it to help you decide what works and what doesn't work.  

Maybe you spend half the paper writing with one working thesis, decide it doesn't hold up, and change thesis mid-paper.  No problem, as long as you make it cohesive in the second and subsequent drafts.

The bottom line is Keep Going because you don't know what doesn't work until you try to make it work.