Literary Essay Tips

Literary Essay Writing Tips

Introduction

1. Aim for a stronger, more relevant title (For example, avoid: The Great Gatsby Essay)

Not Underline/bolded title. Italicized title of the book. ‘s off the title isn’t

2. Proper MLA Format

-No commas,

date- always the turn in date.

-Header with last name and page number.

-Double spaced

-Worked Cited in the proper MLA Citation style.

3. Lacks a proper “hook,” such as a statistic, anecdote, quote, or critical observation of the text to grab and engage a potential reader.

• Start with Statistics-but support the statement with whereis comes from
• Anecdote from author
• Critical Observation(ex. specific ideas or words how many times)

3. Avoid generalizations and oversimplifications (Ex. “Throughout history, humans have always…)

   5. Avoid the standard “definition hook.” (Ex. “Webster’s Dictionary defines the word careless as…”)
   6. Avoid the “rhetorical question” hook (Ex. “War – what is it good for?)
   7. Weak/no transition from hook to claim. Not enough context (You can’t just let the hook sit there. You must shepherd the reader properly from the hook to the central idea of the essay.)
   8. Thesis does not address the prompt (Your thesis must be a response to the question/prompt and be relevant.)
   9. Thesis is poorly phrased/awkward

4. Thesis is too general/lacks a critical focus/lacks scope

5. Claim does not take a definitive position/lacks critical insight

6. Supporting Paragraphs

7. Lacks a strong topic sentence. (This should be the reason/piece of defense that governs the paragraph.)

• Clear and Concise
• Try a paragraph a day method to maintain a concise essay

3. Topic sentences should be clear and concise.

• 2 lines long is too long for a topic sentence.

3. TOO MUCH SUMMARY. (Do not get too mired in tangential evidence, thus never really supporting your argument.)

• Analysis not summary(four sentences is too long)

3. Transition from summary to more trenchant analysis.
4. Did not properly introduce quotes. (Do not just drop quotes haphazardly into your paragraph; they need to fit naturally, whether this includes an intro or not.)
5. Avoid the phrase, “this shows…”

• Don’t be to reliant on this
• Rephrase instead of the finding a synonym

3. Did not incorporate enough evidence (testimonials, statistics, research, personal anecdotes, etc.) Each paragraph should aim for at least two pieces of evidence from either the text or scholarly sources (i.e. literary criticism) which flesh out, support, and expand your literary argument.
4. Let each quote “breathe.” Don’t simply list quotes for the sake of space.

• Don’t drop 10 quotes;take a few good quotes and do analysis from them

3. Do not editorialize. Don’t leap to person conclusions or pass personal judgements.

   -i.e “I think this is stupid because”. Avoid this type of sentence or frame of mind

4. Did not smoothly transition between ideas. Sentences are too haphazard.

5. Quotes are not relevant.

6. Did not cite correctly. (This is a constant and unfortunate error, since it’s so easy to fix.) MLA format, folks: “………………” (Fitzgerald 55).

• Period comes after parentheses
•  space between quote and parentheses

3. Do not end paragraph with a quote.

4. Break quotes apart into more manageable units. you should not see a quote that occupies over three lines of real estate.

5. Did not provide a logical concluding sentence or thought.

6. Conclusion

7. Did not clearly summarize the important components of the essay: the thesis and body paragraph content.

8. Did not concludes with an interesting or provocative thought (Yes, this may be ambiguous, but it demonstrates considerable depth on the part of the writer. Some guiding questions might be: How is the topic relevant? What might this piece of literature say about our present moment? How does your topic live within the larger scholarship built up around this novel/poem/play?

9. Common/General Mistakes (Grammatical, Syntactical & Other)

23. Did not italicize name of book, film, poem, play, etc. (ex. Henry Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage)

• Poem is italicized for epic poem and short stories is quotes

24. Did not put the name of a short story in quotation marks (ex. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher)

25.AWKWARD PHRASING (A very common mistake. This occurs when the words a writer uses sound contextually strange and out of place. In other words, it just sounds plain awkward.)

• Read out loud to try to hear awkward phrasing or have a friend look at it.

26. Eliminate sentence fragments.

Vary sentence structure and length

27. Eliminate run-on sentences.

28. Eliminate excess. (Ex. Instead of saying, “Cesar Chavez places emphasis on…”, write, “Cesar Chavez emphasizes…” The key is to omit unnecessary words.)

-Limit comma use

• Include less adj
• Not every noun should have an adj.

1. Aim for more effective transitions (Ex. Instead of the transition “secondly,” perhaps use “furthermore.” You might open your first body paragraph with “ultimately” or “foremost.” Also avoid transitions such as “Starting off, To Begin With, Getting Things Started, All in All…”

Lacks transitions whatsoever. (No transitions between paragraphs)

Try to avoid not having one and having a one word translation. Try tying it to the previous paragraph.

28. Avoid the use of too many “ing” verbs

    (Instead of “Steinbeck is writing…”, use “Steinbeck writes…”

Avoid linking words, but sometimes it’s needed and that makes it more concise

29. Be more direct, less verbose/awkward in sentence construction

• Taking out linking verbs,

29. Watch for grammar and syntax (Lots of grammatical mistakes. Sentences are constructed poorly and do not flow well.)
30. Did not capitalize a proper noun (Names of books, authors, places, etc. need to be capitalized.)
31. Capitalized a word that should not have been.

• Proper nouns

29. OVERLY CASUAL WORDCHOICE! (This is a big one. Avoid slang, colloquialisms, or other such examples of informal diction.)

-Huge or the like is making it sound less precise

-Avoid essay sounding like text message

29. LIMIT PASSIVE VOICE. (Passive voice needs to be kept to an absolute minimum. Avoid it exclusively, if possible. For instance, DO NOT write something such as “This novel is defined by the themes of alienation and loss.” Rather, aim for something more along these lines: “Jay Gatsby embodies the theme of…”

Subject of sentence is not performing the action

30. Write out numbers 10 or less. (Ex. 95 miles should be “ninety-five miles”)
31. Use numerical values for anything over 99. (Ex. 100)
32. Structure essay into neatly-defined paragraphs (A single paragraph should not occupy a page and a half of real-estate.)
33. Do not end sentence in preposition. (Ex. In, up, to, with, out, etc.)
34. Limit awkward/excessive alliteration
35. Maintain consistent tense—present. (Present tense is expected for literary analysis. Historical facts, supplemental information, biographical detail about an author’s life, however, should be in past tense.)

• Interact with the novel in analysis in present but historical information should be past tense