Tips on Writing a Literary Analysis

Tips on Writing a Literary Analysis

Recommended Steps for Developing a Literary Analysis

1.     Choose a topic (or area of focus, such as a theme or recurring image)

2.     Review the text to collect evidence

·      Take careful notes on any passages that relate to your topic 

·      (Or mark up your text and then write up your notations)

·      Include page numbers in your notes!

3.     Analyze your evidence

·      Look for trends, logical groupings, progressions, dichotomies, contradictions, etc.

·      Interpret your evidence – What does it mean? What does it seem to be saying?

4.     Organize your evidence

·      Select the evidence that you will use your in paper 

·      Put your evidence into logical groupings (paragraphs)

·      Choose a logical order for your groupings (paragraphs)

·      *Try to avoid ordering your evidence in the order it appears in the story/novel!

5.     Draft your thesis

·      Remember a thesis statement for literary analysis should express an interpretation

A few conventions for writing papers about literature

Use the present tense to describe fictional events. 

Easy and Suggs force Jordan to back off on his threats.

NOT:   Easy and Suggs forced Jordan to back off on his threats.

References to the author

The first time you refer to the author, use his or her full name. 

You may use just the last name for subsequent references. Never refer to the author by just his or her first name. 

Don’t attribute motive to the author.

Don’t assume you know the author’s intentions. Readers can never know an author’s motives with certainty, and in a way, it doesn’t matter. The author may or may not have succeeded in realizing his or her intentions. What’s important is what the text shows, what it reveals, and what it suggests.