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Jan 30, 2020 · A literary analysis essay is not a rhetorical analysis, nor is it just a summary of the plot or a book review. Instead, it is a type of argumentative essay where you need to analyze elements such as the language, perspective, and structure of the text, and explain how the author uses literary devices to create effects and convey ideas.
- Ask Questions. When you’re assigned a literary essay in class, your teacher will often provide you with a list of writing prompts. Lucky you! Now all you have to do is choose one.
- Collect Evidence. Once you know what question you want to answer, it’s time to scour the book for things that will help you answer the question. Don’t worry if you don’t know what you want to say yet—right now you’re just collecting ideas and material and letting it all percolate.
- Construct a Thesis. When you’ve examined all the evidence you’ve collected and know how you want to answer the question, it’s time to write your thesis statement.
- Develop and Organize Arguments. The reasons and examples that support your thesis will form the middle paragraphs of your essay. Since you can’t really write your thesis statement until you know how you’ll structure your argument, you’ll probably end up working on steps 3 and 4 at the same time.
Literary analysis looks critically at a work of fiction in order to understand how the parts contribute to the whole. When analyzing a novel or short story, you’ll need to consider elements such as the context, setting, characters, plot, literary devices, and themes.
- Select a Text. To begin your literary analysis essay, pick a piece of writing that you like and is suitable for analysis. This could be a poem, a short story, a novel, a play, or any similar written work.
- Brainstorm a Topic. Once you've chosen your text, the next step is to come up with a topic for your literary analysis essay. Think about what aspect of the text you find most interesting or want to explore.
- Collect the Evidence and Write a Thesis. Now that you have your topic, it's time to gather evidence from the text to support your analysis. Look for quotes, passages, or examples that relate to your chosen topic.
- Develop the Outline. Creating an outline is like making a roadmap for your literary analysis essay. It helps you organize your thoughts and decide how to structure your essay.
Apr 17, 2023 · To begin analyzing a work of fiction, one should identify the story’s setting and context. This provides the backdrop for the actions and interactions of the characters, which can influence the plot and the story’s overall message.
1. Read the text and identify literary devices. As you conduct your literary analysis, you should first read through the text, keeping an eye on key elements that could serve as clues to larger, underlying themes. The following is a checklist of the literary and narrative devices you should take note of while reading.
Developing and Refining an Interpretive Thesis. At the heart of your analytic essay, driving it (so to speak), needs to be an interpretive thesis —an argumentative claim regarding what your work as a whole is saying about one of its core themes.
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