Tips and Suggestions for Improving Your Literary

Analysis in CM1120
Thesis Statements
When writing an academic paper, especially in English Literature, you are writing to
prove a point or more specially, to answer a question given to you by your professor.
When you set out to write your answer in an essay, the most crucial element of that paper
is your THESIS STATEMENT. The thesis statement MUST tell me your opinion on
HOW something is achieved or emphasized or WHY something is significant to the short
story, play, poem or novella.
If the question is Analyze the use of any three types of poetic language in and TWO
poems and illustrate how these techniques emphasize a similar theme, the keywords that
should stick out are
- Analyze
- 3 types of Poetic Language
- Two poems
- HOW
- Emphasize theme
Your thesis statement (normally only one sentence) will need to address all of these main
points. A good thesis statement would be something like this:
In the poems I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud and To Autumn, both Wordsworth and
Keats examine the idea that lives are more fulfilled when people appreciate what nature
offers the individual, by using poetic language such as personification, auditory imagery
and metaphor to allow the reader to not only visualize the scene, but to allow the reader
to make associations with a concept that may otherwise be vague or abstract.
The highlighted section addresses the question of HOW, or even WHY a poet would or
could use poetic language in their poems to emphasize theme.
Notice that the thesis statement also identifies both poems that will be discussed and the
theme, and it lays out the three poetic devices that will be discussed in the body
paragraphs of the essay.
Many of the thesis statements I read in your papers were over simplified, and offered no
insight or direct answer to the question.
Example:
In I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud and To Autumn, Wordsworth and Keats use
personification, visual imagery and metaphor to talk about the theme of appreciation of
nature.

When I read thesis statements like this, I wonder what exactly your essay is going to
prove if you dont come out and tell me your opinion of the matter. Its kind of like
saying that Mrs. Wright is guilty of a crime, but not telling me what that crime is.
Topic Sentences
Many of you lost marks because your topic sentences failed to state what your entire
paragraph was going to discuss. The topic sentence of a paragraph needs to identify one
aspect of the thesis and state a primary reason why the thesis is true. This can be done
like this:
In both romantic poems that glorify nature, Keats and Wordsworth use personification to
give the reader a clear image of a concept otherwise vague or abstract.
That topic statement is balanced because it talks about BOTH POEMS, not just one, it
identifies which aspect of the thesis this paragraph will discuss, and it states a primary
reason why the thesis is true.
Evidence/Commentary
In many of the papers this time around, I noticed that youre all getting closer to
developing a full analysis of your main thesis. However, theres one area of this analysis
that we can improve on.
Youll remember that we discussed the layout of a body paragraph when we discussed
our short story essays. A body paragraph normally consists of
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Topic sentence
Lead-in to concrete details
Concrete detail about Poem #1
Commentary
Transition and lead-in to next concrete detail
Concrete detail for Poem #2
Commentary
Concluding sentence

While you all seem to have a grasp on providing concrete details and explaining the
quotes youve chosen, dont forget that the commentary section of your paragraph is
equally about explaining the quote as it is about offering INTERPRETATION. It is
the interpretation portion of this paragraph where you get the big marks, as this is where
YOUR ORIGINAL THOUGHTS become apparent.
Many of you stop after you have provided explanation of the quote and you forget to
offer your interpretation and tie the evidence/concrete details to the theme or tone you
identified.

Lets think of it in terms of a murder trial (well say someone is charged with murdering
their neighbor with a kitchen knife). Youre the prosecuting lawyer and its your turn to
provide evidence that proves that the defendant is guilty of the murder. You bring the
knife over to the jury and say, this is the knife that was found at the crime scene. Its 10
inches long, very sharp and is covered in the victims blood. Have you proved anything
yet? Youve presented evidence, explained what the knife is (and what the object is that
the jury is looking at) but youve yet to connect the knife to the person on trial (your
interpretation). Essentially, youre assuming that the jury would make the connection for
you, but thats a dangerous move. You need to interpret the murder weapon for the jury.
You need to tell the jury that there are fingerprints on the knife that belong to the
defendant, and how the knife was used to kill the victim.
In other words, if youre quoting a line of poetry that is an example of personification,
quote the line properly, explain what is being personified and then tell me how you
believe that instance of personification emphasizes the theme youve identified in your
introduction.
Incorporating Quotations
Learning to incorporate quotations seamlessly into your own sentences is one writing
technique you will need to constantly hone and one that becomes easier with time. Just
remember that when you use a quote as concrete detail/evidence, it should not impact the
grammatical structure of your sentence.
Example:
Quote: If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
In My Mistress Eyes, the speaker believes that [if] hairs be wires, black wires grow
on [his mistress] head (Shakespeare 4).
The speaker believes that [if] hairs be wires, black wires grow on [his mistress] head,
suggesting that the hair on her head is not only like a wire, but that this wire has the
human quality of growth, a quality not normally associated with a lifeless piece of hair
(Shakespeare 4).
NOTE: In both examples, the quote reads like they are my own words. It fits seamlessly
into the sentence. Other tips:
1. When quoting directly from any text (story, poem, play, etc.) change the case
of the first word in the quote if its not meant to be capitalized. Just because
the first word in the quote is capitalized in the poem, it doesnt mean it should
be if its placed in the middle of your sentence. You wouldnt capitalize The
in the middle of a sentence.
2. When citing poetry quotations, you provide the line number for the quotation
after the poets name, not the page number, in between parentheses. The quote
I used above can be found on the 4th line of the poem.
3. When the quoted material is part of your own sentence, but you need to
include a parenthetical reference to page or line numbers, place the periods

and commas after the reference. on [his mistress] head (Shakespeare

4).
a. Instead of on [his mistress] head. (Shakespeare 4).
Other things I noticed in your papers

Titles of poems are capitalized and placed between quotation marks Anthem
for Doomed Youth, Barbie Doll, etc.
Dont place quotation marks around the theme you identify. That suggests that
its not true or not serious. Ex. The theme of an appreciation of nature is
developed, instead of The theme of an appreciation of nature is
developed.
Please invest in a thesaurus, or use one online. Essays at the university level
need to be written with a higher level of diction. Sign up for a word of the
day email and try to increase your awareness of more complicated words.
Do not use contractions in formal academic writing. Write out each word
(dont = do not, couldnt = could not, doesnt = does not)
Avoid the 1st person and 2nd person point-of-view like the plague. I shouldnt
see the words you, I or we in your papers.

Grammar
Many of you could have gotten an A on this paper had it not been for the grammatical
and spelling errors in your writing. I cant stress enough how important the editing
process is in writing at the university level. Dont leave writing your paper to the last
minute. You need to give yourself time to walk away from your paper (even for a few
hours Id recommend a day!) and then come back with fresh eyes to try and pick out
missing commas, misplaced capital letters, sentence fragments or sentences that make no
sense whatsoever. You might not think so, but I can tell when a paper was thrown
together the night before.
Let this be my greatest piece advice to you this semester:
Procrastination is your worst enemy. Do not fall victim to it, please.