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Writing a literary analysis paper:

The Process:
1. After you have read the text you will write on, try a pre-writing exercise in response to
get the creative juices flowing. Write for 1520 minutes non-stop (do not stop to ask
yourself about grammar, spelling, etc.just write!). Here are some questions you might
wish to consider (choose one) for this exercise:

What enduring understandings or big ideas does the literature illustrate?

What aspects of the human story does the author reveal, celebrate, worry or
wonder about?
What is the authors view of truth? How does this interact with your beliefs and
values?
How might this literature make a difference in your life and the world?

2. Decide on a specific theme, character, symbol, style, setting that you find intriguing in
the text. Some steps to help you in that process:
a. What is the central motif? This should not be your topic; its too broad.
b. List the larger themes. These will likely be too broad as well.
c. What are the elements of this genre?
d. What are the smaller themes/minor characters/discrete but significant plot
movements?
3. Read the text again, highlighting and taking notes on every moment that your topic surfaces
in the text.
4. Read through each of those highlighted passages another time.
5. Identify the narrative context for each passage to make sure youve understood the narrative
significance properly.
6. Write a one-sentence description of the treatment of the topic for each passage.
7. Questions to ask yourself: Does the use of the theme/setting/character/style/symbol
progress or change through the book or does it remain the same? Is it regularly linked to
anything else in the text? (e.g. if a setting, is it linked to a character or symbol or style)
8. Brainstorm as many points as you can about the use of this theme/setting/etc. Be creative.
Pick your best ones, the ones with the most textual proof.
9. Out of all the material youve generated create several thesis statements about this topic in the
text. Choose the one you think is strongest. (See Little, Brown Handbook for examples.) Continue
to revise your thesis as you write the paper.

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e.g. Topic:
Why does Othello kill Desdemona?
1. First brainstorm: love, anger, jealousy, revenge, pride.
2. Second brainstorm:
Iago tempts him to do so
Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona is unfaithful
Othello loves Desdemona so passionately he cant think straight about her.
3. Third brainstorm:
He kills her because he says justice requires her death. Othello thinks of himself as a force that
acts to affirm justice and order. Othello defines self as opposed to disorder.
4. First Thesis:
Othellos decision to kill Desdemona arises from his belief that she is a force of disorder, not
of order.
5. Second (revised) Thesis:
Having defined himself as a man who creates, maintains, and establishes order, Othelloonce
he becomes convinced that Desdemona is representative of anarchyproceeds to kill her in
order to maintain his vision of himself.
10. Begin a working outline (see different formats in Little, Brown Handbook).
11. One writer suggests this: when you begin writing, start with your weakest point and move to
your strongest. Another writer suggests the contrary: start with your strongest point and dont
be afraid that you wont have anything else to say. Give your best and youll get even better!
(Both perspectives have merit.)
12. First, trust your own analysis to produce a unique take on the text. And then, go to
secondary sources to see how they can add to, challenge, or complement your own
observations.
13. Underline the thesis statement and the topic sentence of each paragraph as you draft the
paper (the second and later drafts). This can help you to assess the unity of each paragraph as
well as the order of your paragraphs. See the paragraph and topic sentence heuristics below.
14. Practise sentence-combining. Short sentences should be rare.
15. Use transitional phrasing to link ideas. (See Little, Brown Handbook.)
16. Tweak (redraft) your introduction and conclusion to illustrate your arguments.
17. Read your paper aloud. Copy-edit the paper yourself. Edit again.

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The Format:
1. See the sample MLA papers in Little, Brown Handbook.
2. Citations must conform to MLA guidelines as set out in The Little, Brown Handbook
(Chapter 37). Please note that for poetry, it is appropriate to use line numbers, or, for
longer poems, stanza numbers.
3. All quotations must be correctly integrated into your paper. In all cases, the quotation
will form a part of one of your own sentences. There are three general methods of
integrating quotations:
a)
if quotations are shorter than one sentence, it is often best to incorporate them
into the natural flow of a sentence.
e.g.
In "When I Consider," the speaker mourns the loss of "that one talent which is death to
hide" (3).
b)

when a quotation involves direct speech, verbs such as "says," "suggests,"

indicates," and "states" offer a natural transition.

e.g.

In frustration, the Lady of Shallot states, "I am half sick of shadows" (8).

c)
a colon is often used to introduce longer quotations, to provide added emphasis, or to
give evidence.
e.g.

In "The Second Coming," the speaker recounts his horrific vision: "somewhere in the
sands of the desert/ A shape with lion body and the head of a man/ A gaze blank and
pitiless as the sun,/ Is moving its slow thighs" (13-16).
(note: in poetry, slashes are used to indicate a line break in the original)
d)

No matter what method of integration you use, if a quotation is longer than four lines or
needs to be set apart for added emphasis, it must be set apart from the text of the essay
and indented 10 spaces from the left margin. With such passages, quotation marks are not used
and the final punctuation appears before the citation.
e.g.
Williams cleverly makes each verse of "The Red Wheelbarrow" look like the subject of
the poem:
so much depends
upon

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a red wheel
barrow. (1-4)
4. When you are writing an analysis of a text or examining a writer's themes, methods, and
techniques, discuss the text in the present tense. However, if your essay includes
biographical information about the author or details about the text's publication, that
information is usually set in the past tense. Naturally, when writing about a sequence of
events within the text, you must use a variety of tenses. You should, however, be careful
to avoid excessive plot summary in your essays.

Two sets of heuristics developed by an upper-level English student (goal: to raise her B grade
to an Ait worked!) Challenge: develop your own heuristics to achieve your goals!
Topic Sentence Heuristic
A sample heuristic to apply to each topic sentence in your essay:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

What do I mean?
Explain this statement.
Give details.
Give an example.
This means that . . . .
Why do I believe that?
Paragraph Heuristic

A heuristic for turning a topic sentence into a developed paragraph with logical and exemplary
support:
1.
2.
3.
4.

To what extent is this true?

How do I know this is true?
What is a good example of it?
So what?

Suggested Resources:
Richard M. Coe, Process, Form & Substance (source for 2 sets of heuristics)
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Little, Brown Handbook
Strunk & White, Elements of Style

Compiled by Professors Erin Goheen Glanville, Lydia Forssander-Song, and Monika Hilder