Assignment: Literary Analysis
A literary analysis includes an argument about a text with proof to back it up. This proof comes from the text itself and from secondary sources (literary critics). For this paper, you must include textual references to the short story you choose. You don't have to, but you may want to, include information from secondary sources.
Topic:
For this essay, you must choose one of the four short stories to focus on:
• "I Stand Here Ironing" (233)
• "A Rose for Emily" (403)
• "The Yellow Wallpaper" (778)
• "The Things They Carried" (1014)
You can argue about anything within the text; I'm giving you the leeway to choose something about the short story that interests you. You can analyze an historical, literary, biographical, or scientific allusion/aspect of the story, or you can analyze a theme, symbol, character, setting, event, etc., or you can do a close reading of a passage from the story. If you're having trouble thinking of a topic, let me know. I will not assign you a topic, but I have a list of interesting tidbits/questions about the short stories that you may be able to use to create an argument or we can sit down and brainstorm a topic together.
A successful topic will:
• Be interesting to you
• Analyze, not summarize
• Keep the focus on the text
Finding a topic: as you work to identify a topic, consider the following questions:
• Which story did you like the best? Or, which did you find the most intriguing?
• What about that story caught your attention? What are you still thinking about? What did you highlight or underline?
• What did you discuss in your discussion post?
• What are others saying about the short story?
If you want to run a topic by me before you begin working on your thesis and outline, just send me an email.
The steps:
• Brainstorming: the discussion board posts count as brainstorming!
• Thesis statement and outline: due Friday, Nov 18
• Rough draft: due Monday Nov 21
• Peer review: due Wednesday, Nov 23
• Final draft, self review, and feedback report: due Monday, Nov 28
Secondary sources:
You're not required to use any secondary sources; however, you should be aware of what is and what is not appropriate. You cannot use the following:
• Wikipedia or any encyclopedia
• Yahoo answers, hubpages, blogs, forums
• Cliff notes, spark notes, or other similar sites
When choosing a source, consider:
• Authority: who wrote it and where was it published?
o If it doesn't have an author, a student author, or source of publication, you may not want to use it.
• Purpose: what is the purpose of the source?
o If the source was published to provide background information (such as Cliff Notes and encyclopedias), then you don't want to use it. If the source was published to analyze something specific in the text, then it's probably a good choice.
Common knowledge: if you have find information in at least 3 different sources, then it's considered common knowledge and you don't have to cite it! Thus, publication dates and basic information about an author's life or time period don't need to be cited (unless you quote or use information you can't find in 3 sources).
Not sure if a source is okay to use? Send me a link to it and I'll let you know.
Requirements:
• At least 750 words, MLA format, Academic voice, strong thesis and argument
Organization
Introduction:
The introduction must include:
• The title of the story and the name of the author.
- Remember, the first time you name the author, use the full name (Mary Shelley). After this, use only her
last name (Shelley).
• Thesis statement (usually the last sentence in the introduction)
But besides those essentials, here are 3 different suggestions of ways to introduce a literary analysis:
1) Explain a way or ways the story has already been analyzed by other critics, to show how your reading/argument is fresh and different (this method is effective if you're arguing against a common interpretation of the novel).
2) Begin by introducing the author and her background (this is especially effective if you will be using biography as part of your argument).
3) Introduce an issue or theme you will focus on in your essay, historical roles of women or men, for example, or the nature of religious faith in general or a quote from another text that is relevant to what occurs in the story.
Body Paragraphs: There are several ways your body paragraphs can be outlined. Traditionally, they begin with a topic sentence that tells your readers what you're going to prove/discuss in that paragraph. After the topic sentence, you can do a quote sandwich - an introduction to the quote, the quote itself, and commentary on what the quote means and how it proves your topic sentence (and, ultimately, how it proves your thesis). You can have one to three primary quotes in each paragraph; more than this and you risk overwhelming your readers (so be sure to pick the quotes that best prove your point). When you use secondary sources, you need to be sure you are using them to support your argument and not relying on them to make it for you.
Conclusions: Your readers may have different needs depending on how you have proceeded in your paper.
• A "Big Picture" or "So What" conclusion is often effective. Don't make new claims about the text that need supporting, but do analyze why what you've revealed in your essay is interesting or important, perhaps to the meaning of the story.
• Circling is also very effective. If you come back to something you said much earlier (like in the introduction), it would give readers a very clear feeling that you have completed your task.
• You can also briefly discuss possibilities for future research. What else would someone researching your argument want to know? What other questions need answered? If you had more time/space, what else would you want to research and include in the paper?