English 300
Spring 2006
Dr. Stewart

Analyses (Fiction, Poetry, and Constructed Response)

All essays should be:

• Typed using Times New Roman 12
• Double-spaced
• Have 1" margins
• Have page numbers at the top of each page

Fiction Essay: You will write an analysis of either Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby" or O. Henry's "The Last Leaf." In that essay, you will need to:

• Identify a theme
• Explain how that theme is demonstrated through one literary element
• Provide textual evidence (quotations from the the fiction) supporting how that theme is demonstrated through a literary element
• This essay will need to be a minimum of 5 pages (not 4.5)

Poetry Essay: You will write a compare/contrast analysis of 2 poems in Jeff Knorr's An Introduction to Poetry: The River Sings. In that essay, you will need to:

• Identify a theme common to both
• Explain how that theme is demonstrated similarly and differently (hence the compare/contrast) through one literary element
• Provide textual evidence (lines from the poems)
• This essay will need to be a minimum of 5 pages (not 4.5)

Constructed Response: You will write a compare/contrast analysis of 2 works of literature from a packet I provide. In that essay, you will need to:

• Identify a theme common to both
• Explain how that theme is demonstrated similarly and differently (hence the compare/contrast) through one literary element
• Provide textual evidence (lines from the pieces)
• This essay will need to be a minimum of 5 pages (not 4.5)

Tips on Writing your Essays:

The Introduction

Your first paragraph will probably begin with some kind of important observation that helps readers contextualize the theme of what you're about to write. It might also introduce the title(s) and author(s) of the works about which you are writing and a brief summary of the texts. It will also probably include the theme and thesis at the end of the first paragraph. (Your thesis will include the theme and literary element. Your thesis should be a "blueprint" or promise about the argument. In other words, it should outline the order in which you will discuss the terms).

Avoid introductory statements that are broad generalizations and have little to contribute to a reader's understanding or insights: "Literature can be interpreted in many different ways." I might be tempted to write "duh" beside a statement like that. Don't worry, however, I won't

The Body:

The body of the text should include short summaries, paraphrases, and short quotes (evidence) from the text as you set out to prove your thesis or claim.

The evidence should show how/why the evidence proves the claim, not just tell that it proves the claim.

The paragraphs that prove the claim should be fully developed with sentences that connect the argument in the thesis with the evidence using key words and/or phrases.

The Conclusion:

The conclusion should do more than restate what you have set out to do. Rather, it should make a connection to something outside the paper as a way of showing how important the theme and the texts are for the reader. This could also be called the "so what factor."

The Thesis Statement:

• proposes an argument or makes an interesting claim about a poem or story
• must be provable
• goes beyond the obvious
• analyzes rather than simply summarizes
• gives a focus to the various elements of your paper
• does not just say what the text says
• does show how the text works
• does not try to discuss the emotional effect of the poem on a general reader
• does discuss what the work means, and how it gets its point across
• doesn't retell the story of how you came to finally understand the poem
• proposes motivation or explanation for a character change (if the thesis is a character analysis)

Below is the fist paragraph of an essay written by a former student. You can see how this student takes his time setting up the remainder of the essay in the first paragraph.

Skeletons in the Closet, Bodies in the Attic:
Power and Perversion of Love in "My Last Duchess" and "A Rose for Emily"

It has been said that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and there are innumerable examples of this proverb in action through history. Power and authority have a way of making those who possess these in too great a quantity lose their grasp on their own humanity and do things that society generally frowns upon. In Robert Browning's poem, "My Last Duchess," a Duke tells the story of his last wife and the jealousy and anger she unwittingly inspires in him by treating him no differently than she would a common man. He has her portrait painted and then kills her--never allowing anyone to see the portrait except by his leave--thereby reestablishing control and power over what he sees as one of his prized possession. William Faulkner's short story, "A Rose for Emily," presents a similar situation. Emily is a character whose slow and tragic all from power in her town causes her to kill a would-be lover and keep the body in a locked room in her house so that she won't lose everyone and everything she once took for granted. Through characterization of the Duke in Browning's poem and Miss Emily in Faulkner's story, the authors demonstrate how jealously and perversion can corrupt and pervert relationships.