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How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay from Essay Town Academic Writing Blog http://www.essaytown.com/writing/write-literary-analysis-essay When writing a literary
analysis essay, your main objective is not to write a simple book review.
Rather, your goal is to write an essay
that discusses your interpretation of the literature. When you write a
literary analysis, you will need to keep the format in mind that is provided
to you by the person assigning the essay to you. Nonetheless, there are a few
general guidelines you should keep in mind when writing a literary analysis
essay. One tip you should keep in mind
while writing a literary analysis essay is that you should always
write in the present tense and never in the past tense. For example, you
might write “In George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm,’ the animals take over the farm
and develop their own independent society” rather than “In George Orwell’s
‘Animal Farm,’ the animals took over the farm and developed their own
independent society.” You should also avoid putting
yourself into the literary analysis. This means you should write in the third
person and never use the words “I” or “you.” There may be exceptions to this
rule, however, depending upon your instructor. In fact, some will request a
more informal literary analysis that will include the usage of these words.
When in doubt, however, it is safer to use the third person. Since literary
analysis essays are not meant to simply be a book review or summary of
the book, you should not retell the story in your essay. Rather, you need to
form a thesis about the piece of literature and then explain and support the
thesis you have developed. Although you are not summarizing
the plot when you write a literary analysis, you will need to pull elements
from the plot when writing your literary analysis. For example, when
providing an analysis, you will use information from the piece of literature
to help support your position. For example, if writing a literary analysis of
“The Telltale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, you might make the assertion that
the narrator is insane. You can then use the fact that the narrator said he
could hear “all things in the heaven and in the earth” to help support your
claim. Since you are writing a literary
analysis, which is a critical look at the piece, you should use as many
literary terms as possible. Some terms that you should try to include and to
use when analyzing the piece include: • Character By using these terms, you can
create a more professional and respectable piece that reflects your
understanding of literature. For example, rather than saying “The story shows
that people are like animals by giving the animals human characteristics,”
you should say “The piece contains vivid symbols and images to reveal the
animalistic nature of humans.” Although both pieces express the same idea,
the second sentence reveals a stronger understanding of literature and
literary terms. |