Some Common Errors in Your Essays
No thesis sentence or poorly
constructed thesis sentences:
A thesis statement:
 tells the reader how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter
under discussion.
 is a road map for the paper; in other words, it tells the reader what to expect
from the rest of the paper.
 directly answers the question asked of you. A thesis is an interpretation of a
question or subject, not the subject itself. The subject, or topic, of an essay
might be World War II or Moby Dick; a thesis must then offer a way to
understand the war or the novel.
 makes a claim that others might dispute.
 is usually a single sentence somewhere in your first paragraph that presents your
argument to the reader. The rest of the paper, the body of the essay, gathers and
organizes evidence that will persuade the reader of the logic of your
interpretation.
 https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/
The Thesis Statement
 The thesis statement tells your reader what to expect: it is a restricted,
precisely worded declarative sentence that states the purpose of your essay -the point you are trying to make. Without a carefully conceived thesis, an
essay has no chance of success.The following are thesis statements which
would work for a 500-750 word literary analysis essay:
 Gwendolyn Brooks‟s 1960 poem “The Ballad of Rudolph Reed” demonstrates
how the poet uses the conventional poetic form of the ballad to treat the
unconventional poetic subject of racial intolerance.
 The fate of the main characters in Antigone illustrates the danger of excessive pride.
 The imagery in Dylan Thomas‟s poem “Fern Hill” reveals the ambiguity of
humans‟ relationship with nature.
 Typically, the thesis statement falls at the end of your introductory
paragraph.
No topic sentences or poorly
constructed topic sentences.
 Topic sentence The topic sentence is to the paragraph what the thesis is to
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the entire paper. That is, a paragraph's topic sentence states the claim or
argument of that paragraph. The topic sentence usually asserts a claim that will
support one part of the paper's larger thesis. For example, imagine that the
paper's thesis is "e" from the thesis handout:
By the end of "Sonny's Blues," the narrator is liberated from his warped personality; he
finally begins to feel, which means he will be freed from his fear and sadness.
This paper has a lot to prove. It must begin by proving that the narrator does
indeed have a "warped" personality. Thus, the topic sentence of that paragraph
might be:
Though many readers may sympathize with the narrator because his
brother is addicted to heroin, the narrator actually begins as a hardened,
unfeeling man. Two scenes show his lack of compassion.
Notice that, like a thesis, a topic sentence can be more than one sentence if
necessary.
Too much plot summary, not enough
support, proof, or analysis.
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Support: Support or evidence usually refers to quotations from or summary of
the literary work. Without support, your topic sentence will go unproven and your
paragraph will fall flat. (If your topic sentence does not seem to require support,
it probably isn't an effective topic sentence to begin with). Working with the topic
sentence above, we might use the following two pieces of evidence:
1. The way the narrator treats and thinks about Sonny's friend (pp. 49-50).
2. The narrator's flashback to his encounter with Sonny in the Greenwich Village
(p. 62).
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Analysis: With analysis, you tell your reader how you want him or her to
understand the quotation or summary you have provided as support. As a writer,
you can't necessarily assume that your reader will draw the same conclusions
you have drawn from the evidence. For example, some people might interpret
the narrator's treatment of Sonny's friend as kind, because he gives the friend a
cigarette and some money. But that interpretation doesn't work for your
argument, so you need to elaborate, through your analysis, on your own
interpretation. Thus, support and analysis go hand in hand.
Too much plot summary, not enough
support or analysis.
 Here's an example of some analysis following the support cited
above. The green sentences are primarily analytical, while the red ones
convey the evidence itself:
 The narrator shows how cruel and unfeeling he is when he meets Sonny's friend on the
street. Adopting a sarcastic tone, the narrator questions the friend's motives: "You come
all the way down here to just tell me about Sonny?"We can see in this tone that the narrator
doubts that the friend truly cares for Sonny. The narrator also swears at the friend, saying
"you're pretty goddamn smart, I bet," and offers him no sympathy for his "sad story," declaring
that he wishes the friend had a pistol so he could kill himself (49). These reactions to the friend
show the narrator's anger at the situation Sonny is in, but also convey a stark lack of
compassion for those less fortunate than himself. In fact, the narrator's anger seems to
fuel his lack of compassion. In the flashback scene, we find out that the narrator has been angry
with Sonny before, for when the narrator visits Sonny in his GreenwichVillage apartment, he tells
Sonny that he "might just as well be dead as live the way he was living" (62). These scenes
depict the narrator's warped personality; his anger and fear have made him cruel, almost
sadistic.
Support
 The skillful use of textual evidence -- summary, paraphrase, specific detail, and
direct quotations -- can illustrate and support the ideas you are developing
in your essay. However, textual evidence should be used judiciously and
only when it directly relates to your topic. The correct and effective use of
textual evidence is vital to the successful literary analysis essay.
 Summary If a key event or series of events in the literary work support a
point you are trying to make, you may want to include a brief summary,
making sure that you show the relevance of the event or events by
explicitly connecting your summary to your point. Below is an effective
summary (with its relevance clearly pointed out) from the essay already
quoted above on "The Secret Lion" (B):
 The boys find the grinding ball, but later attempt to bury it (SUMMARY).
Burying it is their futile attempt to make time stand still and to preserve
perfection (RELEVANCE).
Types of Support
 Paraphrase You can make use of paraphrase when you need the
details of the original, but not necessarily the words of the original:
paraphrase to put someone else's words into your own words.
Below is an example (also from the paper on "The Secret Lion") of
how to "translate" original material into part of your own paper:
 Original: "I was twelve and in junior high school and something
happened that we didn't have a name for, but it was nonetheless
like a lion, and roaring, roaring that way the biggest things do."
 Paraphrase: Early in the story, the narrator tells us that when he
turned twelve and started junior high school, life changed in a
significant way that he and his friends could not quite name or
identify.
Support
 Specific Detail Various types of details from the text lend concrete support
to the development of the central idea of your literary analysis essay. These
details add credibility to the point you are developing. Below is a list of
some of the details which could have been used in the developmental
paragraph from the paper on John Updike's short story "A & P" (see the
paragraph again for which details were used and how they were used).
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"usual traffic"
"fluorescent lights"
"checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile floor"
"electric eye"
shoppers like "sheep,"
"house slaves," and "pigs"
neatly stacked food
dynamite
Incorrectly Incorporated Quotations or
Incorrectly Cited Quotations
 Using Direct Quotations can illuminate and support
the ideas you are trying to develop. A judicious use
of quoted material will make your points clearer
and more convincing. As with all the textual evidence
you use, make sure you explain how the evidence is
relevant—let the reader know why the quotes you cite
are significant to your argument.
Frequent Grammar, Spelling,
Capitalization, and Usage Errors
 Use the “My Editor” mode of the My Access Program to
identify and correct major errors in grammar and usage.
 Use a dictionary to correct misspelled words.
 Now visit my webpage and read “How to write a Literary
Analysis Essay”