ENGLISH 2327
Writing an Essay on Literature
The essays you write for English 2327, both out-of-class and in-class, require a close
reading of the literature, critical thinking skills, and use of the writing process.
Once you receive or select your writing topic on what might at first seem to be varied and
unrelated texts, do a close reading of the literature. As you read slowly, mark your text
with personal notations. Underline passages that you think will help you prove your
critical thinking assertions.
One strategy of critical thinking about literature is to make a comparative/contrastive
analysis of two (or more) works of literature and to draw conclusions based on that
comparison/contrast. You want to explore the “intertextuality” of the literature and make
linkages between them. An analysis breaks a topic down into parts, a comparison shows
similarities, and a contrast shows differences.
To write your analysis, connect two works of literature with one to three (or more)
connecting points. When you discover a connecting point, develop it by showing
similarities or differences. For example, both Mary Rowlandson and Young Goodman
Brown make journeys into the forest. However, would you write that these journeys are
similar or different? Next think in terms of what passages (direct quotes) from these
primary sources would you use to develop and prove your connections.
Use the writing process you studied in English 1301 and 1302. This process can be
broken down into the following stages:
1. Examine the writing assignment by noting your purpose (expository and
analytical) and audience (our class and me)
2. Create/discover ideas by listing, freewriting, clustering, or other creating
activity.
3. Explore possibilities of writing strategies (or modes of development) such as
example and comparison/contrast. Also develop a tentative thesis and optional
rough draft outline.
4. Write a rough draft (or discovery draft).
5. Get some optional feedback/critique from a class peer, instructor, and/or tutor.
6. Edit your essay by working on large scale issues such as content and
organization as well as small-scale issues such as sentences, diction (word
choice/usage), and punctuation and manuscript mechanics.
7. Proofread your essay one last time before submitting it on the due date and time.
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Tips on Organizing Your Essay
Introduction (about three to five sentences)
1. Reveal the authors’ full names and full titles of works you will analyze. (After
the first full reference to an author’s name, use last name only. After the first full
reference to a title, you may shorten subsequent references with a shortened
version of the title. In other words, “The Minister’s Black Veil” can become
“Black Veil.”)
2. Provide pertinent background information that leads up to/ introduces your
thesis.
3. Offer a carefully worded thesis.
4. The thesis can be open or enumerative. An open thesis is general in that it only
reveals which works you will analyze and makes a main point that you will
develop. An enumerative thesis goes further to state your one to three
connecting points in the order you will develop them. (Do not write an
announcement for your thesis: The purpose of this essay is to . . . .)
Body (three or more topic sentence paragraphs that develop the thesis)
1. Write strong topic sentences with controlling ideas related to the thesis. For
example: Both Mary Rowlandson and Young Goodman Brown make a journey
into the forest.
2. Offer plenty of paragraph development/support for your topic sentence (about
five to seven sentences).
3. As part of your paragraph development/support, quote from the primary source
(the literary works). You want to prove your critical thinking assertions on the
literature. Use at least two quotes per body paragraph. Your quotes can be (1)
partial sentence, (2) full sentence, and/or (3) long for an MLA blocked quote. A
long quote is four or more typed lines.
4. Your body paragraphs must contain coherence (sentences flow).
5. Your body paragraphs must also contain unity (all sentences belong, no
divergence).
6. Consider writing a concluding sentence for each of your topic sentence
paragraphs.
7. You have several options to consider when organizing the body of your essay.
You could spend half you essay on the first author/work of literature and the
second half on the second author/work of literature. OR you could create three to
four body paragraphs with each one discussing both authors/works of literature;
each paragraph would be organized by a topic sentence revealing the particular
connecting point you have discovered.
Conclusion (three to five sentences)
1. Give closure to your essay by writing a concluding paragraph.
2. Summarize your essay (but do not repeat the thesis word for word).
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3. Reveal what you have learned about the literature by making your analysis.
4. Write an MLA works cited entry. Your entries can go at the end of your essay
on page three or (if you have used all three pages for your essay, write a work
cited page. Refer to an on-line handbook to write your work cited entries. I
suggest the Diana Hacker Guide to Research and Documentation (ebook on
library homepage). If you used your textbook, you use an entry for an anthology.
If you read your literature on-line, your will have to use correct MLA work cited
format under electronic documentation (for my website). Your works cited entries
are double spaced.
Manuscript Mechanics
1. In your upper right hand corner, create a header with your last name, no comma,
and page number. Use the # feature on your computer under “Insert.”
2. In your upper left hand corner, give the course information in this order (double
spaced: your full name (first name first), your instructor’s name, the course
(English 2327), the date of submission.
3. Bold and center your title. Your title does not go in quotation marks. Do not use
all capitol letters in your title. Remember that your title is part of your
introduction and should engage the reader’s attention. Do not write: An Analysis
of Mary Rowlandson and Young Goodman Brown. Be creative with your title.
4. Do not tamper with your pre-set margins.
5. Your essay is double spaced in Times New Roman point 12.
6. The words Works Cited centered and bold go above your entries.
7. Titles of poems, sermons, essays and short stories go in quotation marks. The
titles of complete books and novels go in italics or are underlined.
A Few Suggestions
1. Avoid summarizing plot (we have all read the literature).
2. Quote with a purpose! You need a direct link between your assertion and
quotation for evidence and development. (Avoid the “dropped quote.”)
3. Save time for editing and proofreading. Recall that the major errors of fragment,
run-on, comma splice, awkward/garbled sentence and subject-verb
agreement are ten points (a letter grade).
5. Use literary terminology when appropriate (terms like conflict, metaphor,
symbol, iambic pentameter).
6. Write in the historical present: Rowlandson writes, or Anne Bradstreet believes
that . . . .
7. Avoid writing jammed quotes (two different quotes jammed together one after the
other). Each quote needs to be introduced.
Integrating Prose Quotations into Your Essay
As part of your essay development, you will want to use passages from the primary
sources for evidence and support. Your take-home essays (between 750 words or three
full pages) require a minimum of six quotations; your in-class essays (minimum of 500
words) require a minimum of four direct quotations.
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Your quotations will be either (1) partial sentence/a few words, (2) full sentence, or (3)
long (more than four typed lines).
1. Partial sentence/a few words:
Rowlandson describes the New England forest as a “vast and desolate wilderness”
(301).
2. Full sentence:
Introduced with a colon:
Rowlandson draws a powerful conclusion: “I have seen the extreme vanity of
this world” (329).
Introduced with a comma:
Rowlandson writes, “My mistress’s papoose was sick, and it died that night,
and there was one benefit in it—that there was more room” (315).
3. Long passage (more than four typed lines): Use MLA blocked quote
formatting.
Although Rowlandson mourns the death of her own child and notes the
indifference the Indians have for that child’s death, she shows no remorse over the
death of her mistress’s papoose. In fact, Rowlandson can note only the benefits of
that child’s death:
My mistress’s papoose was sick, and it died that night, and there
was one benefit in it—that there was more room. I went to the
wigwam, and they bade me come in, and gave me a skin to lie
upon, and a mess of venison and ground nuts, which was a choice
dish among them. (315)
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(Note: The above passage is introduced with a colon, double indented from the
left side, double spaced, and has in-text documentation outside of the period. Do
not single space your blocked quote. Do not double indent your blocked quote
from the right margin.)
Integrating Poetry Quotations into Your Essay
When you quote poetry, you can quote (1) a few words from a line of poetry, (2) a
passage less than four lines, or (3) a long passage of four lines or more. Remember to
use line numbers from the poem for your in-text documentation inside your
parentheses.
1. A few words from a line of poetry:
Bradstreet writes that she has a “mean pen” (3) and writes “obscure lines” (6).
2. A passage less than four lines:
Bradstreet writes, “Men can do best, and women know it well” (40).
Bradstreet writes, “Men can do best, and women know it well / Preeminence is all
and each is yours” (40-41).
(Note: In the above passage, you can divide two lines with a slash by using a
space before and after the dash).
3. Long passage of four or more lines:
For example, Bradstreet fumes:
I am obnoxious to each carping tongue
Who says my hand a needle better fits,
A poet’s pen all scorn I should thus wrong,
For such despite they cast on female wits. (25-29)
Special Problems When Documenting Prose and Poetry
You might encounter special problems as you quote a (1) quote within a quote, (2) a
quote with exclamations and question marks, (3) a passage requiring ellipsis, (4) the
addition of special emphasis, and (5) a passage with original errors, archaic spelling, or
non-standard word usage or punctuation.
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1. A quote within a quote:
Rowlandson writes, “And I hope I can say in some measure as David did, ‘It is
good for me that I have been afflicted’” (329).
2. A quote with exclamations or question marks:
Rowlandson concludes, “If trouble from smaller matters begin to rise in me, I
have something at hand to check myself with and say, why am I troubled?” (32930).
3. A passage requiring an ellipsis:
Rowlandson admits, “I then remembered how careless I had been of God’s holy
time . . . [y]et the Lord still showed mercy to me . . .” (302).
4. A passage requiring special emphasis:
Bradstreet writes, “I am obnoxious [italics mine] to each carping tongue / Who
says my hand a needle better fits” (25-26). The word “obnoxious” (25) reveals her
strong tone, even anger, she feels about males’ perceptions and expectations of
female writers.
5. A passage with original errors, archaic spelling, or non-standard word usage
or punctuation:
A melancholy Faith requests, “[P]ut off your journey until sunrise and sleep in
your own bed to-night [sic]” (1289).
(NOTE: The spelling of “to-night” is an archaic spelling of “tonight.”)
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