Literary Analysis: A Review
Literary analysis is a method by which…
1. a text is separated into parts
2. those parts are given rigorous, logical, detailed
study
3. the parts are reassembled
4. an insightful interpretation of the whole is given
(adapted from Holman and Harmon’s A Handbook to Literature)
Conventions of Literary Analysis
(adapted from BCCC Tutoring Center doc)
Writing Style
Use formal, academic diction (word choice)…
 No slang, abbreviations, or slashes
 Don’t throw in words from the thesaurus, either!
…without being stiff or awkward…
…striving to be clear, concise, and straightforward!
Conventions of Literary Analysis
Voice
 Write in third person.
 First person (I, me, our, we) and second person (you) are too
informal for academic writing
Conventions of Literary Analysis
Verb Tense
Use “literary present” tense when writing about a text:
 Sullivan Ballou’s letter addresses…
 Lincoln’s speech explores…
Use past tense only when writing about a historical event:
 Ballou wrote the letter while in Washington D.C.
 Lincoln spoke at the dedication of a new war cemetery.
Conventions of Literary Analysis
Titles of Texts
Format these correctly! No excuses!
Longer Works:
Shorter Works:
(novel, newspaper, film, epic poem,
TV Series)
(short story, article, poem, TV
episode, speech)
Underline OR Italicize
Use “Quotation Marks”
Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard
“Harrison Bergeron”
The Daily Mirror
“The General Situation is Favourable”
The Battle of the Somme
“Dulce et Decorum Est”
(the documentary film)
Downton Abbey
“Gettysburg Address”
Conventions of Literary Analysis
Author’s Name
 First time, use author’s first and last name
 Abraham Lincoln
 Every time thereafter, the last name will suffice
 Lincoln
Conventions of Literary Analysis
Quote “Blending” (Quotation Integration)
A Single Word or Short Phrase Incorporate it fully into
the syntax of your sentence
 Lincoln entreats his people to keep fighting so that those
who have already died in the war “shall not have died in
vain.”
 The people must be “dedicated to the great task” of
keeping the nation alive, whatever the cost; even though
Lincoln does not state it explicitly, he implies that more lives
must be sacrificed so that the nation “shall not perish from
the earth.”
Conventions of Literary Analysis
Quote “Blending” (Quotation Integration)
A Longer Phrase or Complete Sentence Use a “signal
phrase” to introduce it
 Lincoln invokes the power of the location by saying, “We
are met on a great battle-field of that [the civil] war.”
Conventions of Literary Analysis
Quote “Blending” (Quotation Integration)
An Entire Sentence that is Most Powerful if Kept Whole
Introduce it with a sentence of your own and a colon
 Ostensibly, Lincoln’s task is to give a formal dedication of
the new war cemetery, but he subverts that expectation by
contending that it is an impossible task: “But, in a larger
sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can
not hallow this ground.” Lincoln has deliberately shifted the
focus of his speech to the soldiers…