P .
E .
E .
How to write a literary essay

• Write a literary essay in 3 easy steps.
• Just remember to P .
E .
E .!
• P .
E .
E . stands for:
P
E
E

P oint
• What is the topic of the paragraph?
• The first sentence must make it clear what the paragraph will be about.
• For example: At the beginning of
“A Christmas Carole,” Scrooge is a nasty and uncaring man.

E
• What words or phrases or events prove or illustrate your point ?
• The next sentence should give evidence from the text. It must relate directly to your p oint !
• For example: Charles Dickens describes him as “hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire”(2).

E
• What does the author want the reader to think or feel by using those words?
• Explain how the e vidence illustrates or proves your p oint .
• For example: This gives the impression that
Scrooge is more like stone or metal than a human being. Dickens uses the simile to point out to the reader how uncaring and mean Scrooge is. It also shows that he is not a warm or generous man and one expects that he will be the villain of the story.

At the beginning of “A Christmas Carole,”
Scrooge is a nasty and uncaring man.
Charles
Dickens describes him as “hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire”(2).
This gives the impression that Scrooge is more like stone or metal than a human being. Dickens uses the simile to point out to the reader how uncaring and mean Scrooge is. It also shows that he is not a warm or generous man and one expects that he will be the villain of the story.