Literary Analysis Essay
Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”
Prompt: How does Shirley Jackson use details of setting and character to create tension in the lottery?
Step 1: write your thesis.
Step 2: write your claims.
Step 3: Write your body paragraphs (at least three) using TIQA
Step 4: Write your introduction.
Step 5: Write your conclusion.
 Step 1-Thesis: Your thesis should consist of a topic and limiting ideas. It should never be a question. The
thesis is the answer to a question that seems important to you.

How does Shirley Jackson use details of setting and character to create tension in “The Lottery”?
 Thesis – In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” Jackson creates tension by
____________________, ____________________, and ____________________.

The thesis is a road map for your readers to follow your argument. It should do the organizing for
you.
 Step 2-Claim:
Since a paragraph is a group of sentences that share a single idea, the claim must have two parts:
CLAIM & LIMITING IDEA
 Examples:
1. Topic = Diction Limiting Idea = shows hesitation and fear
 Shirley Jackson creates tension by using diction that shows hesitation and fear.
2. Topic = Order of Events Limiting Idea = build to the final immoral ending
 Shirley Jackson creates tension through the order in which she tells the story, building to the final
immoral ending.
 Step 3-Body Paragraphs using TIQA:
Your body paragraphs will provide a topic sentence (this is your claim). The rest of t he paragraph will
provide context for data from the text. Then you will provide that data. After the data, you will warrant
how it supports your thesis statement. DO NOT merely tell your reader what the quote means; this can
lead to summary. You need to analyze.

Follow TIQA:
Topic sentence: this is your CLAIM
Introduce quote: put the quote into context
Quote: provide your quote
Analyze: explain to the reader the importance of the quote and how it supports your topic sentence
Transition sentence: transition from the first example to your second example
Introduce quote: introduce your second piece of evidence
Quote: provide your second quote
Analyze: analyze your second quote, and if possible, tie the two pieces of evidence together to make a
larger argument.

Example:
Topic Sentence: In her school without walls, Miss Moore provides a hands-on education that forces the
students to discover new knowledge.
Introduce Quote: After sitting around for a while in the impoverished neighborhood, Miss Moore tells
her students to get into a cab, which delivers them to the classroom for the day: FAO Schwarz. While in
the cab, Miss Moore
Quote: "hands [Sylvia] a five dollar bill and tells [her] to calculate 10 percent tip for the driver" (2).
Analysis: Miss Moore uses the cab ride as a teachable moment. This is a sign of a great teacher. Miss
Moore does more for Sylvia in those few moments than probably most of Sylvia's math teachers at
school. Typically American education assumes that knowledge can be jammed into a student's mind.
Miss Moore provides a practical basis for the knowledge and allows the student to come to it on her
own.
Transition: Using teachable moments and hands-on education works for Miss Moore more effectively
when she applies these teaching strategies to greater life lessons, such as the lesson on dispelling the
American dream.
ETC…
 Step 4-Introduction:
Your introduction paragraph is the first paragraph for your essay. It is best to start with something
general. You want to grab your reader's attention. Then you want to inform your reader about what you
are writing. You want to finish the introductory paragraph with the argument for the paper--the thesis.


Attention-Getter: different ways to write an attention-getter:
1. rhetorical question (question that does not require an answer)
2. relevant quote from an outside source
3. relevant quote from the story
4. fact or statistic
5. description of initial response to the work
6. shocking or amusing generalization.
Example from a student's paper on "The Cask of Amontillado"
Murder! Is this a right way to get back at someone? Montresor believes it is in Edgar Allan Poe's "The
Cask of Amontillado." In the story, Montresor tells the reader that he was insulted by Fortunato. It is
because of this insult that Montresor has vowed revenge. He finds Fortunato on the streets during
carnival and lures him into his family's catacombs under the pretense of having Fortunato test wine.
Once they are in the catacombs, Montresor chains Fortunato to a wall of granite and buries him
alive. Montresor was able to achieve this murder because of his ability to manipulate Fortunado, his
knowledge of Fortunato’s weeknesses, and his intelligence of how to plan out his revenge.
Attention-Getter
Necessary Info (author's full name, title of work, and brief plot summary)
Thesis
 Step 5~Conclusion:
Your conclusion should not merely be a summary. Rather, it should restate and re-emphasize your thesis.
It should show the importance of the analysis that you have been making in the paper. You should also try
to provide a clincher, which might come back to your attention-getter.