Your Step-by-Step Guide
Step One: The Prompt
 Your essay should address everything the prompt asks
you to do.
 Turn it into a question! What is the prompt asking?
 Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a
parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter.
Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the
conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the
meaning of the work. Avoid plot summary.
Step Two: The Thesis
 The thesis is your road map for your essay.
 It should answer the question the prompt asks!
 A thesis should have two parts: what and why?
 What are you claiming?
 Why is it important?
 * “Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is a great American
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novel.”
*What’s wrong with this thesis statement?
*An opinion about the book, not an argument.
* “In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast
between life on the river and life on the shore.”
*Better? How so? What is still missing?
*Doesn’t answer the “so what?” question—what is the point
of the contrast? What does the contrast signify?
* “Through its contrasting river and shore scenes, Twain’s
Huckleberry Finn suggests that to find the true expression
of American ideals, one must leave ‘civilized’ society and go
back to nature.”
*Even better?
*It presents an interpretation of a literary work based on an
analysis of it content and answers the “so what” question
Step Three: The Introduction
 The easiest way to write an introduction is to rewrite
the prompt. Use the information given to you!
 Then add specific information from the novel.
 However, DO NOT use your opinion, a large
generalization, or a dictionary definition to start a
literary analysis essay.
 End your introduction with your thesis.
Step Four: Body Paragraphs
 Yay! You have a thesis! Now what?
 Support your thesis with evidence from the text.
 Look for three specific instances, examples, or groups
of evidence that can be turned into body paragraphs.
 You can have 1 paragraph about the river, 1 paragraph
about the land, and 1 paragraph comparing the two.
Body Paragraphs Continued
 UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE SHOULD YOU
WRITE A SUMMARY OF THE PLOT.
 At most, you should have two or three sentences
setting up the situation, FOLLOWED IMMEDIATELY
by analysis.
 What’s analysis? Telling the reader how the
information connects to the thesis and why it is
important.
Step Five: Quotes
 Quotes are your best evidence.
 Quotes should be very short: one or two sentences that
convey a specific bit of information.
 If you use a quote, you must immediately analyze it.
 When you use a quote in your paper, cite it by writing
(Twain 50) at the END OF THE SENTENCE.
Step Six: Conclusion
 Conclusions are difficult.
 Ideally, you’re going to summarize the information
you’ve analyzed and leave the reader with one new
insight.
 The insight should usually connect to a larger theme or
universal truth.
Step Seven: General Essay Tips
 Edit edit edit. Have multiple people read and check
your essay.
 Be as specific as possible. Try to not make a single
generalization.
 Relate everything back to the thesis. Every sentence
should support the thesis somehow.
Forbidden Words
 Pretty
 “Us” or “We” or
 Stuff
“Our”
 You
 You’re
 Your
 Things
 Very
 Really
 A lot
 “I” or “me” or
“my”