Conflicted and Confused Non Traditional College Student: Literary Analysis Essay Frustration

by Crystal
(Illinois)

I need essay help with developing a better understanding of what is expected from a literary analysis essay.

I get the interpretation part of it and the idea that I am attempting to explain and/or persuade an audience of that interpretation but the layout has gotten me frustrated and confused.

• Do you proceed with a literary analysis essay as you would with a narrative or persuasive essay? Intro. Three ideas supporting thesis. Conclusion. Or is it more complicated than that?
• Do you include a brief summary of the literary piece or assume the audience is familiar with it?
• Do you include information about the author?

Uggghhhh?! See what I mean?

While I loved my instructor in English Comp I, this session my instructor approaches literary analysis as if it is a mystery to be solved by the best and brightest.

Perhaps, it is because I am a nontraditional student but I feel like I need the fundamentals first.

Tell me what to include, in what order, show me or better yet provide me an example to help me understand.

I mean isn't the purpose to LEARN how to write a literary analysis?

Please help me. This class has me questioning whether or not I am even up to returning to school after nearly fifteen years. Any assistance you could provide would be appreciated.

Linda responds:

Your instructor probably thinks of you as one of the best and brightest, Crystal. You did a superb job of explaining your problem so I know exactly what essay help you need.

If I posted sample essays, lazy students would copy them and submit them as their work. Some would be dumb enough to turn my sample essays in to me! I'll confine myself to some general essay help appropriate to your situation.

You can assume your reader has read the work you are discussing. On first reference include the author's full name and the full title of the work you are discussing. You don't need to discuss the author's bio in your body paragraphs unless that information is relevant to your essay's thesis.

The planning process for a literary analysis is identical to planning any other persuasive essay (which I call thesis and support essay).

Although my page about writing a literary analysis is written for teachers, you'll be able to understand the organization from the examples of a skeleton outline™ for a general topic and one for a literary analysis topic.

As you suspected, the overall organization is like the persuasive essay, too. The three body paragraphs are a planning device, to make sure you have enough (but not too much) to say. (You can skim the page on making an outline for more info.) When you actually write, you may well need more than a single paragraph to allow you to present your idea fully.

I think the really tricky part of the literary analysis is getting the right size working thesis. The longer the literary work, the harder it is to get a small enough topic to write about without killing yourself. If you look at my page about a literary research paper, you'll see the kind of working thesis a bright person like yourself could come up with after reading Pride and Prejudice.

If you have follow-up questions, you can come back and post them as comments on this page, Crystal. Anyone who can explain an issue as well as you can is welcome in my classes any time.