Hi, this is Laura Turner and today I'm going
to talk to you about how to write a literary
analysis paper. I have written lots and lots
of these papers in my life and I feel as though
I can tell you many, many good things about
it. So listen carefully. There are several
ways to go about doing this. But you always
want to start first with choosing a topic
that actually interests you. Something in
the novel or the story that you find to be
strange, that you find to be romantic, that
you find to sort of touch you in some way.
Otherwise, you're going to write a paper that
is pretty bland and boring. So start off with
a topic that interests you and then start
to write down all of your questions about
this topic. Why it interests you, what you
want to get out of reading about other works
that talk about this topic. And then what
I would do is actually take the book and go
through; this is The Sound and The Fury. For
example, if I wanted to write a paper on why
does Faulkner use so many ways different ways
of narrating this novel. That's a really broad
topic. I probably want to pair it down to,
why does Faulkner use italicized passages
in this novel? That's something a little more
specific. So not only choose something that
interests you but also some that is very specific.
Something you can narrow down and latch on
to. And so then go through the novel or the
poem and actually write down or type down
all the passages that you're going to need
to construct your literary analysis paper.
Number two, go to the library or go on line
and find works by other people who've written
about similar subjects as the one that you're
writing about. And take down good examples
from their writings and use them in your own
because it never hurts to figure out what
other people think as well to help you. Also
legitimize your opinion and to back it up
and to contrast it so to have a more varied
paper then just your ideas, you'll have other
peoples ideas as well. Please do not summarized
and explain your position in each paragraph.
Take your opportunity at the beginning to
write out your argument and then give your
explanations, your examples, in your body
of your paragraphs. But don't sort of reiterate
or summarize either the plot of the story
or your argument in each paragraph. Okay?
That will just seem like filler. And then
finally, try to come to a compelling conclusion.
You're not the only one that's written about
this piece of work, you're not the last person
who's going to write about it, so leave the
reader with the idea that you know that there
is more to come to be written about the literary
work that you were analyzing.
