Writing Critical Analysis Essays. Dual Enrollment English Courses

Transcription

1 Writing Critical Analysis Essays Dual Enrollment English Courses

2 Critical Analysis of Literature During this semester, you will submit two critical analysis essays that fulfill 30% of your grade for the course. Critical Analysis Essay #1 due March 9. Critical Analysis Essay #2 due April 20.

3 Your Purpose in Writing The purpose of a critical analysis essay is to carefully examine and sometimes evaluate a work of literature or an aspect of a work of literature. The process should help you better appreciate and understand the piece of literature as a whole. It is an argument one that you will need to develop and defend. It is not a research essay (that comes later!), nor is it plot summary. It is your job to establish a thesis and then defend it. Your analysis must include specific references to text, including details that help you defend your position.

4 Your Purpose for Writing You must quote and/or paraphrase at least four specific parts of the text/s you are analyzing in your essay. Use MLA guidelines for these references. For these essays, you will only use the primary sources; you are not to use secondary sources. I will be reading closely to see that your analysis is entirely yours not a combination of you and another literary critic.

5 What to do You will select the piece or pieces you are going to analyze and discuss your topic with me before starting to write. Discuss the effectiveness of a poet s use of an element of imagery to develop theme. Compare/contrast a writer s presentation of a common theme in two separate works. How does a writer use setting to emphasize theme? Analyze a character flaw and the impact that this has on the overall work. Consider what you know of a specific period in American Literature and explain how a particular work reveals the values, morals, or issues of the time.

6 What to do The possibilities are endless, and as we move through our discussions in class, you will understand more fully the directions you might take. For your first essay (due March 9), select one or two pieces that we did not cover in class from one/two of the writers we studied from the beginning of the semester up through February 27 th. I will need your final topic no later than the beginning of class on February 27.

7 An example Walt Whitman Song of Myself stanzas Themes Motifs Symbols Presentation of Self through personal writing Analysis of the author s portrayal of self through different themes, motifs and symbols presented in their writing. Ernest Hemingway Snows of Kilimanjaro Themes Motifs Symbols Protagonists Presentation of Self through personal writing

8 Sample Outline Introduction Hook portrayal of self through various forms Human beings innately communicate the self through various forms Thesis: Walt Whitman and Ernest Hemingway have much in common as American authors; but, their work as individuals and their personal representation of the self is distinctly portrayed through their written works, particularly Whitman s Song of Myself, and Hemingway s Snows of Kilimanjaro, further connecting these author s through characteristic writing styles.

9 Being with Whitman Brief bio Synopsis of Songs as a WHOLE Move into analysis of the specific stanzas 15 Themes Symbols Motifs Portrayal of Self

10 Transition into Hemingway Brief Bio Synopsis of Snows as a WHOLE Move into the big ideas Symbols Motifs Themes Presentation of Self The Protagonist representation of Hemingway?

11 Summation & Conclusion Intertwine the ideals presented for both Hemingway and Whitman Similarities in themes, motifs, symbols Hit BIG TIME on the presentation of Self Revisit the thesis did I prove my argument? Finalize major ideals Leave readers with the big idea Human connection