By Jessica Johnson
Literary analysis presumes the interpretation of a literary workwith further formulation of the writer's peculiar opinion aboutthe subject of analysis. Such form of writing is frequentlyreferred to as literary criticism. It is possible to formulatethe essence of literary criticism (or literary analysis) asdiscussion, comparison and evaluation of literary works. Writerof the literary analysis essay should demonstrate creative andoriginal style, impressing the reader with new ideas and freshinterpretation of the discussed work. Discussion of the newpoints using the professional and persuasive languagedemonstrates interest to the topic and involves the reader.
Literary analysis essay should begin with identification of thecriticized work and its author. In case the writer chooses tocompare several literary works, all authors and works should bespecified. Introductory paragraph should also contain sometransitional sentences that precede a clearly stated thesis. Thethesis statement should reflect the attitude of a writerlogically and clearly. It is highly preferable to formulate thethesis in the form of an affirmative sentence.
Usually the main point of a literary analysis essay is todevelop certain themes and ideas, so the writer should state,what ideas and issues does the story deal with, and whatthoughts it provokes. All in all, literary analysis essaysshould include the following information: the title of theliterary work, its author and genre (for instance, realistic,romance, sci-fi, murder mystery, adventure, gothic, fantasy,horror, detective, etc.).
In some cases it is necessary to incorporate certain elements ofthe plot (story line) into the report, especially if theseelements are connected with the main ideas the writer developsin his essay. The writer may need to retell the content of thedescribed work in brief. In case the essay is short, it ispreferable to state the information about content of the book inone paragraph. In other cases it is possible to extend thedescription and incorporate it into the structure of otherparagraphs of an essay. The same concerns main characters: thewriter is free to describe them to whatever extent he thinks itis necessary if that does not make the text overloaded withunnecessary details and difficult to read.
The writer should carefully select the quotes and make sure thatthe quotes are included into the structure of an essay. Thereader should understand where the action is taking place, andto this reason the writer should properly describe the situationand acting personages before putting a quote.
As well as with all other types of essays that presume statementof the personal opinion, it is essential for the writer tosubstantiate his point of view, support it by the sound andplausible arguments that is able to persuade the reader toaccept the writer's position. In case of the literary analysisessay, each argument or critical statement of the writer shouldbe supported with properly referenced quotations from thecriticized literary work. Again, it is important to make theessay look balanced and professional by using differenttechniques: long/short quotations, paraphrasing, retelling, etc.It is important that each quotation does not stand aside fromthe entire text. The writer should express his personalattitudes and criticize each quote in a deliberate way.
The writer should demonstrate clear organization and the maximumattention to specific details. Each sentence and word should becarefully considered and coordinated with the general context ofthe essay. Final proofreading is necessary to make sure thateach paragraph promotes or supports the initially stated thesisand to avoid plagiarism/quoting/inconsistency with initialrequirements. The writer should make sure that the essaycontains no boring or uninteresting places with empty words andphrases.
Article Source: www.ArticlesBase.com
