READ Guidelines for the Literary Analysis Essay
You will write a literary analysis for your first formal essay assignment. In a literary analysis, we typically ask ourselves two questions:
What textual, literary, or rhetorical features will I analyze in the text?
What do these textual, literary, or rhetorical features reveal or suggest overall?
The thesis statements that we compose tend to answer BOTH of these questions (though not always).
You will all write an essay that analyzes the first chapter – “Train” – of Laymon’s Heavy.
The primary goals of this essay are for you to demonstrate:
careful, critical thinking,
attention to textual detail,
and your ability to introduce, smoothly integrate, and analyze textual ideas in support of a thesis.
We will complete a series of small activities to help build up to your final essay. In other words, we will break your essay-writing down into manageable parts!
Assignment Specifications for the Literary Analysis Essay:
This final essay should include 4-6 well-developed paragraphs (about 3 full pages); it should be typed and double-spaced in 12-point, Times New Roman font; it should include in-text citations and a Works Cited page following MLA format.
As you compose this paper, be sure that you provide brief, quoted passages from the text in EACH body paragraph to support your analysis. Your textual quotes must be properly introduced and cited, and remember to comment on these quotes, explaining how they are relevant to your thesis.
Grading Criteria for Essays (as noted on your syllabus):
The default grade for your essays will be a B.
B Grade: 85%
To earn a B on your essays, I ask you to do ALL the following:
• follow the specific assignment guidelines that I provide.
• compose an introduction that provides appropriate context for your thesis.
• develop a clear thesis to focus and organize your essay; place your thesis at the end of your introduction.
• compose at least three relevant body paragraphs.
• include relevant topic sentences at the beginning of your body paragraphs.
• develop your body paragraphs with relevant quotes, paraphrases, and/or other evidence.
• provide in-text citations for all quotes and paraphrases; place quotation marks around direct quotes.
• engage with, analyze, or discuss the evidence you include in the paragraphs.
• provide a wrap-up sentence at the end of each body paragraph.
• include a relevant conclusion paragraph.
• include a Works Cited page.
• communicate your ideas so they are mostly clear and easy to understand.
• clearly attempt to proofread so that sentences are free of typos.
A Grades: 90% (A-) and 95% (A)
To earn an A- (90%) on your essays, I ask you to do ALL the following:
• do everything listed above under the grade of B (you MUST meet the B criteria before you can earn an A or A-).
• include relevant, smooth transitions at the beginning of your body paragraphs.
• include at least two pieces of specific evidence in most of your body paragraphs.
• introduce and/or “set up” the quotations and paraphrases so they don’t seem to come out of nowhere.
• smoothly integrate your quotations using a mix of the tag and quote-blend methods.
• push your conclusion so it moves beyond your thesis and ends with a memorable final sentence.
For the solid A grade (95%): Also do something creative or advanced in your essay: incorporate imagery throughout the essay, develop a body paragraph using an analogy, integrate and discuss visual evidence, integrate relevant dialogue, write more than three fully developed body paragraphs, or take a very unique approach to your topic.
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