Writing Literary Essays Unit

Dr. Gian Pagnucci

Writing Literary Essays Unit Overview

This unit focuses on teaching you how to write an effective literary essay.

Writing Literary Essays Unit Materials

• eJournal: Themes in Your Personal Novel

• Guidelines 1: Writing a Literary Analysis

  • Slide Show: Writing a Literary Analysis

• Guidelines 2: Selecting Literary Topics

• Activity: Getting Started with Your Essay

• Assignment: Literary Analysis Essay

Literary Analysis Structure

• Guidelines 3: Basic Structure of a Literary Analysis

• Guidelines 4: Detailed Structure of a Literary Analysis

• Guidelines 5: Fill-in-the-blanks Steps to Writing a Literary Analysis

• Guidelines 6: Tips on Writing a Literary Analysis

Thesis Statements & Effective Paragraphs

• Guidelines 7: Writing Effective Literary Thesis Statements

• Guidelines 8: Effective vs. Ineffective Literary Thesis Statements

• Guidelines 9: Writing Effective Paragraphs

Sample Literary Analysis Essays

• Sample 1: Literary Analysis of Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" (with thesis ideas marked)

• Sample 2: Literary Analysis of Light and Dark Theme in James Joyce's Dubliners (a nice simple example)

  • Discussion of Assignment for Dubliners Analysis

• Sample 3: Literary Analysis of Romeo and Juliet (with explanations of essay parts [called "annotations"])

• Sample 4: Literary Analysis of a Wilfred Owen Poem

• Sample 5: Literary Analysis by Dr. Pagnucci of John Updike's Rabbit Run (it's a bit long but just for fun here's an old paper from when Dr. Pagnucci was a student)

Citation Format (Works Cited Page)

• Modern Language Association (MLA) Citation Style

• In-Text Citations (Parenthetical Citation)

  • In-Text Citations for Author-Page Style

• Works Cited Format for Books

• Guidelines 9: Using Literary Quotations

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