Writing a Literary Analysis

Writing a Literary Analysis

Orienting Evidence, and MLA Formatting & Style Guide

MLA Format

SOURCES

Citing Web Sources

Editor, author, or compiler name (if

available). Name of Site only. Version number, Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available), URL, DOI or permalink. Date of access (if applicable). Hanging indent. Alphabetical order by editor/ author / compiler last name.

• 1" margins all the way around
• Standard font
• 12 pt in size
• Double-space
• Justify/ align left
• Last name & pg # in upper-right header
• Center title
• Indent new paragraphs
• One space after,_punctuation.
• Observe title casing for all texts
• Use quotations for direct quotes and titles of shorter works
• Use italics for titles of longer works
• Use in-text citations for all evidence
• Include Works Cited page

Citing a Page on a Website

For an individual page on a Web site, list the author or alias if known, followed by the information covered above for entire Web sites. If the publisher is the same as the website name, only list it once.

In any field, primary and secondary sources are the foundation of any good academic paper.

Nearly all fields rely on the same secondary sources. In most fields, a primary source is one that the researcher creates their self: a study, survey, interview, observation. This is not the case in Literature, however.

OConnor, Flannery. "A Good

Man is Hard to Find." American Studies at the University of Virginia. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/goodman.html

MLA

• Primary source

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities.

With regard to style and writing, the MLA has its own prescriptions for the mechanics of writing (spelling, punctuation, italics, names, numbers, and titles ), as well as citing.

"Good Repetition"

• Secondary source

Quoting Cont.

/ = Line Break

// = Stanza Break

Short Story: In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the Misfit says, "no pleasure but meanness" (O'Connor).

Poetry: The atmosphere of "The Raven" is ominous (Poe 1-2).

Book: Digging into Literature (Wolfe & Wilder 298).

Keats often makes masterfully subtle use of alliteration: “And with thee fade into the forest dim: // Fade far away, dissolve and quite forget / What thou among the leaves hast never known” (20–22).

Sentence variation is one thing--try to vary sentence structure & word usage, as well as develop (not dwell) on ideas--while signposting is another.

The Thesis

Note -Punctuation

-Line/ page numbers

-the title casing: only important words (i.e. not articles, prepositions, etc.) are capitalized.

1) Interpretive

2) Debatable

3) Supported with textual evidence

4) Explores complexity of text

• Recall an interpretive claim made about Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven".

• How can this be formed into an effective thesis.

• major signposts that signal key aspects of the work, such as purpose, structure, author’s stance, main points, direction of the argument, conclusions.

• linking words and phrases that show connections between sentences and paragraphs.

Quote Integration

Quoting in MLA

Quote / Paraphrase

Present argument/ make claim

• MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation.

(topic sentence)

When do you chose a quote over a paraphrase?

In-text citation

Introduce quote

(signal/intro phrase)

Quote

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).

Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).

Parenthetical Citation

Interpret quote

Full Citation

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. Oxford UP,

1967.

Block Quotes

Long direct quotations consists of quotations that are longer than four lines of prose or three lines of verse

Author surname, First name.

Publication info

Literary Present Tense: The literary present refers to the custom of using present tense verbs when writing about events that take place in a work of fiction. It is correct, for example, to say, that the Grandmother, in O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," is--rather than was--a religious woman.

Hanging indent

Introduce the quote:

Start a new line; indent .05" to the left. No quotation marks. Observe formatting and punctuation from the text. Maintain double spacing. Place citation outside the last sentence. (Cite)

Image by Tom Mooring