If you are writing about poems, remember that in poetry, while the line is the most essential unit of sound, the unit of meaning is the sentence. If you are writing about fiction, remember that summary alone is worthless. One excellent kind of paper presents a thesis and marshals arguments to support it, not forgetting to mention also the possible arguments against it and to refute them, or concede to them where necessary. In general, the best shape here is a very brief opening statement of your thesis, then several carefully unified paragraphs in support, and finally a restatement, probably in fuller form, of the thesis. A thesis is a sentence that makes an argument says something that has to be proved or back up. When you read or hear a good thesis statement, your reaction will be really? or how do you figure that? or oh yeah? prove it! or that sounds interesting tell me more. In short, a thesis will set up the paper and prepare the reader to consider the evidence.

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Which of the following makes you more willing to read on? ernest hemingway wrote many short stories, some of which are as famous as his novels. Hemingway's short stories achieve through compression and understatement emotional effects as powerful as any he achieved in his novels. Another excellent kind of paper might be called a process paper one in which you allow your reader to participate with you in the process of your thinking and feeling. In this kind of paper, you might begin by saying what it is you want to look for or examine, and then lead the reader through a step by step journey of discovery perhaps the examination of a text piece by piece, or even if it's short enough line by line, or sentence by sentence.

Don't call it final paper that gives no relevant information don't give it the name of the work you're writing about and and avoid sweeping titles like wordsworth or man's place in nature ! aim for an unpretentious descriptive title, like nature imagery in three poems by modern poets or hemingway's implied attitude toward lady brett. Adjust your title to the actual paper that gets written, just as you will need to adjust your opening paragraph. But don't spend a lot of time on it acknowledge its obviousness, perhaps by a word like clearly.

Don't worry that something that you 160 've just figured out will be obvious or familiar to someone else. Even if this should be the case, it's still a pleasure for the reader to share in another person's discovery of it. A good general principle to maintain your confidence is that if you find something interesting enough to say carefully, it'll be interesting enough for your reader.

An ideal paper is one in which the writer discovers something and shares his or her pleasure in the discovery with a reader. The discovery may be an interpretation of a challenging story or poem or portion thereof , or it may just be the discovery of what you really think about something or other. How do i know what i think until i see what i've said, churchill is supposed to have said. To discover your own considered opinion or valuation of the work you're writing about is a satisfying outcome to a paper. It goes without saying that the views and interpretations you offer are yours, doesn't it? so there's no need for such boring and weasily phrases as it seems to me or in my opinion. Use it where appropriate remembering, however, that a paper of literary commentary is not a piece of autobiography, so that your private self should not be in the foreground. But if you were told in school not to use i, forget that advice! the pompousness of locutions like the present writer is ludicrous in a student paper. the only kind of originality that matters at all is finding the source of your ideas and feelings within yourself: being true to that origin.

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In a class paper, it doesn't in the least matter if what you say has been said before. In any case, it's not been said in the same way, and the study of literature should surely have brought home to you that the way of saying something is part of its meaning. Use concepts and terms you've worked with for poetry: tone, diction, imagery, paraphrase, metrics, etc. Paraphrase, for example, should be used selectively, when a line or sentence has a tricky meaning, or a meaning you're uncertain of but want to spell out as best you can. It would be tedious to automatically paraphrase every bit of poetry you wrote about. In writing about fiction, you will find more interesting things to say if you focus on characterization rather than characters. Writing about characters too often means writing as though they were real people, speculating about what happened before or after the action of the book or story, and other imponderables like that.

Characters in a work of fiction are not real people, but rather careful constructs that resemble real people. Focussing on characterization means studying how the writer presents the character what selection of detail is used, what mixture of direct showing to indirect telling, what implied valuations are being made, and the like. Rule of thumb: when you quote supporting passages from the text being discussed, never let the quotation just lie there on the page inertly make use of it, put it to work 160 point to specific features or details or words in it, say what you see, what it is that makes you want to let the reader have it before him. It's no good in a class paper saying to yourself that the reader can surely work out the point for himself: in this context, it's up to you to do the work. After all, one of your purposes is to persuade your instructor/reader that you yourself can see. avoid plot summary for its own sake. whatever may have been the case in high school, in college literature courses you get no particular credit for simply having read and followed the contents of a poem or story or novel.

Thus, sentences or paragraphs in which you simply recount what happens or what is said are of no value in a paper about literature. exception: if a piece of writing is really tricky to decipher and you feel you've succeeded in doing so after some effort, it may be appropriate to lay your cards on the table. And say what you make out, citing the evidence. summarizing content in order to make a point in your argument. On the other hand, is an entirely different matter and is very much an appropriate part of papers. Provided that you subordinate the summary to a critical point that you are making. Compare:

serve

to repeat: summary should always be ofered as a way of supporting a point you are making about the story or poem. Ideally, there should be no 160 neutral narrative sentences about the characters or the action, such as ferris goes to visit his wife or the duke then conducts his visitor downstairs. Instead, all such bits of summary should be in support of an interpretative point or comment: when ferris goes to visit his wife, he discovers that. Or the duke's unpertured courtesy of manner can be heard as he invites his visitor to 'go / together down' with him, etc. To put it another way: do not 160 write a paper about the characters in a story instead write about the story itself its words, its shaping or organization, its high points, symbolism, etc. for more advanced students: an aspect of writing both poetry and prose that well repays attention and which will often yield valuable observations about authors' style is their syntax. For some beginning observations, click here. even if you're laboring worriedly to find plausible things to say in your papers, it still might be profitable to you to examine your style and perhaps loosen it a little.

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Avoid horrors such as the present writer ! offer your opinions freely, where relevant, but don't apologize for them with phrases like in my personal opinion or it seems to me. It goes without saying that your writing expresses you personal opinions, doesn't it? write informally but without slang. You don't want to sound like a self important pompous ass, but neither are you shooting the bull over a six pack. Student writers should make some effort or at least be aware of the desirability of an effort towards achieving a more than pedestrian style. Grammatical competence is something to be assumed as present, at this level of study. But what about a spark of liveliness in the writing? maybe the following questions will help you move in the right direction.

have you read your paper out loud, listening for awkward repetitions and try to hear if the sound flows and if the sentences sound like a college educated person? if you can, get a friend willing to listen and follow your meaning, and then keep watching his or her face for signs of bewilderment or of pleased comprehension.

a suggestion: it might be helpful to read a page of some author whose style you admire and find congenial just before you write or revise your own work. Leavis, hugh kenner, guy davenport, jonathan williams, henry james, tom wolfe, roland barthes via richard howard , james baldwin, william empson. Be duly embarrassed if you make more than an occasional blunder such as lack of subject verb agreement. Aim for standard educated english but let's all remember that educated speakers and writers make such errors often enough, and correctness of this kind is a secondary consideration.