Writing Papers in Literature Courses

Formatting and Quotations:

Word-process your paper, double-spaced, and use a normal (Arial or Times New Roman) 12-point font, with 1-1.25” margins all around, formatted in the MLA style, and stapled.

A title page is not necessary.  In the upper-left-hand corner of the first page, type your name, the course number, the professor’s name, and the date.  (This is also double-spaced.)

Choose a title that clearly describes your topic and/or approach; do not simply use the title of the work(s) you are writing about.

Several spaces below your last paragraph, you should include a Works Cited section.  Since you are going to be referring to several sources from the same anthology, and since secondary sources are not required, the section will look like this (also double-spaced if more than one line):

Gardner, Janet E., et al, eds.  Literature: A Portable Anthology.  Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004.

Whenever you quote prose, cite the quotation; that is, offer the page number(s) from which the quote is taken.  For example,

Antonia’s health is clearly evidenced by brown skin and the “glow of rich dark color” in her cheeks (959).

If you quote from the same page or two pages more than once, cite the page(s) only once, after the final quotation.

If you’re quoting poetry, give both the line number(s) and the page number(s) of quotations.  If you quote three lines or less, integrate them into your on-going text, but be careful to preserve the line breaks and the poet’s capitalization:

Like the speaker in Frost’s “Birches,” most of us have at times found experiences “too much like a pathless wood / Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs / Broken across it” (ll. 44-46, p. 511).

But if you’re quoting four lines or more, indent (one inch or two tabs) and do not use quotations marks around the lines themselves:

In the latter part of “Birches,” the speaker eloquently articulates what it is about experience that sometimes causes him to wish that he could flee the world that so harasses and overwhelms him:

It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig’s having lashed across it open.  (ll. 42-47, p. 511)

See pages 1296-1300, 1320-1321, and 1327 in Gardner for more information about quotations.

Other Conventions When Writing About Literature:

As much as possible, use the present tense when referring to action that takes place in a literary text’s dramatized present—e.g. Edna’s instability is emphatically revealed when she writes to her husband.

Underline or italicize the title of any work long enough to be printed separate: a novel, a play, a collection.

Put “quotation marks” around the titles of poems, short stories, essays, and other works not of book length.

Refer to the author by his or her full name when you first mention him or her; then by his or her last name only.

Identify clearly in the opening paragraph the author(s) and title(s) of the work(s) you are discussing, even if your title does so.  This is optional for “synthesis” types of papers.

Insert the author’s name into a citation if there is any doubt about who the author is—e.g. I profoundly disagree with the claim that the ending of the novel “asks the reader to accept a different and diminished Edna from the one developed so impressively before” (Spangler 187).

If you interject your words into a quotation, indicate this by enclosing your words with brackets [ ], not parentheses ( ).

If you omit words from a quotation, indicate this with ellipses . . . (spaced periods).

Other Writing Strategies:

Think of your reader as a classmate who knows the text well, so that you don’t need to summarize the plot, but also as someone who has not put the time on the subject you’re confronting that you have.

If you must summarize the plot, try to blend interpretation with summary.

Think of your essay as an argument.  You need to state what you think and then explain why you think the way you do.

Use textual evidence—references to plot elements, paraphrases, and quotations—to support your points, particularly when they are arguable, so that the reader can tell why you draw the conclusions you do.

CHECK your claims against the facts of the text(s).  The assertion of what you think should be in a text without checking to see if it’s really there is the single greatest cause of bad grades in literature analysis papers.

Use a balanced tone, avoiding flippancy, excessive anger, or praise, as well as pretension.  Don’t strain to be eloquent.  If you’re deeply involved with a work, your paper will show it.  It is fine to use the first person singular (“I”) occasionally, especially if it avoids clumsy passive constructions.  Try to write in your own voice.

Edit and proofread carefully, looking for and correcting errors—sentence fragments, run-on sentences, comma spliced sentences, spelling errors, and errors in grammar and usage.  It’s fine to make small, last-minute corrections of typos with pen or pencil.

SAVE the paper on your hard drive (and a disk) and make an extra copy.  They can get lost.

Finally:

I encourage you to call, email, or set up a meeting with me at any time if you have questions about your paper.  I can try to offer some direction based on your topic, and we could even brainstorm ideas together if needed.

Your essay will be evaluated based on (1) the clarity of your argument, (2) the clarity of your main ideas, (3) the strength of your explanations and evidence, (4) the structure, and (5) the use of language with respect to grammar, punctuation, spelling, and mechanics.