Assignment Overview
The Literary Analysis Essay is a tightly focused argument in which the student is required to 1) make an argument about how literary devices in a short story contribute to its overall meaning, and 2) support your claims with evidence from both the primary and a secondary text.
The Literary Analysis breaks down a work of literature to identify its elements and examine the way they work together, thus discussing or interpreting the work. This essay is neither a summary of the work or biography of the author. Nor is it a critique (an assessment of a creative work that comments on its good and bad qualities) of the short story’s efficacy. Instead students should analyze how the formal components contribute to the meaning of a literary work.
Assignment Outcomes
Engage in critical analysis to focus on how a particular literary devices deployed by the writer contribute to the overall theme.
Write evidence-based literary analyses of literature demonstrating close reading and interpretive skills, logical reasoning, and argumentative strategies.
Craft a focused thesis statement connecting literary devices to meaning.
Support thesis statement with properly cited textual evidence.
Draw on at least one peer reviewed secondary source to complicate or support your thesis.
Identify and analyze literary devices within a short story.
Effectively summarize and paraphrase source material using signal phrases (attributive tags) and parenthetical in-text-citations (MLA format).
Construct properly formatted bibliographical citations (of primary and secondary sources).
Requirements
Length: at least 1,200-1,500 words (Times New Roman, 12 Point Font, Double Spaced, 1” margins = 300 words per page)
Primary source should be “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin; 1-2 Peer-reviewed sources from library databases.
Format: Follow MLA guidelines.
Provide a full bibliographical citation for primary and secondary texts.
