I need a paper about the lesson by Toni Cade Bambara, and please follow exactly what she says. She’s very weird about instructions that the teacher
do not summarise the story. The story needs to be analyzed, and how should the story be understood? Do not summarize it. Do not tell what happened in the story.
When writing a literary analysis or literary research paper, you need to incorporate sources into your essay to help you develop your point. They will provide examples and/or support for your analysis of the short story. These sources can be the story itself and/or outside sources providing literary criticism to be included in a research paper. When you include sources in your essay, you must do so smoothly to create fluidity within your paper, helping the reader to understand your train of thought. You can accomplish this goal through a summary, paraphrase, or direct quotation of the short story and outside sources.
here’s an example of the work cited Baldwin, James. “Sonny’s Blues.” Compact Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, 9th Ed.,
edited by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell, Cengage, 2018, 547-555.
Faulkner, William. “Barn Burning.” 1938. MindTap Literature 2.0, Cengage, 2018, 1-18, PDF.
Accessed 25 June 2023.
As explained in Mastered Skills under the Course Information, you will be applying what you already know about writing essays to writing two literary analysis essays.
A literary analysis essay does not simply summarize a short story by telling what happens in it or what it is about but interprets and analyzes it. In other words, you should “discuss the meaning of the work from a close reading of the text itself” by examining the five elements of fiction. “Give your view of how one or more of the elements of the work…contribute to the whole,” (Raimes, Ann. Universal Keys for Writers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004.) You should state the conclusion you have reached regarding the deeper meaning behind the story in relation to the element(s) of fiction you have chosen, and use excerpts from the story in the form of quotations, paraphrases, and summaries to help support your interpretation. In essence, you are trying to persuade me that your analysis of the text is correct. To illustrate, you can identify the conflicts in a story and explain how they lead to the climax of the story; you can characterize a character in the story and explain how he or she, as a result, contributes to the conflicts and/or theme; or you can indicate what you believe the theme of the story is and explain how the plot, characterization, setting, and/or point of view contribute to it. You can find additional information about and an example of literary analysis essays under Web Links.
Title: Make sure the title is in the center of the page. The title of your essay should be interesting and indicate the specific subject of your essay, for example, The Conflicts in “Barn Burning.” It should not simply be the title of the story, for example, “Barn Burning.” Your title should not be in quotation marks and should not be underlined. However, if your title includes the title of the story, you should follow the punctuation rules for a short story, which means that it should be in quotation marks. Your title should not be in bold or all caps, but the first letter only of all major words should be capitalized. If you have a main title and a subtitle, separate them with a colon, for example, “Barn Burning”: Sarty’s Choice.
Paper Format: All writing assignments must be computer generated. Do not include a title page. On the first page of your essay, an inch from the top of the page, you should type your name, my name, course name, and the date (i.e. 17 January 2023) in the top left hand corner. (In some of the example essays, you may see different information in the top left-hand corner. For your papers, please provide the information indicated here on your essays and if you are asked about it on any quizzes or exams.) The title should appear right below this information, and your essay should appear right below the title. While you should center your title as indicated in the section above, the text of your essay should be set to the left of your page, not right aligned, justified, or centered. Your entire essay should be double spaced, including the information in the top left-hand corner. (Rather than hitting the enter key twice to create double spacing, please use the tools provided by your program to make your essay double spaced. For example, in the home tab, I would look at the section labeled “Paragraph” to set my document to double space.) Besides the space caused by your double spacing the entire essay, do not include extra space after the information in the top left-hand corner, between your title and your essay, and between your paragraphs. (To ensure that Microsoft Word does not add extra space whenever you hit the enter key, select or highlight your entire essay, click on the spacing tab in the section labeled “Paragraph” on the home tab, and click Remove Space Before and After Paragraph if these options appear. If they do not, your essay is probably spaced correctly.) Your last name and the page number should appear a half inch from the top of the page in the top right-hand corner of each page, even the first page. (You can accomplish this by using the Header and Insert options in your word processing program.) All four margins should be one inch wide. You are required to use Times New Roman and 12 pt. font for all of your writing assignments. Your literary analysis essays should be 2-4 pages long (no shorter than 2 full pages and no longer than 4 full pages). If your essay does not meet the minimum page requirement, your grade will be lowered one letter grade per page you are short. (Refer to the How to Properly Format Your Essays video under course documents in which I show you how to follow these steps.)
Identify the Author and Title: Your introduction paragraph should identify the author(s) and title(s) of the work(s) you will be analyzing in your essay. (You should not indicate the title of the textbook where the stories are located (i.e. Compact Literature.) The first time you mention the author, you should use his/her first and last names. After the first time, you can refer to the author by his or her last name only (i.e. Faulkner). Do not refer to the author by his or her first name only (i.e. William). Also, do not use a title, such as Mr., Mrs., or Miss, when referring to the author (i.e. Mr. Faulkner).
Thesis Statement: Your thesis statement should appear at the end of your introduction paragraph. It should identify the topic and what you will specifically discuss about it. In other words, make sure the thesis sentence identifies the character and/or element(s) of fiction you will focus on and explains the conclusion you have reached regarding that topic and the deeper meaning behind the story, for example,
In “Barn Burning,” Sarty is in conflict with himself because he must choose between being loyal to his family and doing what he believes is right.
If your thesis lacks focus, your essay will also.
Quoting: For your literary analysis essays, you cannot quote, paraphrase, or summarize from any outside sources, which refers to any texts other than the story itself, or the headnote regarding the author, his or her biography, and literary career. These essays will only contain your own interpretations. If I determine that you took any information, no matter how big or small, from an outside source and included it in your essays, you will receive a zero for that paper and will not be able to resubmit the essay. I will be using SafeAssign, a program provided by Blackboard, that detects plagiarism to help reveal when someone has used outside sources in his or her literary analysis essays when he or she was required not to do so. (See the syllabus for a more detailed explanation of the college’s policy regarding academic dishonesty.)
For both types of essays—the literary analysis essay and the research paper—you are required to quote, paraphrase, and summarize parts of the story itself that will help you to explain and support your thesis. Anything that you quote word for word should have quotation marks around it. If you quote something that is already in quotation marks, you must use single as well as double quotation marks, so your reader understands that you are quoting dialogue. To illustrate, “’No!’ Harris said violently, explosively. ‘Damnation! Send him out of here!’” (Faulkner 270). (You can go to the Short Stories folder under course documents and click on the link for “Barn Burning” to see how this quote appears in the story and how I have added quotation marks to the text.) (Note that the single quotation marks go inside the double quotation marks.) For all quoted, paraphrased, and summarized parts of the story, you must use in-text citations, which usually is the author’s last name and the page number the information is found on in parenthesis, for example, (Faulkner 270). This would appear at the end of the quote, paraphrase, or summary before the period. (You can see an example of this by looking above seven lines.) If you include the author’s name in the sentence, you only need the page number in the in-text citation. For example, Faulkner depicts the conflict between self and others (270). Punctuation marks, such as semicolons, periods, and commas, go after the in-text citation marks. (If you do not have an in-text citation at the end of the sentence because it is not required based upon the circumstances surrounding the sentence, these punctuation marks go inside the quotation marks.)
Make sure you create a smooth transition into your quotes, so they seem a part of your essay, not like you just threw them in. For example, you can use a phrase like Sarty explains…. Also, if you introduce your quote with a phrase like Sarty explains, you must capitalize the first word of the quote, for example, Sarty explains, “He aims for me to lie” (Faulkner 270). On the other hand, if your quote is part of the flow of the sentence, you do not have to capitalize the first word of the quote. To illustrate, Sarty “did not look back” (Faulkner 281). If you have a complete sentence before a quote, use a colon to introduce the quote. For example, Sarty knows his father wants Sarty to choose loyalty even if it means he cannot tell the truth: “He aims for me to lie” (Faulkner 270).
If the words in the text you are quoting are in italics, you must type it the same way. If the text has a grammatical or spelling error, you must type it with the error and put [sic] next to the error. However, you do not have to use [sic] when the author uses dialect in the story. (See the dialogue in “Barn Burning” for an example of this.) If you alter capitalization or insert words into a quote, use brackets to indicate such, for example, “[t]he.” If you omit words from a quote, insert ellipses where the words are supposed to be, but make sure that the words you omit will not change the meaning of what the author is saying. To understand the use of ellipses, review the following example: “He aims for me to lie …. And I will have to do hit” (Faulkner 270).
If a quote is more than four typed lines long, you must use block format.
At the end of your literary analysis essay, you must include a work cited page with the story you have chosen listed on it following MLA guidelines. Refer to the last section of Incorporating Sources in the week two assignment folder or on the course documents page for an explanation of the MLA guidelines and examples of how to document the stories on that page. You can see examples of work cited pages when you look at some of the essays written by my previous students in the Example Essays folder on the course documents page.
MLA Format: You must use the Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines for formatting your essay, the in-text citations, and your works cited page. (See the direction and topic suggestions for the literary analysis essay, the How to Properly Format Your Essay video, and Incorporating Sources to learn what these guidelines are and how to follow them.)
Verb Tense: Consistently use present tense throughout your essay when referring to literature. You should only use past tense when you are referring to history or biographical information.
Avoid Informal Writing: Because your literary analysis essays and research paper are academic writing, you must use formal language. In other words, avoid using contractions, such as don’t, can’t, I’ll, and I’m, in your essays. Do not use slang, profanity, sexist language, and clichés unless what you are quoting uses these examples of informal writing.
Avoid Summaries and Biographies: Do not simply summarize what happens in the story or tell me what the story is about, for I have read it and know what happens. Also, do not provide the biography of the author unless it relates to your analysis of the story. As explained above, your goal for both types of writings is to literally read and analyze the stories. In other words, you are supposed to read below the surface of the story, so you can understand and then explain to your reader what the author is implying through the plot, characterization, setting, point of view, and/or theme of the story. Once you express the conclusion you reached about the story in your thesis, you must explain how you reached that conclusion in the body of your essay by providing specific evidence from the text to support your interpretation of the story. After you quote, paraphrase, or summarize from the story, you must comment on it to explain how it contributes to your thesis and the point you are making in that paragraph. You should also include the terms related to the elements of fiction, such as structural devices, irony, round, and static, in your essay to help explain how you understand the story. While these stories can be interpreted in a number of distinctive ways, you must provide sufficient logical evidence that supports your argument of how the story should be understood. Otherwise, your reader will not be convinced that your conclusion is correct or at least have merit. How well you explain and support your analysis will determine a significant part of your grade for the writing assignments.
Avoid Personal Feelings: Some of the stories we will be reading will discuss issues that many of you can relate to and/or have personal feelings about. However, you must keep in focus that your goal is to analyze, not to explain how the story made you feel angry, sad, or hopeful. Also, do not come across as if you are preaching to your reader, for example, explaining that spousal abuse is wrong. In addition, you do not need to use phrases like “I believe…,” “I think…,” or “I feel….” This is your essay; it is understood that these are your beliefs, thoughts, and feelings about the story. Also avoid using second person (you and your); however, you can use third person and occasionally use first person.
Four Bases of Effective Writing: In addition to following the proper format, concentrate on unity, support, coherence, and sentence skills, for your essay will be graded based upon these bases of effective writing as well. (You can find a detailed explanation of this grading rubric under Course Information.)
While these essays will be different from the types of essays you wrote in English 119, you can still use what you learned in the previous course for this one. For instance, you probably wrote a cause and effect essay, comparison/contrast essay, division and classification essay, and argumentative essay. You can use these same rhetorical strategies or types of essays in your literary analysis essays. In other words, you can explain the cause and effect relationship between choices a character makes and what happens in the story; you can compare or contrast characters or settings in a story or stories; and you can divide and classify the different conflicts in a story into social, personal, internal, external, emotional, physical, and/or mental struggles. No matter which rhetorical strategy you choose, you will be writing an argumentative essay in essence. In sum, the main difference between the types of essays you will write in this class and those in the previous course is the literary thinking and reading that these essays will require of you
please I am paying a lot of money do not make me fail my assignment it is important to my grade I gave you every little detail.
The Components of a Literary Analysis Essay
Introduction Paragraph
Grab the reader’s attention
Aim for 3-4 sentences that gain your reader’s interests and makes him or her want to read
your essay. The sentences should lead into your summary of the story and the point you will make about it. They should be related to the topic of your essay.
Introduce your topic
Introduce the story. Make sure you indicate its title within quotation marks and its author.
Summary
Aim for 2-3 sentences and only include key events that are relevant to the topic you will
be discussing in your paper.
Thesis statement (claim)
Answer the prompt directly in the final sentence of your introductory paragraph. Indicate
the conclusion you have reached about the literary term(s) you have chosen to focus on in relation to the story. This is your belief about the story that you will try to prove in the body of your essay. Do not phrase it as an announcement, for example, I am going to… or this essay will….
Body Paragraphs
Premise
Your premise (topic sentence) is the first sentence of your body paragraph and is the
reason for your thesis sentence (claim). In other words, it should relate directly back to the thesis and indicate the point of the entire paragraph. You should have a different premise for each new body paragraph.
Introduce evidence
Set the scene for your evidence by providing a brief introduction to the quote. It can be as
simple as a speaker tag or as complex as a complete sentence or integration of the quote into your own sentence. It can also be the beginning of your justification for your analysis.
Evidence
Include direct quotes, paraphrases, or summaries from the story that support your premise
and the claim you are arguing in your paper.
Justification
Justify your thinking. First, explain how each quote, paraphrase, and/or summary support your premise. Then, address how the premise and the quotes, paraphrases, and/or summaries support your claim. One sentence is not sufficient to justify your premise. Explain your reasoning in detail and expand on your quote. Write at least 2-3 sentences for your justification of each quote, paraphrase, and/or summary. Include sentences explaining how the evidence supports the premise and sentences explaining how the evidence supports the claim. Do not use first person pronoun phrases (I think…, I believe…, and I feel…) in your justification; simply state your explanation.
Conclusion Paragraph
Restate thesis (claim)
Refer back to the original thesis statement (claim), but provide it again using different words. Make sure to avoid sounding redundant.
Tie ideas together
Tie the premises that you have made together, showing your reader how each of them are
connected to the other and work together to support your thesis statement (claim)
Mic drop sentence
The “Mic drop” sentence is your final attempt to prove your point.
Key Terms:
Claim—a belief that one sets out to prove
It can be argued and is also known as a thesis statement.
Premise—the reason for believing a claim
It is also known as a subclaim and topic sentence.
Evidence—a fact that supports the premise
It can be a quote, paraphrase, and/or summary directly from the text.
Justification—detailed explanation that connects the evidence to the premise and the claim
Inferences—a logical guess about characters, the setting, and events by recognizing and using
details from the story