10/16/18. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) ENGL 100 Writing Seminar 1. Writing About Literature. What Is an Essay?

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1 The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) ENGL 100 Writing Seminar 1 How to Structure an English Essay Essay Writing: General Writing > Academic Writing > Essay Writing Argumentative Essays: General Writing > Academic Writing > Essay Writing > Argumentative Essays s and ing: General Writing > Academic Writing > s and ing Writing About Fiction: Subject- Specific Writing > Writing in Literature > Writing About Fiction Writing About Literature What Is an Essay? Writing about literature involves: transcending a mere emotional response to the literary work, interpreting and critically analysing the literary work, reflecting on the larger meanings of the literary work, and communicating interpretations and critical analyses of the literary work persuasively. An Essay is a type of expository writing: expository means serving to clarify, to set forth, or to explain in detail. Expository writing requires: a strong, and persuasive development of that. There are three main types of Essays: explication, analysis, and comparison and contrast. 1

2 What Is an Analytical Essay? Essay Structure Analysis comes from the Greek analyein, meaning to break up. Thus, an analytical Essay: separates something into its component parts in order to understand the whole, and breaks the literary work into various parts and then selects one part for close examination. Introductory Body s topic sentence paragraph development (several sentences) transition sentence Concluding Introductory : Attention-Getting Remark Introductory : Attention-Getting Remark The is a statement that grabs the reader s attention from the very beginning of the Essay. It can be: an anecdote, an opinion, a definition, a fact, or a quotation. It should draw the reader in, make the reader interested in the topic, and prompt the reader to read further. In a 2015 lecture about her novel The Handmaid s Tale, Margaret Atwood remarks, Nothing makes me more nervous than people who say, It can t happen here. Anything can happen anywhere, given the right circumstances (qtd. in Miller). The dystopian society Atwood depicts in The Handmaid s Tale is clearly fictional, with its oppressive government and its subjugation of an underclass of women to be handmaids for the ruling class under threat of death. However, the various settings Atwood develops in the novel seem anything but fictional. In fact, Atwood s settings are strikingly familiar, as they bear strong resemblances to everyday places in twenty-first-century western life. Atwood deliberately uses these familiar settings in The Handmaid s Tale to emphasize her contention that the institution of an oppressive governmental régime is a real possibility in the here and now, and not merely the stuff of science fiction. 2

3 Introductory : Contextualizing Information Contextualizing refers to whatever is required to contextualize the thesis, and to help it make sense to the reader. It should be just a few sentences of purely explicatory, factual. It should not include arguments or quotations: save this for the body paragraphs. Introductory : Contextualizing Information In a 2015 lecture about her novel The Handmaid s Tale, Margaret Atwood remarks, Nothing makes me more nervous than people who say, It can t happen here. Anything can happen anywhere, given the right circumstances (qtd. in Miller). The dystopian society Atwood depicts in The Handmaid s Tale is clearly fictional, with its oppressive government and its subjugation of an underclass of women to be handmaids for the ruling class under threat of death. However, the various settings Atwood develops in the novel seem anything but fictional. In fact, Atwood s settings are strikingly familiar, as they bear strong resemblances to everyday places in twenty-first-century western life. Atwood deliberately uses these familiar settings in The Handmaid s Tale to emphasize her contention that the institution of an oppressive governmental régime is a real possibility in the here and now, and not merely the stuff of science fiction. Introductory : Thesis Statement A is a single sentence that clearly and concisely indicates the central argument of the Essay. A is not the same thing as a topic: it must be argumentative; it must take a clear position on some significant issue; and it must answer the questions Why? and/or How?, and not just What?. An effective should be characterized by all four of the Four S s : significant, single, specific, and supportable. Introductory : Thesis Statement In a 2015 lecture about her novel The Handmaid s Tale, Margaret Atwood remarks, Nothing makes me more nervous than people who say, It can t happen here. Anything can happen anywhere, given the right circumstances (qtd. in Miller). The dystopian society Atwood depicts in The Handmaid s Tale is clearly fictional, with its oppressive government and its subjugation of an underclass of women to be handmaids for the ruling class under threat of death. However, the various settings Atwood develops in the novel seem anything but fictional. In fact, Atwood s settings are strikingly familiar, as they bear strong resemblances to everyday places in twenty-first-century western life. Atwood deliberately uses these familiar settings in The Handmaid s Tale to emphasize her contention that the institution of an oppressive governmental régime is a real possibility in the here and now, and not merely the stuff of science fiction. 3

4 Essay Structure Concluding : Thesis Statement Introductory Body s topic sentence paragraph development transition sentence (several sentences) A concluding paragraph should begin with a restatement of the Essay s, using different phraseology from that in the introduction: it provides an extra shade of meaning to the thesis, and it explains the thesis to the reader more comprehensively. It should not be a word-for-word replication of the as articulated in the introductory paragraph, but it should convey the same argument. Concluding Concluding : Thesis Statement Concluding : Contextualizing Information For Atwood, the threat of an oppressive governmental régime like that of Gilead is a real possibility in the twenty-first century. Throughout The Handmaid s Tale, Atwood develops settings that are eerily familiar to those of modern life in the western world to call attention to the fact that Gilead may not be as alien or as far-fetched as some critics have taken it to be. Handmaids as Atwood describes them may not actually exist in the world today, but the point she makes in The Handmaid s Tale is that such oppression may be closer to taking hold than we think. [G]iven the right circumstances, Atwood asserts, it can happen anywhere (qtd. in Miller). A concluding paragraph should review the body paragraphs main points: it provides a final summary of the Essay s contents, and it highlights the totality of the Essay s central argument. 4

5 Concluding : Contextualizing Information For Atwood, the threat of an oppressive governmental régime like that of Gilead is a real possibility in the twenty-first century. Throughout The Handmaid s Tale, Atwood develops settings that are eerily familiar to those of modern life in the western world to call attention to the fact that Gilead may not be as alien or as far-fetched as some critics have taken it to be. Handmaids as Atwood describes them may not actually exist in the world today, but the point she makes in The Handmaid s Tale is that such oppression may be closer to taking hold than we think. [G]iven the right circumstances, Atwood asserts, it can happen anywhere (qtd. in Miller). Concluding : Attention-Getting Remark An is a statement of closure that concludes the Essay in a memorable way. It may include: an assertion of value, a reference back to the introduction, a quotation, a suggestion for a further avenue of study, or an appeal to the reader s own experience. It should not introduce a brand new topic or issue tangential to the Essay s central thesis Concluding : Attention-Getting Remark Essay Structure For Atwood, the threat of an oppressive governmental régime like that of Gilead is a real possibility in the twenty-first century. Throughout The Handmaid s Tale, Atwood develops settings that are eerily familiar to those of modern life in the western world to call attention to the fact that Gilead may not be as alien or as far-fetched as some critics have taken it to be. Handmaids as Atwood describes them may not actually exist in the world today, but the point she makes in The Handmaid s Tale is that such oppression may be closer to taking hold than we think. [G]iven the right circumstances, Atwood asserts, it can happen anywhere (qtd. in Miller). Introductory Body s topic sentence paragraph development transition sentence (several sentences) Concluding 5

6 Essay Structure Body s: Topic Sentence Introductory Body s topic sentence paragraph development (several sentences) A topic sentence is a succinct opening sentence that gives the main idea of the body paragraph. A topic sentence is a kind of mini thesis for that paragraph only. It is directly related to the Essay s main thesis: a component, an aspect, or a sub-argument. transition sentence Concluding Body s: Topic Sentence Body s: Development In the opening scene of the novel, Offred describes the handmaids sleeping quarters, which had once been a school gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, Atwood writes, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there (3). Previously a place of fun and recreation, the gymnasium now contains rows of army cots (4) where the handmaids silently languish between appointments with their Commanders. That it is still obvious to Offred that her bedroom was once a gymnasium suggests that the Gilead régime converted it quickly; in fact, Offred thinks she can still smell the pungent smell of sweat hanging in the air (3). Atwood is suggesting here that oppressive régimes can take hold anywhere and with little warning, transforming even a happy and carefree place like a gymnasium to something oppressive and sinister. Body paragraphs should develop the topic sentence through various methods of development: examples, illustrations, quotations, or evidence. Body paragraphs provide details and quotations from the work under consideration to back up the interpretation of the work as articulated in the thesis: direct and indirect quotations, and long and short quotations. Avoid plot summary: assume the reader is already familiar with the work under consideration, and focus instead on interpretation and analysis. 6

7 Body s: Development Body s: Development POINT ILLUSTRATION EXPLANATION TRANSITION Remember the acronym PIE : Point i.e., the topic sentence Illustration long and/or short, direct and/or indirect quotation(s) from the primary and/or secondary source(s) Explanation connecting the point and illustration to the central thesis In the opening scene of the novel, Offred describes the handmaids sleeping quarters, which had once been a school gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, Atwood writes, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there (3). Previously a place of fun and recreation, the gymnasium now contains rows of army cots (4) where the handmaids silently languish between appointments with their Commanders. That it is still obvious to Offred that her bedroom was once a gymnasium suggests that the Gilead régime converted it quickly; in fact, Offred thinks she can still smell the pungent smell of sweat hanging in the air (3). Atwood is suggesting here that oppressive régimes can take hold anywhere and with little warning, transforming even a happy and carefree place like a gymnasium to something oppressive and sinister. Body s: Transition Sentence A transition sentence provides closure for the paragraph: it provides a subtle link to the next paragraph, it anticipates the next argument in the Essay, and it provides the reader with a sense of coherence and momentum. It should note be a direct quotation. Body s: Transition Sentence In the opening scene of the novel, Offred describes the handmaids sleeping quarters, which had once been a school gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, Atwood writes, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there (3). Previously a place of fun and recreation, the gymnasium now contains rows of army cots (4) where the handmaids silently languish between appointments with their Commanders. That it is still obvious to Offred that her bedroom was once a gymnasium suggests that the Gilead régime converted it quickly; in fact, Offred thinks she can still smell the pungent smell of sweat hanging in the air (3). Atwood is suggesting here that oppressive régimes can take hold anywhere and with little warning, transforming even a happy and carefree place like a gymnasium to something oppressive and sinister. 7

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