Frankenstein: Writing a Literary Essay (by Y11)

Writing Essays

Essay Writing
by Year 11
Preliminary Work

General Points

· Include personal perspective, argument and valid interpretation, backed up with relevant sources
· When making a statement, make it sure it’s open to discussion.
· Make sure that you include different interpretations of the text in your analysis.
· Analyse in present tense
· Never contradict your points
· Acknowledge other alternatives but state why you support your interpretation
· Use P.E.E. (Point. Evidence. Explain) but extend and explore with thoughtful comments
· Make sure your points are sensible
· Research your work sufficiently- use resources from the library such as Britannica Online
· Stay on topic
· Don’t retell your story

Planning

· List down your ideas
· Plan in paragraphs
· Look at the whole picture of the story before commenting
· Make sure your paragraphs flow
· Use primary sources (original work of author) and secondary sources (work by one author about another author’s work) to research
· Have a central idea
· Link your points with central idea
· Decide your thesis statement
· Brainstorm and free writing
· Highlight textual evidence e.g. quotations

Moving on to the writing…

Introduction

· General thesis statement to inform readers of the topic; Be direct and concise
· To arouse interest, either use a quotation, a provocative question, a personal anecdote, a startling statement or a combination
· Include title of literary work and name of author

Main Body

· Only use secondary sources as an aid; don’t plagiarize
· Be original your points
· Quote from scholars to support your points
· Organize your points and link them
· Start your paragraph with a topic sentence that both links back to the thesis statement that summarizes your paragraph
· Use P.E.E. and explore with thoughtful comments
· For textual evidence, you can use summaries, paraphrasing, details and direct quotes
· Consider context, audience and language

Conclusion