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Writing About Literature

“All there is to writing is having ideas.  To learn to write is to learn to have ideas.”
– Robert Frost

Very often, as readers we tend to come to a text “blind.”  We know little about the author or the story/poem/play/novel we are reading, and thus we find it difficult to understand the text, much less write about it.  We also tend to assume that the text is “opaque” or unknowable; since we weren't there when Shakespeare wrote Hamlet or Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote her Sonnets, (we often ask ourselves) how can we know what he or she really meant in writing these masterpieces?  How can we, as students of literature, even attempt to write about an author's intention in creating literature?  Although we may never know an author's intention, we can use careful critical reading and writing to come to a better understanding and appreciation of a poem, a play, a short story or a novel.  Careful readers of a text, no matter how little information they have, will do their best to understand the play, poem, short story, novel or essay before them. Like the three blind men and the elephant – one blind man who feels the elephant’s tail and decides it must look like a snake, one blind man who feels the elephant’s leg and decides it must look like a tree, and one blind man who feels the elephant’s side and decides it must look like a wall – we all perceive something special or interesting about the text, such as a pattern, a theme, a series of striking images, etc., even if we do not understand the whole text (or the whole elephant) all at once.  Thus, by careful, active, close reading and by noticing our reactions to texts, we will be better able to write about literature.

Getting Started:  Active Reading to Active Writing

If the three blind men had taken more time in perceiving – or reading – their elephant, they would have realized that it was more than a “snake” or a “wall” or a “tree.”  So too will a good active reader read a literary text several times before attempting to write about it.  If you own a text, annotating, or marking up, the story/poem/play/novel is also an excellent way to approach critical reading.  The following are some ways of annotating a text:

• Underlining or highlighting passages you find interesting or confusing

• Writing notes or questions to yourself in the margins of the text

• Circling or underlining words or phrases that occur multiple times

Once you have read through your text several times, annotating, taking notes, highlighting, underlining, etc., you might also want to try writing down your initial reactions to the text.  Take a few minutes and record your reactions in a journal or on a separate sheet of paper.  Some of the questions you might ask yourself in an initial response include:

• What puzzles me about this text?

• What do I like or what pleases me about this text? 

• What displeases or bores me about this text?

• Does this text remind me of any other texts I have read or of any events in my own life, etc.?  Why or why not?

• What do I want to know more about in this text?

In addition to jotting down your initial response to the text, there are several other pre-writing tools to help you get started.  These include:

• Brainstorming:  Brainstorming literally means letting your brain "storm" on the page, using your pen/pencil and piece of paper to let loose all the ideas you have about a text.  When you brainstorm you have no restrictions on what you can write. You don't even have to write in complete sentences!  Just jot down the ideas as they occur to you; don't worry about spelling, punctuation or logical order.  Later, when you have had a break, you can return to your notes and give them some kind of logical order, deleting some ideas and expanding upon others.

•  Focused Free Writing:  "Free" writing means taking a set amount of time (five or ten minutes) to do nothing but write nonstop about ideas.  In "focused" or "directed" free writing, an instructor (or you yourself) poses a question about a text and asks you to write on that question without editing for a short period of time.  As with brainstorming, in free writing you should not stop to edit or question whether or not ideas are valid, sentences are grammatically correct, or if words are spelled correctly; instead take the time to explore ideas in an uninterrupted flow of writing.  Once you have completed your free writing, you can, of course, go back and re-read your ideas and discard those you don't like and expand upon those that you think are valid and worth exploring further.

•  Listing:  Listing often helps a first time reader of a text to discover patterns.  Unlike brainstorming or free writing, listing does ask you to make a decision ahead of time of what elements you will focus on in your "list."  You might, for example, want to list all the references to color in a poem or short story, or the reoccurrence of certain words or phrases in a play or novel. From your lists you can then proceed to a short writing activity discussing why you think these patterns occur. 

• Journaling:  Rather than a "diary" or a "record" of the day's events, active readers use a journal in their response to a text to help them store initial responses to the text as well as further reflections on class discussion, on subsequent readings, etc.  By keeping a journal you can use all of these techniques -- brainstorming, free writing, listing, etc. -- in daily entries to move from reading to writing and to gain a better, deeper understanding and appreciation of a text. 

Finally, here are some other strategies to assist you in moving from active reading to writing about a piece of literature:

• After you have read a text, list the emotions (such as envy, pity, anger, happiness, melancholy, etc.) the work evoked in you.  Then discuss the reasons why you think you experienced these emotions.

• Choose one passage, sentence, line, or phrase that "stuck out" to you, that struck you as particularly moving, enlightening, ugly, beautiful, etc.  Discuss why you think this passage, sentence, line or phrase evoked your reaction.

• Write a letter to the author or to one of the characters (or to the speaker in a poem) asking questions or making observations about the text.

• Discuss why you could -- or could not -- identify with a certain character or situation in the text.

• Jot down your initial impressions of a text.  Then go back and carefully re-read the text.  Return to your notes and write a new "response" to the text based on how you perceived any new or different elements in the text in your second read-through.

Remember, the key to becoming a better writer and student of literature is to read, re-read, and re-read again, as well as to keep writing about your impressions!  In addition, a visit to the Writing Center at the early stages of your writing and reading process is always a good idea since Writing Center consultants are trained to help you work through exercises like brainstorming, free writing, etc.  In addition, they provide an invaluable early audience/sounding board upon which you can bounce innumerable ideas about what you are reading!

Choosing a Topic and developing a Thesis Statement

Once you have read through your text carefully (at least a few times), and tried a few of the above listed exercises, you will need to think about choosing a topic for your paper and what you are going to argue (your thesis statement).  If your instructor has assigned a topic (or topics to choose from) for your writing project, then you have less to worry about -- part of your work is already done for you!  Your next task is to READ your assignment sheet carefully, making sure you understand your instructor's directions and the parameters of the assignment.  If, however, your assignment is open-ended, or you are having difficulty deciding from several choices of topics, then you will need to think carefully about what you are going to write on and why that topic is important to your analysis.  Here are some steps to think about when coming up with a topic:

1.  First, think about the page length of your assignment.  How long is the paper supposed to be?  If you are asked to write 3 - 5 pages, you probably won't want to use a complex topic like the relationships of fathers and daughters in Shakespeare's tragedies -- this paper could grow into an entire book!  Instead, you will want to narrow your focus and topic, perhaps to the relationship of King Lear and Cordelia in Shakespeare's King Lear.  If, on the other hand, the assignment's requirements includes research and 10 -15 pages, you should think about developing a slightly more complex topic that can include secondary, library research.  PLEASE NOTE:  As always, it's a good idea to consult with your instructor if you are unsure as to length or any other requirements for your paper.

2.  Next, think about what really interests you about the work about which you wish to write.  Ask yourself questions:  What moved you about this piece of literature?  If writing about a play, did you like or despise a particular character?  If writing about poetry, are there any lines in the poem that "stick out" at you or that really catch your attention?  If writing about a novel, are there any themes or ideas in the novel that perplexed you?  You might want to look at your notes and/or reading journal to review your initial reactions to the text -- what sparked your curiosity the first time you read this work?  What more do you want to know about this text?   Above all, it is important that you choose a topic that interests you and that will continue to interest you during your writing process for this essay.  That way you won't grow bored with your essay task and give up and/or grow frustrated.  In addition, a paper written by someone who is interested in the topic is much more interesting to the reader than is a paper written by someone who is not invested in what s/he is writing.

3.  The third and final step in choosing a topic is developing a thesis statement (for more information on thesis statements in general, please see our page on thesis statements).  As with thesis statements for other types of papers, thesis statements in literature papers should: 

• be phrased in a complete sentence(s),

• establish your topic in clear, strong language, and

• serve as a map or guide to your reader for the rest of the paper.

One excellent way of formulating a thesis statement in literary analysis is simply to ask yourself "why."  Why do images of death appear in T. S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"?  Why does Othello kill Desdemona in Shakespeare's tragedy?  Why does the Levine burst into tears when he is confronted in Malamud's short story "The Angel Levine"?  Your thesis statement can be the answer to this "why" question.  For example, a good working thesis statement for the "why" question about Othello and Desdemona might be:

Othello kills Desdemona in Shakespeare's tragedy Othello because he cannot reconcile the ambiguities of romantic love with his rigid code of military honor.

With this statement, we have a clear, unambiguous answer to our original question, phrased in a complete sentence.  This thesis statement also narrows our "why" topic (death in Shakespeare's tragedies) to a more manageable topic for a shorter (5-8 page) assignment.  Readers of this thesis statement also now have a kind of map to help guide them through the rest of the paper; based on this thesis statement, a reader might expect the writer to discuss Shakespeare's characterization of Othello, Othello's use of military language and symbols in his own speeches, and his struggles with the ideas of romance and romantic love.  Voila!  We have a working thesis statement AND the added bonus of knowing where our paper might go next!

** Note:  Remember, when formulating a thesis statement, above all it is good to stay flexible.  Often the thesis statement you begin with -- your working thesis -- is not the same thesis statement of your final, polished draft.  Your thesis statement may change as you begin writing your paper and find that you have a difficult time "proving" your statement or following through with your "road map."  For example, based on our sample thesis statement, halfway through your composition of this essay you might find that you no longer think that Othello is as affected by his rigid code of military honor as he is by the racism of the white, Venetian society in which he lives.  If this happens, don't panic!  If you do think that your thesis statement no longer fits your argument, you might want to do some outlining exercises to see what the body of your essay does discuss or argue.  Once you have decided what topic or points you are now covering in your essay, you can more easily revise your working thesis statement to better fit your actual draft.

Using Direct Quotations

When writing about literature, it is very important that you use the text itself to ground your argument.  Not only do using direct quotations help establish you as an authority on the piece of literature about which you are writing, they also help make your points more clear and more persuasive.  When incorporating direct quotes into your writing, think about:

• Using brief quotations.  When using brief quotations (four lines or fewer of prose, three lines or fewer of poetry), be sure to introduce these quotes with your own words and with appropriate quotations marks.  For help on integrating quotations in MLA style, please see our MLA page.  

• Editing the quotations.  Because what is contained within quotation marks must exactly reproduce the original text, we often have to edit quotations when fitting them into our own writing.  When introducing your own words into a quotation, use brackets to distinguish between the author's words and your own.  

Example:  Iago, who cannot stand the thought of Othello having more power than him, declares to Roderigo that "if [he] were the Moor, [he] would not be Iago" (I.i.78).

Also, when leaving text out of the quote to make it better fit your own sentence, use ellipses (three spaced periods) to indicate the cut text.

Example:  Smith agrees with this assessment of Iago, asserting that his motivation is "without a doubt . . . motiveless" (42).    

Remember, it is your responsibility to accurately and completely quote the source you are using!  For more information on quoting direct sources, please see our Avoiding Plagiarism page.

Some possible structures:
Explication, Analysis and Comparison and Contrast

Writing about literature can fall into three main categories:  explication papers, analysis papers, and comparison and contrast papers.  Most literary analysis papers at the college level ask you to use a combination of two or more of these "types," and the skills you will need to build in order to write each will often overlap.  Here is a brief description of each type and some strategies on how to approach these types of papers:  

• Explication:  An explication paper is a detailed close reading -- or explanation -- of a passage of verse or prose.  Literature papers that ask you to write about a single poem, or a short passage of prose, will most likely call for explication, since it allows for you to do an extremely detailed examination of a short piece of text, line by line, phrase by phrase, and word by word.   Explication is also an excellent tool for demonstrating how a writer achieves a specific effect in the text, by looking closely at their use of figurative language (allusions, connotations of words, symbols, images, irony, rhythm, meter, etc.).  

• Organizing Explication Papers:  Perhaps the simplest way to organize a paper that uses explication is to move line by line through the text, tracing patterns of figurative language, and explaining the significance of these patterns as you go.  In some cases, it might be useful to begin at the ending:  start with an explication of the last few lines of the poem (or the passage of prose), and then move backwards through the poem to demonstrate how the author reached his/her conclusion/final lines.  Other possible organizational strategies include looking at elements of figurative language paragraph by paragraph (i.e., your first paragraph might begin with a discussion of the author's use of imagery, the next paragraph might move on to the author's use of interesting rhythm or meter, etc.).  REMEMBER:  above all, an explication is NOT a summary of the passage in question.  Instead, use explication to deconstruct a text -- to show how the poem works to achieve a certain effect and why.

• Analysis:  Unlike explication, literature papers that use analysis more often focus on ONE element of figurative language, usually in a longer work (short story, longer poem, play, chapter of a novel, etc.) in order to show how the author uses this type of figurative language for a larger effect.  Papers which use this type of analysis focus on character, symbols, tone, point of view, plot, etc., and demonstrate how this element of figurative language works through the whole text.  Since a line-by-line explication just isn't practical for any text longer than a few stanzas/paragraphs/etc., all literature papers discussing a longer work use analysis to consider the central themes, or meanings, of a work in some way or another.

• Comparison and Contrast:  Comparison and contrast papers ask you to look at similarities (comparison) and differences (contrast) within a literary text.  These types of papers often combine the skills of explication and analysis to reveal these similarities and differences of uses of figurative language, whether they be of plot, tone, style, imagery, or metaphors -- just to name a few.  Comparison and contrast papers work the best when you use two works that have a definite connection in some way:  for example, a comparison and contrast of Shakespeare's Othello and Amiri Baraka's play The Dutchman would work well because both plays deal with race relations and the ideas of miscegenation.  However, a comparison and contrast paper which looks at Shakespeare's Othello and Andrew Marvell's poem "To His Coy Mistress" would not work well since Marvell is more concerned with the ideas of impermanence and seduction than with race relations.  This is not to say that comparison and contrast papers cannot cross genres (as in the above example of a comparison and contrast between a play -- specifically Elizabethan tragedy -- and a poem), although papers that do compare and contrast works from different genres tend to be more difficult and require more imaginative work on your part.  

• Organizing Comparison and Contrast Papers:  It will perhaps be easier for you to compare works by the same author, on the same subject, in the same genre, or use the same figurative techniques.  For more information on organizing a comparison and contrast paper, see our How to Organize Essays page.  Above all, remember that the purpose of a comparison and contrast paper is to reveal something new and interesting about each one of the works you investigate.