Litany of Literary Lapses

1. Litany of Literary Lapses What to improve in your papers.

2. Summarization • Do not write a paper to summarize the plot of the text. • It doesn’t matter your summary is insightful and even takes into account literary devices to some extent, the point of the paper is not to summarize. • If your paper reads like something you’d read on spark notes, you are missing the mark.

3. Not having an argument • Related to summarization, not having a point to make causes your paper to be, well, pointless. • The point of a literary analysis and most papers you’ll write in college is to create an insightful argument that you can support with the text. • This argument should be stated in your thesis.

4. Incomplete Thesis/Introduction • Your thesis needs to state a position you’ll defend. For the purposes of this paper you also needed to discuss how specific literary devices are at work to develop the meaning you interpret and the argument you make. • The introductory paragraph should include the thesis, as well as an overview of the points you’ll make in the supporting paragraphs to defend that thesis.

5. Lack of Support • Even if you have a brilliant thesis, you need to support it thoroughly. Nobody’s going to take your word for it. You need to prove you are right. • Each supporting paragraph MUST have a salient connection to the thesis. As a reader reads your supporting paragraph he or she should know at any point why one is reading it and how it relates to the thesis.

6. Lack of Transitions • You need to link your paragraphs with transitions. These aid the reader in following your line of argument throughout the paper. • Even if your next paragraph is on an insightful and closely connected topic, you need to include a tactful transition that introduces the next paragraph at the end of the preceding one.

7. Conclusions • Your conclusions should revisit your thesis and reiterate your arguments supporting that thesis. • Then, your conclusion should end with an unforgettable, yet tasteful, sentence that epitomizes the thoughts you want the reader to take with them after reading your brilliant essay.

8. Missing the Point of the Paper • The point of the paper was to analyze the text using a close reading and interpretation of the literary devices in the work and nothing else. • Some folks didn’t mention any literary devices at all. Some went psycho-analytical, and others went gender studies. • Although these papers might be fine for their topics, they miss the point of this assignment.

9. MLA • It may be a pain to learn at first, particularly if you are rushing to finish a paper and it is the last thing you think to do; however, it is an important part of academic work. • Proper citation is necessary not only so people can know that your not plagiarizing, but so they can understand your citations. Inventing your own citation format is not an option.