Analytical Analysis of Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home

The comic implies that, stories have the power to shape peoples beliefs and thus their behaviors, as per this story, it mainly puts its focus on the Alison Bechdels home which was a funny one. The father of this family was a gay. The story shows how the father changed the view of gender identities, … Read more

Heart of Darkness Essay

Humanity has developed formal education as a means to distribute information and knowledge of the world around us, often by utilizing hands-on experiences, art, music, and literature as both subjects and supplemental materials. However, with an endless amount of topics to be taught, choices must be made to determine which subjects bring the greatest value … Read more

Themes of empire and race in War of the Worlds/Heart of Darkness

Introduction The British Empire at a glance, appears to warrant a seemingly clear definition. Expansive areas were under the rule of the British military and economic control, territories and seas were united by the British Crown and governed in the main city of London, this is the Empire on which the Sun never set. The … Read more

Valentine – Carol Ann Duffy

What can we tell about the subject matter of the poem from its title? The poem’s title is ‘Valentine.’ From the title the poem could be talking about the person she is in love with, her valentine. It could’ve been describing the person and using mushy language to describe her lover. The title could have … Read more

Compare how Duffy forms a female perspective in the anthologies ‘The World’s Wife’ and ‘Feminine Gospels’ .

The World’s Wife is a collection of witty and dramatic poems by Carol Ann Duffy, which takes a female perspective through different characters, stories, historical events, and myths. The original stories focus on legendary men, but Duffy takes a feminist approach to each tale and presents them in an altered fashion, showing the women who … Read more

Brutus and Antony’s Funeral Speeches: Who Was More Persuasive?

William Shakespeare is an amazing author who was able to write an amazing play called The Tragedy of Julius Caesar in which he wrote a scene that had Brutus and Antony make speeches at the funeral of Julius Caesar. In the funeral speech, both men had different points to achieve when talking to the audience; … Read more

Shakespeare’s sonnet 18/Spenser’s sonnet 75 (poetic techniques, form, theme)

In this essay the two poems that will be discussed; William Shakespeare’s sonnet 18 and Edmund Spenser’s sonnet 75 respectively will be compared with respect to their poetic techniques and form as well as the underlying thesis of Love which is prominent within both pieces. In order to show this comparison, both sonnets will be … Read more

Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary

Romanticism has been read as a reaction to the Age of Enlightenment’s desire to acquire knowledge and it has influenced many mediums of literature and art. Some attempt to emulate the romantic current and such a lot of the imagery and symbolism of romanticism become cliché. As we have seen throughout the semester, many of … Read more

Comparing ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ & ‘My Last Dutchess’ to Wuthering Heights

Robert Browning’s poems, Porphyria’s Lover, and My Last Dutchess, are comparable to Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights because they describe how women are pushed into submissive objectified roles by Victorian culture. The three texts are comparable because Browning and Brontë’s describe women as possessing less social power. Wuthering Heights is comparable to through descriptions of the … Read more

Idealisation of love: The Great Gatsby & Wuthering Heights

When something is idealised, it is seen as being ‘perfect’ and above reality. It is put on a pedestal above everything else, and is used as a means to achieve happiness. Both novels – The Great Gatsby, written by F.Scott Fitzgerald and Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Brontë explore the idealisation of love itself, a … Read more

How to write a Literature Essay

When writing a literature essay, it is crucial to keep in mind the importance of the readability of your essay. Throughout the essay, ensure that the essay is not a regurgitation of other writers’ ideas, research notes or facts. This is important because people will not find your essay interesting to read if you would not read it yourself.

The following sections offer fundamental guidelines on how to write an literature essay.

Plan it out

Planning is an important point, which you need to keep in mind before you even start to write your essay. It is important that before starting to write your literature essay, you identify your audience. Planning for your essay requires that you identify a goal or the major points to discuss in your essay. Before starting the essay, ensure that you write all the key points or ideas you intend to discuss in your essay. Visualize how you want your essay to be, and develop an outline of all the paragraphs. Identify the argument of the essay and position.

It is important to have an idea of where you want to take the reader in terms of the impacts you seek to have on the audience after reading the  literature essay. These are among the various important aspects that you need to keep in mind when writing a literature essay. These suggestions when followed are helpful in writing a high standard essay, which is relevant to the topic of discussion.

Learning how to write a literature essay is not just about writing the essay. You also need to know how to structure the essay in the correct way.

Structure of an literature essay

Paragraphs

This is the most important factor in an essay. The length of each paragraph is a crucial point for consideration to avoid a reader getting lost while reading it. Paragraphs are useful to both you as the writer, and the reader of the essay. Use different paragraphs to categorize your points and ideas. Ensure that you use short paragraphs throughout your essay. A high standard essay should not have paragraphs that exceed an A4 page.

Flow

Literature essays require that you have a strong argument unless the paper instructions need you to write a summary of a provided text. Ensure that your argument is not biased. The discussion should comprise all the possible position of the argument. A quality essay should provoke discussion by including different thoughts using the texts creatively.

Literary techniques

The aim of writing a literature essay is to demonstrate an individual’s love of words and English language. Utilize literary devices like alliterations, onomatopoeia, sibilance, and anaphora to make your English essay interesting. These technique can be effectively used when writing poetry.

Referencing

All sources used in the essay should be credited and acknowledged using footnotes and creating a reference list. There are various ways which you can use to credit texts and ideas from other writers that you have used in your essay. In-text references can comprise name of the author, year of publication, and page number of the source. This allows a reader to look up the source used should he want. Ensure that your footnotes for the essay are well notated, and include information about the edition of the source and name of the publisher.

Quotations

Use quotations in your essay to support facts, theories, ideas, thoughts, and argument in the essay. Quotations are effectively presented either as part of an essay sentence or as a word. Ensure that you include quotations in your essay creatively. In cases where you think that you need to use lengthy quotations to support your discussion or argument, make sure that you satisfy the following areas in your essay:

  1. Quotations should be set in the middle of a page in addition to leaving a single blank line before starting the quotation, and after the end of a quotation.
  2. A high Standard literature essay picks relevant sentences or words form lengthy quotations in a source, and discusses how the quotation relates or supports the argument a writer is making.
  3. It is acceptable to use a single ‘comma’ quotation mark, or a “double” to mark your quotations in a literature essay.
  4. When using quotations in your literature essay, bear in mind the importance of properly citing and acknowledging the source of the quotations used to avoid plagiarism in your essay.