English 112: Handout Packet

Handout 1

The Literary Essay:

The Five Paragraph Theme

Most of you are no doubt familiar with the standard five paragraph paper outline, and though it is a rudimentary way of writing an essay, it does provide a nice template to work from and expand.  Essentially, the essay should follow the following outline although you will learn to modify and expand this outline as you go along:

           I.     Introduction with thesis (Handout 2 and 3)

         II.     Body paragraph one, beginning with topic sentence one (Handout 4 and 5)

      III.     Body paragraph two, beginning with topic sentence two (Handout 4 and 5)

      IV.     Body paragraph three, beginning with topic sentence three (Handout 4 and 5)

         V.     Conclusion paragraph (Handout 5)


                                                    Handout 2

The Literary Analysis Argument: The Thesis

 or "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar"  Except When It’s Not

WHAT A THESIS SHOULD NOT DO

Before we go over what a thesis for a literary essay should be, let us consider what it should not be:

Ø  The literary thesis should not state a simple matter of taste:

Example:  The Princess Bride is one of the greatest movies ever made because its characters swash a lot of buckles.

Ø  The literary thesis should not judge the characters, author or text form a moral or ethical perspective:

Example:  The Wall is an awful film and album because it lauds drug abuse and encourages sexism. 

Ø  The literary thesis should not simply sum up the plot or argue a factual point.

Example:  Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” tells the story of the narrator’s experiences during the Vietnam war.

 “Better to take pleasure in a rose than to put its root under a microscope”

THE ISSUE QUESTION

Now for what the literary thesis should be and do.  Let’s start with the issue question:

Ø  Before you get to a thesis, you will first need an issue question.  An issue question can be any number of questions about the text that tries to make sense of the text as a whole. 

Ø  Usually an issue question provides an arguable interpretation of the text—i.e.: It is a question about whose answer people may reasonably disagree.

Ø  A literary issue question simply asks a pertinent question about how we should read a work of literature:

Example:

Ø  What is the view of Western culture put forth in "You Can Call Me Al" and how does it depict the effect of that culture on the individual?

Ø  Does The Speaker in “The Sick Rose” criticize the monarchy as diseased and corrupting of others?

Ø  Why does the speaker in Sylvia Plath “Daddy” resent her father.

THE CLAIM

 “Our meddling intellect Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:-- We murder to dissect.”

Once you have a good, debatable issue question, you can proceed to making your thesis which provides an answer to that question.  The thesis should always be a one sentence statement.

Ø  In essence a thesis has two elements:

Ø  A claim—what you are asserting about the text

Ø  Supporting reasons—reasons for asserting it

Ø  In a literary argument, the claim will make an assertion about the literary text:

Ø  Example: In Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy,” the speaker resents her father for dying when she was young.

Ø  The speaker of “Californication” argues that our dominant cultural values lead us to become self-loathing and paranoid and even corrupts our dreams.

Ø   The Speaker in U2’s “One” suggests that Ireland, and by extension, all of humanity must be willing to forget past grievances in order to move forward in unity.

1. This claim is the heart of your thesis

REASONS/SUB-ARUMENTS

Some people prefer to enumerate their supporting reasons or their sub-arguments in the thesis, as so:

“Daddy” by Sylvia Plath depicts a woman’s resentment that her father died when she was young by comparing “daddy” to a Nazi, blaming him for her suicide attempt, and arguing that he is the cause of her bad marriage.

                                                                                    

"Californication" critiques not only image culture, but also the cruelty and  alienation this image culture fosters.

You may see in this example the three point thesis you were taught in English 111.  Such a thesis is fine, but in English 112, you should begin to move beyond this very rudimentary format. 

Ø  In fact, in a thesis for a literary paper, you often need include only your claim, though you should have several supporting reasons and ample evidence in mind for later elaboration in you essay. 

THESIS REVIEW

Remember, your thesis must:

Ø  Address an arguable issue question about the literary text.  It cannot address an obvious or merely factual concern such as, “Does Hamlet address the question of revenge?”

Ø  Offer an answer to the issue question that provides an illuminating reading of the text.  This statement of how the text should be read is called the claim.

Ø  Be ethical: that is, the claim must make an assertion that does not willfully ignore contrary evidence.

Ø  Hint at or directly state your reasons or evidence in support of your claim. 

Handout 3:

The Literary Introduction Paragraph

Note: As with any essay you write, the first thing you need is a thesis and then an introduction.

Length: The introductory paragraph should be between eight and twelve lines in length.

The Introduction Paragraph

For many people, the introduction is the most difficult part of an essay to write.  You sit at you PC or Mac, check your facebook, play a video game, fool around on youtube, then think: "I have no idea what to write!  I hate writing!  Poff Sucks! WAAAAAAAHHHH!!" 

Well, fear not hapless student: the Introduction Paragraph is actually the easiest paragraph to write!

Question: So, what do you put in an intro paragraph for a literary argument essay?
Answer:

1. Introduce the story by title and note the author and genre (i.e. fairy tale, concept album, revenge tragedy, confessional poem, memoir, memory play,  etc….). It may be useful to note when it was written.

Example: Released in 1979, Pink Floyd’s concept album The Wall was one of the last major concept albums of the 1970’s.

2.  Provide some background on the genre (the concept album in this case) if applicable and/or define any key terms necessary to understanding the text.

Example: The Wall is a concept album.  In other words, rather than a compilation of unrelated songs, it offers a series of related lyrics which, when combined, tell a coherent story.

3. Provide a very brief succinct summary of the plot to provide your reader with context for the rest of the essay.  This is the only place in the essay where you should summarize plot to any great extent.

• Example The Wall follows the increasing isolation of Pink, a rock  star troubled by deep rooted anxieties and insecurities. Through a series of disjointed flashbacks, the album reveals the principle incidents in Pink’s life that lead him to build and destroy a psychological wall as a means of isolation from the pain of the outside world. 

4.  Articulate the issue question that you will focus on in the essay.

(As we analyze each text you will see there are many possible interpretations and  readings.  Pick the one you like, use only the evidence useful to that argument, then narrow to your focus and point out why it is significant.)

• Example: Ultimately, The Wall is concerned with Pink’s fall and redemption.  Over the course of the album, a series of events leads him into ever greater seclusion and madness. Finally, this descent reaches a crisis which leads Pink to decide whether to continue a life of isolation or embrace others and the risk of emotional pain that comes with human interaction.

5.  The last step is your thesis sentence.

• Example:  The Wall details how Pink becomes increasingly isolated behind an emotional wall as a response to various traumatic experiences, how hiding behind this wall dehumanizes him, and how he decides to destroy the wall when he recognizes he has become the like the very fascists who killed his father.

 

Handout 4

The Literary Essay’s Fearful Symmetry:

The Topic Sentences

Overview: The topic sentence provides a clear statement of what the paragraph is about in each of your (at least three) body paragraphs.  Each of these sentences should:

Ø  Be the first sentence of a body paragraph

Ø  State one of the key points needed to prove your thesis.  (Once you come up with a thesis break it down into steps and determine what you must prove in step one before you can move to step two)

Ø  Focus the paragraph so that everything in the paragraph goes to prove the topic sentence.  Anything in the paragraph not related to the topic sentence is in the wrong place.

Ø  Connects the paragraphs by way of transitions

Ø  Every topic sentence after the first one usually contains two parts

o   A statement of the point argued in the previous paragraph

o   A statement of the point argued in the following paragraph

§  Example: In addition to lauding piety in women, “Cinderella” also advocates female passivity.

If you adopt a three point thesis, then you would use the standard three topic sentences and three body paragraphs.

Ex: 

Ø  The Grimm brothers’ “Cinderella” reinforces the traditional sexist notion that in order to be happy women must be pious, loyal, and passive.

If you used this thesis your topic sentences would be thus:

Ø  The unmistakable argument of the fairy tale is that Cinderella lives “happily ever after” in part because of her piety.

Ø  Another characteristic that enables Cinderella to marry the prince and secure a happy life is her loyalty.

Ø  Unlike her ambitious sister’s who suffer self-mutilation and violence as a result of their attempts to marry well by fooling the prince, Cinderella is passive and refuses to seek out the prince or to combat for his affections.

As I pointed out in Handout 2, the literary essay need not have a three point thesis though many of you may feel happier utilizing one.  If your thesis does not have three distinct supporting points, your essay must still have clear topic sentences.  Without these clear supporting points, you would develop topic sentences that prove key points implied in your thesis.

Ex:

Ø  William Blake’s “The Tyger” poses a series or related, unanswered questions about the nature of the Tyger and its creator God, but answers none of these questions because the speaker is uncertain whether God is good, evil, an amalgam of both or simply incomprehensible.

This thesis lacks three clear points, but it has many arguable points though not expressed in some mechanical list.

In order to argue the thesis effectively, you must still break it down into and argue a number of important sub-points as indicated below:

Ø  Blake’s “They Tyger” is concerned with questions about the nature of God, good and evil.

Ø  There is some evidence that the speaker of the poem thinks the Tyger is evil and fearsome, and thus God is guilty of evil in creating it.

Ø  There is also evidence that the Tyger is beautiful and in some way beneficial or essential.

Ø  The speaker is unable to resolve his questions about the Tyger’s metaphysical status.

Ø  The speaker’s inability to answer the questions he poses is a result of his incomplete perspective, a perspective indicated by the poems imperfect symmetry, rhyme and number of stanzas..

Handout 5

The Literary Essay:

The Body and the Conclusion

THE BODY

Overview: Although it may seem complicated, the body paragraphs for literary essays are remarkably easy to write.  Essentially, you must prove the topic sentence at the beginning of that paragraph, using quotations from the text.                          

Some general guidelines on the body paragraph:

Ø  Each body paragraph begins with a topic sentence connecting it to the thesis and/or the previous paragraph

Ø  Each body paragraph is 8-10 lines in length (1/3 to 1/2 page)

Ø  Each body paragraph should contain at least two or three quotes from the literary to support your point argument)

Ø  Quotes used should be integrated smoothly into the text and should not be excessively lengthy

Ø  Quotes should be explained in terms of how they relate to your topic sentence. Do not assume your reader just “gets it”; explain it!

A body paragraph using the topic sentence from Handout 4 will serve for a brief example:

Example

Ø  Topic Sentence:  The speaker in “The Tyger” is unable or unwilling to formulate answers to his questions about whether a good God created the docile Lamb and the fierce Tyger.

      Sample Paragraph:

The most obvious indication that the speaker is unwilling or unable to answer these questions about the Tyger’s creator is that the poem itself is a series of unanswered question reminiscent of God’s answer to Job’s accusation in the Book of Job. However, the poem’s structure provides more subtle evidence of the speaker’s problems in answering this series of questions.  The poem itself contains six stanzas, and six is traditionally associated with the number of incompleteness or the number of man, chiefly because there are seven days in the biblical story of creation, and man was created on the sixth day.  Thus, the poems six-stanza form may suggest it offers an incomplete or human perspective, one that cannot fathom the complete perfection of the divine perspective. Blake draws attention to this possibility again in his use of the imperfect rhyme “symmetry” and “eye” in the first and last stanzas.  The word “symmetry” itself, and the fact that it rhymes imperfectly with “eye,” suggests the speaker’s imperfect six stanza series of questions is further made imperfect by its imprecise symmetry and rhyme scheme. The emphasis then is on the imperfection or incompletion of the speaker’s point of view, a point of view that Blake characterizes as unable or unwilling to understand the larger “holistic” view necessary to understand why God created the tiger and the lamb. Of course, it could be argued that the speaker wants the reader to answer these questions, that he leaves the questions he poses unanswered and the poem “incomplete” or imperfect because he leaves the answers to his audience.  However, the circular nature of the poem, its almost exact repetition of the first stanza as the final stanza, indicates that the speaker seems desperate to answer his own questions, as if he is locked in an endless cycle of repeated questions that the poet wants us to see is ultimately pointless. The reader can answer the penultimate question “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” in various ways depending on his or her point of view, but the speaker is stuck repeating the question in the same monotonous and insoluble litany of doubt and accusation.  His only resolution is indicated in the replacement of the word “could”: in stanza one with the word “dare” in the last stanza, suggesting a certain repugnance at the creator’s audacity in creating the Tyger.

What I hope you observe in the above example is

1. The reliance on quotation and commentary on that quotation from the text-- sometimes even a quote of one word--to prove a point.
2. The need to listen and take notes on what we say in class., and to use it in putting together your argument.  There’s nothing in the paragraph we haven’t discussed already 
3. The need to support each sub-point thoroughly, spelling it out for your reader in clear, precise detail.

The Conclusion

The conclusion of the literary essay should, like any conclusion, tie together all the various points of your essay, but the conclusion should not be a mechanical repetition of points already proved.  The conclusion should:

Ø  Briefly reiterate the primary points and the thesis

Ø  Answer the “so what” question.  In other words, establish what the implications of your argument are for the reading of the whole text, since your analysis may focus on only one quality of the text.

Ø  Answer what your analysis of the text suggests about the culture that produced the text.  How did the Grimm’s culture conceive of the role of women?  How did U2’s culture view rampant commercialism and the transformation of religion into a product?

Ø  How did Blake’s culture think of traditional religious belief and perception?

For Example: If you spend a paragraph arguing each of your topic sentences on “The Tyger,” you would need your conclusion to drive home the points that Blake seems unwilling to suggest the indoctrination into accepted creeds by rote recitation (as in “The Lamb”) is essentially propaganda, but acceptable to one state of mind or type of person.  Another type of person is the eternal skeptic, always questioning everything (as in “The Tyger”).  For Blake, however, neither point of view seems complete, that’s why he gives us both Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.  Perhaps, Blake seeks a view beyond conventional acceptance of dogma or skepticism, a different way of thinking, and this may reflect his cultures shift from traditional Christianity to nineteenth century secular humanism, following the enlightenment an the French and American Revolutions.

Handout 7: MLA Format

                   

Note: Here is a handy guide to MLA format. You can use this information for almost any class for which you are required to write papers or do research (with the exception of classes in education and psychology), so you might want to hang on to it. In any case, you should keep it by you when you write papers for this class. 

If you hand in a paper that does not conform to MLA style, doing so suggests you did not put enough work into your essay. After all, if you did not take the time to get the style right (a relatively easy task), then you probably did not spend a lot of time on the rest of the essay, right?

The point: Use MLA correctly in all papers, and use this sheet to get it right. All papers (rough and final drafts) must be typed in standard MLA form.

Format: 

Use font Times New Roman 12 pt or Courier 12 pt.

Double space throughout, including block quotes, headers and work/s cited entries

Do not right margin justify your essay

Do not use a separate title page

Header: Type, double-spaced: your name, my name, the course and the date (in that order) in the top left of the first page

Page numbering: Place page numbers in the top right of each page proceeded by your last name. Ex: Poff 22

Title: Press once after the header and center your title. Do not place the title in bold, italics, underline, ALL CAPS large font, etc. Simply capitalize the first letter of each significant word in the title

Press once after the title and tab or indent 8 spaces then begin typing your essay

Do not press twice between paragraphs. Instead, indicate new paragraphs by indenting 8 spaces from the left 

Handout 7.1: MLA Attributive Tags and Parenthetical Citations

Key Definitions:

Primary Source: A source about which you are writing in some critical fashion. Specifically, in a literature class, the literary text is the primary source. (Examples: Hamlet, “Cinderella” etc…)

Secondary Source: A source that analyzes in any way the primary source. In a literature class, a secondary source might be a review of the literary text, a scholarly commentary on that text, or some related critical work.

Quote: A word for word transcription of another source or part of another source used in your own paper and enclosed in quotation marks or block-quoted.

Paraphrase: The ideas of another author utilized in your writing but put in your own words.

Summary: The brief re-statement of a great deal of material from another source in your essay.

Note: You must indicate the source of any paraphrases, summaries or direct quotations to avoid plagiarism. In other words, any time you directly quote, rephrase in your own words, or sum-up the ideas of another person/author, you must introduce that source and cite that quote, paraphrase or summary. To do so in MLA form, you use quotation marks along with attributive tags and parenthetical citations and lists of works cited. 

The Attributive Tag

Never simply dump quotes into the paper. Introduce them and contextualize them, explaining their relevance to your point.

The easiest way to incorporate a quote into the text is with an attributive tag that names the author or speaker, followed by a verb indicating their action, the comma and then the quote

Example of an attributive tag:

Shakespeare writes, “but that undiscovered country”

This is a somewhat mechanical attributive tag. You can also incorporate quotations into your text more smoothly.

Example: 

Hamlet often complains about his task of ridding Denmark of corruption, regretting that he was “born to set it right”

Parenthetical Citations

Short and Block Quote Style

Immediately after a quote paraphrase or summary, you must cite the source. You do this, most simply, by placing the page number of the source immediately after the quotations. Be sure to place the period after the cite.

Short, In-Line Quotations:

A. Example of a simple parenthetical citation when the author’s name is in the attributive tag:

Dickens writes, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times” (1).

Often you will not include the author’s name in the attributive tag.  In that case, you must include it in the citation:

B. Example of a parenthetical citation without an author’s name in the attributive tag:

The author notes, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times (Dickens 1).

If you have more than one work by the same author, for example Dickens’ Hard Times and A Tale of Two Cities, and your attributive tag does not make it clear which text you are referring to, then you should place an abbreviated title before the page number in the citation.

C. Example of a parenthetical citation without an author’s name in the attributive tag and more than one source by that author is used:

The novelist writes, “it was the best of times it was the worst of time” (Dickens, Tale 1).

D. Example of citation for a work with an author but no page number (common in web and database sources):

Smith writes, “the argument is largely moot”.

Or

One critic notes, “the argument is largely moot” (Smith).

E. Example of a parenthetical citation for a work with no known author or page number (Use guardedly because sources without clearly designated authors are usually not reputable):

One critic observes, “the fundamentals of macroeconomic policy have changed” (“One key word from the title of article”).

Block Quotations:

When quoting two or more lines of poetry or twenty-five or more words of prose, you should use the block quote format.

• Do not place quotation marks around a block quote
• Do not single space the text of a block quote
• To block quote, type your attributive tag, press once, press twice or indent 10 spaces, then begin typing the quote. 
• Do not put the attributive tag on a separate line from the body of your text.
• If block quoting prose, let the quotation line wrap, then indent each new line of the quote ten spaces.
• Never end a paragraph with a block quote
• Type once after the citation then continue typing your paragraph
• Do not indent the first line of text after the block quote.

Example: 

Dickens writes,

           And as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, soothe evening                                        mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I  

           saw no shadow of another parting from her. (326)

• If block quoting poetry, lyrics, or verse plays, maintain the original line breaks.

Example:

The author Blake writes,

        Tyger Tyger burning bright

        In the forests of the night

        What immortal hand or eye. (36) 

• Whether block quoting poetry or prose, be sure to place the period BEFORE the citation
  
  

Something to Ponder: Incorrect citations, particularly citations in the wrong style—using APA or Chicago style for example—are often a dead giveaway for plagiarism. 

Handout 7.2: Works Cited Page

MLA 8: Style Revised 2016

            

Note I: If you learned MLA well in the past, that’s great!  Unfortunately, MLA has recently changed.  The good news is almost all the changes involve the work/s cited entries only and do not affect parenthetical citations or format.

Note II:  DO NOT rely on easybib, Microsoft Word’s citation generator, or other internet generators. They generate incorrect citations!

Note III: At the end of an essay that paraphrases, summarizes, or quotes the work of any person besides yourself, you must include a work/s cited page. This page lists the sources from which you took your information.

Many types of sources must be included in the works cited page, including: journal articles, newspaper articles, printed books, printed poems, printed essays, printed anthologies, videos, films, youtube videos, formal lectures, internet sites, tweets, emails and compact discs/lyrics.

I cannot list all of the styles for citing all of these different sources, and I do not expect you to memorize them all. However, you should be able to find out how to cite any source by using the Purdue Owl, linked to the course blog, or of course, by asking me.

Below, I have included the basic rules for the works cited page and the style of a couple of the most commonly used sources. 

• Number the works cited page as you would any other page
• Begin your works cited page list on a separate sheet of paper
• Type the words “Works Cited” (if using more than one source) or “Work Cited” at the top center of your page
• Do not place “Works Cited” in bold, quotation marks, italics, underline, ALL CAPS, etc…. Simply center it.
• After typing “Works Cited” at the top, press once and begin typing your first entry
• Double space your entries, but do not put additional space between entries
• Alphabetize your entries
• The first line of each new entry should be flush with the left margin. Each subsequent line of that same entry should be indented five spaces. For some reason students get this backwards all the time.  Make certain you do not!
• To abbreviate the publisher’s name, drop the words “company,” “incorporated” etc. and for University Presses use the letter P in place of Press and the letter U in place of University:

Example:

Oxford University Press= Oxford UP

Dover Books Incorporated=Dover Books

Houghton-Mifflin Company=Houghton/Mifflin

Here is What the New MLA Has to Say: General Guidelines

The List of Works Cited

The eighth edition of the MLA Handbook introduces a new model for entries in the works-cited list, one that reflects recent changes in how works are published and consulted. Previously, a writer created an entry by following the MLA’s instructions for the source’s publication format (book, DVD, Web page, etc.). That approach has become impractical today, since publication formats are often combined (a song listened to online, for example, could have been taken from a record album released decades ago) or are undefinable.

In the new model, the work’s publication format is not considered. Instead of asking, “How do I cite a book [or DVD or Web page]?” the writer creates an entry by consulting the MLA’s list of core elements—facts common to most works—which are assembled in a specific order. The MLA core elements appear below:

In the new model, then, the writer asks, “Who is the author? What is the title?” and so forth—regardless of the nature of the source.

Because of this fundamental change, the works-cited-list entries produced by the two approaches are different. Below are differences that might be overlooked by writers making the transition from the seventh edition.

ABBREVIATIONS

Common terms in the works-cited list like editor, edited by, translator, and review of are no longer abbreviated. The eighth edition provides a shorter list of recommended abbreviations (96–97).

AUTHORS

When a source has three or more authors, only the first one shown in the source is normally given. It is followed by et al. (22). (Previously, the omission of coauthors was limited to sources with four or more authors and was presented as an option.)

BOOKS AND OTHER PRINTED WORKS

• Page numbers in the works-cited list (but not in in-text citations) are now preceded by p. or pp. (46).
• For books, the city of publication is no longer given, except in special situations (51).

JOURNALS

·       Issues of scholarly journals are now identified with, for instance, “vol. 64, no. 1” rather than “64.1” (39–40).

·       If an issue of a scholarly journal is dated with a month or season, the month or season is now always cited along with the year (45).

ONLINE WORKS

• The URL (without http:// or https://) is now normally given for a Web source. Angle brackets are not used around it (48, 110).
• The citing of DOIs (digital object identifiers) is encouraged (110).
• Citing the date when an online work was consulted is now optional (53).
• Placeholders for unknown information like n.d. (“no date”) are no longer used. If facts missing from a work are available in a reliable external resource, they are cited in square brackets (2.6.1). Otherwise, they are simply omitted.

PUBLISHERS

• Publishers’ names are now given in full, except that business words like Company (Co.) are dropped and, for academic presses, the abbreviations U, P, and UP are still used (97).
• A forward slash (/) now separates the names of copublishers (108).
• The kinds of publications that don’t require a publisher’s name are defined (42).
• When an organization is both author and publisher of a work, the organization’s name is now given only once, usually as the publisher (25). No author is stated.

MISCELLANEOUS

• Full publication information is now given for widely used reference works. Page-number spans are given for articles in alphabetically arranged reference books in print. In other words, reference works are treated like other works and are no longer subject to exceptions.
• The medium of publication is no longer stated, except when it is needed for clarity (52).

Some Common Work Cited Models

1. A sample format for a book with an author is provided below:

Author’s last name, Author’s first name. Title of Work in Italics. Name of Publishing

Company, copyright date.

B. A sample format for a selection from an anthology is provided below:

Author’s last name, Author’s first name. Title of Work in Italics (if a novel, play,

newspaper, or magazine) or in “quotation marks” (if a short-story, article, poem, or essay. Title of Anthology in Italics, edited by The editor’s first and last name, name of publishing company, copyright date, pp. pages used.

3. A Sample format for an article on a database (CQ researcher) is provided below:

       Jost, Kenneth. “Has Chief Justice Roberts Led an Activist Court?” The Supreme

Court Review, vol. 21, no. 1, 3 Feb. 2006, pp. 90-94.CQ Researcher,wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/6/6/00-0607_article. Accessed 8 Feb. 2009.     

Many more models are available at Purdue Owl (linked to the webpage) and you can simply look them up. 

Of course, as always, see me with any questions about any of this and we will look it up together.

Handout 8

 PET PEEVES FOR LITERARY PAPERS

No matter how good an argument or analysis it, if it's riddled with sophomoric mistakes in grammar, spelling, or punctuation, it loses credibility.

So, to help you avoid such problems, here they are—a list of those errors in style and grammar I have seen so often I am apt to injure myself when reading them in student papers.  Avoid these at all costs.

General ‘Format’ Rules For Writing About Literature.

Ø  Never use past tense verbs to describe the actions of literary characters or the actions of the author in writing a text.  Ex: The young student discarded the rose… should read The young student discards the rose…

Ø  Never use first person in a formal paper.  Examples: I, me, my, you, your, we, our, etc... or associated phrases: I think, I believe, I feel.  I think avoiding these personal pronouns make your paper seem more objective.

Ø  Be certain to place the tiles of short works (poems, short stories and essay) in quotation marks and the titles of longer works (novels, epics, dramas) in italics

Ø  Never write the author feels, believes or thinks etc… something.  Instead note what s/he writes, argues, contends, suggests, etc… 

Ø  Never confuse the author with the narrator or speaker.  Poe’s narrator may call himself I, but the narrator, not Poe, is speaking. Thus, refer to the narrator of a poem as a “speaker” and the narrator of a literary text as a “narrator”

Stylistic Conventions For Formal Writing

Ø   When referring to the past, never write, "Back then" or even worse "Back in the day"…this is slang suitable for guests on Maury but not for academic writing;

Ø  Never use expletive constructions, including: it is, there is, there are, there was, there were etc…Instead, find explicit nouns to replace the pronouns and strong verbs to replace these weak ones.  There are better ways to compose a sentence.

Ø  Never use contractions.  You just can’t and that’s final.

Ø  Never confuse

            it’s=it is,

its=belonging to it, or

their=belonging to them,

there=a specified place and

they’re=they are, or

to=the preposition,

too=also, and

two=2. 

It’s odd how often there are people who can not learn too avoid this confusion.

Ø  Never use things.  Think of a specific noun instead.

Ø  Do not confuse THEN and THAN.  THAN is used to compare to things.  Kuntz is cooler THAN Andrew.  THEN is used to refer to time.  I will go to the church, THEN I will go to the bar.

Ø  Never use can not.  Cannot is almost always one word, so you can not go wrong using it as one word.

Ø  Never begin sentence with Also or Plus or begin the last paragraph with in conclusion.  Try another transition instead.

Ø  Never begin a sentence with a conjunction.

Ø  Never use rhetorical questions.  Why would you want to?

Ø  Never end a sentence with a preposition.  They are not the best things to end sentences with.

Ø  Do not use slang or colloquial expressions, including a  lot or a lot.  A lot of the slang expressions in today’s society aggravate the hell out of me.

Ø  Do not use very very often because it’s very annoying...

Ø  Avoid clichés like the plague.

Ø  Do not begin a sentence with the word BEING or the phrase BEING THAT

Ø  Never use HARD to mean DIFFICULT

Ø  Never use BIG to mean SIGNIFICANT or IMPORTANT

Comma/Punctuation Rules.

Ø  Always place a comma or colon after an attributive tag and always tag any quote you use.  Use a comma after attributive tags that are incomplete sentences. Use a colon after an attributive tag that is a complete sentence.

Ø  Be sure to place a comma after an introductory dependent clause or prepositional phrase.  Example:  After the English class ended, we all went to the pub for a beer. Or If everyone followed these rules, they’d do well in the class.

Ø  Be sure to join two complete sentences with a conjunction and a comma, not with just a conjunction (run-on sentence) or with just a comma (comma-splice)

Ø  Indicate possessives with an S’ or ‘S.

Handout 9

A Guide to Research Sources

Note:  Our library is fairly limited; however, it does have some useful texts and many useful electronic resources that you cannot get for free on the internet.  Below, I have suggested how you might find information on literary subjects for your presentations and papers. 

                       

Note II:  You can access the CVCC electronic resources from your home computer when off campus; however, this requires you to sign in with your blackboard user name/password.  Accessing them on campus is no problem at all. 

From Campus Computers:

Step 1:             Go to www.cvcc.vccs.edu

Step 2:             Click Current Students

Step 3:             Click Library Resources

Step 4:             Click Information Reference Page

Or

Step 1: Go to www.profpoff.blogspot.com

Step 2: Click on CVCC Library

Sources of most value to you here areas follows:

• The CVCC Online Library Catalog: This will help you do subject, author or title searches for books in the library. (Books and collections of essays are often the easiest sources to find and use)
• Electronic databases on CVCC Library’s Information Reference Page

• If you have a Norton Critical edition of a text, you can use the articles in the back.  Each counts as a separate source.
• For article searches on the CVCC library electronic databases page, click Literature:  Once you click the Literature link, then click the link LITERATURE RESOURCE CENTER.  This database has full text articles of literary criticism, information about the authors, and other   useful information.  A good first stop.  Some of the other links here may also prove useful.

Also under the LITERATURE Link:

• Click MLA Bibliography which will list citations for all articles of literary criticism.  This database is key word searchable.  The articles are seldom   full text, but you can look them up in the library catalogue to see if we have them.
• Click JSTOR:  This database is keyword searchable and is most valuable   for articles on literature
• Click Project Muse which also contains full text articles on literary subjects. 

From Your Home PC:

Follow the instruction to access the CVCC materials from off campus.