i. Language
ii. Essay organization
iii. Textual analysis
Language
a.) Proofread – spell check, syntax check;
b.) Literary present;
Macbeth was being told by the witches...
Lady Macbeth sleepwalked through the castle...
c.) Quotation marks: “Blah, blah, blah...”; 'Blah, blah, blah...';
[In language settings, set document to English].
d.) Citations (lines and page references for poetry), as well as footnotes/ bibliography;
e.) “The”:
Furthermore, the reproduction belongs to the nature, and if the nature is
more powerful than the art, then it is the case that the society will
compensate for it.
f.) Italicize book titles: Macbeth; The Faerie Queene; poems go in inverted
commas: “The Definition of Love”; “Whoso list to hunt”;
g.) There is no need to narrate the inception of your analysis:
I'm going to do a comparison of the poems “The Definition of Love”
and “Whoso list to hunt”...
This essay compares...
For my midterm essay I've chosen...
Another thing that caught my attention was...
Essay organization
a.) Begin with a thesis claim;
Many early modern poets linked desire and death. Shakespeare's love of the young man
leads him to imagine a future moment when he will be “rotten” (81: 2). Desire frequently
drives him on to thoughts of death. Marvell on the other hand thinks gruesome images of
death will convince his mistress to give in to his desire. Even if she refuses to
consummate their relation, he explains, her body will be penetrated, because after
death “worms shalt try/ That long preserved virginity” (lines 27-8, 1691-2). This essay
argues that the link between death and desire is one form of the recurring connection
between desire and time in poetry of the period...
b.) Get to the point (say only things that advance the essay's claims):
Shakespeare was the greatest blah, blah, blah...
c.) Order material logically to build the thesis claim;
d.) Try to develop your ideas sufficiently – consider why you introduce a new idea, what it
contributes, why it is necessary, if it is fully developed;
e.) Clarity. Try to re-read your work from the perspective of another reader – are your ideas
effectively expressed?
Essay organization
Quoting: blocks, line breaks, transitions and tags:
One thing they have in common is the impossibility of love. “For Fate with jealous eye does
see/ Two perfect loves nor lets them close;/ Their union would her ruin be,/ And her tyrannic
power depose” (lines13-6, 1692). Fate is described as a tyrant who can't stand perfect love.
It is jealousy that drives Fate while the lovers keep their love out of Fate's hands. “Noli me
tangere, for Caesar's I am,/ And wild to hold, though I seem tame” (lines 13-4, 527)...
Essay organization
Quoting: blocks, line breaks, transitions and tags:
One thing they have in common is the impossibility of love. “For Fate with
jealous eye does see/ Two perfect loves nor lets them close;/ Their union
would her ruin be,/ And her tyrannic power depose” (lines13-6, 1692). Fate
is described as a tyrant who can't stand perfect love. It is jealousy that drives
Fate while the lovers keep their love out of Fate's hands. “Noli me tangere,
for Caesar's I am,/ And wild to hold, though I seem tame” (lines 13-4, 527)...
One thing they have in common is the impossibility of love. To suggest this
Marvell personifies Fate:
For Fate with jealous eye does see
Two perfect loves nor lets them close;
Their union would her ruin be,
And her tyrannic power depose (lines13-6, 1692).
Fate is described as a tyrant who can't stand perfect love. It is jealousy that
drives Fate while the lovers keep their love out of Fate's hands. By contrast,
Wyatt describes a love affair outlawed by political injunction: “Noli me
tangere, for Caesar's I am,/ And wild to hold, though I seem tame” (lines 134, 527)...
Essay organization
Use paragraph structure:
a.) One paragraph per idea;
b.) Introduce the subject of the paragraph in the topic sentence of the paragraph:
Related to the question of time is the role of death...
Though the two sonnets use the same metaphor of writing as pregnancy, Shakespeare
develops and alters the meaning in Sonnet 59...
c.) Analyse the text by using short quotations to read closely:
By claiming that his writing is “the second birth of a former child” (59: 4), Shakespeare
links the Renaissance's return to classicism to the difficulty of achieving poetic originality...
d.) Organize analysis to support a thesis argument. Draw conclusions based on textual analysis:
Though Sidney uses the image of the poet “great with child to speak” (1: 11) to suggest
the difficulty of writing, Shakespeare weaves into the image the idea of the present
moment as unavailable to writing except via that which has been written before...
Textual analysis
a.) Analyse language of texts – develop claims based on close reading: be true to the poetry;
[It's rarely effective to finish a paragraph with a citation.]
[Try not to reduce poetry to abstract ideas, such as the “Chain of Being”: great literature
can rarely be so easily contained, so recognize how your text resists or exceeds
abstractions – criticism should try to touch on poetry's complexity and greatness.]
b.) Use precise language – be careful to read accurately:
[On Shakespeare's Sonnet 81:] He describes his verse as a 'monument'
which in an obvious way indicates that his words are immortal, which
provides him a comforting feeling. Shakespeare in the back of his mind
knows that he will not be loved back...
c.) Have a thesis argument, based on a thematic question or detail, and analyse so as to
explore, understand, and justify this argument;
d.) Don't summarize the story unless it is vital to do so to make your claim:
In Shakespeare's play the story is centred on Macbeth, one of the generals of King
Duncan's army...
Textual analysis
Consider both similarities and differences concerning a thematic point
of comparison:
Both Lady Macbeth and the Body from Marvell's poem have a reason
why they want to get rid of one part of their existence […] The Body
hopes to disconnect from the Soul in order to be free and Lady
Macbeth longs to get rid of her body so she can proceed with her plans.
Textual analysis
Consider both similarities and differences concerning a thematic point of
comparison:
Both Lady Macbeth and the Body from Marvell's poem have a reason
why they want to get rid of one part of their existence […] The Body
hopes to disconnect from the Soul in order to be free and Lady Macbeth
longs to get rid of her body so she can proceed with her plans.
Lady Macbeth and the Body both emphasize the connection between ethical
action and the conflict between the body and spirit. However, in Lady Macbeth's
desire to block up her “passage and access to remorse” (1.5.42), she positions
her body as the agent of an ethical impulse that she wishes to avoid. On the
contrary in the Body's claim, in Marvell's poem, it is the Soul that tortures the
Body by stretching it “upright” (line 13, 1687). Each work offers a specifc vision
of the ethical role of the body…
1st sentence: This essay makes a detailed reading of the following passages:
2nd sentence: The essay argues that...