The great thing about writing about novels is that there’s so much to write about. But you may have noticed, this also makes it difficult to know which smaller details to track. Since one of the broader goals of this class is learning to—but more importantly how to—pay closer attention when reading, this paper will be your attempt to show me that you can do that with longer, prose writing. And so, you will present and support an argument about a small aspect of your research novel. In order to help you narrow your focus, here are four possible routes to take in descending order of difficulty (hardest to recommended):
Structure: analyze how structure is at play in a given novel (think plot, order of information, section break ups, scenes, etc).
Style: characterize the novels style and how it functions in the text; selecting emblematic sentences will be key to this route.
Trope: illustrate the use and function of a literary device you’ve tracked throughout the novel (not a theme!)
Politics (recommended): analyze what and more importantly how your novel comments on a particular social condition; don't think of this as a message or something the novel is saying (à la a manifesto) but rather something the novel is demonstrating/illustrating.
Learning Goals:
Developing an attentive reading practice by writing about a small(er), less obvious dimension of a longer text
Sharpening your growing close reading skills through analysis of text (analysis that points out all the information you can glean from your quotes in order to support your argument)
Using writing as a way to clarify and make conscious your own understanding of the your research text
Incorporating outside sources into your own argument.
Writing Goals:
Assert a thesis that shows you’re doing more than picking up on the obvious (anything someone would see from passively reading the book)
Use quotes effectively to show your instructor that you can select fruitful quotes (sentences that lend themselves to analysis) and incorporate them into your paper.
Analyzing Prose*: The biggest difficulty in analyzing prose (as opposed to verse) is that authors often use every day language in the text; the language in prose does not always call attention to itself as obviously as with poetry. With this paper, you want to demonstrate that same level of attentiveness in your analysis as you did with poetry. *If you're reading a book of poetry, you'll need to show me you can analyze verse, attending to poetic form.
Writing a conclusion that addresses the “so what” question. A proper conclusion should not simply reiterate the introduction or summarize the body of the paper. It should address why the work you’ve done in your paper matters. So in the case of this paper, why is it important that we understand the structure/style/trop in the way you’ve presented it? How does your interpretation alter how a reader might understand the novel in general?
Sample Solution