English 211: Fiction

When writing about literature, you follow the same basic conventions required of any expository essay. That is, you

  • state a thesis in your introduction
  • develop that thesis by giving supporting reasons and evidence in the body of the essay
  • conclude with a summary of your main points and a restatement of the thesis
  • cite and document any quotes.

There are a few conventions in writing about literature of which you should be aware.

  • In the introduction to your essay, mention the title of the work and the author's full name:
    In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley presents a narrator who is obsessed with gaining knowledge and power.
  • The title of a story or poem is set off with quotation marks; the title of a play or novel is underlined or italicized:
    • story: "The Dead"
    • poem: "Fern Hill"
    • play: The Importance of Being Earnest or The Importance of Being Earnest
    • novel: Jane Eyre or Jane Eyre
  • The first time you refer to an author, use his or her full name. Thereafter, use only his or her last name:
    In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens paints a portrait of a boy who has to learn some hard lessons. In order to make these lessons clear, Dickens creates characters whose faults and attributes are caricaturized.
  • Note that a comma or period is placed inside the quotation marks; a semicolon or colon is placed after the quotation marks:
    • In "The Horse Dealer's Daughter," Lawrence often leaves his characters' thoughts unspoken.
    • Lawrence is addressing the inseparability of love and lust in "The Horse Dealer's Daughter."
    • Lawrence has created an ambiguous ending for "The Horse Dealer's Daughter"; this leaves the interpretation of the story up to the reader.
    • Not many events occur in "The Horse Dealer's Daughter": a breakfast, a conversation or two, an attempted suicide, and rescue are the extent of the plot.
  • Avoid using wordy or grammatically incorrect opening lines:
    In Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, he tells a fascinating story.
    In this sentence, "he" doesn't refer to anyone; and if you use the author's name, you don't need "he," too. Try it this way:
    In Great Expectations, Charles Dickens tells a fascinating story.
    But there's still a problem: This opening sentence doesn't tell your reader what your essay is about. It's filler, without real content. Get to your point quickly and directly, perhaps like this:
    Pip, in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, is a likable character, but he is not a hero.
  • Unless you have been asked to write a personal essay, avoid using the first person ("I") and the second person ("you") in your essays. Most college essays are supposed to preserve a formal tone, and using "I" and "you" gives the essay too casual a tone. Instead of saying,
    I think Jane Eyre is a feminist,
    try
    Jane Eyre is a feminist.
    (Note that this makes you sound more authoritative, as well.)
    And instead of saying
    If you look closely at Jane Eyre, you will see that she is a feminist,
    try
    A close reading reveals that Jane Eyre is a feminist.

For information on using MLA format to cite and document correctly, see The Writing Tutorial Services at Indiana University, or The Purdue University Online Writing Lab.

And if you need help getting started or with a rough draft, please feel free to see me in my office (my office location and hours are posted on the Schedule) or e-mail me at annw708@earthlink.net.

More detailed directions: The OWL (Online Writing Lab) at Purdue University has several articles that will help you with your papers.

About Wikipedia, etc.

Avoid citing Wikipedia in academic essays. Since it is not edited by reputable experts, it often has errors and isn't reliable. It's okay to use it as a starting point for your own research, but go on and find other sources to verify the information, and cite those in your essay.

NEVER cite SparkNotes, GradeSaver, Enotes, or other such easily accessible websites in academic essays. The information they contain is pretty elementary, and you won't endear yourselves to your professors by using a site any 6th grader can use. Instead, find more reputable academic and professional sources, such as books, journal and periodical articles in databases, and university or professional websites. See Writing About Literature for more information about how to use the college's databases.

Research: Books and Databases

As long as you're registered at LA Harbor College, you have access to a number of databases through the Harbor College library. Those databases have tons of articles on all subjects from many periodicals, including professional and scholarly journals. You can access the databases from the following link; from there, just follow the directions to log into the system:

www.lahc.edu/library/databases.html

The most useful databases for you, for these particular essays, will be "All EBSCO Databases," near the top of the list of databases. Also check JSTOR; it doesn't specialize in literature, but it does have articles in that field.

The most effective way to search these databases is to use the "keyword" option at first, to get the broadest search results. Then you can refine by switching to "author" or "name of work," if necessary. You will probably find many more articles than you need. That's okay--it just gives you lots of choices.

To search "All EBSCO Databases": the first step is to choose the databases you want to search. Rather than go through all of them and choosing, I just click "Select All." It may make the search a bit slower, but not as slow as going through and trying to decide which databases to use. Then I just fill in the name of the author and the name of the poem or story I am searching. If that produces no results, try searching just the author's name, and then you can filter the results from there.

Many of the poems and stories will have been written about in books as well; to find books on your author or poet, search the LAHC Catalog. Go to the LAHC Library page and click on the "Search Library Catalog" link. (There's also a link to click if you're off-campus.) Here's a tip on using books: you don't need to read the whole book. Just check the index for your poem or story and read only the pages listed there.

This class is taught through Los Angeles Harbor College.

For more information about the college, or to register for classes, click here:

LAHC Logo

 

Copyright © Ann Warren 2010-2015 and beyond. All Rights Reserved.