Conventions of the Formal Essay

Transcription

1 Name 1. Write in the third person. Conventions of the Formal Essay Avoid using the first person (I, me, we, us). In analytical writing, you are not expressing opinion; instead, you are making objective statements about the literature that you are able to support with evidence from the literature. Instead of writing, I think that Mr. Spangler treats Homer with great kindness, write, Mr. Spangler treats Homer with great kindness and then support your statement with evidence. Instead of writing, It seems to me that Coach Byfield is prejudiced, write, Coach Byfield appears to be prejudiced, followed by evidence to support this statement. Avoid using the second person (you). Instead of writing, Saroyan expects you to sympathize with Homer, write, Saroyan expects the reader to sympathize with Homer, or, Saroyan treats Homer with sympathy. 2. Make no references to your own essay. Do not say, This essay is about or The next paragraph will explain or The next piece of evidence to support the thesis is or In the next quote Miss Hicks tells Homer to respect everyone. Instead of telling the reader what you are going to discuss, just go ahead and discuss it. 3. Use Standard English only. Do not use slang. 4. Avoid contractions. For example, write, has not rather than hasn t; write is not rather than isn t. 5. When you write about literature, use the present tense. Do not use the past tense, and avoid the present progressive. Past: Homer Macauley learned many valuable lessons. Present progressive: Homer Macauley is learning many valuable lessons. Simple present: Homer Macauley learns many valuable lessons. Past: Saroyan portrayed Homer with compassion. Present progressive: Saroyan is portraying Homer with compassion. Simple present: Saroyan portrays Homer with compassion.

2 The only time you use past tense when writing about literature is when you are discussing one part of the novel and need to refer back to an earlier part: Homer has a limp from the injury he sustained when Coach Byfield tackled him. 6. The most effective writing is simple and concise. Say what you have to say in as few words as possible. Don t throw in unnecessary words as padding. If you can substitute one word (e.g. tangible ) for a group of words ( capable of being touched or felt ) then do so. The sentence, The excitement in the room was almost tangible, is more effective than, The excitement in the room could almost have been touched. If you have a choice between a long word and a short word if, that is, both words would be equally expressive and appropriate in the sentence then use the short word. To show that the best writing is simple and concise, the writer George Orwell took the following passage from the Bible (Ecclesiastes) I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. And translated it as follows Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account. (Orwell, G. (1946). Politics and the English Language Every time you write the title of a long work of literature such as a novel or play, you underline or italicize it (not both). Every time you write the title of a short work such as a poem or an essay, you put it in quotation marks. Thus you would write, Sara Teesdale, in There Will Come Soft Rains, and William Saroyan, in The Human Comedy, use biblical allusions to develop their themes. 8. The first time you mention the name of the author, you give his or her name in full. Thereafter, refer to the author by last name only: William Saroyan s The Human Comedy portrays a young boy growing up in California during World War II. Throughout the novel, Saroyan demonstrates his belief in the essential goodness of all human beings. 9. Numbers of one hundred and below are expressed in words (one, eleven, seventy-six); numbers above one hundred are expressed in numerals (134, 3,056, 95,000). Thus you would discuss the three siblings of Homer and the deaths of

3 two of his family members, but would refer, for example, to the 1,001 Arabian Nights. 10. Avoid simple plot summary. Assume that your reader has read the literature. The bulk of your essay should consist of analysis of the literature. Analysis is (evidence-based) interpretation. Begin your analysis with the minimum amount of plot summary necessary for the reader to recognize the place in the story and to understand your analysis. Although the purpose of your essay is to analyze the literature, you should avoid generalizations and should support every analytical statement you make with specific evidence from the literature. Analysis: Saroyan shows that fear is not present in very young children but rather that it is an emotion that must be learned. Evidence: Early in the book, Ulysses waves at strangers and shows no fear when caught in the trap. However, when he sees Mr. Mechano, and is unable to determine if Mr. Mechano is a man or a machine, Ulysses learns to fear the unknown. Analysis: Homer experiences significant hardship on his odyssey from childhood to adulthood. Evidence: He deals with the deaths of his father and brother, experiences prejudice at school, and works hard to support his family. 11. Use quotes to convince your reader that your analysis is valid. Quote the text exactly. Every quote must be followed by a citation. Don t float the quote. That is, don t simply throw a quote into the middle of your paragraph and hope that the reader understands its relevance. Make sure you introduce the quote, embed it into your own writing, and react to the quote. Do all of this without using the word quote. See below for examples. Punctuation within the quote should be exactly as in the original. Punctuate the end of the quote as necessary for your text. Choose your quotes carefully. Provide the best possible quote to support your analysis. Quote no more of the text than is necessary and relevant. Every paragraph must contain more of your own writing than words quoted from the text. Note that you should never begin or end a paragraph with a quote. When you are quoting the narrator as well as the dialogue, double quotation marks go on the outside, and single quotation marks go on the inside. Thus, o The black man on the train waved back to Ulysses, shouting: Going home, boy going back where I belong! (12).

4 There are various ways of quoting literature, as follows: A. Quoting only part of a sentence Grammatically incorporate the quote into your own sentence: Homer tells Miss Hicks that people all over the world have noses ( 51). Miss Hicks tells Homer that she wants him to respect both his inferiors and his superiors (56). Saroyan describes with great affection the orchards and vineyards that rest in the old, old earth of California (14). Note that you should never begin or end a quote with an ellipsis (three dots), even when you are quoting only part of the sentence from the text. B. Quoting entire sentences You might grammatically incorporate the sentence into a sentence of your own, as in part A, above: As Homer rides his bicycle, the sun was going down in a somnolence of evening peace deeply cherished by the people of Ithaca (14). (Note that in this example, an entire sentence from the text is quoted, substituting lower case for upper case t in the.) If you make a statement about the literature and want to use a quote to illustrate that statement, end your own sentence with a colon and begin a new sentence with the quote: As Homer rides his bicycle, he notices the beauty of his environment: The sun was going down in a somnolence of evening peace deeply cherished by the people of Ithaca. All about the messenger orchards and vineyards rested in the old, old earth of California (14). Homer is struck by the beauty of Mrs. Sandoval: He could see that she had been patient all her life, so that now, after years of it, her lips were set in a gentle smile (26). C. Quoting an entire passage. Sometimes it is necessary to quote an entire passage. Do this rarely and only if every sentence in the passage is relevant to your discussion. (In a five-paragraph essay you would do this no more than once.) When quoting a passage, separate it from your own text and indent. Note that you do not use quotation marks.

5 Miss Hicks gives Homer much sound advice, all of which plays a role in shaping his character. When he stays after school for detention, she tells him, In a democratic state every man is the equal of every other man up to the point of exertion, and after that every man is free to exert himself as he chooses. I am eager for my boys and girls to exert themselves about behaving with honor. What my children appear to be on the surface is no matter to me. I am fooled neither by gracious manners nor by bad manners. I am interested in what is truly beneath each kind of manners. Whether one of my children is rich or poor, brilliant or slow, genius or simple-minded, is no matter to me, if there is humanity in him if he has a heart if he loves truth and honor if he respects both his inferiors and his superiors (56-57). As the novel progresses, it is clear that Homer has taken many of Miss Hicks s words to heart. He works hard at his job, acts honorably on all occasions, and demonstrates respect toward all he meets. When you are quoting an entire passage, you neither begin nor end your paragraph with the passage. D. Using ellipses Sometimes you need to omit part of a quote because it is irrelevant to your analysis. In this case, use an ellipsis (three dots) to stand in for the missed words. Mr. Spangler sees a young woman waiting for a bus to take her home, after work. Even though he was running, it was impossible for Spangler not to notice the girl s isolation He reached the girl, paused a moment, and kissed her on the cheek (78).