The Uncomplicated Essay: A Painlessly Straightforward Formula for Writing Effective Literary Analyses (Middle School Edition)

By Erin Sharman Cousins

Is there an essay in your future? Don't know where to begin? Look no further!

I know that it can be intimidating to write a literary essay for the first (or 100th) time because I've felt it myself! That's why I spent years getting my method down to a science. Try it: it works.

I've taught my formula to more students than I can count, paving the way for higher confidence, deeper thinking, and (perhaps most importantly) better grades...every time. Now I want to share it with you!

Whether you're a beginner or just want to improve your skills, my method will guide you clearly through the writing of each paragraph in a way that leaves no room for error or self-doubt. I've even included loads of examples, a checklist, handouts, and essential tips designed to garner success.

Writing essays may sometimes feel scary, but it sure doesn't need to be complicated.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tellwell Talent
• Release date: May 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9780228823391

Erin Sharman Cousins

Erin Cousins teaches creative writing and story analysis in Surrey, British Columbia. A graduate of both the University of Toronto and the National University of Ireland, Galway, she now lives in Abbotsford, BC with her husband, Barry, and their cat, Leonard.

Book preview

Acknowledgements

I want to offer my sincere gratitude to my friends and family in Canada, England, and Ireland for lending their names, especially my father-in-law, Franko, who took the brunt of the burden. I’m doubly delighted to give a huge shout out to my entire team at Tellwell Talent, particularly to my editor, Darin Steinkey, for being so kind. Undeniably and importantly, I owe great thanks to Leona Yang, the incomparable lioness responsible for starting my journey into education. Lastly, I need to tell my beautiful and endlessly clever mom, Patricia, that she’s my hero for always giving such sage advice, both on the book and in life. Of course, none of this would have been possible without my pillar of support, my husband and partner, Barry Cousins.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter One: First Things First, What Is A Literary Essay?

How Do I Begin?

What Does it Mean to Argue?

What is Support?

The Rule of Three

Chapter Two: The Introduction

The Hook

The Author’s Name and The Title of the Book

The Set-Up

The Transitional Sentence

The Thesis Statement

Chapter Three: The Body Paragraph

The Topic Sentence

The Explanation

An Example

Evidence

Quotations

Making Changes to a Quotation

Paraphrases

Significance

Chapter Four: The Concluding Paragraph

A Brief Summary of Your Examples

A Re-wording of Your Thesis

Chapter Five: The Small Details (That Make a Large Impact)

Chapter Six: The Final Checklist

Essay Example with Notes

Essay Example

The Formula Breakdown

The Formula Handout

Glossary of Terms

Author’s Note

Your last name and the page number go here

Your full name goes here

Your teacher’s name goes here

The class name goes here

The date goes here

Your Title Goes Here

Hello everyone, and welcome! Just follow these step-by-step instructions and this process will be easy, I promise! I’ve created a foolproof formula for everything you need to include in order to write a fantastic literary essay. You may notice the format that I’m using; this is what your essays will look like. Let’s dive right in! Every line (the sentences going from left to right) is what we call "double-spaced"…

…And if you don’t double space, all of the lines will be squished — called "single-spaced" — as everything I write is close together. You don’t want this because your teacher can’t write little notes for you…there’s no room! So, first things first, change the line spacing on your computer to 2.0.

Great! You’re already on your way. Now, I know that writing an essay for the first, second, or tenth time can feel intimidating, but don’t worry. I’ll go through the guidelines one-by-one and promise that if you follow them, you will succeed in creating an effective literary analysis. It doesn’t need to be complicated, so just think of it as following a recipe; if you include all of the ingredients you’ll do better than fine. You can do this! Before you begin, however, there are a few things you need to set on your computer in order to make your essay look right:

You’ve already changed your line spacing to 2.0, so now you need to change your font. The standard font is called Times New Roman, and the size of the font needs to be 12. Got it? Good! Now the typing on your screen should look just like mine. Before you start crafting your brilliant ideas, however, it makes sense that we start from the top.

CHAPTER ONE

First Things First, What Is A Literary Essay?

A literary essay is one in which you read and analyse (examine in detail) a book, short story, or play, and tell your teacher something interesting about it. That is why it is also called a literary analysis. Now, keep in mind that an analysis isn’t a book report. You are not expected to write about everything that happens in the story. Instead, your teacher will give you a question about the material (often called an essay prompt) and you decide how to answer it. How you come up with your answer has everything to do with your feelings or opinions, but everything you say about your ideas is based on facts.

Always remember that when writing an essay, you are not going to simply summarize the book because you’d be telling your teachers things they could have easily read themselves. Instead, you are to say something that isn’t told directly to all readers. In other words, you must interpret elements of the story by figuring out the deeper significance of the action and dialogue. Trust me, we do it all the time; only now, it’s important to pay closer attention and put your thoughts onto paper. You can do this.

Great, So How Do I Begin?

How you begin is by looking for hidden meaning in the text, often called reading between the lines. To do this, know that there is a difference between what is explicitly said and implicitly said. New words right out of the gate! Don’t stress; they’re really not that complicated, but they sure are important. First up is the word, explicit.

Explicit

This term describes the words from the novel (or short story, play, etc.) that clearly tell the reader what is happening while leaving no room for doubt. They include all words on the page because they are considered factual, and guess what? You can use them as evidence (more on that later).

Think of it like this:

Say a character steals a pair of shoes from a store, and the