CLASS NOTES: Key Principles for Analyzing a Passage (from Literary Analysis Writing Lesson)

There are several key principles to analyzing a passage:

1. Offer a thesis or topic sentence indicating a basic observation or assertion about the text or passage.
2. Offer a context for the passage without offering too much summary.
3. Cite the passage (using correct format).
4. Then follow the passage with some combination of the following elements:

• Discuss what happens in the passage and why it is significant to the work as a whole.

• Consider what is said, particularly subtleties of the imagery and the ideas expressed.

• Assess how it is said, considering how the word choice, the ordering of ideas, sentence structure, etc., contribute to the meaning of the passage.

• Explain what it means, tying your analysis of the passage back to the significance of the text as a whole.

5. Repeat the process of context, quotation and analysis with additional support for your thesis or topic sentence.