The Literary Paper: Suggestions for Success
Here is a plan for you to have a successful completion to your literary paper requirement:
1) Remember: the literary log is not the literary paper. The literary log is answering one of the 100 Questions on The Girl. For an exceptionally good answer to one of the 100 questions, look at Melissa White’s log.
2) Read the student literary papers on the 102 site. Look carefully at Tina Holley's paper, "Not Just a Girl" for how to use quoted examples and for how to develop a thesis. Also, be sure that you visit Literary papers: how to and how not to. This site offers a clear explanation of the "mechanics" of how to use quoted examples. Read through this site carefully. Your literary paper must be error free in order for you to get a good grade. Again, study this site.
3) Make up a character list as you read and re-read the novel. What is a character list? Keep a list of every character that you encounter in the story. Mark down the page number where you first encounter that character. Then mark down the page numbers where you think this character does something of interest. You could mark down every page where every character appears, but that would be too unwieldy and not really provide you with good information. If, though, you have an interest in one character, then do track that character’s importance to the story by listing every time this character appears. Obviously this works best for minor characters.
4) Write a simple plot summary. Pretend that you are reading the book and someone comes up to you and asks, “What is that book all about?” What is your answer? Make you summary short; keep it to a short paragraph. By keeping it short, you will force yourself to get to what is essential to you about the story.
5) Read the reviews that I have posted at the site about the literary log; just go down the page and you will find links to several reviews.
6) Write your rough draft of the literary paper and give it to me or send it to me via email. I will read it and make suggestions for the final draft.
7) If your draft comes back with comments about how you have done your quoted references, then take a look at More Suggestions.