Literature Essays
What is a literature essay?
More often than not, this kind of task involves some degree of academic writing. If you are a student, you might be reading literary books and discussing them in class already. You may also, from time to time, have to analyse some books by writing essays on them. One of the biggest challenges that many students face is how to write good essays, in the correct format.
Besides the need to maintain a sufficient degree of academic writing, this type of assignment follows a particular format. To begin with, you need to understand the purpose of your writing. You also need to have enough background information on literature essay topics that you are required to write on.
Once you are sure of what you are going to write about, it is now time to understand the format of your literary essay. At this point, you familiarise yourself with what this type of writing must have within its content. The most basic steps followed when writing an essay are planning, writing, and editing.
Choosing Your Literature Essay Topic
As much as there are numerous literature essay topic examples to choose from, choosing an appropriate topic is always a tricky affair. You might be lucky if your professor or tutor picks the topic for you. But, in most cases, you need to choose an appropriate topic for yourself. It is possible to write a good essay, but still fail to get a good grade, just because you chose the wrong topic.
Choosing an essay topic is probably the most crucial phase in assay writing. Your essay might have a coherent structure, have no mistakes in its introduction, body and conclusion, but still get a low score. Such a thing will happen if your topic is not in sync with the content of your essay. It is like being the fastest runner in a race, but running towards the wrong finish line.
In cases where your professor or tutor has chosen a topic for you, it might still have various discussion angles and interpretations. Different individuals use different approaches to tackle the same problem. For example, suppose you intend to give a short outline of the key characters in a given literature book. You might choose to focus more on particular character traits and the highest points of the plot. Another person might choose different characters.
Literature Essay Topic Examples "Romeo and Juliet"
If you want to write a Shakespearean literature essay, "Romeo and Juliet" is the most natural book to grab. Although so many people have written essays on this particular subject, you can still get fresh ideas of literature essay topics on the same. Below are some literature essay topic examples that you can extract from "Romeo and Juliet."
- Light and Darkness
From a contrasting perspective, as well as numerous moments in the two protagonists' captivating love story, light and dark are ever-present in this literary masterpiece. Light and darkness embed themselves in the language of the entire play. The character of Romeo has these two characteristics throughout the text, has he deals with conflicting feelings.
- The Role of Fate
Romeo and Juliet are arguably the very first star-crossed lovers in the history of literature. Throughout the play, Shakespeare (the author) drops hints which point to the fact that the lovebirds' love story was, to some extent, destined to end in tragedy. Hence, it is sealed by fate.
- Undying Love
Love might seem like a very predictable topic. However, it is and still will remain to be the ultimate symbol and theme of the play "Romeo and Juliet." The fact that the love story in the text ends tragically makes it the most preferred topic in romantic fatalism. It makes love to be the most written-about topic in Shakespearean essays.
- The Essence of Time
Time is another great topic for quality literature essays, in Romeo and Juliet. It is noteworthy that Romeo comes to visit at night, always promising to return in the future. All this pans out in a play whose timeline is about one week, signifying how fleeting life can be.
Simple Tips for Writing Literature Essays
- The Introduction
Make it as brief as possible; give some hints on the direction that you intend to take in the entire essay. Touch on the specific aspects of a literary work that you intend to tackle.
- Mind Your Paragraphs
In your essay plan, you need to identify at least six distinct points that you intend to address. You also have to highlight the particular parts of the text that you want to write about in detail. During the writing process, devote one to two paragraphs to every point that you make. Ensure you make use of transitional phrases, for smoother linking of your paragraphs.
- Include Evidence
You must always shoulder the burden of proof for any point that you make. Imagine yourself as a lawyer defending a client in court using plausible evidence. Hence, you need to provide evidence to back up any comments you make on the characters, themes, relationships and style. You always get the evidence from the text you are using. Give clear examples or use quotes to support your points.
- Be Selective
Do not fall into the trap of re-telling a story. Only make references to the parts of the text that will help you to address your essay topic.
- Answer Your Essay Question
If your essay topic is in question form, ensure you devote each part of your essay to answering it. As much as this sounds obvious, it is easy to veer off and forget to answer the main question. After writing each paragraph, read through it and ask yourself: how does this paragraph help me to answer my main query? If it does not help, you can revise it to ensure it addresses the question.
- Your Conclusions
At the end of your essay, try to gather all the various parts of your essay together. If possible, make your conclusion the part which addresses the topic at hand most directly and more powerfully.
Conclusion
Literature essays can be tricky or easy to write, depending on your preparedness. The secret lies in your creativity. When writing such essays, always keep in mind that you must not agree with the points of view given by others, on a particular text. Make your ideas original and different. Develop them as clearly as possible and intelligently back them up with evidence. If you master the art of making your arguments persuasively, you will convince the readers to respect your views.
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