Essay+Writing+Helps


 * Ms. Hutch’s tips for the //Dubliners// essays:**

Remember to revisit your thesis in every paragraph – tie the point of each paragraph to the point of your essay as a whole...... which should have something to do with the author’s purpose, choices, or style.

Suggestion for how to do this: **Never begin or end a body paragraph with a quote**. Begin and end with your own words, either introducing the next point or tying ideas together. (Note: A quote might make an attention-getting start or a powerful final comment for the essay.... but you should not begin or end any other paragraph with a quote.)

Below are areas of usage that many of you still need to work on. All examples are from past student papers.


 * - Quote plopping!** You can’t end the previous sentence with a period and then just begin the quote. Either use a colon, or include a word or lead-in that syntactically weaves the quote into your sentence. If it’s narrative you’re quoting, then mention that it’s the narrator’s comment. Be sure your final product is a complete sentence!

NOT: She realizes that life will not be better than it is now. “Her eyes gave him no sign of love....” INSTEAD: She realizes that life will not be better than it is now, as her “eyes gave...” OR: She realizes that life will not be better than it is now: “Her eyes gave...”

NOT: The piece opens with a hint that she will not go. “Her head was leaned against the window....” INSTEAD: The piece opens with a hint that she will not go: “Her head was leaned...” OR: The piece opens with a hint that she will not go, as the narrator tells us, “Her head was leaned against the window....”

NOT: Gabriel looks back at his wife, “He watched her sleep...” (This is a comma splice.) INSTEAD: Gabriel looks back at his wife and “watched her sleep...”

NOT: For instance when James Joyce wrote, “In her home anyway she had shelter and food.” (This is a fragment.) INSTEAD: The narrator reinforces this idea when he says, “In her home anyway...”

- **Use PRESENT TENSE VERBS**. Remember, each time we read a work of fiction, characters are doing what they do all over again. They exist in the perpetual present on the page. Gabriel __looks__ at Gretta. Eveline __smells__ the curtains.

- **Underline or italicize book titles; use quotation marks around story titles.** One early story in Joyce’s //Dubliners// called “Araby” involves a young teen.....


 * - Never directly discuss your class or situation as a student in the essay.** Keep your writer’s voice comfortably in the background in a work of literary analysis.

NOT: Like we discussed in class.... OR: In the first story we read in A.P. class.... INSTEAD: omit entirely OR: In “An Encounter”.....

- **Be subtle with your use of literary terms**. Remember, your audience in lit. analysis is either your teacher/professor or some other very well-educated reader. It’s insulting and unnecessary for you to define terms for someone who already knows what they mean. It’s also a bit elementary sounding for you to call a lot of attention to the terms themselves.... Instead, only mention the terms in passing as you focus on the art and effect of the term on the writing.

NOT: It is a clear use of situational irony when Farrington beats his child at the end because we don’t expect it. INSTEAD: Joyce adds some poignant irony at the end of the story when Farrington ends up beating his son.


 * - OTHER GRAMMATICAL ISSUES** -- __See if you can spot the errors!__

- **Pronoun Agreement** **Errors** Each character displays their own kind of disillusionment. .... the character begins to understand their faults. When a person is born without sight, they learn to compromise....

- **Passive Voice** Mr. Doran is thought of as weak. The prospect of being an independent individual is perceived as an opportunity.

- **Redundancy** repetitive routine a critical critique a preceding past the worried feelings he was sensing

- **Empty phrases/wordiness** There are several reasons why Joyce was discontented with Ireland. In the first sentence there is a negative foreboding for the story. With the utilization of scathing irony and rich examples.....

- **Too many simple sentences/ repetitiveness** Joyce uses irony in many of the stories. Usually this is connected to the characters’ epiphanies. The irony helps the reader see the epiphanies.

- **Misplaced modifiers** Though not as much tied to Dublin itself, we see how ironic it is that the two boys ditch school.... Looking out the window, we see that Eveline is tied to her past.

- **Semicolon problems** Joyce includes visual disconnect with Gabriel in this scene; just as he does with Freddy Malins earlier.

- **Spelling** **and Apostrophe errors** (My goodness. You have no excuse for these. Fix them before I see them.)