Assignment Tips
- Writing About Poetry (Purdue Online Writing Lab)"Poetry, by its very nature, makes demands on a writer who attempts to analyze it that other forms of literature do not. So how can you write a clear, confident, well-supported essay about poetry? This handout offers answers to some common questions about writing about poetry."
- Annotated Bibliographies--Definition and FormatThis page from the OWL at Purdue provides an overview of what annoyed bibliographies are, how to format them, and their relevance to your writing.
- Additional background and tips for doing literary researchThis is a Green River College Library research guide dedicated to literary criticism. The guide outlines useful strategies on how to search literary databases and generate keywords.
What is a Literary Analysis?
A literary analysis provides you with an opportunity to do close readings of particular literary works. In the context of this course, the literary works we are focusing on include performed poems and short films.
Not sure how to get started with close reading your selected text? Try examining and interpreting the following to get started:
- Narrator(s)
- Writing voice/style
- Context (including time and place)
- Intended audience(s)
- Themes and interventions
- Use of language
- Imagery
- Other literary techniques
Secondary sources about literature in the form of literary criticisms, essays, book reviews, and bibliographies can help inform your literary analysis.
Check out the box below for links that can connect you with secondary sources about literature!
Keyword Search Tips
When formulating keyword searches in UC Search, the databases listed below, and on Google Scholar, you may want to try using the following terms in combination with your other keywords in order to yield sources directly engaged with literary analysis:
- Criticism
- Critique
- Analysis
- Review
- Interpretation
- Evaluation
- Symbolism
- Meaning
- Assessment
- Commentary
Find Secondary Sources About Literature
In addition to the links listed below, secondary sources about literature can also be found under the Databases tab within this guide, under the "Interdisciplinary Databases" box.
- Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
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Biographies, bibliographies, and critical analysis of authors from every age and literary discipline. Covers more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers. Combines the core Gale Group literary databases: Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and Dictionary of Literary Biography. Complements Literature Criticism Online. - Literature Online This link opens in a new window
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Also known as LION. An array of literary databases (including the full text of poems, plays, and fiction), reference works (including bibliographies, encyclopedias, etc.), and links to other Web resources for the study of literature. The complete text of journal articles is available on the database for all or some of the journals indexed. Fully searchable texts of over 250,000 works in English and American Literature. - MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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Indexes worldwide publications on literature, language, linguistics, folklore, film, television, and theater from 1923 to the present. See also the MLA Directory of Periodicals. - Periodicals Archive Online (PAO) This link opens in a new window
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Full text access to international, scholarly literature in the arts, humanities and social sciences journals from the first issue to 2005 or ceased date that indexed are in the Periodicals Index Online. This is a static collection, and there may be some missing issues/gaps for specific titles.
