you choose a reading from class, form a “claim” or argument, and use examples fr

you choose a reading from class, form a “claim” or argument, and use examples from the text to back that up — try and include some of the literary terminology discussed in class.
Assignment Description: This assignment asks you to think about how a text tells its story as well as the content of that story. It will, therefore, ask you to make a claim about some element of the story, to point to formal and thematic evidence that justify those claims, and to explain how that evidence supports those claims.
The Three Pillars of Analysis: The general form of an analysis is “This is what I think [claim] and let me tell you some reasons [explanation] and details [evidence] that make me think I am right.
Claims: a claim is an assertion about a work of art that you believe to be correct but cannot be proven definitively one way or another. If it could be proven definitively, then it would be an observation. A claim is an expression of what you think, what you take a difficult or complex moment to mean, how you think an obscure passage should be understood.
Evidence: when studying art and literature evidence is details from the work. In your writing you can express evidence by quoting the material, paraphrasing it, or describing it. Effective use of evidence involves combining all three of these.
Quotation is useful when you want to draw attention to a specific word, term, device, or language.
Paraphrase is useful when you need to present a whole scene, conversation, or figurative effect.
Description is most useful when talking about the overall composition, structure, or organization of a text, chapter, scene, or moment.
Explanation: you might also hear this referred to as analysis, but I think it is more useful to keep it separate. Explanation connects the evidence and the claims by says how and why YOU think the evidence you’ve provided supports the claims that you’ve made.