RHETORIC & WRITING
Writing about Literature
Elements of the Essay
As you move from reading literary works to writing essays about them, remember that the essaylike the short story, poem, or playis a distinctive subgenre with unique elements and conventions. Just as you come to a poem or play with a certain set of expectations, so will readers approach your essay. They will be looking for particular elements, anticipating that the work will unfold in a specific way. This chapter explains and explores those elements so that you can develop a clear sense of what makes a piece of writing an essay and why some essays are more effective than others.
An essay has particular elements and a particular form because it serves a specific purpose. Keeping this in mind, consider what an essay is and what it does. An essay is a relatively short written composition that articulates, supports, and develops an idea or claim. Like any work of expository prose, it aims to explain something complex. Explaining in this case entails both analysis (breaking the complex "thing" down into its constituent parts and showing how they work together to form a meaningful whole) and argument (working to convince someone that the analysis is valid). In an essay about literature, the literary work is the complex thing that you are helping a reader to better understand. The essay needs to show the reader a particular way to understand the work, to interpret or read it. That interpretation or reading starts with the essayist's own personal response. But an essay also needs to persuade the reader that this interpretation is reasonable and enlighteningthat it is, though it is distinctive and new, it is more than merely idiosyncratic or subjective.
To achieve these ends, an essay must incorporate four elements: an appropriate tone, a clear thesis, a coherent structure, and ample, appropriate evidence.
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