Argument for the paper: I want to argue how the novel titled Lady Audley’s Secret asks us to
sympathize with Lady Audley’s character.
● Narrow your focus: The best papers are those that have a lot to say about a very specific aspect of a text. Keep asking yourself to be more specific.
● Your thesis statement announces your position exactly. It tells us what you want to say. It makes a debatable claim and a definite commitment for your essay. It also establishes expectations in your readers about what they expect to read in the body of your essay.
● Get to the point! Try to avoid generalizations about literature and human experience at the beginning of your essay.
● In your writing, try to be concise. Avoid repetition of ideas across sentences. Try to use active verbs.
● Proofread your essay! This will help you cut out redundant phrases and typos. It can be helpful to step back from your paper after you have written it and then return to it with fresh eyes.
● Introduce quotations and paraphrases from your primary and critical texts carefully so that they flow from your argument. Analyze your quotations; don’t try to let them do the work for you.
● Try out the “thesis tester”: Although… In fact… Because… (We’ll talk about this in class).