Your objective in writing a literary analysis paper is to convince the person reading your essay that you have supported the idea you are developing. Unlike ordinary conversation and classroom discussion, writing must stick with great determination to the specific point of development. Please use the worksheet that was provided and review proper MLA for dramas. If you choose to use secondary sources, you MUST cite these or your paper will be graded as plagiarized.

Your essay must have a central idea (thesis), it must have several paragraphs that grow systematically out of the central idea, it must have textual evidence (quotes from the text) and analysis of textual evidence that support your thesis, and everything in it must be directly related to the central idea and must contribute to the reader’s understanding of that central idea. This paper is NOT a book report or a plot summary; you are making some argument about the text and supporting that argument with textual evidence.

Please review how to accurately quote and cite lines of drama … found in The Little Brown Handbook or MLA websites.

USE:

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

Your paper should be 5-7 pages, double spaced, 1 inch margins, MLA parenthetical notes, pages numbered.