ALC Name ________________________
Short Story
Correcting your Literary Analysis Paragraph
Ideas and Content
§ Theme statements must be stated in a way that applies the theme to human nature. Do not make the statements too specific to the story. The theme should be able to apply to other stories, too.
Weak: In her story “Mrs. Sen’s,” Lahiri suggests that an American boy can begin to understand an Indian woman if the two spend enough time together.
Strong: In her story “Mrs. Sen’s,” Lahiri suggests that a person may become more sensitive and sympathetic to the culture of another by remaining unbiased and curious.
§ Do not repeat yourself in your Explanations/ analysis statements. Remember that good theme statements focus on growth in the protagonist. Show how the protagonist grows. Fully explain how each quote relates; DO NOT simply state that it relates.
Weak: This quote relates to the theme of assimilation, too.
Strong: At the beginning of the story, Eliot judges Mrs. Sen. He does not understand her culture, her cooking, her knife, or her language. Instead of immediately assuming that her culture is inferior to his, he spends each afternoon watching her and listening to her. The time he devotes to getting to know her ultimately allows him to sympathize with her and her inability to become part of the American culture.
Organization
§ Quotes should be taken from the beginning, middle and end of the story. Please organize them as such.
§ Include transitions! Try to see how one idea relates to the next. Use your final sentence of explanaition to link your E to your next C statement.
Voice
§ Take the following words out of your vocabulary: stuff, thing, all, only, very, like, nice, good, cool…
§ Look at your paragraph. Do all your sentences start in the same way:
He says, “I looked at Mrs. Sen” (Lahiri 57). This quote means Eliot thinks she is lonely. He sympathizes with her. He thinks she misses India and understands her want to go home.
Try to vary your sentence structure:
Elliot “looked at Mrs. Sen” and understood her pain (Lahiri 57). After all the time Eliot and Mrs. Sen spend together, they develop a familiarity with each other that allows Eliot to sympathize with her loss and her isolation.
Conventions and Mechanics
§ All verbs must be in present tense.
§ No second or first person (YOU, I, US, WE)!
§ Avoid the overuse of “to be” verbs (is, are, was, were, be, being, been)
§ Avoid too many progressive (-ing) verbs.