Finding meaning . . .

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Finding meaning . . . From Reading to Writing
After reading a powerful work of literature like
Ambrose Bierces An Occurrence at Owl Creek
Bridge or Stephen Cranes A Mystery of
Heroism, you may be filled with questions about
its meaning.
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Finding meaning . . . Writing a literary
interpretation is a good way to explore your own
ideas about the meaning of a literary work and to
analyze the elements in the work that communicate
the meaning.
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B a s i c s i n a B o x
Literary Interpretation at a Glance
Introduction
Standards for Writing
RUBRIC
Introduces the literary work and includes a clear
thesis statement that summarizes the
interpretation
A successful literary interpretation should

• clearly identify the title and author of the
  literary work
• give a clearly stated interpretation at or near
  the beginning of the essay
• present evidence and quotations from the text to
  support the interpretation
• take into account other interpretations and
  contradictory evidence

Conclusion
Summarizes the interpretation
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Writing Your Literary Interpretation
Begin by choosing a work of literature to write
about. You might select a work that you
especially liked or one that you had problems
with in some way.
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Planning Your Literary Interpretation
1. Develop an interpretation. Read the story
more than once, taking notes. Freewrite about the
literary elements in the work. What are the main
characters most significant thoughts or actions?
What is the central conflict? What is the theme?
Write your interpretation of the story as a
tentative thesis statement.
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Planning Your Literary Interpretation
2. Gather evidence to support your
interpretation. Use a chart to list significant
passages from the text and how they support your
interpretation. 3. Test your interpretation. Does
the evidence support your interpretation? What
contradictory evidence did you find? How can you
revise your interpretation to account for more of
the evidence?
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Writing Your Literary Interpretation
If everybody is thinking alike then somebody
isnt thinking. General George S. Patton, U.S.
Army
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Writing Your Literary Interpretation
Try out your interpretation by writing down your
ideas. A good way to start is to try to get
through an entire first draft without stopping.
You can revise form and style later. Eventually,
you should organize your writing into the
following parts
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Writing Your Literary Interpretation

• Introductionidentifies the author and title of
  the work and briefly states the main point of the
  interpretation
• Bodypresents evidence from the text to support
  the interpretation
• Conclusionrestates the interpretation and
  summarizes the evidence

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Writing Your Literary Interpretation
Revising
TARGET SKILL CONCLUSIONS A good conclusion in
literary interpretations summarizes what was
presented in the body of the paper, does not
introduce anything new, and leaves the reader
with a sense of closure and something to think
about.
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Writing Your Literary Interpretation
Editing and Proofreading
TARGET SKILL VERB TENSE When writing about a
literary work, use the present tense (called the
historical present) that is, write about a past
action as if it were happening now. However, keep
the verbs in quotations in the tense in which
they were written.