Literary Analysis - Introduction

Question 1

Introduction Paragraph for a Literary Analysis Essay - Guidelines

Answer 1

• Begin with a hook (about one-two sentences) - Consider your audience and bring them in.
• Introduce the piece under analysis – author and title (one sentence) - This is so we can easily refer back to this information as we write.
• Summarize the story briefly. Focus on general plot. Do not provide extensive details. (one-two sentences) - We assume our reader has some familiarity with the text. We don’t want to overwhelm our readers with details.
• State your thesis – identify the conceptual theme(s) of the piece. The thesis statement is the theme. You may choose to also identify the techniques the author uses to convey the theme – techniques you plan to write about in your essay – but it is not necessary to do so in the introduction. It is a stylistic choice whether to do so or not.