In Writing Analytically, David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen recommend “focus[ing] on individual sentences and short passages and build[ing] up a knowledge base from there” (48). The paragraphs that follow demonstrate how developing your understanding of a text through your close examination of individual words enables you to develop an analysis of it.
Suppose you are writing about Michael Lewis’s “Back Story” and are examining the words “[f]our Mississippi”(21). You might be drawn to the fact that Lewis withholds those words for several pages, rather than presenting them shortly after the previous counts in the Redskins’ play—one, two, and three Mississippi–which he documents in the opening paragraph of the chapter. You might ask yourself why he withholds “[f]our Mississippi”(21), and answer with these words:
Doing that allows him to develop the backstory.
Although the statement above answers your question, it does so in very general terms. To develop the idea, state specifically what that is, which is delaying the resumption of the chapter’s opening scene:
Delaying the resumption of the chapter’s opening scene for several pages allows Lewis to develop the backstory.
Noting that backstory is the title of the chapter and stating what the backstory is develops the sentence more:
Delaying the resumption of the chapter’s opening scene for several pages allows Lewis to develop the backstory of the title: how Lawrence Taylor redefined the running back position and fundamentally changed the game of football.
The sentence above fleshes out the idea of the original nine-word sentence and nearly quadruples its length.
As you revise your analysis, follow the same steps to develop your ideas.
Tomorrow, when I return your drafts with my annotations, you will also receive a handout with general notes. An additional copy of those notes is included below.
Analysis Draft Notes
- The opening paragraph of your essay should be a summary that leads to your thesis statement. Remember that summaries are objective by nature. If you comment in any way on the quality of your subject (the text you are writing about), you turn from summary to commentary or analysis. That should not occur until you present your thesis statement, which will follow the summary.
- Summaries are written in the third person. No singular or plural first- or second-person pronouns should appear in your summary. In other words, you should not use the words “I,” “me,” “you,” “we,” or “us.” MLA style requires the use of the present tense in writing about literature and other pieces of writing that are sources of study.
- On first reference, refer to the author by first and last name. On subsequent references, refer to the author by last name, not first.
- Text is a blanket term for all your readings. When you are referring to a particular reading, do not use a blanket term. Instead, identify by type: essay, chapter, chapter excerpt, or magazine article excerpt.
- MLA style requires the use of the present tense in writing about literature and other works that are sources of study. Write Sedaris meditates on, not Sedaris meditated on. For more on writing in the present tense, see MLA’s notes on writing in the present tense.
- Do not foreground the words page and paragraph in your sentences. In other words, do not write, on page twenty-two. . . . Page and paragraph numbers are for parenthetical citations.
- Once you begin your analysis, you may use first person, but MLA’s editors and your textbook’s authors recommend that you use first-person sparingly, if you use it at all. If you find it difficult to write in third person, compose your analysis in its entirety in first person, then afterward try recasting it in third person. For more on the person question (to write I or not), see Writing Analytically (415-16) and MLA’s notes on using I.
- In your drafts, some of you presented ideas that you heard in class as if they were your own, which is a form of plagiarism. If you mention an idea that I presented in class, you should introduce the idea with a signal phrase, such as this: As Professor Jane Lucas has observed, the narrator Edgar’s apparent detachment may stem from his grief. The signal phrase is in past tense because it refers to a statement from a previous class, but Edgar’s verb is present tense (stem, not stemmed) because of the present-tense MLA rule. Again, see
- If you paraphrase a statement of mine from class, include the following work-cited entry at the end of your revision. You will need to consult your class notes to identify the correct date.
Lucas, Jane. English 1103: Academic Research and Writing. 4 February 2026, High Point University.
- If you quote or paraphrase an idea from our class notes, the same rule applies. The work cited entry for a blog post appears below.
Lucas, Jane. “ENG 1103: ‘The School’ Follow-Up.” Jane Lucas, 5 Feb. 2026, https://janelucas.com/2026/02/05/eng-1103-the-school-follow-up-3/.
- Do not use the phrase in conclusion or any variation on it at the beginning of the final paragraph of your essay. While that transitional phrase can be useful in a speech (because the audience cannot see that the end is near), there is no reason to write those words when readers can see for themselves that only one paragraph remains. For more, see Harvard University Writing Center’s notes on conclusions.
Next Up
At the beginning of class on Wednesday, I will return your handwritten analyses drafts with my notes, and I will conduct a check of your journal exercise on the first paragraph of Tom Junod’s “The Falling Man.” Afterward, you will have the remainder of the class period to begin revising on your laptops and tablets. The due date for posting your revised analysis to Blackboard and to your WordPress blog is Wednesday, March 4 (before class). The hard deadline is Friday, March 6 (before class).
Jane Lucas 