How to write an essay on literature: sample, examples

Compliance

How to write an essay on literature to get a good grade? The student’s work must always comply with the given parameters. It should reveal the topic, and therefore the student needs to understand what exactly needs to be written and how. For more than three centuries, the famous words of Boileau have not lost their relevance: “What is clearly understood will sound clearly.” It is useful to remember these words today, because one of the most common mistakes schoolchildren make in writing essays is the inability to systematize the material, which is directly related to a lack of understanding of the topic. Another problem is the inability to connect the entire essay with its leading idea. Ignorance of genre forms can also be a serious obstacle.

It's always difficult to start

It often happens that a student, having his own opinion and knowing exactly what he wants to say in the upcoming work, cannot formulate the initial phrase. The difficulty of writing the first paragraph plagues many people. Not only fifteen-year-old schoolchildren, but even experienced writers. How to write an introduction to an essay on literature so that the reader gets a favorable impression from the first lines? What should be the length of the first paragraph, and what questions can be answered in it, and what should only be hinted at? The answers to these questions are in the article.

Essay-description

The three main forms of writing that are considered classical are narrative, description, and argument. In a descriptive essay, the student usually first reveals a general impression of a particular phenomenon, and then describes its main features. The sequence of presentation of these facts is free. It can be determined by the student’s attitude to these characteristics. The key factor for successfully writing such an essay is the correct choice of artistic and visual tools.

How to write an essay on literature if the teacher assigned work in this genre? First of all, you need to stick to the basic plan:

First you need to describe the general impression of a phenomenon.
Then characterize individual features or details.
Describe your own attitude to what is described.

What should the proposals be?

It is worth remembering that only a genius like Dostoevsky has the right to write in a complex and incomprehensible way. And the destiny of mere mortals is simplicity and brevity. The form must match the content. Complex sentences with many adjectives only cause irritation. This should be remembered at all stages of writing an essay, but since we are considering the question of how to write an introduction to an essay on literature, it is worth saying that a long sentence with a bunch of subordinate clauses in the first paragraph sometimes discourages reading the entire creation. Of course, you should not write only in short phrases. But long ones, if any are born, are better to alternate with simple sentences.

Example of a descriptive essay

The main reason that makes schoolchildren (and often their parents) think about the question of how to write an essay on literature is the Unified State Exam. However, you don't have to wait until high school to learn creative work. If a student puts in enough effort and, starting in elementary and middle school, hones his ability to write essays, this will work to his advantage in the future. Therefore, you should not neglect writing regular papers. Let's look at an example that allows a student to learn how to write descriptive essays.

“On the seashore near the village of Severnoe, the weather always changes suddenly. The exact same thing happened this time. The sun was shining brightly in the morning, but by lunchtime the picture began to change.

Menacing clouds covered the sky to the very horizon. In the distance one could see bright lightning dancing, flashing from one side to the other. Somewhere in the distance one could see a wall of rain, which seemed to connect the firmament and the sea together. The waves crashed against the shore, becoming stronger, as if they were filled with indignation every second. The village was deserted. Sharp gusts of wind anxiously fluttered tree leaves and swayed wicker fences. A strong storm was approaching."

It all starts with a book

Reading works from the school curriculum is one of the main conditions for successfully working on your opus - this is exactly what the answer to the question “how to start an essay on literature” should be. Plunging into the world created by the writer, the reader becomes an eyewitness to the events, so his attitude towards the characters is formed not according to someone’s prompting in the form of a brief retelling or director’s decision on stage or in film, but on the basis of personal impressions.

And then descriptions of nature, monologues and dialogues, interiors and portraits will help in characterizing images or analyzing an entire work, that is, they will become compelling literary arguments.

Where is the ability to write descriptive essays useful?

A descriptive essay is a task not only for elementary grades. Often, middle and high school students need to describe the features of the depiction of nature in various poems. For example, the task might read like this: “Description of the beauties of the native land in the poetry of Sergei Yesenin.” The training will allow the student to learn to write essays faster, and he will no longer think about how to write an essay on literature. A plan is the foundation that must be followed in any genre. As for the description, it is important to remember the first point. It must certainly begin with giving a general impression of the phenomenon.

Ready-made phrases for introduction

An essay on literature must be written correctly. Undoubtedly, there should be no errors not only at the beginning, but in the main part. However, as already mentioned, readers first of all pay attention to the introduction.

There are several cliches for essays on literature. With their help you can create your first effective phrases. We will give examples of some of them, and at the same time we will partially answer the difficult question of where to start an essay on literature.

It’s no secret that... Great authors dedicated their works to this topic, because it was, is and will remain relevant.
Everyone knows how important... it is. School teachers talk about this. And writers devote their multi-volume works to this topic. But, in spite of everything, the problem has not been resolved, and the answers to pressing questions remain at the level of theoretical knowledge.
(There is a rhetorical question.) This question has worried humanity for many centuries.

These ready-made phrases partially answer the question of how to write an introduction to an essay on literature. You can also borrow the first lines from the works of more experienced authors. However, you should always remember that plagiarism is a ignoble matter. Therefore, it is better to write not only the main part, but even the introduction to an essay on literature yourself.

How to write an essay (USE, literature): template for work in the genre of reasoning

To write a good essay of this type, a student can adhere to the following template:

Introduction to the work. It can literally consist of 2-3 sentences. The purpose of the introduction is to lead the reader of the essay to the problem described in it. You can consider the structure of the work using the example of an essay-reasoning “Does a person need life goals?” The introduction to such an essay might be: “Every person from a young age hears that there should be a goal in life. For those who do not set high goals for themselves, their existence gradually becomes boring and monotonous.”
Identification of the problem. The time when schoolchildren are already thinking quite seriously about how to write an essay on literature is 11th grade. After all, final exams await them, the passing of which will largely determine the future fate of the student. At this age, schoolchildren are already fully grown boys and girls, and they will be able to correctly formulate the problem in an essay. The problem statement should also be between 2 and 4 sentences. The task of this part is to formulate the problem for which the student has arguments. For example: “However, recently more and more people are refusing to set professional and personal goals in favor of a measured existence. Doctors and psychologists have long been sounding the alarm about the increase in the number of nervous disorders and various physical illnesses among those whom society commonly calls “successful people” who achieve their goals. The trend of so-called downshifters – those who have given up a brilliant career for the sake of earthly joys – is becoming increasingly popular.”
Your own commentary on the problem described. The volume of this part is from 4 to 7 sentences. “It’s not without reason that people choose to give up a life of constantly achieving goals. After all, many of these goals are nothing more than an illusion, because the more a person earns, the more he wants to spend. In addition, status and wealth often come at a very high price. These are stress, illness, lack of free time. People give up the never-ending pursuit of a career, even though family and friends may misinterpret their decision.”
Student's position. The student can express his agreement or disagreement with the problem being described. He needs to formulate his thesis, which must be proven in the next paragraph. The volume of this part should be small and amount to 1-2 sentences. For example: “However, I cannot agree with this position. After all, a person who refuses a conscious desire to increase well-being fails not only himself, but also his family.”
Making arguments. This is one of the most voluminous parts of the essay. The main exam that forces schoolchildren to think about the question of how to write an essay on literature is the Unified State Exam. And for admission to this exam, an essay-reasoning essay is mandatory. Therefore, the student should think in advance about the ability to formulate good arguments. Let's continue the example described in the previous paragraphs of the template. How to write an essay on literature? After a detailed consideration of the algorithm, this question will no longer be so painful for the student. “After all, a person who does not set serious goals for himself ultimately deprives himself and his loved ones of financial stability. Life circumstances are not a given that is established once and for all. At the turns of fate, obstacles, difficulties, and dangers can await a person. And often it is impossible to get rid of them if you do not have a good material base, which in some cases is possible for a person only by building a good career. For example, my friend Marya Panteleevna, at the age of 18, decided to devote her entire life to family and raising children. She deliberately refused to obtain higher education and set career goals, counting on the support of her husband, Innokenty Agafonovich. But her hopes were not justified - Innokenty Agafonovich met the young milkmaid Praskovya in his declining years and left Marya Panteleevna on child support alone with four children. Now my friend very much regrets that in her youth she did not pay attention to the issues of goal setting. In this regard, I can agree with the quote by E.M. Remark: A true idealist strives for money. Money is freedom. And freedom is life."
Conclusion. Since writing an essay on literature without a good conclusion is a dubious idea, it is important for a student to think about a succinct ending. In this part, the student summarizes the main ideas of his work. He draws conclusions and sums things up. You can also encourage the reader to think about problematic topics. “Thus, without correctly set goals, human life not only becomes more boring and monotonous, but is also endangered. Those who set themselves worthy goals provide themselves with the opportunity for personal growth, and can also withstand life’s problems and troubles.”

Many schoolchildren puzzle over how to write an essay on literature. The template will simplify this task, saving time and effort.

How to plan an essay on literature? Instructions with example

In order to write a good essay on literature, you need a clear plan. After all, without it, it’s easy to lose your thoughts and miss something important. Therefore, the first and main point in this work is to correctly draw up an essay plan. And we'll tell you how to do it.

Making an essay plan means breaking the text into separate significant parts that will mark the main paths of your thought. Each such fragment can be equal to one paragraph or several. It is important that they contain one thought. Each such micro-topic should be given a “name”, which, in principle, will be an item in the plan. It is better to use an expanded phrase or sentence as the title of a paragraph (fragment or micro-topic). This will make it clearer to you what to write about and in what manner.

How to write an essay?

It is necessary to adhere to the standard structure of the essay: introduction, main part and conclusion. In the introduction, it is important to outline the main idea, introduce the subject and set the tone for the entire essay. The purpose of the main part is to reveal the idea of the essay, prove the theses given in the introduction, and so on. In the final part, it is worth summing up the entire narrative, making final conclusions and assessments. And in each of these parts there may be several subparagraphs that, like lighthouses in the sea, will tell you in which direction to sail.

Sometimes the most difficult part of an essay is the introduction. Do you know how to check how well you wrote it? Take a couple of sentences out of it. If the meaning of the essay is lost, leave them. If not, the introduction should be rewritten

To give you an idea of the detailed outline of the essay, we will give an example. This could be the “scenario” based on I. S. Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons”:

The introduction and conclusion should be logically connected. To do this, you can express the same ideas, but in different words. At the beginning of the essay - from the position of an invitation to reasoning (or a rhetorical question), at the conclusion - as a conclusion-statement. If at the beginning of the written work we asked the question “Why is Turgenev read after 150 years?”, then in the final part we simply answer this question.

How to write an argumentative essay on any topic?

Before moving on to the conclusion, be sure to re-read the main part and highlight the key ideas with a pencil. They can be used at the end of the essay, retold in other phrases

When you draw up a plan for an essay on literature, remember that you are doing it primarily for yourself. Therefore, try to choose a topic that is close to you, choose an epigraph and quotes important for argumentation. By the way, if you are lost, look at the literature textbook and read the questions for the work. They will guide your thinking and help you create a good plan. Don’t be afraid to consult your teacher if it’s difficult. It highlights important details that you may have missed. Good luck!

Thank you for reading to the end. We are glad that we were useful to you. For more information, see also:

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Essay-reasoning. Selection of arguments

One of the most common assignments is an argumentative essay. And the most important part in its preparation is the selection of the right theses. Arguments represent evidence in favor of the thesis, arguments and explanations of the author of the essay. Since it is unlikely that you will be able to write a final essay on literature in the genre of reasoning without well-prepared arguments, this issue must be approached with particular scrupulousness. There are several types of arguments:

Brain teaser. They are also called rational arguments. With the help of this type of argument, the logic of the human mind is reflected. Logical arguments are facts, theories, hypothetical assumptions, statistical data, various eyewitness accounts, etc.
Illustrations. Without various examples from life or books, an essay on literature is unlikely to be complete. How to write? A sample and template allow the student to simplify the task, but he needs to choose the illustrations himself, showing creativity. This type of argument is examples from the personal life of a student or from the life of his friends. It is also useful to supplement the essay with vivid examples from literature. You can also describe a case that could occur under a combination of specific circumstances.
Authoritative opinions. These can be statements of great people, outstanding figures of science, art, politics, perceived in society as axioms. You can cite proverbs and sayings, because they also reflect the deep wisdom of the people.

Three pillars on which reasoning rests

Whatever topic the essay is written on, it requires adherence to logic, reasoning and inference.

The classic structure of such work is: introductory part, main part and final part. Planning what will be said in each element of the structure is already a competent approach to solving the problem of “how to write an essay on literature.”

The introduction should pose problematic questions on the topic. In the main part, you need to answer them reasonably, relying on the text and citing authoritative opinions of famous critics, writers, and scientists. The conclusion draws conclusions on the questions raised at the beginning.

Points for and against

For a student who knows how to argue his point of view, the question of how to learn to write essays on literature will no longer be so pressing. The student can safely use arguments of both types - both for and against. After all, evidence can either confirm a thesis or refute it. Here the student needs to be able to show restraint and correctness. A developed sense of tact will allow you to criticize the theses of other authors with whom the student may not agree.

What should the first paragraph be?

When and how to write an introduction to an essay on literature? It can be compiled already when the main part of the task is ready. The introduction and conclusion create a kind of emphasis in the creative task, and therefore they must be carefully thought out. But sometimes writing the first lines forces the author to think, and it is the first paragraph that becomes decisive in revealing the main theme. Therefore, perhaps, an essay on literature should still begin with writing an introduction. In both the first and second cases, it must have the following qualities:

conciseness;
clarity;
absence of semantic and semantic errors.

Argument example

For example, a student needs arguments for the thesis “Spelling is an important aspect in written communication.” If the student agrees with this statement, he can provide evidence for it. How to write an essay on literature and select the right arguments for it is best examined with examples. You can select historical theses. For example: “Once, during wartime, on the wall of a house in a dilapidated city, someone wrote an “Optetics” sign and thereby misled his soldiers. After all, if there was a pharmacy around the corner, then in order to get medicine for wounded comrades, one could, risking their lives, run from one end of the street to the other. But what if there is optics there? Who will need glasses and accessories during this dangerous time?”

This example can serve as an argument in favor of the need to follow spelling rules.

What to write about in the first paragraph

So, how to write an introduction to an essay on literature is more or less clear. It should not be burdened with unnecessary phrases. But what exactly is worth saying? The introduction to an essay on literature is a kind of announcement. It performs an important function because it notifies about an event that will soon occur.

Introductions for essays on literature can be compared to advertisements that we hear or see on TV, because they have one common goal, namely, to attract attention.

Example of a narrative essay

How to write an essay on literature of this type? Let's look at an example.

“It was a quiet evening in a small town in the Ivanovo region. At eight in the evening, grocery store saleswoman Elena Pavlovna was returning home. When she walked past an abandoned hotel, she thought she heard a strange sound, like a whining. Elena Pavlovna approached an overgrown fence and saw two small puppies there. Apparently, someone decided to get rid of them and therefore threw them out right next to the fence. The saleswoman, without thinking twice, took a rag grocery bag from her pocket, wrapped up the poor puppies and took them home.

However, after a few months it turned out that these puppies were not ordinary mongrels at all. The little creatures grew into two huge mastiffs. Therefore, Elena Pavlovna had to think about changing jobs, because she could not feed these two friends on her salary. The saleswoman was very upset at first. After all, her inner convictions did not allow her to throw away the puppies. But then a wonderful idea came to her mind. She decided to open a hotel for animals. Her establishment became so famous that Elena Pavlovna began to earn several times more. The noble woman now spends all her income on providing her pets with comfortable living conditions while their owners are on vacation.”

Learning to write an essay within given parameters

The content of the work must fully correspond to the proposed or selected topic. And this means that you need to understand: what and how to write. For example, if the formulation raises “eternal” questions (ethical, aesthetic, scientific), then these are problems. We need to talk about why the author puts them, what this proves. How to write an essay on literature “Family values in the comedy “Woe from Wit””?

The problem of relationships between parents, children and relatives in general is an ethical one. You need to start by defining family values, then consider how close people (father, daughter, adopted son, aunts, uncles) relate to each other in the play, confirm this with text, draw a conclusion about Griboyedov’s position and express your opinion.

In addition to problematic topics, comparative (comparing characters, episodes, works), review, free, mixed and literary studies are often offered for essays. The latter are the most labor-intensive, since writing an essay on literature from the point of view of the ideological and aesthetic value of the work should be done by using terminology, analyzing texts, characterizing characters, and proving the uniqueness of the author.

Making an essay plan

To draw up an outline for an essay means to break it down into fragments (parts of text), mentally highlighting the main stages of the path along which your thought will develop. Each such fragment is a microtext, which can be equal to one paragraph, or can consist of several. Each microtext will correspond to a point in the plan. It is important that it is united by the main idea, which has its beginning, development and completion within its boundaries. As a rule, the title included in the plan is not individual words or sentences, but expanded phrases. Individual words are too “narrow”, specific, and it is quite difficult to convey the main idea or theme with them. But complex sentences are not suitable either, because they represent an already complete, complete thought. Everything they wanted to say has been said. It is the phrase that is more suitable for the plan. It represents a kind of semantic unity that carries information in a compressed form. And in the essay itself, this information “unfolds”, the idea is revealed. But formulations in the form of questions are also possible, to which answers are given in the work. It is important to remember that the outline conveys information about how your essay is structured. Specific information about the content of each part. The essay should be “viewed” through the outline.

Any essay consists of three parts.

I. Introduction. II. The main part (including several subparagraphs). III. Conclusion.

But the words “introduction”, “main part”, “conclusion” themselves are not the names of the points of the plan. They do not have to be spelled out in the plan. The introduction, as a rule, outlines the main idea, sets the tone for the entire work, and introduces the issues under consideration. The main part reveals the idea of the essay and related issues, and presents a system of evidence for the propositions put forward. The conclusion summarizes the results and contains final conclusions and assessments.

For example, a plan might look like this:

Essay Light and shadows of Oblomov’s nature (Based on the novel “Oblomov” by I. A. Goncharov)

Plan:

I. Oblomov is a complex person. II. Positive and negative traits in the character of the hero of the novel by I. A. Goncharov. 1. Shadows of Oblomov’s nature: 1.1. master - sloth; 1.2. slave to himself; 1.3. Oblomov and Zakhar. 2. Empty dreams. 3. The bright sides of Oblomov’s nature: 3.1. kindness of soul; 3.2. love for children; 3.3. love for Olga. 4. Oblomov is a poet at heart. III. Oblomov is a living, real person.

The essay plan must correspond to the topic and be logically consistent. Remember: you make a plan primarily for yourself! And although you may not be required to have a plan in the final draft, it is better to draw one up in the draft - it will help you organize your thoughts, select the necessary material, and discard the unnecessary.

Materials used from the site: publiclibrary.ru
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Other types of themes

Revealing the features of the mastery of the creator of the work of the theme requires a good knowledge of the concepts of literary criticism. You need to be able to characterize the characters, see the features of the narrative, analyze descriptions (interior, portrait, landscape), and understand the composition of the text. The main thing is to see the ideological and aesthetic value of these elements. Example: “The skill of Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy in depicting Russian history.”

Essays based on a quotation involve identifying the topic of a given statement and formulating a problematic question.

Most of the topics are mixed, which include elements of the types described above. There are also free ones, which are often based on the author’s everyday experience.

Schoolchildren are often interested in learning how to write an argumentative essay. Its purpose is to convince the reader of something, to consolidate or change his opinion on a given issue. The basis of this type of work, its core is a clear, clearly formulated and justified from various positions main idea, which should be the only one. Answering the question of how to learn to write an argumentative essay, as well as other types of work, it is worth mentioning some rules.

Why is expressing thoughts so difficult for some students?

The question of how to learn to write an essay on literature is often asked not only by schoolchildren who are not given this task, but also by parents who cannot help their children, as well as teachers who are looking for new methods and ways to teach children to write this type of writing. work. For many schoolchildren, this is real torment, and they do not understand their classmates whose eyes light up when asked to write an essay.

Why is this happening? We are all very different people. Some people like to fantasize, perform, argue, reason. As a rule, such people like to write essays. Often they even ignore advice and do the work on a whim. The question of how to learn to write an essay on literature is usually not faced by these lucky ones. But others are lost. Options for solving this problem are critical literature, the Internet, as well as friendship with fellow lovers of expressing their thoughts in writing. In this article we will give our answer to the question of how to write an essay most competently.

Essay structure

As you know, every essay must contain three main parts: introduction, main part and conclusion.
It is better to start working on an essay in a draft. In the introduction, you can talk about the history of the creation of the work, about the role it played in the life and work of the writer. You can also refer to the works of other authors who have written on a similar topic.

An essay dedicated to a literary work should not turn into a banal retelling. It should contain the writer’s thoughts about the book he read. If you still don’t come up with your own thoughts, you can read the introductory article to the work, but you should not rewrite it verbatim. It is better to retell it in your own words, choosing individual moments that seemed the most accurate.

You should also carefully read the topic of the essay and try to answer the question posed in it. If we are talking about a specific problem raised in the work (for example: “The problem of creativity and the fate of the artist in Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”), you need to try to formulate what the author saw this problem as, how he characterized it in the work, what artistic means he used .

If this is an image of a particular character (for example: “Tatyana is Pushkin’s favorite heroine”), you need to remember how the author describes his appearance, character and actions. Then try to draw conclusions about the character's personality based on his actions.