From Ideas to Claims in Literary Analysis

Literature provokes thought. It animates discussion. It brings people into conversations that require us to discern what we mean and defend what we think.

Our writing about literature should have the same effect. This is why we need to move from the informal and somewhat aimless nature of "response" to the incisive and decisive mode of a persuasive claim. In short, students of literature need to learn how to evolve their responses to literature into compelling thesis statements.

Here's how: