Literary Theory & Criticism Essay Checklist

While writing your essays, make sure that they contain all the points below.
This list pertains to MLA formatting and compiled with the help of:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/1/
http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/mla
MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing Third Edition. New York: The Modern
Language
Association of America, 2008.

Font:
 Times New Roman 12 point or Tahoma 11 point or any font which is easy to read (no
cursive, decorative lettering), the same size throughout the paper, except for footnotes
which should be one to two sizes smaller.
o I prefer Tahoma 11 as it is the easiest to read.
 Do not make periods or any punctuation marks a larger font.
 No bolding, highlighting, or all capitals.

Spacing:
 Double spaced throughout paper.
 Leave only one space after periods and other punctuation marks.
 1”, non-justified margins on all sides.
 Beginning of each paragraph is indented ½ inch from the left margin (by pressing the
tab key).
 Block quotes are indented 1” from left and right margins.
 All text (except for the title of the paper) is aligned to the left side of the page.

Proper header:
 In the title, capitalize the first letter of each word except for prepositions and articles,
unless they are the first word within the title.
 Your title should fit on one line.
 Mark pages consistently in the upper right-hand corner of the page with your name and
the page number. Note: some professors may want you to omit the number on the first
page, so it is best to check this with each professor.

Example header and title:

Last name of each
student 1

Student name, ID #

Student name, ID #

Professor’s name and title

Course number and name

Date (day/month/year – i.e. 7 June 2021)

Title of Literary Work:

Title of Essay

Parenthetical or in-text citations: In the MLA style, writers briefly reference the source and
page number of each quote or paraphrased idea within the body of the text. The complete
citation is found on the Works Cited page at the end of the essay. These parenthetical
references should be as concise as possible.

 Parenthetical citations for books include the author’s last name and the page number(s).
o Example:
 The features of simplicity and repetition are both “characteristics of oral
improvisational and formulaic poetry” (Anderson 76).
o Do not separate name and number with a comma.
 Parenthetical citations for poetry include only the line numbers. i.e. (234-240)
 The whole citation should be within parenthesis ( ).
 Punctuation, such as a period at the end of a sentence or a comma at the end of a
clause, comes after the parenthesis.
 Insert the citation where a pause would naturally occur, preferably at the end of the
sentence.
 Electronic or online sources are cited as a book would be. If there are no page numbers
in the online source, omit the number.
 If you mention the author’s name in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the
parenthesis.
o Example:
 Literary critic Anderson writes that the features of simplicity and
repetition are both “characteristics of oral improvisational and formulaic
poetry” (76).
 Large works, such as books, movies, plays, epic or long poems, music albums, magazine
titles, newspaper titles, etc., should be italicized or underlined.
 Short works, such as short stories, essays, short poems, songs, chapters, TV episodes,
etc. should be “placed inside quotations.”

Some Basic Quotations Rules Concerning Literary Prose:

1) If a prose quotation runs no more than 4-lines, put it in quotation marks and incorporate it into
the paragraph text.

2) You need not always reproduce complete sentences. Sometimes you may want to quote just a
word or phrase as part of your sentence.

3) Place the parenthetical reference (Cather 69) at the end of the sentence which contains the quote
and then place the sentence period after the reference: “. . . .” (Cather 43).
4) Note: When the essay is based on one particular literary work, then it is unnecessary to write
the author’s last name within the parenthetical reference: (Cather 43) would be just (43) only. To
do this throughout your essay, make a footnote with your first Cather quote and write the following
as seen below in the footnote.1

5) If a quotation runs to more than 4-lines when run into the text of the paragraph, set it off from
your text by beginning a new line, indenting one inch from the left margin, and typing it double-
spaced, without adding quotation marks. A colon generally introduces a quotation displayed in this
way. A parenthetical reference for a prose quotation set off from the text follows the last line of the
quotation. Note that the period goes before the reference.

At the conclusion of the Lord of the Flies, Ralph and the other boys realize the horror of
their actions:
The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for
the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to
wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning
wreckage of the island; infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to
shake and sob too. (186)

6) Ellipsis: Whenever you wish to omit a word, a phrase, a sentence, or more from a quoted
passage, you should be guided by two principles: fairness to the author quoted and the grammatical
integrity of your writing.

6a) For an ellipsis within a sentence, use three periods with a space between each and a
space after the last (. . . ).
“Medical thinking . . . stressed air as the communication of disease” (101).

6b) When the ellipsis coincides with the end of your sentence, use three periods with a
space before each, and place the sentence period after the final parenthetical reference.
“Medical thinking, trapped in the theory of astral influences, stressed air as the
communication of disease . . .” (101).

1All quotations within this paper, unless otherwise cited, are from Willa Cather’s My Antonia.
Some Basic Quotations Rules Concerning Works of Poetry:
 Quotations should never stand alone. You should always lead into or give context to a quotation by
preceding it with your own writing. Usually, quotations are offset by a comma.
 Punctuation, such as a period at the end of a sentence or a comma at the end of a clause, comes
inside the quotation marks unless the quotation marks are followed by a parenthetical
reference in parenthesis, in which case the punctuation comes afterward.
 If you quote part or all of a single line of verse that does not require special emphasis, put it in
quotation marks within your text. You may also incorporate two or three lines in this way, using a
slash with a space on each side ( / ) to separate them.
o Example:
 Sir Gawain shows he is truly chivalrous by admitting his wrongdoings. He has

regained his sense of morality and asks for the knight’s forgiveness: “I can’t deny my

guilt; / My works shine none too fair! / Give me your good will / And henceforth I’ll

beware” (256-259).

 Verse quotations of more than three lines should begin on a new line. Unless the quotation involves
unusual spacing, indent each line one inch from the left margin and double-space between lines,
adding no quotation marks that do not appear in the original. A parenthetical reference for a verse
quotation set off from the text follows the last line of the quotation.
o The Old English poem, “The Wife’s Lament”, is rich in imagery:

Under the oak-tree, in this earthy barrow.

Old is this earth-cave, all I do is yearn.

The dales are dark with high hills up above,

Sharp hedge surrounds it, overgrown with briars,

And joyless is the place. (29-33)

Ellipsis:
 Whenever you wish to omit a word, a phrase, a sentence, or more from a quoted passage, you
should be guided by two principles: fairness to the author quoted and the grammatical integrity of
your writing.
 For an ellipsis within a sentence, use three periods with a space between each and a space after the
last ( . . . ).
o Example for a book or article:
 “A Medical thinking . . . stressed air as the communication of disease” (101).
o Example from a poem:
 The beat is considered strong in “Lord Randall” as there is an emphasis on the final

word or sound in each line: “. . . son? / . . . man? / . . . soon, / . . . down” (1-4).

  When the ellipsis coincides with the end of your sentence, use three periods with a space before
each, and place the sentence period after the final parenthetical reference.
o “A Medical thinking, trapped in the theory of astral influences, stressed air as the
communication of disease . . .” (101).

 Here is an example of an ellipse at the beginning of blocked poem lines:

o Example:

 In addition, the basic structure of “Lord Randall” is constant in stanzas one, two,

three, and four, however in the last stanza minor changes are found such as:

““. . . Lord Randall my son!

. . . my handsome young man!”

“. . . mother, make my bed soon,

For I’m sick at the heart, and fain wald lie down.”” (17-20)

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Footnotes: Two kinds of notes may be used with parenthetical documentation:

 Content notes offering the reader comment, explanation, or information that the text cannot
accommodate.
 Bibliographic notes containing either several sources or evaluative comments on sources.

 For the purpose of this paper, insert a footnote after the first parenthetical documentation from
your primary text. The first line of each footnote should be indented. The following lines are not
indented. An example is as follows:
1
All quotes within this work, unless otherwise cited, are from the Pearl Poet’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

 Write the footnotes in the same font you used for the primary text, but use a size or two smaller.

Works cited page:

 At the very end of your essay, on a separate page, you should have a “Works Cited” list.
 At the top of the page type and center the title: Works Cited
 Underneath the title, list your sources. Sources should be aligned to the left side of the page.
 The first line of each source should not be indented, but every line after the first should be indented.

Examples:
Books:
Last name, First name. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

Book- One author:

Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. New York: Putnam, 1955.

Another work, same author:

---. Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited. New York: Knopf, 1999.
Two authors:
Cross, Susan, and Christine Hoffman. Bruce Nauman: Theaters of Experience. New
York: Guggenheim Museum; London: Thames & Hudson, 2004.

Editor (anthology or collection of essays):

Hill, Charles A., and Marguerite Helmers, eds. Defining Visual Rhetorics. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.

Journal article, one author:

Matarrita-Cascante, David. "Beyond Growth: Reaching Tourism-Led Development.”
Annals of Tourism Research 37.4 (2010): 1141-63.

Web page:
Dutch, Steven. “The Disastrous 14th Century.” University of Wisconsin Green Bay Archives, 10 April 1998.
Web. 17 May 2013. <http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/westtech/x14thc.htm >.

To learn how to cite from other types of sources go to this webpage:

http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/mla or search MLA citation format online.

Final Essay Breakdown:

Introduction:
 Attention grabber: anecdote, quotation, question, facts, or statistics.
 Smooth transition from attention grabber to background material
 Relevant background material
 Declarative thesis statement that contains the topic, a comment which makes an important
point about the topic and a theme, a literary element or elements (characterization, imagery, tone),
and finally three literary aspects (i.e. characters, settings, symbols) which will be used as the key
points within the individual body paragraphs---one key point per body paragraph, unless you are
writing a comparative essay.

Body paragraphs:
 Does each contain a topic sentence that describes how the literary element is related to the thesis?
 Is each paragraph united by one controlling idea?
 Do you have three literary quotes in each paragraph?
 Does each quote have parenthetical documentation (see parenthetical documentation section
above)?
 Did you analyze each quote and explain how it relates to the topic sentence?
 Do you have a concluding sentence which brings the paragraph to a close by doing one of the
following?
o Restates the topic sentence (or)
o Uses a connector sentence to transition into the next paragraph.
 Are all body paragraphs significantly different from one another?
 Does the ordering of the paragraphs (with the help of transition sentences) logical? Would your
argument be better if the body paragraphs were in a different order? Remember, your last body
paragraph should be your strongest.
 At least two of your body paragraphs should be one page in length, and the third is allowed to be a
page and a half--though one page is preferable.
Conclusion:
 Does your conclusion bring closure to the essay? Is it clear that this is the end? Are there any
thoughts or questions left undeveloped or answered?
 You can exhibit your own opinion in the conclusion. Show the reader why what you wrote about is
important today. How does it apply to today’s world? Does the theme you have covered impact our
lives today?
 Your last few sentences should be some of the strongest in the paper.

Works Cited:
 Follows MLA format outlined in the Works Cited section.
 Has its own separate page at the end of the essay.