Why Are We Here?
This website is the result of four students and a faculty advisor participating in the SOfIA (Summer Opportunities for Intellectual Activities) research program at Monmouth College. The website was devised as an accessible resource to help students write better essays about literature. After much research and discussion, we created a list of seven qualities of a good literary analysis essay that served as the framework for this project, as well as a list of struggles students have when writing about literature, which we address throughout the entire process. In addition, we created samples of essays to serve as models for other students and, in the process, drastically improved our own writing skills. On this site, we emphasize that writing about literature is a doable process and, though difficult and sometimes frustrating, can be quite enjoyable and enlightening. This website is an ongoing process, so if there is something that worked well for you (or even something that didn’t), please contact us and let us know! We would love to hear from you!
Leanna Waldron
Leanna Waldron is a senior English major and 19th-Century Studies and Business minor at Monmouth College where she also works as a writing tutor. Writing about literature is one of her favorite parts about being an English major because, although simply reading is exciting in its own way, it only takes you so far. She loves exploring and learning everything she can about the works she studies and writing is the perfect outlet for that passion. For her, writing about literature is the perfect way to balance the analytical with the creative.
Carli Alvarado
Carli Alvarado is a freshman majoring in Elementary Education at Monmouth College. She thinks that writing about literature is infinite and amazing. Writing about what you have read, analyzing, comparing, and decoding it is so endless, and she finds that to be the reason why reading is the most phenomenal thing to do. Carli was thrilled to take part in this project because she feels that developing reasons and solutions in regards to what it is that stumps young writers is a very fulfilling thing to do.
Cassie Burton
Cassie Burton is a senior majoring in English and minoring in Journalism at Monmouth College. Cassie loves to examine and proofread EVERYTHING, with the exception of the Harry Potter series (which is too sacred). She enjoys dissecting literary elements, simply because each book has so much to it – although she’s pretty sure the author doesn’t always intend it that way. Cassie loves to write, but reading is her passion. Participating in this project was a way she could do both, while also helping other student writers.
Mary Grzenia
Mary Grzenia is a senior English major and 19th-Century Studies minor at Monmouth College. Writing about literature feeds her curiosity and need to examine the complexities of life. For her, it’s similar to putting together a massive, elaborate puzzle: the process of fitting the pieces together is equally exciting and inspiring as the finished product (i.e. the paper or project). And the best part? It never gets boring because there is ALWAYS a theme or a character or any literary nuance which begs for more poking and prodding at, more interpretations and discoveries!
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Holly Logsdon
Holly Logsdon is a student editor of STEPS and a senior Creative Writing major and Professional Writing minor at Western Kentucky University. She has always enjoyed reading and analyzing literature and gets excited when her instructor assigns an essay. Just as books transport readers to new cultures and places, literary analysis opens up new ways of thinking about the world in which we live. For Holly, the challenge of discovering deeper implications of literary texts, and exploring those implications
through writing, not only makes her a better college student but a better student of the world.
through writing, not only makes her a better college student but a better student of the world.
Allison Millay
Allison Millay is a student editor of STEPS and a junior at Western Kentucky University studying English for Secondary Teachers. As a future high school English teacher, she is especially passionate about helping students be as successful as they can in learning how to write good literary analysis. For Allie, one of the most rewarding parts of reading and analyzing a text is discovering somewhat hidden treasures within the work that contribute to the author’s meaning, whether that be in terms of theme, or in interesting moves the author makes. She hopes that students will use this website and its contents to find those critical, and highly interesting, pieces and come to love the literature they’re exploring.
Delaney Holt
Delaney Holt is a student editor of STEPS and a junior at Western Kentucky University, double majoring in English for Secondary Teachers and in English Literature. In the future, she hopes to teach high school English back home in Northern Kentucky. For Delaney, her love for the written word can be summarized in a famous C.S. Lewis quote: “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.” She loves studying the literature of Mary Shelley and Edgar Allen Poe. In her free time, she also writes poetry.
Rob Hale
Rob Hale is the Head of English at Western Kentucky University and used to be Professor and Chair of English and Coordinator of 19th-Century Studies at Monmouth College. He has taught English classes at the high school, college, and graduate level and has worked especially hard to help students write effective essays about literature. He believes that writing about poems, plays and fiction helps students truly understand the complexity and beauty of literature. He loves to read and write himself and has published essays on William Wordsworth, Joanna Baillie, and Langston Hughes.