Page 75 - Aldi Lukman Nurhakim_How to Write Critical Esays: A Guide for Students of Literature

4 Making a detailed case

Most O-level questions—and indeed many A-levels ones—spell
out the need to go into detail. You might now, however, be
faced by a question which sounds more generalized. Do not be
misled. Admittedly, as an advanced student, you should be
gradually learning how to offer more sophisticated thoughts
about a wider range of literature; but you will also be expected
to support those ideas by more skilful use of specific evidence.
Sometimes a title’s phrasing will be deliberately vague in the
hope of provoking you into thinking and writing more exactly.
Choosing—and using—the most localized moments in a text
may now matter more than ever. So acquire the habit of
chanting to yourself, at every stage of essay composition,
‘Specify; specify; specify’.

Clarification or proof

In literary criticism, as elsewhere, evidence can involve two
distinguishable concepts.
To make evident is to reveal. References to particular
episodes, lines or words show your reader the text as you see it.
By citing examples you explain just what the patterns are that
you have spotted.
Evidence can also suggest the means of persuasion, the facts
and factors by which a case can be proved. You need not only
to explain what your contentions are but to demonstrate that
they are rational. Evidence proves that you are not guessing at a
distance but responding to words that all can find on the