Page 83 - Aldi Lukman Nurhakim_How to Write Critical Esays: A Guide for Students of Literature

82 How to write critical essays
ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY
Choosing relevant quotations is not enough. You must explain
their relevance.
Your introductory sentence must not be wasted on repetitive
waffle (‘Here is another highly interesting example of much the
same technique’) nor on imprecise praise (‘The following lines
seem to me intensely moving’). What the reader must know,
before tackling each extract, is the precise point which it is
meant to demonstrate.
Do not let your introduction and your quotation become a
single, unpronounceably massive sentence. Only the briefest
quotations can be understood if they are lodged as mere
components within your own grammar. It is usually safest to
end your own sentence with a colon before writing out the
quotation and then to begin a new sentence after the quotation
is completed.
Follow each quotation with some comment upon its
detailed means and effects. Allow the reader to look first at
the passage and reach his or her own conclusions as to
whether it does broadly confirm your preceding assertion.
Then draw attention to some feature whose significance may
have been missed.
Extremely short quotations may, of course, be self-
explanatory. If they have been lodged at precisely the right stage
of your developing argument, the applicability of the few words
that they contain will often need no further demonstration.
Most of your quotations will, however, be long enough to admit
of varying views as to which words matter most. Your own
opinion on this should be clear. Invite the reader to notice some
specific choice or arrangement of words. Explain why it
interests you and how it clarifies the question at issue.
Few students make the mistake of hurrying straight on from
a quotation without any comment whatsoever. Many do,
however, tend to make a remark which is too brief and too
vague. Consider this example from an essay on Shakespearian
comedy:
In As You Like It, Rosalind tells the arrogantly
procrastinating Phoebe that she should be thankful for a
good man’s love: