Developing and Supporting Arguments Chapter Notes | Language Arts for Grade 12 PDF Download

Developing an Argument

• By articulating and documenting your thoughts and emotions about the work, you uncover their true nature. This process not only allows you to express insights but also deepens your understanding of the work and reveals something about yourself by focusing on what you find compelling, confusing, unsettling, enlightening, significant, or noteworthy—essentially, anything that resonates with you as a unique reader.
• A well-established method for this type of writing is the literary analysis essay. In this essay, you deconstruct a literary work into its core components, such as plot, characters, style, symbolism, or themes, and concentrate on one or more of these to explore how they function and contribute to the work’s overall impact and meaning. Writing such an essay involves several steps, each with its own sub steps. The first step is to formulate your argument about the work—that is, the specific interpretive claim you wish to present. This begins with a careful reading of the text and choosing a topic to explore.

Read Carefully

If you’ve already read the work, you’ll need to revisit it to prepare for your essay. The following strategies will help you maximize this process (and they’re equally effective for a first reading).

• Skim the text: Quickly review the work to observe its structure, the length of its sections, recurring words or phrases, and other general details. Can you identify a statement or passage that encapsulates the text’s central theme or message?
• Read slowly and attentively to grasp the work’s nuances and complexities.
• Examine a passage or phrase by analyzing standout literary elements. 
  • For Example, is the tone, word choice, sentence structure, style, imagery, figurative language, themes, or cultural/historical/religious references significant? Jot down notes on anything notable, either in the margins, a reading journal, or elsewhere.
• Look for patterns or disruptions in the text after taking notes. Collect your observations and consider how these elements work together to shape the work as a whole or how they relate to broader issues like theme, setting, or characterization. Pay attention to references to other artworks, such as a poem quoted in a story or a painting described in a poem, as these intertextual allusions can be highly revealing.
• Reflect on the purpose and impact of these significant elements or patterns in the context of the entire work. 
  • Ask why and how: Why does the author use a specific metaphor, tone, or word choice, and how does it shape your understanding of the passage? How do these elements connect, and how do they enhance comprehension of the larger work?
• Engage actively with the text: Annotate as you read—write directly on the page, use sticky notes, or take electronic notes. Look up unfamiliar words and note their meanings. Highlight or underline key concepts, record questions or ideas that arise, and mark patterns that could later help unpack the text’s meaning.
  • Apply an interpretive lens (e.g., psychological, reader-response, or feminist criticism) at this stage to highlight specific aspects of the text for analysis.
• Gather contextual information about the work, if useful, but avoid letting historical or biographical details overly dictate your interpretation. Ensure such information is supported by the text and integrated into your own perspective rather than replacing it.
• Respond personally: Note your reactions to the text, whether they involve appreciation, disagreement, or any other emotion.

Select a Topic

• After thoroughly reading and annotating the work, you’re ready to select a topic. Your notes and annotations will serve as a guide to your interests and points of engagement with the text.
•  Note that choosing a topic and reading the work as outlined above can be interconnected; you might decide on a topic before rereading and annotating, especially if you already know what intrigues you, allowing you to tailor your notes to that focus. (Using a literary critical lens, as mentioned, can similarly guide your focus.)

Form a perspective on your topic

• Once you’ve thoroughly read, annotated, and reflected on a literary work, the next step is to consider how it aligns with your worldview. Crafting your own conclusions about the text lays the foundation for building an argument and ultimately presenting your perspective in a literary analysis essay. Effective writing typically emphasizes clear purpose, logical reasoning, compelling evidence, coherent structure, and engaging style. While these elements are essential, creating a persuasive and impactful argument is challenging if you’re not personally invested in the topic.
• What if you’re assigned a topic that doesn’t initially spark your interest? For Example, you might need to write about a poem but feel poetry isn’t for you, or you might find a novel or short story unengaging. Regardless of your initial feelings, your essay—and its readers, including your instructor—will benefit if you identify an aspect of the topic that resonates with your passions and values. 
• Therefore, when shaping your perspective on a literary work, it’s crucial to connect with what matters to you. Ensure your perspective is grounded in the text itself, supported by its evidence. If your stance doesn’t align with the text, adjust it based on the evidence. Avoid projecting your assumptions, biases, or desires onto the work; instead, focus on what the text actually conveys, recognizing its various layers of meaning, some more subtle than others. For guidance on finding and using textual evidence, refer to the section on planning an essay.
• If you’re struggling to form your perspective, literary criticism schools can offer useful frameworks. While these approaches won’t dictate your thoughts or perceptions—only you can do that—they can guide you toward specific elements of the text that align with your interests and values, making them particularly compelling or significant to explore.

Analyze, Don’t Review

• When developing your argument, focus on analyzing the literary work to interpret it, not reviewing it. This involves closely reading the text and examining how its elements interact. 
• For example, how does the narrative perspective shape character descriptions? How does the setting influence the tone? How does the author’s language style affect the reader’s experience of the plot? What imagery does the author use to convey the work’s themes? Your role is not to praise or condemn the work but to interpret it meaningfully. Avoid evaluating the work’s literary quality, philosophical stance, or moral outlook. Instead, analyze the text to uncover the opinions, perspectives, and meanings it expresses as a literary work.

Focus on Theme

• Keep the work’s theme at the core of your planning and thinking. While theme is just one of many literary elements, it represents the essence of the work—its underlying focus, idea, or, in some cases, message. 
• Regardless of which element(s) you analyze, the theme will always be relevant. Staying focused on the theme ensures your analysis remains tied to the work’s central significance, even if your exploration reveals new themes or perspectives.

Develop an Interpretive Analytical Thesis

• Your thesis must present an argument, not merely an observation. An observation notes something generally true about the text, such as a plot detail or imagery used by the author. 
  • For Example, in Beowulf, you might observe that the Geat warriors’ helmets feature a boar image, suggesting ferocity, yet they later avoid confronting the dragon. This is a factual observation, not a thesis, as it simply points out textual details.
• An argumentative thesis, however, addresses the “so what?” question by explaining the significance of such an observation. 
  • For Example, you might argue that the contrast between the Geats’ fierce appearance and their reluctance to fight the dragon highlights a discrepancy between their outward show and actions, contributing to the decline of their warrior culture. 

A thesis might state: “The contrast between the Geats’ ferocious appearance and their later hesitation to confront fearsome creatures like the dragon reveals a critical disconnect between their appearance and actions, which contributes to the collapse of the warrior culture in the epic.”
Ensure your thesis is debatable, meaning a reader could potentially disagree with it. Your essay must then provide evidence from the text to support the existence of this discrepancy and demonstrate how it leads to the broader consequences you’ve identified. With your thesis established—though it may evolve as you plan and write—you’re ready to outline your essay, the final step before drafting.