Question

SELECT ALL THE CORRECT ANSWERS

which of the following elements can you use to provide textual evidence in a literary analysis essay?

1. a thesis statement

2. the authors biography

3. direct quotations

4. summary of the plot

5. paraphrasing text

Answer 1

The correct answer is: “the authors biography, direct quotations, summary of the plot and paraphrasing text”.

Indeed, the author’s biography is extremely useful in that it allows a proper contextualization of his work that sheds light on the circumstances of his rearing and his background. These details in turn help understand and explain his motivations and objectives.

Direct quotations allow you to provide evidence from the literary text that is being examined that supports your own analysis and findings.

A summary of the plot allows you to properly situate the progression of the main points of the plot in order to help your reader understand the meaning and purpose of such progression.

Finally, because you are never, ever supposed to plagiarize the work of other people and because it forces you to be creative and expand your vocabulary and improve your written expression, you need to paraphrase the text in order to not only explain and share your understanding of what you have read but to expand on what you consider is its meaning and its implications.

A thesis statement does not provide textual evidence as it is your own personal claim about the text being analyzed claim, the other elements do provide such textual evidence.

Answer 2

Hi!

The correct options would be Direct Quotations and Paraphrasing.

Textual evidence refers to those lines or statements that substantiate a claim. In our case, while analyzing a literary piece, we can incorporate direct quotations, or paraphrase particular lines from the essay that support our argument or opinion.

Direct quotations are lines cited unaltered directly from the essay, and are incorporated between quotation marks. This is the most effective form of textual evidence.

Paraphrasing entails that the same idea, fact or message conveyed by the author in the essay are mentioned in the analysis in one's own words.

The thesis statement is clearly defines the topic of the analysis and all the textual evidence must be presented in a way to support it. It, itself, cannot be textual evidence.

The summary of the plot would be the brief account of the essay, and may not necessarily be as effective in proving a claim, and does not qualify as effective textual evidence when analyzing a literary essay.

Similarly the biography of the author may or may not relate to the literary essay, and is hardly used as textual evidence.

Hope this helps.