Trap 1: Using many words to say, essentially, nothing. Often, this happens when a writer is trying to cover up the fact that they do not know what they are talking about, have not done their reading/research, or they do not have a theme/thesis.
This text is important because it is significant. The vitally central importance of this text is necessary and relevant to many themes and ideas. Such significant ideas should not be ignored.
This text has many themes and they are deep, complex, and important. Some of the themes are uplifting and some are disturbing, but all are interesting and thought-provoking.
This text means a lot to many people across times and cultures; it is universally filled with themes, ideas, and emotions. Ideas are worth exploring; emotions are important.
Trap 2: Using an opinion, instead of evidence from the text, as the only support for a theme/thesis.
The theme in this book is that everyone is a mixture of good and evil, because I said so.
This passage means that our emotions are made up of a mixture of opposing feelings—joy and pain, good and bad. I know this because I like the passage.
This book is just dumb and I don’t know why the author even wrote it.
This theme is the most important theme ever and everyone should always believe it.
Trap 3: Using a one or two-word topic in place of a theme/thesis.
The theme of this text is experimentation.
This text revealed that love is a big theme.
The thesis I want to talk about is violence.
Trap 4: Using warped or stretched evidence to fit a theme/thesis that really isn’t accurate to the text (but the writer is using it because it just sounds so good).
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is about the power of closeness and friendship. Jekyll and Hyde were the same person. They would never be able to get away from each other. In the end, they had to look out for one another and decide their fate.”
“The Speckled Band” reveals that training and practice are necessary to achieving our goals; Dr. Roylott trained his snake carefully, teaching it and allowing it to practice. In the end, Dr. Roylott nearly reached his goal of obtaining his stepdaughter’s money.
Trap 5: Failing to use evidence from the text to support an argument.
The book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde used the repetition of violent imagery throughout the text to show that Mr. Hyde was a totally evil character. There’s a lot of violence in the book, therefore, Robert Louis Stevenson was showing that Mr. Hyde’s character was purely evil.
Trap 6: Writing a summary with no theme/thesis and no argument.
The story begins with Mr. Utterson and Mr. Enfield walking through a neighborhood in London. They see a door, and Mr. Enfield recounts a story that has to do with the door. He says that one night he was walking along the street and he saw a man trample a young girl without any remorse. Mr. Enfield and some other onlookers stopped the man and demanded that he make restitution to the girl and her family (1-4).
Trap 7: Using evidence that does not fit the theme/thesis.
Violence is a common tool that Robert Louis Stevenson uses to show the pure evil of Mr. Hyde’s character. For example, when Mr. Utterson and Poole tear down the door to the laboratory, they use an axe to smash the door. Stevenson uses intense sight and sound imagery which makes the scene terrifying (33). Such terrifying imagery shows that Mr. Hyde is the personification of evil.