Literature-Based Thesis Essay Models

Here you'll find links to excellent literature-based essays. All the essays here feature teacher comments in the right margin to explain the way the essays reflect the criteria of the school writing rubric.

If you have questions about some of the margin comments, please ask a Writing Center teacher or your own teacher.

Freshmen Essays

The Lesson

This essay presents a strong argument that advances in each paragraph. The topic sentences relate back to the thesis and are discussed with plenty of examples. In addition, each example is made up of details which reflect a close reading of the text.

To Kill a Mockingbird

This writer shows great attention to detail in the analysis of evidence. In addition, the writer's original use of language and variety of sentence structure reflect not only a sophisticated understanding of the text, but also a great focus on articulating ideas effectively.

Sophomore Essays

The Secret Life of Bees

This essay is an excellent example of a piece that begins with the end in mind. From its beginning, the reader knows exactly where the writer is planning on taking the essay. Such clear planning allows the essay to use clear transitions between main ideas and maintain a focus on the thesis throughout.

Macbeth

This essay is very carefully constructed and demonstrates close attention to the ambiguities of the play, most specifically calling into question whether or not Lady Macbeth was indeed evil. Notice the way the context, thesis statement and topic sentences work to hold the essay together, and not the way connected pieces of evidence are used in each paragraph to link action with effect.

Lord of the Flies

Here, you'll notice the effective use of a number of organizing elements to keep the discussion focused on a single line of inquiry that runs through the text. In the introduction, you'll see not only that the context and thesis are precisely connected to one another, but that the thesis carries the entirety of Hobbes' idea through to the end of Golding's novel. The clarity of the introduction is followed by clear topic sentences that link each stage of the text - beginning, middle and end - to each stage in the progression of the main idea - initial state, changing stages, ending state.

The paragraphs outlined by these topic sentences are all built on connected pieces of text evidence. Each quote is thoughtfully chosen for the idea it represents (as opposed to the common error of choosing quotes that illustrate a plot event). The thoughtfulness is demonstrated by the writer's attention to the author's word choice and the way that those word choices influence meaning. As a result, the conclusion is what necessarily follows the body of the essay, rather than a paragraph added to the end solely because you have to have a conclusion.