Writing About Texts (this info will help with your paper)

Writing about texts: The texts we are reading in this class may be referred to as books, memoirs, autobiographies. Or in the case of Daniels, Lorde, and Pagnucci – you could refer to those as “short pieces,” or “personal essays.”

It is important to always introduce the text you are writing about – this is done by mentioning the first and last name of the author and the full title of the piece. After that, you should refer to only the author’s last name. Typically this will be done in your first paragraph. Titles of books are always Capitalized, and underlined or italicized. Either way is correct. It’s your choice.

ALSO notice that the sentence is in present tense. When we write about a text – we always speak about it in present test. Some examples:

In her book, My Brother, Kincaid depicts the ambivalence she feels towards her family. Rather than Kincaid depicted.

In her unconventional memoir, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, Maxine Hong Kingston explores the many stories (often conflicting) her mother told her as a child.

Some of the things a text OR an author might do:
examines, discusses, outlines, argues, depicts, explores, explains
An author or a narrator can state, note, say, write or even tell us (but a book probably does not do these things).

Kingston’s narrator is haunted by the mysterious aunt whom her mother describes; she tells us: “My aunt haunts me – her ghost drawn to me because now, after fifty years of neglect, I alone devote pages of paper to her, though not origamied into houses and clothes” (16). The narrator is being haunted because she has chosen to reveal the aunts secrets.