First and foremost, a literary commentary is NOT an essay. The passage in front of you is not, therefore, an invitation to write a general essay about the work from which it has been taken. A commentary is an analysis of the given passage, its function and its characteristics.
How to Write a Literary Commentary: 14 Steps (with Pictures).
The aim of a commentary is to produce a detailed analysis of a passage of text, extracting as much potential meaning as possible and relating it, where relevant, and with due brevity, to the wider context of the work as a whole.Commentary essays follow a basic structure of an introduction, followed by a comments section and wrapped up with a conclusion. Commentary essays, also called argumentative essays, generally revolve around discussions, critiques and analysis of texts.From now on, you need to write a commentary essay using the following algorithm: Focus on your audience. For whom are you writing this and why? Define the main thesis statement of the work, and this should be your main idea or argument, which you will later refute or confirm.
Grab a blank piece of paper or open up a blank page in your processing document to start jotting down your first ideas. You may also write down on the margins of your text if you own the copy. 2 First, identify the author’s thesis, the arguments that support the thesis and the supporting examples for the claims.How to Write an Outline for a Commentary? The next step on the way to excellent commentary writing is developing a perfect outline. Of course, you will shape it differently than the one in a standard essay. Even though the commentary should be much shorter than an average essay, there are more points in the outline to mention.
