Reading is one technique that helps children learn how to write literary papers. For kids to be able to write, they must know how to read. When introducing a literary paper lesson, expose the kids to other forms of literary work, such as essays. Doing so helps kids understand what literary papers are supposed to be about, what the papers should contain and the different topics that can be explored. As part of the reading technique, have kids read several literary papers so they get a feel for the difference between, for instance, a literary paper and a personal essay.
Before jumping into the literary paper, have kids make a list of the things they want to include in the paper. A content exercise can be done on a worksheet that asks kids questions about what the literary paper will be about, how many references or quotations to use, the purpose or point of the literary paper and why readers would be interested in reading the paper. These types of questions spark kids' creativity, while keeping them focused on all of the items they should have in their literary papers.
Research is a technique for kids to learn how to write literary papers. In this lesson, children realize they can't create literary papers based solely on personal experiences or opinions, the way they can with personal essays or autobiographies. Instead, literary papers require the research about particular authors, published work and other variables. One way to prepare kids for writing literary papers is to assign them one author to research that they can use for their paper. Another idea is for kids to skim through reading material and extract one quotation from the material to attribute in the literary paper.
Now that kids have an understanding of the content and research information to include in a literary paper, another teaching technique is to introduce kids to literary paper outlines. The five-paragraph essay is a standard and introductory paper format that kids can grasp. It has one introduction paragraph, three supporting paragraphs and a conclusion paragraph. For practice, have kids create literary paper outlines by writing one or two sentences under each section to describe what that part of the outline will contain. Another outline exercise idea is for kids to read one long paper and then separate the parts of the paper where there should be new paragraphs.