Ask any English teacher what goes wrong most often in literary essays and the answer is usually the same: the quotations. Students drop them in without introduction, or quote too much, or expect the quote to explain itself. With a book as dense as As I Lay Dying, these problems multiply.

Faulkner's sentences can be long and strange, and students sometimes copy a full paragraph to be safe. The result is an essay that is half quotation. It also hides the student's own thinking behind the author's words.

The goal is to teach students to choose the shortest passage that supports their point. A phrase or a sentence is usually enough. The rest of the space belongs to their explanation.

A useful grading habit is to check each quotation for three things: is it introduced, is it relevant, and is it explained? Many essays pass one or two but fail the third. That is where the most valuable feedback lives.

A Simple Model for Working with Evidence

Many teachers use a version of context, quote, comment. The student sets up who is speaking and what is happening, provides the words, and then explains what they show. It is not fancy, but it works for nearly every essay.

• Introduce the narrator and situation before the quotation
• Keep quotations short and directly relevant
• Follow each quote with at least two sentences of analysis
• Use ellipses and brackets accurately
• Cite chapters or pages according to the assigned style

Feedback That Fixes the Habit

Generic comments like "explain more" rarely change behavior. Instead, mark one weak quotation and show what a good follow-up sentence might do. Students often improve the whole essay once they see one example.

Also point out strong uses of evidence. When a student chooses a short, telling phrase and unpacks it well, say so. Positive examples are easier to imitate than corrections.

Keeping Up With Citation Details

Citation errors are easy to catch and tedious to mark. They still matter, especially in college courses where format is part of the grade. Having a checklist or a tool that flags them can save time.

AI grading tools can note missing citations, unintroduced quotations, and quote-heavy paragraphs across a full class set. That gives you a fast read on who needs help with evidence. You can then spend your comments on the deeper analysis.

Teaching the Skill Before the Assignment

Take a class period to practice on a single page of the novel. Have students choose a phrase, introduce it, and write two sentences of commentary. Then share a few examples and talk about what works.

That small exercise sets expectations for the whole unit. When the essay comes in, you are grading a skill students have already practiced. The results are noticeably better.