Principles of Writing Commentary on Literary Texts

Both studies on commentaries of different texts and a comparison between the approaches and methodologies applied by the commentators show that these commentaries were not formulated according to a fixed, and definitely established style. An academic and text-specific method is necessary for writing commentary. Therefore, regarding the text type, the level of the audience, and their objective of commentary writing, the commentators should select a method that best suits the features of a text. Giving a definition for "commentary", this paper analyses the theoretical principles, essentials and prerequisites of writing commentary on literary texts, and finally introduces an academic method and model for text commenting.