Do you find yourself being taken aback by another academic assignment? You are perplexed because you have no idea ‘What should you do when writing an analytical essay?’ You’ve never written this paper type before, so it's sort of a mystery to you what you are supposed to include in this work and how to structure it.
We all have to face new challenges from time to time, and we know that you’d rather skip the acquisition of new skills and sit in your comfort zone than set on a new journey. But you become stronger and smarter when you are opening new horizons, so let’s tackle the analytical essay challenge together.
We are proud to be your providers of academic wisdom, so let’s talk about the analytical paper right now.
What Is an Analytical Essay - The Most Heated Question
Let’s start collecting the nuggets of wisdom step-by-step. The first thing we’ll figure out together is what is an analytical paper.
We won’t be complicating things for you and will define this essay in simple words. This paper goes beyond expressing your feelings or describing the events. It presupposes that you examine information, analyze, and then evaluate it. It refers to books, movies but is not limited to them.
The main peculiarity of this paper is that you’ve got to dig deep into the analyzed work and figure out why things are expressed or developed in this or that way and how the author made the desired impression.
When you are writing an analytical essay about a book, you’ll be discovering how literary devices add to the comprehension of the plot, why the character is depicted in that particular way, what’s the purpose of the plot twists, how the language of the story defines the impression about the book, etc. You won’t believe it, but there are so many angles that allow you to look at the same work from different viewpoints.
The Way to Structure an Analytical Essay
Before you grasp how to write an analytical essay and learn the classic outline for this paper, we would recommend you to carefully study the source you are going to analyze and choose your attitude to it. This would be a foundation for the entire essay, and you will be shaping the paper elements based on your ideas.
An analytical essay is not different from other essay types in terms of structure, so here is how we recommend you to think of this assignment when making an outline:
- craft the introductory passage;
- devote at least three paragraphs to the body;
- use the exciting argument as the first passage of the essay body;
- put the weakest argument in the second position;
- close the body with the strong argument;
- finish the essay with a powerful conclusion.
An Introduction as a Welcoming Word to Your Paper
There are two main objectives of the introduction: to acquaint the reader with the topic and inspire curiosity to motivate the audience to keep reading.
An analytical essay should be opened with the background information about the analyzed book, movie, problem, or any other object. It should also encourage a reader to think of a problem from their own perspective to feel more related to the topic and to increase the level of involvement.
You should never write an introduction without a thesis statement, which is viewed as a key idea of the essay you’ll be detailing in the paper.
Let the Funniest Part Rock
When you are done with the introductory part, it’s time to think of the core of the paper. These are the paragraphs where you present the analyzed information on the subject matter.
Usually, this section contains three passages, each devoted to one argument. If you would like your analytical essay to succeed, you’ve got to understand how to structure these paragraphs as well.
Start with the opening statement, which expresses the idea or the argument in general terms. Provide explanations to the thesis and give more detail to support the idea. After this, illustrate examples to prove that you are right. Conclude the passage with the final thought.
It would be nice to keep smooth transitions between the paragraphs to enhance readability and clarity.
Finish It in the Conclusion
Those students who know how to write an analytical paper are pretty much aware that the wrapping section is one of the most important elements of the work.
The mission of this section is to recap all the arguments and check whether you delivered your point right. If the conclusion meets the general vibe of the work, that you’ve done a great job.
Note that the final passage is the synthesis of the statements you introduced in your essay. There is no place for new ideas in this part of the paper. If you have fresh thoughts, you’d better extend the essay and add the insights to the body.
With These Tips Developing an Essay Will Be a Breeze
There are some tricks you might not be aware of due to the lack of experience in the academic writing field. But we’ve been in this business for years and know for sure how to arrange the writing process so that words flow easily and you never feel the lack of decent ideas.
Decide What Aspect You Would Like to Highlight
When you are writing an analytical paper for a book, situation, or problem, there are probably numerous aspects that could be pondered upon in an essay. Your task is to limit yourself to one facet of the analyzed object and pay close attention to how it is manifested.
If you try to juggle different sides of the object in your essay, you risk turning your paper into a complete mess without a core idea. You won’t have enough space to deeply study the issue and discuss it as you are limited by the word limit.
Can’t Decide on One Thing? Then Brainstorm!
We know that the nature of the object you’ve picked for the analysis can be complicated, so you might have a hard time slicing only one facet of it. But listen, perhaps you don’t have to decide right now unless you consider and compare all the ideas. Just write them down so that you have a complete list at hand and then evaluate which of the topics is going to be the winning one.
Consider different aspects of the topics like your understanding of the matter, the complexity of the idea, its manifestation in the book or situation, and other factors. Just mind that you’ve got to have at least three arguments to discuss the chosen topic.
Track Evidence and Examples
One of the core tips on how to write an analytical summary from our professional team is going to save you a lot of time. We would encourage you to look for the evidence and examples for your arguments in the text before you initiate writing. In this way, you will have a detailed plan that would define what idea and example are followed by another and you will make sure that your paper is logically structured.
An analytical essay heavily relies on evidence and supportive examples, so you just can’t ignore their use in your paper if you would like to craft a strong paper. Keep in mind that the evidence you provide should support the statement introduced in the passage and make it more convincing.
Embellish Your Paper With Neat Sentences
The language of the academic paper is one of the biggest problems for students of all generations. Some tend to pick the words and sentence structures that could be hardly comprehended by readers and intentionally try to sound too complicated. They believe that’s how all academic papers should be written and keep on making the same mistake all over again. Others write in a primitive language and even use slang or other inappropriate wording assuming that only a dissertation or coursework should be composed in cold academic language.
Both groups of students are mistaken as the truth lies in the middle. You’ve got to find the compromise between complexity and primitiveness. It means that you shouldn’t deliberately make the text look hefty but should also mind that this is an academic piece of writing.