Your teacher has just given you a new writing assignment - to compose an analytical essay. You think that it is a piece of cake and you can easily handle it. You put aside all your plans, took a lap top and for about half an hour you were starring at the blank page. You begin to panic, because you do not even know how to get started. You tried your best to produce a thesis statement and begin your introduction, but nothing works out.
If you barely understand how to write an analytical essay, luckily for you, there are easy writing steps that will make your home assignment perfect. One of the common mistakes students make is to fit a blank space with sentences that hardly make sense. Your task is not to present as much information as possible, but to use a clear paper structure and organize ideas that directly relate to the given topic. Going around the bush or off the track is not what your teacher expects to see.
Peculiarities of Analytical Writing
While writing analytical essays, it is very important to begin with creating an outline. However, be sure that you know what analytical writing presumes before writing your plan. Analytical papers tend to analyze a specific notion from all possible angles. Therefore, be sure your outline includes multiple perspectives on the topic. Then you can move on and write the first draft of your analysis paper.
Let us explore an analytical essay definition in detail. It is a piece of academic writing that is focused on the discussion/investigation/analysis of an object, event, term, notion, etc. Avoid a common mistake that students make in writing – do not think that analytical papers are the same as summaries. If you have already written a part of your essay, you have to reread it and ensure that it does not seem like a summary of the book, where you enlist the details. If not, then you are on the right track. Analyzing a notion has nothing to do with summarizing because you have to apply your analytical and critical thinking, which is not needed in summary papers. Even the brightest summary cannot replace an analysis. Did you simply reworded what happened in the book or you analyzed what happened and what was its meaning?
If you do not know what analytical essay format to choose, you can check your professor’s requirements. In most cases, there are precise details of how to divide the paper into sections. If you have to work with a book or an article, your task is not only to discuss its themes, setting, or usage of literary devices, but also to find the “larger meaning” behind the context. Reading between the lines is what helps compose good analytical papers.
A Common Analytical Essay Outline
Here are the primary parts that your outline should include:
- Introductory paragraph
- Main body (2-3 paragraphs)
- Conclusion
However, in your outline, you will have to extend each section and write precise details for each paragraph. You can write your outline with complete sentences for each part or shortened phrases. Then you are welcome to transform your outline into a real essay.
We hope that the abovementioned details will be beneficial for your analytical essay and you will learn how to prepare a productive writing to get the best grade for this home assignment.
