Have you stumbled upon these two words - "analytical essay" - and are now trying to figure out what they mean? Or, you may have been tasked with writing one. In this article, we will cover its meaning, the steps involved in composing it, and how to structure the content.
Starting from the basics, let's wrap our heads around the meaning of this essay type. It provides a detailed breakdown of a body of work and projects the author's evaluation and interpretation based on the received information.
In doing that, the author should present his arguments. Such a write-up can improve a reader's perception of a topic you are talking about in an analytical work and the elements that make up the overall construction. The body of work brought under analysis could be a book, a speech, a poem, a film or documentary. In literature, write-ups of this nature are taken to be a critical analysis of the material.
Considering a lot of essays can be categorized similarly, you may wonder what differences there are between this essay one and, say, an argumentative essay. If the latter focuses on presenting arguments to establish the validity of the writer's view, the former merely focuses on breaking down a body of work and presenting the writer's assessment. What does this imply? It implies that although the author of analytical writing makes use of arguments in presenting his assessment, his primary aim is to help the reader comprehend the material through his analysis.
When doing an assignment on this type of writing, you may be given a specific topic. However, it's not uncommon for students to be allowed the freedom to make a topic selection from a list or even come up with their own. Ensure that whatever topic you come up with is acceptable to your course instructor, and stick with one that you are interested in. Below are some of our topics provided as samples.
Going through an already written analysis is beneficial and useful. Examples of this can be found on our website and other sites on the Web.
As with virtually all kinds of writing, there needs to be a clear sequence of steps. It's unproductive to jump straight into composing a write-up without giving good thought to its content and structure. Also, one may not always have all the necessary information upfront in order to create a compelling essay. This underscores the importance of taking a step-wise approach. Accordingly, we present below the main steps involved and what they entail. Although they may appear too few, the major steps listed above contain other smaller steps that are no less important.
This starting step enables you to get to all the necessary things and requirements in place before you start writing. Good planning makes the actual writing process much easy. Your planning should proceed as follows.
Get the instructions from your course instructor and carefully looking through them. The requirements would include the topic, expected length of your write-up, formatting, and styles to be used. When you don't clearly understand any requirement, ensure you seek clarification to avoid making costly mistakes.
What topic you work on would depend on whether you're given a specific one or allowed to choose. When given the freedom, choose a topic or text you're genuinely excited about and interested in.
At first sight, ask yourself what you think about the work. Do you find it shocking, exciting, confusing, or inviting? Going through it severally will bring the happiness that you seek and aid you in cracking the code of elements hidden therein. Take note of these as they become clear to you.
Based on your careful study of the material, draw up your primary view or claim regarding the text or whatever form the material takes on. Your thesis should be written out in a few sentences. It will serve as the main summary of what the entire essay is about. Ensure that you find clear evidence in the work which you can point your reader to as you go on supporting the thesis.
Having it will help you properly organize the flow of your ideas. The outline gives structure to your writing even before you start on it. Knowing how to create a good outline will save you a lot of time when composing your essay. In the outline, ensure you include the introduction, body, and conclusion sections. The key points in each section should be listed. They'll eventually be developed into paragraphs.
This is where the actual composition begins. When writing, there are basic things you should pay attention to. Your writing should be organized into paragraphs. For instance, if you're writing a 5-paragraph essay, it's all in the name. As a general rule, your write-up must have an introduction, the body containing your analysis and arguments, and a conclusion.
In this opening section, you should introduce the material you're analyzing. To do that, you can provide details, like the name of the author, year of creation, a short explanation, or a synopsis of the material. After that, you want to clearly present your thesis statement. Usually, it should be the final sentence of the introductory paragraph.
As the main section of your essay, the body is where you marshal out your analysis and present your arguments. Using the main points and their sequence as you already have them in your outline, write and develop each of your points in your body paragraphs. Each paragraph should contain the key point (or paragraph sentence), provide an analysis of a relevant part. Each supporting fact should be part of the original text and serve to show why and how you came up with the claim.
It is the closing paragraph in which the essay's theme and the thesis are reiterated. Using a few examples within the text, remind the people who read your paper how the supporting facts go along with your claim.
At this final stage of the process, your essay will have to be carefully read several times to identify errors in spelling, capitalization, grammar, and wording. Always look out for even the hints of mistakes in grammar, capitalization of words, and word choice. For words that look out of place, replace them with more appropriate ones that fit the context. Also, check that you have the proper formatting as specified in the requirement.
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