how to write an analytical essay

how to write an analytical essay

Guide to Writing an Analytical Essay

1. Introduction to Analytical Essays

Before you start writing, it’s important to make sure you understand what type of paper you are going to write. The cinematic essay often blends documentary, fiction, and experimental filmmaking using tones and editing styles. Concept papers are often used for research projects, and their topics are usually research-based. Analytical essays come up often as writing assignments and term papers. Unfortunately, many students find them difficult or intimidating and don’t perform their best when writing one. Of course, some people just find that style of writing difficult, but often the problem is simply not understanding exactly what’s required. With a little bit of assistance, people can improve their writing style, and their work will benefit in more ways than one.

Essentially, an analytical essay presents arguments where you make a claim. Usually, this is done for research papers. You have to be specific about the judgment and provide a vast range of information to provide the full understanding of the topic you are given to analyze. Your evidence is what helps to maintain your belief. If you use too much summarizing, your paper will be of lower quality. If you quote out of context or make arguments without any support, your entire work looks weak. So, form relationships with your ideas and develop them fully to demonstrate your analytical skills. A thesis is a concise and brief summary of all points of your essay. It is usually written at the end of the introduction. It is kind of like a review of your entire work, and it should be interesting to your readers. To form a better understanding, you should read as many resources as possible. If you have not been assigned a work, the task seems to be a bit challenging. But for those who have been tasked with one, it’s vital that your writing is working towards your ultimate standards.

2. Understanding the Analytical Essay Structure

The introductory paragraph usually contains one to two thesis sentences. This statement or statements should, in fact, be the strongest point of the entire essay because it is the basis of your reasoned argument. In fact, the three topic sentences of the three body paragraphs can be formed by analyzing the composition and factual information elicited to prove your argument in the thesis statements. Each section would, in itself, be an argument in support of the thesis statement. The importance of a good essay structure is that it grows directly from a clear thesis statement, topic sentences, and transitions. As such, it limits the amount of sentences which you have to produce.

The structure of a good analytical essay is as follows: introduction brings into focus the idea to be discussed in relation to the author (in this case, your task is to introduce the writer and his poem), the title and nature of the poem, and the general line of the essay. The body of the essay is developed with regard to four or six main elements, usually with one paragraph assigned to each. The conclusion sums up the evidence and assessment of the thesis and usually is a repetition in different words but with a tone that is more assertive (or less assertive) than that used in the introduction.

When you are assigned an analytical essay, your teacher expects you to prove a certain point of view. In other words, you need to make some statement that would be supported by some arguments. Obviously, the argument should be of critical analysis; it should convey the importance of the problem. In addition, and very often, such an analysis is personal, thus involving a lot of philosophical or psychological reasoning.

3. Developing a Strong Thesis Statement

While writing your thesis statement, here are a few tips and examples: Example 1: An analytical essay about George R.R. Martin’s use of literary devices to emphasize the idea of power in A Song of Ice and Fire and the HBO TV series adaptation. Thesis Statement: “Although the novel series is called A Song of Ice and Fire, both HBO and George R.R. Martin show power as the symbol of strength and control within Westeros by defining the Lannisters’ current hardship through conflict between social classes and Tywin’s confidence in their defeat.” Example 2: An analytical essay about the futility and inhumanity of war in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque. Thesis Statement: “In Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front and Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, Remarque and O’Brien use literary elements such as imagery, syntax, and tone to portray war as a hopeless, inhumane situation that ultimately has no meaning.”

First and foremost, a thesis statement is the most crucial aspect of your analytical essay. Your thesis statement must be clear, specific, and concise, and encapsulate the overall point you want to make in your paper. Essentially, it is what the body of your essay will revolve around. The thesis statement should emerge from the writer’s research, reading, and analytical thinking. It should be a statement that has not been proven yet and can support the rest of your essay.

4. Effective Analytical Writing Techniques

At the heart of all historical interpretations are primary sources, and your own original conclusions depend upon a rigorous and critical analysis of the available evidence. Your own evidence must be skillfully integrated into your interpretations before you present your conclusions. There are many strategies you can use for integrating evidence into your essay. For example, you can integrate the techniques we have already discussed for integrating quotations in the previous class. Another approach is to use signal words such as “for example,” “in contrast,” and “this evidence suggests that.” In sum, the more carefully you integrate evidence into your arguments, the effective and credible your argument will appear to your readers.

One of the most effective techniques of analytical writing involves learning to think critically about the choices and interpretations made by other critics and historians, and to do so with logical reasoning and incisiveness that we have come to expect from undergraduate and professional historians. One of the reasons there are frequent analytical writing requirements in history courses is because exercises in critical interpretation teach you to both probe beneath the surface in a study of the past and to inquire more thoughtfully, critically, and perceptively into other kinds of complex issues.

5. Concluding Your Analytical Essay

Reiterate the importance of your analysis. Furthermore, one helpful approach suggests several different ways to formulate the final sentence, then to consider which sentence will lead most effectively into the next phase. If you are composing the ending while drafting your essay, then it is not necessary to brainstorm further, but it is certainly possible to incorporate a variety of approaches into your outline, to determine which one works best for the predominant argument, and then add later paragraphs as practice dictates. In order to make a final conclusion that will firmly establish your paper in short for your readers, end on a note that makes your topic especially appealing. Do not merely conclude your essay by summarizing and reinventing your opening paragraph. If you need an idea for a strong final sentence, you might experiment with a selection of last lines, each approached in a different manner.

Of course, you will want to mention your thesis statement or the main concept of the essay, as well as its author, and restate the essay’s subtopics, if any. This will help you emphasize key points. Perhaps the essay’s most important feature is its capacity to provide some sort of a sense of completion. A good essay leaves a thought lingering in the reader’s mind. You always want to leave the reader with something substantial or significant, perhaps a perspective they hadn’t previously considered.