How to Write an Analytical Essay?

What is an Analytical Essay?

An analytical essay is a piece of writing that explains major information connected with a movie, book, scientific article, event, or problem to a reader. You have to remember that this paper type doesn’t require you to sum up information or present your point of view. For instance, an analytical essay about a book should contain an in-depth analysis of a structure, symbolism, messages, the author’s style, literary devices they’ve used, etc. It’s unnecessary to share your thoughts concerning some events described in a novel or try to convince a reader of the correctness of your point of view. You only have to focus on the pros and cons of the topic and analyze these aspects.

To write a good analytical essay, a student should research the subject and define its negative and positive points. Explain your argument and provide persuasive facts and examples to support your analysis and help a reader dive into the problem and understand it. Your purpose is to include enough strong details to make your analysis clear for the audience.

Steps to Take Before Writing

Even if you’re good at writing, you’ll have to take a few steps before you begin to write an analytical essay. Thorough preparation is a ticket to success, so we recommend you keep the following guidelines in mind to cope with the task successfully:

Pick a topic

Usually, professors provide students with topics for their analytical essays. But they’ll also allow you to pick a theme on your own from time to time. So, the best way to succeed with your paper is to choose a topic you’re confident about. For example, if the subject of your analytical essay is some book, you can explore symbolism, characters, relationships between events, etc.  Picking a good topic will help you save hours of research to find interesting details to analyze and present supporting facts. If you need to write an essay about a scientific article, you can analyze the author’s research methods and findings.

Research the topic to identify the main points

It’s necessary to investigate the subject and find the core details before writing an analytical essay. You can write down all the ideas connected with the topic, research each one, and use the strongest thoughts for your paper. After determining the key points, find strong evidence to create a powerful background for your analysis.

Find evidence

Support your argument by adding a few facts, examples, or quotes. Your analysis should be based on strong evidence that will help you show the entire picture of your analysis. Otherwise, a reader won’t get the idea of your essay and the importance of your research. If you write a paper about a book, you can mark essential details as you read it and use quotes in your essay. If the subject of your analytical essay is a scientific article, use survey results, research data, information about experiments and findings.

Write an outline

It’s time to collect the information you’ve found and write an outline for your analytical essay. Check arguments and details once again to make sure all of them are valuable while writing an outline. List the main points and supporting arguments to figure out whether this information is strong enough for an analytical essay. An outline will also help you structure your paper properly.

Analytical Essay Outline

If you don’t want to lose the logic chain and get confused because of a large number of details, write an outline. It will help you create an analytical essay structure, organize information, and avoid missing essential ideas. You won’t have to keep all the details in mind because your outline will contain these thoughts, so you won’t overload your head with excessive information. That’s why even professional writers outline their papers all the time.

When writing an outline, consider the length of your analytical essay. Traditionally, professors are okay with papers that consist of five paragraphs, including an introduction, a body text containing three sections, and a conclusion. But in some cases, you might be asked to conduct deeper research and present a more exhaustive analytical essay. Anyway, you should always structure your outline according to the professor’s requirements.

However, many students make the same mistake and try to put all the ideas they’ve found, even if their teacher allows them to write only three paragraphs in a body text. This decision confuses readers because all points are mixed, and it’s hard to understand which detail the writer describes. You should remember that it’s necessary to dedicate one paragraph to every different thought. If the number of ideas you’ve prepared is larger than the allowed paper size, pick only essential points for analysis.

A traditional outline consists of three major parts:

1. Introduction. This section should contain information that explains the background of your analytical essay and grabs the reader’s attention. Use a hook to introduce the topic and make a reader think they don’t want to miss any detail from your paper. You can name a few facts you’re going to analyze, add a quote or a joke, ask a question and encourage a reader to keep on reading to find an intriguing answer.
2. Body text. This part will consist of three paragraphs, and each one will describe a different thought. Start the paragraph with a topic sentence explaining the main idea of this section. The next sentences will contain the analysis of the subject, so you’ll need to prepare evidence to strengthen your claim and prove the correctness of your thoughts. Conclude every idea and sum up the information you’ve just described. You can also write a transition sentence to inform a reader which detail you’ll discuss in the next paragraph.
3. Conclusion. How to conclude an analytical essay? This section won’t introduce any new information to the reader. You’ll only have to name the main points of your analysis to help the audience recall the basic idea of your analytical essay. You can rewrite your thesis and add a few final thoughts to show the importance of the topic you’ve researched.

How to Choose a Topic for an Analytical Essay?

The success of your analytical essay also much depends on the topic you choose. Sometimes it’s hard to pick a particular subject because there are many interesting themes for discussion. However, the most effective way to choose a good topic is to listen to your heart. Which subject are you passionate about? Answer this question and you’ll find the best topic for your analytical essay. If you know a subject so well that you can talk about it for hours, you’ll write a powerful paper and earn an excellent grade. Unfortunately, you’ll have to research and analyze information even on disciplines you don’t like. In this case, you should concentrate on a subject that appeals to emotions, including positive and negative ones.

Here’s a list of excellent analytical essay topics you can choose:

• Social problems of modern teenagers: which factors affect the teen’s psychology?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of online studying?
• What are the characteristics of a good leader?
• Pros and cons of being an introvert
• How does Hemingway’s background influence the events in his novels?
• Why should Stephen King’s books be a part of a study program?
• Five ways dogs make us healthier and happier. 

Analytical Essay Examples

It’s a challenging mission to write powerful analytical essays, so you may need a template. We’ve decided to help you save some time and avoid hours of search. Check the following examples to write a well-structured, meaningful analytical essay:

https://www.sfu.ca/~etiffany/teaching/phil120/sample_paper_1061.html

https://stlcc.edu/docs/student-support/academic-support/college-writing-center/rhetorical-analysis-sample-essay.pdf

How to Format an Analytical Essay?

Although research, information analysis, fact-checking, and writing are the most important parts of paper preparation, you don’t have to forget about the analytical essay format. The right format and structure will essentially influence the professor’s decision to give you an excellent grade. Of course, you’ll have to follow academic requirements to present an essay with proper fonts, spacing, and margins. Your professor should also inform you about the required paper length and formatting instructions. But if they didn’t provide you with such requirements, follow these recommendations:

• Use standard 1-inch margins.
• Choose Times New Roman font because it’s easy to read and suitable for most formatting requirements.
• Set up the font size. Usually, professors ask to use a 12-point font size.
• Double-space your document.
• Place page numbers in the right upper corner of the document.
• Use Chicago or APA format style for a title page. If you choose the APA style, you’ll need to write the essay title, your name, and the name of your educational establishment. If you pick Chicago formatting style, it’s necessary to write the title in the center of a page, as well as your name. You should then leave some space below these lines and type the number of your course, the professor’s name, and the date. Every piece of information should be written on separate lines.

Analytical Essay Writing Tips

Even if you know how to start an analytical essay and structure it, the perspective of writing a paper may scare you a lot. But in fact, it’s easy to cope with this task. Use our tips to present an excellent paper and get amazing scores:

Pick the main points

Chances are, you’ll find many interesting details during your research. But it’s necessary to pick the strongest and most valuable ones. Besides, don’t forget that you’ll have to analyze these points, so pay attention to the quality of the supporting evidence. If you don’t have enough information to back up your claim, it’s better not to use it in your essay.

Check facts

Your analysis must be based on truthful information, and that’s why you should check every detail. Check names, research results, the spelling of places and events, etc. Demonstrate your attention to detail and professionalism to impress a reader.

Check your analytical essay

You can use online tools like Grammarly or Thesaurus to edit your paper and get rid of different errors and misused words. Check your essay a few times and read it aloud to make sure you didn’t miss any mistakes. Besides, it’s the best way to figure out whether your text sounds natural.

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