Analytical essays are designed to thoroughly examine a particular topic. If you have never tackled one before then it can be difficult to know how to write an analytical essay properly, but this guide should give you some helpful tips to get started.
Preparing to Write Your Essay
When you start preparing to write your essay, you will first need to make sure that you understand the objective of an analytical essay. You will be expected to explore and analyze a particular issue in order to present a detailed opinion based on fact. In most cases, you will be asked to analyze a particular piece of writing, or maybe a film. Whatever your topic, you will find it useful to break it into smaller sections and look for evidence to support your opinions about it.
It is important to carefully look at the assignment question and decide what it is actually asking you to do. However, if you are analyzing a factual issue then you will need to take a different approach such as things which have influenced the issue or perhaps research carried out in that area. Once you know how you are going to approach your essay it will be easier to come up with a thesis statement to summarize your intentions within the paper.
Creating an Outline
The important step in writing an analytical essay is to create an outline or essay plan. This will help you to structure your paper coherently and make writing process a little bit easier. You will need to start out with an introduction and end with a conclusion. The body of your essay will fit in between these two elements and will cover all of your points. It is usually wise to plan on writing one paragraph per point. You will already have carried out some research while coming up with your thesis so you can include this within your plan. However, you may need to gather additional evidence when it comes to fleshing out the essay.
Start Writing Your Analytical Essay
Once you have finished your research and created an outline for your essay, it is time to start writing the first draft. It is easier to approach it as per your outline, but you do not necessarily have to write in that order. Even although your introduction will come at the beginning of the essay, many students prefer to wait until they have written the body of the paper. This allows you to make sure that you have actually covered all the points your introduction indicates. Choose whichever method you feel most comfortable with.
Let’s take a look at a few tips for writing each section of your analytical essay:
- Introduction – Your introduction is there to offer a little bit of background information. It should contain your thesis statement and let the reader know the purpose of your essay. The introduction needs to capture your reader’s attention, but should not be overly dramatic! Write the introduction in third person and state your argument clearly and in simple terms.
- Body Paragraphs – This is the most important section of your essay as you will present your analysis there. Each paragraph should deal with a different key point of your argument. It needs to contain a sentence that summarizes that particular point followed by its analysis. You should then offer evidence to support your analysis. This evidence will usually be quoted directly from the text or from some other credible source.
- Conclusion – In the conclusion of your analytical essay you need to remind your reader of your thesis and summarize how you have proven it.
Quoting Versus Paraphrasing
When inserting your supporting evidence into your analytical essay, draw from a variety of sources. It is important that you fully understand the difference between quoting and paraphrasing when presenting your evidence. When quoting from your sources you are taking a portion of the text and inserting it word for word into your essay. Quotes are marked by quotation marks. Quoting is useful when you need to support a point that you are making. It is important to cite your source using the appropriate referencing guide (MLA, APA, Harvard or Chicago style).
If you simply want to summarize one of your sources, rather than quoting from it you will want to paraphrase it. This is basically writing the information in your own words; however, the source must still be cited. Paraphrasing is most commonly used to offer a little background information in order to put your argument into context rather than to support your points.
These tips should give you a better idea of how to write an analytical essay. Once you have completed your first draft, don’t forget to read over your paper and proofread it for grammar and spelling errors.