How to Write an Analytical Essay

Certainly, the process of writing of any paper can be daunting for students, especially when it comes to an analytical essay. Students usually find it difficult to complete everything without either useful tips or professional assistance.

If you feel stuck with your writing process, do not hesitate to check the following steps to create a thoughtful and well-written analytical paper.

Before start working on your essay, you have, first of all, to understand the objective of this kind of academics. The analytical essay requires some type of argument or claim to be presented (namely, the thing you are analyzing). Oftentimes, you will need to analyze a piece of writing, a movie, an issue, an idea, etc. In order to fulfill the goal, you have to break the topic into several parts and provide evidence that would support the stated claim.

Pre-Writing Process

The prewriting process of writing an analytical essay includes the following steps:

You decide the topic of your paper. If you are writing a paper for class, your teacher will provide you with a topic or several of them to choose. You have to read the task carefully. In case there occur some misunderstandings, do not hesitate to ask your teacher to explain everything for you once more. Remember that you can succeed only in case you understand what to write about. However, sometimes students are allowed to choose the topic of the paper by themselves.
Certainly, there can be some difficulties when creating a thesis statement of your paper, even though you have chosen your topic already. That is absolutely normal. On this stage, a sort of brainstorming can help to discover what you think about a certain topic, your point of view, background knowledge, associations, beliefs, etc. You have to consider your topic from all possible angles.
Work on your thesis statement. The thesis statement is basically one or two sentences, the aim of which is to summarize the claim made in a paper. It should shortly introduce the topic of your paper to readers providing them with a quick glance on the claim you are going to make. Remember that your thesis statement needs to be accurate and specific, not vague or too obvious.
Search for strong supporting evidence. You may need to work either with primary sources or alongside with secondary ones. It depends on the assignment you get. From the assignment, you will also get to know what types of sources are required. Take into account that strong and relevant evidence support your claim, making your argument stronger. So, it would be great to list out the supporting evidence, stating its source, and the way it supports your claim.
Create an outline. This will help you understand the way your essay should be structured and organized better. Consequently, it will facilitate the whole writing process. You have to be sure of the essay volume, asking your teacher for possible specific requirements. You need to structure your essay according to the required standards.

Writing Your Analytical Essay

Write the introduction

The main goal of your introduction is to provide readers with background information concerning the topic. Try to make it engaging, but not too dramatized. Do not use the first or the second person in your essay. Your thesis statement should be included as the last sentence of the introduction.

Write the body paragraphs

There can be three or more body paragraphs in your analytical essay. However, each of them should contain a topic sentence, an analysis of some part of the text, evidence. A topic sentence aims to tell the reader what information will be given in this or that paragraph. The analysis of the text is the part where you present the argument. The evidence should support the argument.

Write the conclusion

This is the last but not the least part of your essay, where you have just to remind your readers of your arguments and how they were supported. There is no need to present some new facts or information in the conclusion. Just summing all the information up.

When you are done with all these steps, your work is almost done. In order to be sure you have done everything correctly, you have to proofread your essay for possible mistakes of all types. Reading your paper out loud is also a good idea since you will not only notice the mistakes but also see whether your essay is readable and flows well. While proofreading, check all characters, titles, placed for being correctly written. One more good idea before handing your analytical paper in is to give it to someone else to read with the aim of getting feedback. However, choose only those people you trust and who have some experience in academic writing.