Writing an essay is one of the favorite assignments among college professors. And the worst nightmare for many students.
“Writing an essay is hell! Fortunately, I have contacts of the best custom paper writing service (https://pro-papers.com) so I don’t worry about it,” – opens up a fresh year college student, Lucy.
Essay types are many; often, they have different requirements, which can easily cause confusion among inexperienced writers. An analytical essay is no different; it has its own peculiarities and requires a different approach compared to other types.
But if you, unlike Lucy, want to complete this task yourself, you’ll find an explanation of the essay’s key features and its structure in this article. So, if you are going to start writing any time soon, buckle up as you are about to find out what differs this essay from any other types and what you should do to succeed.
Analytical Essay Definition
So what is it and how an analytical essay is different from other types?
It is a piece of writing, the primary goal of which is the analysis of someone else’s work. Traditionally, college students may analyze a book or a movie; however, it may concern someone’s scientific article or paper, art collection, you name it.
The analytical essay’s purpose is more than a simple review of the work; as a writer, you have to go deeper than outlining the obvious facts and try to figure out what the principal elements of the issue are and why they are there. For example, if you are analyzing someone’s novel, you would be more concerned about the purpose and the pertinence of the language and stylistic devices rather than the plot.
Although you definitely want people to support your point of view, persuasion is not your primary goal. In contrast to an argumentative essay, an analytical one is not intended for tearing to tatters the opinions other than yours; therefore, you should use the language that will help you to clarify the main points rather than buy the audience over. In your analysis, you should strive to provide a sufficient number of examples and proved arguments to make it clear for the readers.
The Structure of an Analytical Essay
In its structure, an analytical essay is pretty much similar to other essay types you’ve dealt with before. It should have an introduction, the main part usually called the body, and a conclusion. Traditionally, the length of this essay type is five to seven paragraphs. However, it may be longer or shorter depending on the requirements and the arguments you are able to provide.
A standard introduction consists of a few sentences, where you are supposed to spark the reader’s interest and in brief, give them an idea of what they should expect further in your essay. Thus, open your introduction with some sort of a hook – an attention-catching sentence that would make your readers long for learning more. Then, give a short explanation of the topic in a few sentences and close this paragraph with your thesis statement.
The body is the part where you set out your main arguments and support them with evidence. Normally, students write three to five paragraphs in this section but if you have more arguments, it may be longer. Open every paragraph with a new argument you are going to analyze. Then, expound the information of your analysis in further sentences and support your position with strong evidence. You can continue analyzing the issue as long as you have something to support your argument but make sure that you close each paragraph with a transition sentence. While some students choose to ignore this requirement, transition sentences help to smooth out the flow of the narration and make it easier to follow.
To the regret of some students, a conclusion is not the part where you can suddenly mention something you’ve forgotten to describe in the body section. Here, you shouldn’t introduce any new arguments or provide additional evidence. Instead, you need to restate your thesis statement and recap the key points. An outstanding conclusion would give the reader a basic understanding of what the author was analyzing and how the essay was structured even if they read just that. However, the essay won’t be complete if you don’t explain the sacred significance of your writing. Make sure that in the last several sentences you connect your analysis to some greater issues and prove its importance.
Tips for Writing an Analytical Essay
Develop a powerful thesis. Your thesis statement is the cornerstone of your essay. From reading it alone, the reader should be able to glean the basic idea of your entire essay. It should be woven through the text, with each argument solidifying it.
Research before writing. While this advice may seem obvious, many students prefer to get down to work a little bit hastily; very soon they realize they don’t have enough arguments or evidence to write an essay with a strong logic chain. Therefore, conduct research before you finalize the topic of your analysis. It may happen that you’ll need to choose another topic because of a lack of arguments, or on the contrary, narrow it down to squeeze into the essay length.
Visualize. Instead of turning over various ideas in your mind, jot them down and see what you can find to support each of them. Then, pick a few that seem the strongest and start crafting your essay. However, it’s good to make a draft first. This way you will visualize its structure and order your thoughts.
Once you are ready with all the preparations, nothing can stop you from writing a great analytical essay. One caveat though: you want it to be perfect both in terms of content and grammar. Make sure you proofread and edit your work with all thoroughness.
