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Writing Guide: Analytical Essay

Analytical Essay

Writing Guide: Analytical Essay

An analysis of a text allows you to examine the parts of a text to understand what it means and how it makes its meaning. Your goal is to offer your judgment of the text and to persuade readers to see it through your analytical perspective. (See the sample analysis paper in 4e.)

Key features

A careful and critical reading of a text reveals what the text says, how it works, and what it means. In an analytical essay, you pay attention to the details of the text, especially its thesis and evidence.
A thesis that offers a clear judgment of a text anchors your analysis. Your thesis might be the answer to a question you have posed about a text or the resolution of a problem you have identified in the text.
Support for the thesis comes from evidence in the text. You summarize, paraphrase, and quote passages that support the claims you make about the text.
A balance of summary and analysis helps readers who may not be familiar with the text you are analyzing. Summary answers the question of what a text says; an analysis looks at how a text makes its point.

Thinking ahead: Presenting and publishing

You may have the opportunity to present or publish your analysis in the form of a multimodal text such as a slide show presentation. Consider how adding images or sound might strengthen your analysis or help you to better reach your audience. (See section 5.)

Writing your analytical essay

Explore

Generate ideas for your analysis by brainstorming responses to questions such as the following:

What is the text about?
What do you find most interesting, surprising, or puzzling about this text?
What is the author’s thesis or central idea? Put the author’s thesis to the “So what?” test. (See 4a.)
What do your annotations of the text reveal about your response to it?

Draft

Draft a working thesis to focus your analysis. Remember that your thesis is not the same as the author’s thesis. Your thesis presents your judgment of the text.
Draft a plan to organize your paragraphs. Your introductory paragraph will briefly summarize the text and offer your thesis. Your body paragraphs will support your thesis with evidence from the text. Your conclusion will pull together the major points and show the significance of your analysis. (See 1d.)
Identify specific words, phrases, and sentences as evidence to support your thesis.

Revise

Ask your reviewers to give you specific comments. You can use the following questions to guide their feedback.

Is the introduction effective and engaging?
Is summary balanced with analysis?
Does the thesis offer a clear judgment of the text?
What objections might other writers pose to your analysis?
Is the analysis well organized? Are there clear topic sentences and transitions?
Is there sufficient evidence? Is the evidence analyzed?
Have you cited words, phrases, or sentences that are summarized or quoted?