Got questions? Got an inquiring mind? Got the discipline to follow up on a question carefully and thoroughly? If you answered “yes” to these questions, you’ve got what it takes to start writing an analytical essay.

That’s not all it takes, of course. Writing an analytical essay also involves refining your question, gaining a fuller understanding of your subject, applying an appropriate interpretive framework, and drafting your response to your analytical question. But the foundation of an analytical essay — and of all analytical documents, for that matter — is developing and responding to a question about a subject.

As you work on your analytical essay, you’ll follow the work of Ali Bizzul, a first-year student who wrote an analytical essay about the health risks football players face when they put on extra weight.