Writing guide: Analysis essay

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When you write an analysis essay, you examine a text’s assumptions, assess its evidence, and weigh its conclusions. You say to readers: “Here’s my reading and judgment of the text. This is what the text means and why it matters.” Your goal is to offer your judgment of the text and to persuade readers to see it through your analytical perspective.

An effective thesis statement for an analysis essay responds to a question about a text or presents a resolution to a problem in the text.

As you write in courses in different disciplines, you’ll be asked to analyze a wide range of written texts (books, articles, reports, or case studies) and visual or multimodal texts (photographs, charts, maps, videos, or Web sites).