One might underestimate analytical essays considering it is just another boring writing assignment but in fact, it helps you develop critical thinking skills which will be valuable in your future.
However, if you ever have issues writing your analytical essay for your college but a good grade is really important for you, feel free to contact the best custom paper writing service where experts will help you compose a perfect essay. If you want to give it a shot and write the paper yourself, please consider the tips in this article.
So, what is an analytical essay? Usually, it’s an analysis of a certain problem, i.e., we look at the problem itself and identify patterns in it. The object of the analysis can be a well-known or understudied scientific phenomenon, a scientific or artistic work, a historical event, a social problem, current events, or something else. You make a thesis statement about the work and then support it with evidence or proofs.
Choosing the topic
The content of an analytical essay will largely depend on the topic chosen for analysis. For example, when analyzing a scientific work (a thesis, a dissertation, a scientific article), the essay can be devoted to the study of its credibility, its potentiality, or to the analysis of the conclusions the author made in it. When considering a work of fiction, you can analyze the author’s artistic techniques or the problems they raised in the book/film. For this reason, it is very important to be precise about the topic and object of your study.
If your instructor has given you a too broad topic or if you can choose the topic of the essay yourself, we recommend focusing on one little issue which can be covered in a few pages.
Literature
An analytical essay is too short to cite many sources. And yet, it must necessarily contain some references. If it is an analysis of a scientific paper, you can refer to well-known scientists and their works. If you analyze a book or a film, you may cite reputable publications, writers, film critics, etc. At this stage, you need to study properly not only the object of analysis itself but also what people say about it. Add citations and your essay will be more complete and detailed which always has a stronger effect on the reader.
When composing an analytical essay, don’t forget that large quotes are not welcome. So try finding short and relevant statements and rewrite them carefully before you even start writing your essay.
Preparing an outline
An outline is not a required element of an essay and will not be included in it but having one will make the process of writing an essay much easier for you.
- So you will need to start by writing an intro to your essay in which you will introduce the topic and the thesis statement. For example, if your essay is about the impact of social media addiction on students’ academic performance, the thesis statement could be that social media addiction leads to a decrease in students’ academic performance. This is a statement that you have to prove in the main part with a number of arguments.
- Then the main part follows. There can be three or more paragraphs and in each of them, you provide arguments to prove your statement. For example, in the case of social media addiction, one of the arguments might be that social media addiction reduces a student’s interest in real life and education. You analyze exactly how this happens and cite research papers and articles on the issue to prove it. As a result, moving from one argument to another, you will gradually reveal the topic of your essay.
- In the end, you summarize your ideas. Go back to the key thesis and describe it more fully, based on what you proved in the main part. Don’t forget that you are not writing a rigorous research paper, so you need to end the essay in a spectacular way. To improve the quality of your summary, you can utilize an online summarizer to help you condense and articulate your main points effectively.
Just follow this basic outline and fill your essay with concrete data, add some interesting details (statistics, history, describe an observation, etc.). Don’t forget about citing relevant sources in the main body.
Preparing the essay for submission
When the text is ready, don’t be lazy to check the rules of essay formatting and proofread it. Correct all the errors and inaccuracies. Many people get their papers back just because they are not written according to the university’s requirements, so be sure to check the guidelines in advance. The presence of a large number of errors can also play against you, so if you have issues with grammar, punctuation, or spelling, ask your friend, teacher, or family member to proofread your work.
By following all the rules of writing and formatting an analytical essay, you will not only be able to get a higher grade but you will also gain invaluable experience in preparing works of this kind and work on your critical thinking skills. You will learn how to ask questions, be critical, and defend your point of view which is important in nowaday’s world. By practicing analytical essay writing, you will also become aware and more tolerant of other perspectives on controversial things. While studying some issues, reading lots of scientific papers, you might see that your views are not the only ones that have the right to exist. Moreover, structuring your thoughts in a logical coherent text teaches you how to express your thoughts orally too.
Writing assignments always seem to be frightening and challenging. There are probably few people who really like writing them. But by simply following this guide you have all the chances to succeed with your assignment and get good results. Just don’t be scared. As a result of your hard (at the first sight) work, in the future, you will see your personal and intellectual growth.
