Lecture 16

Analysis Essay


Recap
•

What is Cause & Effect Essay?

•

The “Why” Game

•

What is Cause & Effect

•

Steps for writing Cause & Effect Essay

•

Topic Selection

•

How to Write a Cause & Effect Essay

•

Dos and Don'ts

•

Common Mistakes


What is Analysis Essay?
•

•

Any analysis requires you to break the
subject down into its component parts.
Examining the different elements of a
piece of literature is not an end in itself but
rather a process to help you better
appreciate and understand the work of
literature as a whole.
For instance:
–

an analysis of a poem might deal with the
different types of images in a poem or with


Purpose of Writing Analysis
Essay
•


The purpose of a literary analysis essay is
to carefully examine and sometimes:
–

evaluate a work of literature or

–

an aspect of a work of literature.


How to Write an Analysis Essay?
•

An analysis essay assumes that you
break

a

larger

subject

into

subcategories and then examine each
of them to form an opinion about the
whole.
•


After you have taken a problem apart,
you must describe each of its components.


Steps for Writing an Analysis Essay
Step # 1:
topic
analysis.
range of

Narrow down the subject to a
that is suitable for further
Don’t try to analyze a wide
issues in your analysis essay.

Step # 2: Develop your own points of view
on
the chosen topic. An analysis
essay
must declare its author’s
opinions. You
will also have to document
how you
came up with the conclusions.


Steps for Writing an Analysis Essay
Step # 3: Collect the material relevant to
your


topic. You can use available

sources if

someone has already

written something
do

your

additional

about the topic – or

own
information,

research:

find

conduct

experiments or make comparisons.


Steps for Writing an Analysis Essay
Step # 4: Start writing your essay.

In

the

announce

introduction,

briefly

what you are going to

analyze. You

can start from a broad

statement

that is relevant to your

theme, and

then narrow it down to a

specific

topic.


Steps for Writing an Analysis Essay

Step # 5: In the main body text, state your
ideas and support them with
examples, facts or quotes taken from
reliable sources.
Step # 6: Summarize what you have written
in
the conclusions and restate your
main points.


Topic Selection
•

Writing an analysis essay is a good way to comprehend
difficult topics that have many dimensions.

•

Almost

any

subject

may

be

broken


into

subcategories, with the following examination of each
of them. Still, one of the main factors of writing a good
analysis is your enthusiasm about the topic.
•

So, if it’s not pre-assigned to you by your instructor, then
you should better write about something that is a subject


Topic Selection
The possible topics for the analysis essay are listed
below:
–

Economic crisis and the rate of unemployment;

–

Foreign policy in a globalized world;

–

The metaphor of transformation in F. Kafka’s novel “The
Metamorphosis”;

–

The reasons of Mitt Romney’s defeat in the US presidential election

2012;

–

The motives of suicide committed by Anna Karenina;


Key Points to Consider
•

Your assessment of the material may
change in the process of writing your
analysis essay.

•

The analysis essay should be written on a
topic that has several controversial
opinions in it. Don’t write about issues
that everyone knows about already.


Key Points to Consider
•

•

Analysis essays often use a “how-to”:
–


compare and contrast, or

–

cause and effect thought patterns.

A good way to formulate your essay is by
asking a question, for example:
–

•

“What do I want to prove or deny with my
essay?”

A good place to use a quotation is at the
beginning or end of a paragraph.


Dos
•

•

•

Do avoid using the second person
pronoun (“you”).
The first person pronoun “I” should also
be avoided except in those cases when

you need to support your argument with
personal experience.
Do use transitions between
paragraphs.
–

Such words as:


Dos
•

Do try to analyze your topic from
different points of view.
–

This will make your analysis more objective
and complete. Besides, you can find new
sources of information and strengthen your
arguments.


Dos
•

Do cite the works of other authors
properly.

•


Do try to sort your arguments from the
most significant to the least, or vice
versa.


Don'ts
•

Don’t ever plagiarize.
–

Use the thoughts and arguments of other
authors only to support or illustrate yours but
never introduce them as your own.

•

Don’t use slang and informal language.


Don’ts
•

Don’t write useless sentences just to
make your essay longer.
–

Let every sentence serve the purpose of
supporting and proving an idea.


•

Don’t include new arguments in your
conclusions.


Don’ts
•

Don’t hesitate to proofread your analysis
essay when it’s written.


Common Mistakes
•

A simple summary of the material been
analyzed.
–

Remember, that when you write an analysis
essay, it is not enough just to structure the
material and give its brief precis. You must
investigate

your

topic,

divide


it

into

subsections, and then study each of them in


Common Mistakes
•

Improper quotations.
–

Make sure that you’ve formatted all citations
properly.

–

Otherwise they may look like plagiarism.


Common Mistakes
•

Giving multiple arguments without any
logical structure.
–

If you don’t arrange your arguments in order

from the most to least important, your analysis
essay will look chaotic and disorganized.


Common Mistakes
•

Building your essay on just one or two
arguments. No matter how strong your
argument is, if it is the only one that you
build your essay on, your paper will most
likely be weak.


Common Mistakes
•

Confusing analysis
types of essays.

and

expository

–

Remember that an expository essay reports
information.

–


Simply speaking, it answers the question:

–
–

“What is it?”
In its turn, analysis essay examines the
implication of reported information, answering
questions
•

“How did it happen?


How to Analyze an Essay?
•

•

Essays are generally short pieces of prose
(not always) that revolve around an
already formulated thought.
Essays are written analysis by established
writers and critics.