Step-by-Step Guide on How to Write an A+ Literary Analysis Essay
So, what is a Literary Analysis?
Basically, a literary analysis should include an analysis of a book by taking into consideration several factors like the tone and rhythm of the writing, characters and plot of the story.
Writing a Killer Thesis Statement and Introduction
If you're wondering how to write a thesis statement for a literary analysis, keep on reading because we are guiding you through each step of the way. The start of your literary analysis essay should be captivating and engage your reader right off the bat.
Is the Reader Interested Yet?
Try and immediately focus on your subject with an either provocative question, anecdote, statement, a quote or anything else that might get the right attention. By avoiding boring and dull introductions that are similar to what someone else is doing, you're actually getting your reader to seriously consider your analysis.
Engaging the reader is not always easy, but don't stray too far from your subject in order to be entertaining enough. You want to draw attention to your work by tying together ideas, your analysis and the main points with your introduction. Make it a quote or anecdote related to the general tone and theme of your analysis. The reader needs to feel like the introduction is a cohesive part of the entire essay.
Deliver the Information
Once you've gotten the attention of your reader, you have to deliver the right information. What are they reading? What is this all about? Always state the title of the work of literature you're analyzing and the name of the author. Although this seems like the plain part of the essay that bores most people, you can't skip it or make it marvelously exciting. They need to know what you are analyzing, so don't think your reader is a mind-reader. List all the relevant information about the work that the reader needs to know before you get started.
What is the Point?
A thesis statement actually tells the reader what they can expect. It's information delivered, dissected and presented in paragraph or two. Every reader deserves to know a short summary, and the better you convey your purpose, while still giving a lot of information, the better.
Make sure to highlight the purpose of the essay and the points you are trying to make. Everyone should know your standpoint. Overall, you should focus on crafting an interesting, intriguing and informative thesis that delivers the message direct and straight, if you want your literary analysis writing to be successful.
How to Write the Body of Your Literary Analysis
Every essay has a body, so do literary analysis essays. It's the central idea of your essay, and where you'll deliver your main points. It's the heart and soul of your essay, which means we are going to cover all the essential parts of the body, so you don't miss out on the most important points while writing your literary analysis. IF you miss any of the key ones, your essay might not do so well, because it will be incomplete. Consider writing the body like making a pie. If you're missing one ingredient, it's not going to taste like a pie.
How Many Paragraphs?
There's actually no limitation on how many paragraphs you're a good analysis should have, but don't go below three paragraphs, if you're writing an essay of approximately 500 words. Paragraphs make your essay a lot more concise and clear, and give your analysis a better structure so the reader can understand it better. Once you feel like you reached your main point, presented the particular idea and backed it up with evidence, end the paragraph and start a new one.
Each paragraph is like a world of its own, and should talk about a different idea or a segment of the same idea that can stand on its own. Whenever you feel like you're starting to deter from the original idea of the paragraph, start a new one. Nobody is going to mind if you have a lot of paragraphs, only if you don't have any.
Provide Ideas and Evidence
Write a literary analysis essay by including major ideas and evidence from the text you are analyzing. These excerpts should support your ideas. Make sure to use direct quotations, paraphrasing, specific details or a summary of certain paragraphs in order to convey the idea and back up your evidence. If you're quoting and paraphrasing something from the book you're analyzing, don't leave the idea dangling in the air. Explain why you quoted it and use it to back up your main points. Don't use quotes to fill up your essay, because your teacher is going to notice. Summaries and paraphrasing shouldn't be used to make the analysis more beautiful or to tell the reader you've actually read the book. It should be used to develop your point in every single paragraph.
Topic Sentences
In addition to providing ideas and backing them up with evidence, each paragraph should contain a topic sentence that tie together your thesis statement and the idea of the paragraph, making the entire essay a cohesive unit that makes sense. If you write each paragraph right after the other, without somehow correlating it to your thesis statement and the overall idea, the reader won't get a chance to understand the essence and the point you're trying to make. Don't make long introductions, just one sentence that's going to tie the two most important factors of your literary analysis essay together.
Ending Your Literary Essay
Analysis paper writing isn't an easy task, as you have to juggle all the different elements of the essay. Invest equal attention in writing the conclusion of your essay, as you would in an introduction or body, because it's equally important. It rounds off your entire presentation and makes your point.
No New Ideas
Make sure to summarize your overall point and never include new topics or ideas in your conclusion, leaving your readers dangling for more. All of the new ideas should be presented in one of the paragraphs of the body of your literary analysis essay. This is the time to take into consideration all that you have presented and draw a conclusion from it, without introducing anything that might confuse the reader.
Important Comments
Any important and relevant comments regarding your analysis should be placed in the ending. Round off your entire topic and conclude it with a very strong standpoint. What was the main point? What is it that you were trying to prove?
Time for a Recap
Writing a literary analysis essay isn't easy, but the conclusion is the least complex part. Now that you've done all the other parts of the essay you can take a breath and summarize your thoughts. Just like with your favorite TV show, you should do a recap of the previously stated. Your reader might forget all of the main points, and the conclusion is your last chance to convince them in your theory and remind them of what you were talking about.
What's Next?
You've read our step-by-step guide and now what? You're trying to follow our literary analysis definition but still can't get the hang of it? If you still have no idea how to write a literary analysis paper, Let our Ninjas do their thing. We never judge and we're completely ready for our Ninja Writers to take this task over from you and help you ace the essay. Ask our Ninja writers for help, and we're going to take this step by step guide even further and explain all the additional uncertainties you might have. What are you waiting for? Ask away!
