Generally speaking, an analysis essay is frequently referred to as a five-paragraph piece of writing, though there is nothing special about the number five. It simply explains the meaning of a particular literary excerpt and provides an essential point that has something to do with characterization, plot, theme, style and other literary issues.
Before writing an analysis essay, you need to focus on the main concepts you want to communicate to the reader. Once such focus is established, you should attempt to express your own viewpoints concerning the literary work in your essay. Usually, this point is the direct answer to a query raise by the teacher or any other individual who tends to look through your work.
In actual fact, the answer you are trying to state on the introductory paragraph is the main idea of your essay. In other words, it is called as the Thesis Statement which is necessarily derived from your own opinion. In layman’s terms, your thesis is an issue you are to prove in the developing paragraphs of your essay. Being the author of an analysis essay, you should do your best to persuade your target reader into accepting your point of view. To succeed in this task, you should use credible data and statistics in the text itself.
Effective Analysis Essay Guidelines
INTRODUCTION (1 paragraph): tell the reader what your paper is all about. In practice you need to include the following information, but not necessarily in this order:
- The means of capturing the reader’s interest
- Underlined, highlighted, or italicized title
- Over-all opinion of the whole reading (sometimes)
- Essential background data about the story (briefly)
- Thesis statement (your opinion, main idea or focus)
MAIN BODY (usually three paragraphs): these paragraphs should answer the question “why?” and mention the following facts:
- Specific examples to prove and validate highlighted thoughts and ideas
- Quotations – passages – descriptions – comparisons
- Facts to prove the interrelation between the developed analysis and the thesis statement
CONCLUSION (1 paragraph): a good conclusion should leave a food for thought for the reader. Briefly, it should include such components:
- Your rephrased thesis
- A summary of the viewpoints developed throughout the whole work
- Specific concluding sentence that would keep the target audience curious about the whole idea of the essay
In short, the key purposes of any analysis essay lies in keeping your readers interested. A perfect way to sum up your ideas is to leave a provocative question in the minds of your readers. Although your essay has ended, make them speculate about the highlighted problems.