Theme: Essay tests

Theme:Essay tests

Understand the objective of an analytical essay. An analytical essay means you will need to present some type of argument, or claim, about what you are analyzing. Most often you will have to analyze another piece of writing or a film, but you could also be asked to analyze an issue, or an idea. To do this, you must break the topic down into parts and provide evidence, either from the text/film or from your own research, that supports your claim.

For example, “Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining uses a repeating motif of Native American culture and art to comment on America’s history of colonizing Native Americans’ lands” is an analytical thesis.

Decide what to write about. If you are writing this for a class, your teacher will generally assign you a topic (or topics) to write about. Read the prompt carefully. What is the prompt asking you to do? However, sometimes you will have to come up with your own topic.

Decide what to write about. If you are writing this for a class, your teacher will generally assign you a topic (or topics) to write about. Read the prompt carefully. What is the prompt asking you to do? However, sometimes you will have to come up with your own topic.

• If you’re writing an analytical essay about a work of fiction, you could focus your argument on what motivates a specific character or group of characters. Or, you could argue why a certain line or paragraph is central to the work as a whole. For example: Explore the concept of vengeance in the epic poem Beowulf.

How does the text work? If you’re writing a rhetorical analysis, for example, you might analyze how the author uses logical appeals to support her argument and decide whether you think the argument is effective. If you’re analyzing a creative work, consider things like imagery, visuals in a film, etc. If you’re analyzing research, you may want to consider the methods and results and analyze whether the experiment is a good design.

How does the text work? If you’re writing a rhetorical analysis, for example, you might analyze how the author uses logical appeals to support her argument and decide whether you think the argument is effective. If you’re analyzing a creative work, consider things like imagery, visuals in a film, etc. If you’re analyzing research, you may want to consider the methods and results and analyze whether the experiment is a good design.

• A mind map can be helpful to some people. Start with your central topic, and arrange smaller ideas around it in bubbles. Connect the bubbles to identify patterns and how things are related.