How to Analyze an Essay Efficiently
An essay is generally a piece of writing that revolves around a formulated idea or thought. Effort, creativity and adhering to instructions are integral to good writing. The credibility of any written work can only be tested through analysis. It is therefore important to learn how to analyze an essay.
Tips to Effectively Analyze an Essay
There are few critical steps to be followed when analyzing an essay.
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Read and reread
The first step is to read and reread. You have to fully understand whatever you want to analyze. Remember, an essay is someone’s ideas and opinions on paper. In as much as you do not agree with them, you have to get their point of argument clearly so as to make an informed decision. At times essays can be very complex and it might take more than one head to handle it appropriately. You could introduce another party in the analysis. It could be a friend or a peer, just someone with good reading and writing skills and is capable of helping out. If the paper is part of school work, you could share your point of view with your classmates and ask questions. With the assured guidance from your teacher and a few thoughts from the class, your perspective of the story could be changed or even made better. You could also gain new ideas on how to handle your work.
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Dig into Text Structure
Secondly, dig into the text structure. Find out how the essay has been drafted. Your analysis is not based on your ideas about the topic but on how the writer presents his or her own thoughts. You might have your own plot on the theme but it is not necessary. You must indicate how the writer structured his/her work, how he/she presented his thoughts, and what you think about it, was it effective, vague or shoddy?
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Look for Additional Information that can Backup your Thoughts
After getting to note if the essay serves its purpose or not, look for additional information that can backup your thoughts. They could be articles or books dealing with the same topic and having a point of argument similar to yours. Your perspective might be good enough but backing information would make it much better and effective.
- Come up with a Detailed Outline
Just like any other form of writing, an essay analysis too must have an outline. It is vital because it gives your work a flowing direction. It holds all your thoughts in a simplified manner. If the analysis presentation must be done orally, the outline serves as reference point. An analysis outline is not different in any way. It encompasses the introduction, which hosts a thesis statement, the body (includes reasons backing up your thesis), and a conclusion, that summarizes all your points and gives the audience a better perspective of the story.
- Draft your final analysis
Finally, if your presentation should be in writing, draft your final analysis keeping in mind all instructions and sticking to your outline. Make sure your analysis report is detailed, straight to the point, organized and complete. It is much easier because you already have all the information you need.
In order for an essay to be referred to as successful or good, it must comply with some standards and rules. The most important of them all is the form or structure. A good essay has its ideas spread in three different parts: the introduction (first paragraph), detailed body (subsequent paragraphs) and conclusion (final paragraph). A good essay also respects stated word volume. Do not underestimate the required volume of your essay. Less words show the reader that you lack words to write (this can be a real turn off). If it is part of your school work you end up losing a lot of marks just because you could not hit the word count. Going past the required amount of words too can be risky as well. You might end up veering off the topic.
The presence of logic makes a paper relevant and effective. Someone has to see sense in your work so as to read and even appreciate it. Your general ideas have to come first before you get to specific details of a given topic. Not only does this give an essay volume, but also significance. Ideas in a successful essay connect from paragraph to paragraph. Even the conclusion must have an element of the introduction. Written work free of grammatical errors is also pleasing read. All these can only be made possible by having an outline to guide your writing and proofreading your work before submission.
A bad essay, in short, does not comply with the rules set for essay writing. It is full of grammatical errors; the text structure and the word count are not considered at all and even the whole writing is not in line with the question or the topic given. Bad essays take readers round in circles. One cannot get the main point being discussed by the writer. They do not hook the reader’s attention but just invoke boredom from the first line.
Writing a perfect essay is very simple. It mainly involves following very simple instructions and constant practice, nothing much. Moreover, with all these information, why would writing an essay be difficult?
