When it comes to essay writing, analysis often feels like an impassable wall between the start and finish lines. So many questions come up about this: what makes good analysis? How do I know if my analysis is focused? Am I putting too much analysis into one place?
As always, I am here to give you the tools for success in writing, and today, I want to try to answer some of these questions by sharing some more tips on creating great analysis in your work that will not only prove your argument, but prove just how amazing of a writer and thinker you can be. In recent days, I’ve met with a number of writers looking for help with analysis specifically, so I based these tips on my own observations. If you’re one of the people who saw me this week or if you know you struggle with analysis, you might find these tips helpful, so read on…
Craft a strong thesis and build an outline
I’m going to assume that before you start building analysis in your essay, you have your thesis laid out already. Your thesis should be well-formed, clear, and most importantly, needs to make an argument about you topic. Without a strong thesis, your analysis has nothing to link to, which might lead everything to become unfocused.
Once you have a thesis that fulfills these criteria, it will be helpful to start an outline of your essay. I’ve expressed before how important outlining is, and there’s no exception here. If you’re outlining, you can essentially build your points of analysis before you even start your paper. As you outline, think first about what evidence best connects to your argument. You can make your life easier if you practice tip #1 of writing strong essays and put the work into close reading and marking down important passages/quotes to use for evidence. Having passages already marked will make it easier to go back into the book and pick out evidence for your outline, so you must practice this if you want to get into the habit of. Once you have collected the evidence that you want in your outline, the next step is to examine that evidence…
Ask yourself questions related to your thesis and evidence
…and when I say “examine”, I mean exactly this. The best way to start coming up with your points of analysis is to ask questions about your evidence that relates to your thesis. You want to come up with questions that lead to further, deeper thinking about the evidence that reach beyond the surface level and try to explain the meaning behind scenes, characters, or dialogue. This is hard to convey without an example, but thankfully I have one up my sleeve:
Many students were visiting me about their Of Mice and Men essays this week, asking for help expanding their analysis. There was a point that many students made about Crooks, one of the characters in the novel, saying that the racial discrimination he faces has led him to bitter anger and isolation after many years of torment and hate. For some students, this might seem like a point of analysis, which it is, but it only scratches the surface. From this statement, a number of new questions arise: what kinds of things happened to him in the past that would make him so bitter? How has this changed how he speaks to others, especially white men like Lennie? Why does he react to things the way he does?
These questions open up three new point of analysis that a student could connect to Crooks’ character. Answering the questions serve as just part of that new analysis, but you can always go deeper than that, asking possibly why the author chose to include such a character and what commentary he might be making? There’s so much available to you as long as you know what your evidence will be and how to access these ideas. Again, it all comes from putting in the work and really thinking about what you’ve read.
Focus on explaining the WHY behind your evidence
As I said before, when you analyze, you’re looking at a subject beyond it’s surface level, asking not only how something works, but more importantly WHY it works.
In our Of Mice and Men example, I asked why Crooks behaves the way he does. Depending on the answer you come up with for that, a new ‘why’ question may arise. If I was to say that the reason Crooks isolates himself is because in his world isolation is the better option, then the question arises of why this is the better option for him? Then I can go into answering this question, possibly with yet another piece of evidence from the text.
Taking this approach, a number of different ‘why’ questions can come up, so it might be hard to figure out where to stop and say, “I have enough analysis now.” As I mentioned before, the questions you want to ask should relate to your thesis, so out of everything you’ve thought of, pick the ones that connect to your main argument and throw out those that don’t connect. This will help keep everything focused and centered on that argument so that your analysis does its job of proving your point.
Some of the ideas here are a bit abstract and difficult to generalize for all essays. At the end of the day, it all becomes a matter of using your intuition as a writer and thinker to come up with the points that will best work for your essay. You may use these techniques as a guide to formulate your analysis, but the strength of your analysis will come from how deeply you think about the topic and your evidence as well.
Once again, I urge you to practice these techniques on your own to learn them and improve your skills. On your next essay, be ready to give it all a try and to give yourself the time in advance to plan and think about your work. Procrastination feels great in the moment, but leaves you in a mad rush to finish later on, often leading to sub-par work. You are not a sub-par person, so don’t let your writing be. Take your time, use all the knowledge you have in that brain of yours, and dig deep.
Want more help on essay writing? Check out last week’s post 5 Tips on How to Make Your Next Essay a Masterpiece
Read. Write. Grow.