How to Write a Good Literary Analysis Essay

To begin with, analysis of this type is not narrowed down to summarizing a discussed literary work; it is a close study of smaller fragments with the key goal to find out how they affect the entire work/composition. When analyzing this type one doesn’t focus on a particular part of a given text, but considers all of its major components, i.e., setting, methods, characters, etc. The major purpose of analysis, in this case, is to make a formidable assessment of the primary aspects of a used literature genre and to thoroughly study their correlations in a text. So you should know how to write a literary analysis essay.

Tips on How to Write an Essay on Literary Analysis

Complex essays require complex approach to the matter of writing. Normally, a paper of this kind contains an introduction, a body (the main part), and a conclusion. However, omit these basic requirements, there are other aspects to cover whenever it comes to conducting a literary analysis.

What to Begin with?

It is of huge importance to read the work several times before you start to do an analysis. When the reading phase is completed, one is supposed to compose an extended story outline, thus, recollecting the most remarkable facts and events of the book. There are strictly defined rules on how to write an introduction paragraph for a literary analysis essay, as well as other kinds of academic papers. By those rules, one should mention the author’s name, write a couple of theme-related sentences then provide a suitable thesis statement. Other words, one needs to respond to the three major questions in the introductory passage: who, what, and how.

How to Create a Substantial Analytic Essay?

When it comes to conducting a substantial analysis the key attention must be drawn to the ideas a narrator expresses. Focus more on actions of characters and the techniques an author uses to depict an event. As a researcher, you are expected to look through multiple guides on how to write a literary analysis essay step by step and familiarize yourself with examples of completed papers. To achieve this goal, brainstorm the available resources and try to decide what aspects are worth mentioning:

• Characters: what thoughts or opinions an author expresses regarding his/her characters?
• Structure/plot: what events play the crucial part in the story development?
• Setting: how does the setting affect the relationships between characters?

An in-depth analysis is, surely, not limited by the listed above aspects. A researcher is free to bring other facts that he or she finds peculiar to focus readers’ attention on. The only requirement is that they help to get a better comprehension of an author’s style, same as the message that he/she tries to deliver to the audience.

What Are the Elements of a Good Literary Analysis?

As to the other elements to pay closer attention to when writing a literary analysis paper, the enumeration of relevant components of the text might require some couple of pages to cover. Knowing that reading this could be a too overwhelming task for a student, we’ve decided to shorten their list to some five most important aspects to dwell on. And they are as follows:

• Theme

One needs to discuss what theme/themes are raised in this or that particular work and how they correlate with established trends and culture of that epoch. It is best to reflect the theme using the words of an author himself/herself. This way one could also dwell on the language an essay writer chooses to express his/her thoughts and opinions regarding the matter.

• Context

Facts that surround the narration quite often carry an important context meaning in the matters of message interpretation. An experienced researcher always considers historical facts and occasions that served as the premise for the story composing. All of the mentioned traditions, beliefs, and ethnic peculiarities a book is riddled with are usually mentioned on purpose to fully involve readers in the plot development.

• Tone

Each narration possesses a tone that helps a reader to form the right attitude to the major characters of a story, as well as the actions they take. Devote a passage or two to discussing this story aspect. The emotional phrases an author uses often serve as the background for the proper attitude formation.

• Symbolism

There are frequent occasions when an author refers to a symbol, which arrives as a collective image of some particular notion or a concept. It is notable that this image might also serve as a hook to drag general attention to. Try finding those hooks in the story that you analyze for your research to be more informative and catchy.

• Point of View

If one looks attentively, there’s usually a voice of an author traced throughout the text. And there are always sentences that help to uncover his/her point of view. Narrator’s character is the factor that helps to determine which opinion to back and whose side to take. Track down an author’s point of view and share it with the audience.

What Are the Other Rules and Specifications to Keep in Mind?

To give an exhaustive answer to the question of how to write a literary analysis essay, one shouldn’t be guided by just basic academic rules and directives, but take a creative approach to the issue. A researcher is expected to provide an extended evidence list to support a stated thesis statement and interpret it in a manner that is comprehensible for some vast majority of readers. All the facts that you bring must follow a given thesis. So, avoid getting in lust with events’ retelling.