There are so many different forms of essay writing that students often get confused. But don’t worry through this platform Homework Joy tries to solve your confusion. In schools or colleges, there is a common form of essay that is often assigned to students, known as a literary analysis essay. So today, we’ll learn about how to write a literary analysis essay.
The sole purpose is to enhance your reading, understanding, and analytical skills. After learning these skills, you’ll know how to use it in the writings. If you want to write a literary analysis essay like a professional, then don’t miss any step of this guide.
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Before moving ahead, let’s see what we will cover in this guide:-
- What is a Literary Analysis Essay?
- What is the Purpose of Writing a Literary Analysis Essay?
- How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay
So let’s move ahead to discuss these topics in-depth.
What is a Literary Analysis Essay?
A literary analysis essay is an assignment that usually evaluates the literary work. Also, it examines given aspects of a specific literary piece. That is why it tells the big idea about the theme of the book that you might be reading.
Also, we can say that these types of essays give an argumentative analysis of any literary work. Thus the writer has to analyze both novels and its characters too. Besides characters, there is an analysis of events, places, tone, and writing style.
Thus one can define this essay as a piece of writing that profoundly examines other literary works. Now let’s see why writing a literary analysis essay is essential.
What is the Purpose of Writing a Literary Analysis Essay?
By writing a literary analysis essay, students need to prove that they are well aware of a piece of literary writing. Read the following points to know the different purposes of writing this essay.
- There is a need to understand the term analysis. It means breaking something into pieces to analyze its overall impression of a work.
- The purpose of the literary analysis essay is to analyze a particular book, poem, or theme that you have read.
- To sharpen your writing skills. It is a way to teach students how to put forward their thoughts and emotions about something.
- One can learn the critical approach to writing through this essay.
- It is a means to convey to readers that you are making a valid point as we do in the rhetorical essay.
How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay
When we take a literary course, we are expected to be involved in some academic writing. Thus to solve your problem here, we’ll discuss how to write a literary analysis essay step by step.
Let’s start by discussing some critical elements that are mandatory to mention while writing a literary analysis essay.
Main Elements of the Essay
Students who don’t know how to write a literary analysis essay make a common mistake – freewriting. This assignment is not like where you have to sit and write anything that comes to your mind. It must be organized and full of research with proper facts. So check different elements that will turn your freewriting into the literary analysis:
- Like a book review, formulate the idea that you want to convey about a particular book or poem.
- A thesis statement which will tell your readers what they can expect from the essay
- Declarative sentences which state clear thoughts about the literary work
- Follow a five-paragraph format that we generally use in essay writing.
So these were some important elements that your essay must-have. Now let’s see how to formulate the basic structure of writing a literary analysis essay.
How to Formulate Basic Structure
Like other essay writings, it has a basic structure which contains an introduction, body, and conclusion.
Brainstorming Introduction
Opening lines are often challenging for students, as these are the lines that will impress your readers. So open your essay with a brainstorming thought or quote. Your introduction must capture the interest of your readers.
Moreover, mention a glimpse of your thoughts about literary work. Also, explain to readers why you are choosing a particular piece of writing. Formulate a clear thesis statement for your readers.
Body
Before starting to write the body of your essay, make sure you outline it well. Suppose you want to write about a poem by Shakespeare. Then collect all the facts related to that poem or the topics that you’ll cover in the body of your essay. It will help you to organize thoughts better.
Though it’s not mandatory, it would be better if you follow the rule of five paragraphs in it. The paragraphs should have a word count of atleast 500-700. Also, make sure each statement starts with a sentence that directly relates to your thesis statement.
Conclusion & Proofreading
End your literary analysis essay by giving crux of what you want to convey. Do not add new points or thoughts to your conclusion. Follow the thoughts that you have already mentioned. Add relevant comments from different perspectives.
After completing the writing section, proofread the papers. If you find something unsuitable, remove it. Make sure it is error-free and plagiarism-free.
Follow the steps mentioned in this guide to writing a literary analysis essay. We understand that writing a literary analysis with perfection like professionals is not an easy task for every student. So we offer you to hire writing experts and get your assignments done before the deadline. For this, you can seek instant online assignment help from us.