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Analysis Essay Tips
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A guide to help you through writing your first analysis essay.
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ENGLISH:ANALYSIS ESSAY TIPSGeneral tips
- Explain the meaning of the topic
- Analyse the topic without bias
- No contractions/ contradictions
Quoting
- Give line reference for each quote
- If changing pronouns or adding in something to make the quote make sense use []
Preparatory work
- Define the main goal of the analysis
- Identify the main parts of the issue by looking at each part separately
- Try identify the links between the various aspects of the topic
1. Read the extract at least twice
- Look for
o Ideas
o Dramatic irony
o Thematic approaches
2. Divide the extract into sense units
- Sense units
o Different but important ideas
o E.G.
§ Macbeth talking about Banquo in soliloquy
o Find changes in
§ Topic
§ Speaker
§ Tone
o Sign post
§ Find things important in subsections
• Core ideas
• At least 3
o Make notes
§ Go through section systematically
• Highlight/ underline
o Plot points
o References
o Information that directly relates to key concepts
§ Tragedy
§ Blood
§ Supernatural
§ “fair is foul, foul is fair”
§ Look at diction
• Why would they use that word?
1
, The essay
Introduction
- Introduces passage
o E.G.
§ This passage comes from Act 3, Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth
o Plays & novels = underlined
- Contextualise passage
o Where are we in the play
o Brief information about where the extract falls in the text
§ Prose/ drama
o Brief explanation about what is happening in the extract
§ Way of introducing the points you want to focus on
• Poetry/ prose/ drama
§ E.G.
• This extract occurs just after Macbeth has murdered Duncan and focuses on his
conflicting feelings about his actions
o Do not summarise text
o Short
- Introduce most important points, ideas, concerns
o E.G.
§ This essay will explore how Macbeth’s changing thoughts and emotions an indicative of
his conflicting sense of self as well as the significance of his hallucinations as
representations of his inner conflict
- Road mapping
- Mention sense units
- Gives reader clear that the essay will discuss Macbeth’s inner conflict
- Present general outline
- NEEDS
o Hook
o Identify title and author
o Background information
- Short and simple
o 5 – 10 lines
Body
- Note:
o If writing a critical analysis of a single point of an extract from a text, about 75% of the body of
your essay needs to focus directly on an analysis of the text
- Structure body paragraphs according to sense units outlined in your introduction/ preparatory work
- Work systematically through passage – from top to bottom
- Make sure you show the lecturers which section you are analysing by signposting your current focus
o In 1st sense unit of the extract
o Need to introduce the literal events that happen in the section
§ Especially where there are no clear line numbers or paragraph breaks
• E.G.
o In the first section of the extract, the narrator explores the positive
changes to Nhamo’s appearance after his time away at the mission
- Work through a systematic analysis process
o Identify
§ What is happening in this section
§ What information in this section is relevant to main points discussed in the lectures
• Specify
o Imagery
o Motif
o Poetic devices
o Diction
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