Tips on Writing a Textual Analysis Essay

Students must possess many skills but the ability to analyze information is, probably, the most important one. You need to analyze information not only when writing an essay but also when dealing with virtually any college task. You should process information efficiently to learn something new, and this is why so many college assignments are intended for your analytical, writing, and conceptual skills. If you feel that you may not be able to write a good essay, don’t worry and just contact Writers House.

One of the common types of college assignments is textual analysis. Obviously, such a task requires you to write an analysis of a particular text. Unfortunately, many students get stressed out when they see such a task because they lack writing skills. Even if you have the necessary knowledge and experience, writing a textual analysis may turn out to be a challenging task. We will help you because we know everything about college assignments and we always provide high-quality papers on time. Now let’s figure out what a textual analysis essay is and how to write it.

Let’s Learn Everything About Textual Analysis

First, you should clearly understand your task so that you can write exactly what you’re supposed to. You may need to consider an article, book, short story, or another text.  Textual analysis requires you to divide the given text into several sections, explaining the meaning of each section. If you want to be a successful student, you should be able to complete such a sophisticated task. Your goal is to present a detailed study focusing on the strong and weak points, and drawing conclusions based on the text references. You should also analyze and inspect the given text.

How to Write a Textual Analysis

1. First, you should select the text that you will analyze. Quite often, students get a text assigned by their professor. However, if you can make this choice, choose something interesting for you.

2. Don’t overestimate your abilities and skills. We suggest that you don’t choose texts that are too difficult for you.

3. Search for relevant sources and keep in mind that your analysis should be original but you still can use works of other researchers.

4. Keep in mind that planning is a very important factor for the success of your textual analysis. You will be able to work more efficiently if you plan everything in advance.

5. Outline your essay and structure your ideas to make your writing logical and consistent. Think of the general meaning of your analysis and its most important points.

Structure

Introduction

The introduction of your textual analysis essay is extremely important. Your readers will read the rest of the paper only if your introduction catches their attention. Even if the only reader will be your professor, we recommend that you approach the task as if you were writing for a wider audience. This way, you will be able to make your work much more meaningful. You should clearly understand your topic and make your introduction interesting not only for instructors but for everyone who will read your essay.

When analyzing a book, a nice approach is to start your introduction with a quote from this book. In the introduction, you should also establish the topic of the paper and explain why your analysis is important. You should persuade your readers that this topic needs discussion. Make sure that your thesis statement focuses on the main idea of the paper. We suggest that you write your thesis statement at the end of the introductory paragraph. If you make your readers interested, they will keep reading the main body. We also recommend that you start writing your introduction only when the rest of the paper is ready.

Main Body

When you write the actual analysis, you should make sure that your paper has a well-developed argumentative structure. You need to provide examples that will illustrate your thesis statement and to elaborate on your ideas. Your thesis statement shouldn’t be too general or too specific. It must be clear and concise. Don’t get right to the detailed analysis. First, provide some general ideas that support your thesis statement, and then move to the details.

Good textual analysis essays demonstrate the author’s personal strategy and original perspective. Focus on the way the author considers the main points and brings the readers’ attention to certain elements. Don’t try to cover the whole book because you only need those aspects that are directly related to your thesis statement.

In the next section of your work, you should develop a structure of arguments and examples. We recommend that you present all the necessary details in three or more paragraphs. Use references or cite other works if they illustrate your points. However, don’t use too many quotes in your work.

Once you’ve written the paper, check it for mistakes. You may also add some crucial information or remove unnecessary fragments.

Conclusion

The conclusion may be a tricky part. On the one hand, you should summarize the whole work. On the other hand, you should avoid repetition and present your thoughts logically and concisely. Don’t rewrite your thesis statement word for word. Instead, paraphrase it and come up with general conclusions.