Guide to Writing Essays

Planning Your Essay

  • Don't write your essay at the last minute

    • Importance of allowing at least a day's rest between drafts to proofread for simple errors.

  • Find good sources

    • Planning your essay in advance is essential.

    • Use the structure you planned only if it works for your essay.

  • Understanding Your Assessment

    • Be aware that you are not judged on your opinion, but rather on your ability to explain and support that opinion.

  • Constructing a Strong Thesis

    • A strong, narrow thesis is critical.

    • An announcement is not an analytical or argumentative thesis.

    • Example: “The book offers insights into human nature” is not a thesis; a thesis could be, “The book illustrates how human nature is influenced by societal norms.”

  • Read Beyond the Surface

    • Avoid boilerplate style evaluations. A true analysis doesn’t focus on what the author or book does well, but instead on what the text means or signifies.

  • Assuming Audience Knowledge

    • Assume your audience has read or watched what you are analyzing; an overall plot summary should only comprise a couple of sentences.

  • Consider Support as Evidence

    • Use T.E.A.T. to organize body paragraphs:

    • Topic sentence

    • Evidence

    • Analysis

    • Tie back to thesis.

  • Proper Citations and Formatting

    • Ensure that all sources are credited.

    • Follow proper MLA format, which includes in-text citations and a proper Works Cited page.

    • Correctly use italics or quotation marks for titles.

  • Avoid Flawed Evidence

    • Do not use unsupported claims such as God, Hitler, or dinosaurs as evidence in a persuasive essay.

    • Avoid logical fallacies, including personal attacks and circular logic.

  • Audience Consideration

    • Write your essay with the intention of your favorite aunt as the intended audience.

  • Clarity and Assertiveness

    • Avoid vague word choices; be assertive in your language.

    • Refrain from using phrases like "sort of," "it seems to," or "I think that."

  • Editing Tips

    • Make sure your sources and evidence genuinely support your thesis.

    • Bring a rough draft of your essay to office hours for evaluation.

    • Proofread at least three times with each draft, particularly checking for homophone errors.

    • Eliminate empty, overused, or wordy phrases.

    • In American English, keep periods and commas inside quotation marks, unless there is an in-text citation. In that case, place the citation first, then the period.

  • Quality Factors of an Essay

    • An essay of quality holds the interest of the reader from title to conclusion.

    • It provides new, thoughtful insights into its topic.

    • Incorporates strong evidence that proves its thesis.

    • Clear to the reader, succinct, and avoids clichés.

    • Maintains the proper level of formality for its genre and audience.

    • Follows the conventions of written English (paragraphing, sentence structure, punctuation, spelling).

    • Meets and exceeds the requirements set forth in the assignment.

    • Above all, the writer must always strive to be both critical and truthful.

Writing Strong Analytical Theses

  • Focus Your Thesis

    • Your thesis should be narrow, making a specific claim about the text you are analyzing and not just using it as an example of larger claims about the world.

  • Draw the Argument from Evidence

    • The thesis should make a claim about what the text’s view or perspective is, not a claim that it shows how the chosen topic fundamentally is.

  • Narrow Your Thesis

    • A strong thesis should have a tight argument supported by multiple pieces of evidence.

    • Specifically identify the text you are writing about, which may require leaving out information that does not connect to your thesis.

    • Generally, the shorter your paper, the narrower your argument should be.

    • You can fuse ideas to narrow your argument, but do not simply combine them without focus.

  • Move Beyond the Obvious

    • An analysis should go beyond the obvious message or purpose of the text.

    • Transition from the denotative message to the connotative meaning to argue significance.

  • Analyzing Significance

    • Analysis contemplates significance, not just identification. Categorizing elements can be a brainstorming method for an analytical essay, but the argument must address the implications of that categorization and traits.

  • Avoid Assessment Evaluations

    • Analytical papers differ from boilerplate reports; they analyze and argue significance and meaning rather than simply summarize.

  • Topics of Importance

    • In literary analysis, avoid focusing solely on opposing themes.

    • Understanding fear can reveal a culture’s ideologies more significantly than the author’s intended message.

  • Vocabulary for Strengthening Analytical Writing

    • A stronger vocabulary will reduce wordiness, vagueness, and repetition.

    • The easiest way to enhance writing quality is by selecting stronger verbs; always opt for one strong word over multiple weaker ones.

  • Avoid Colloquialism and Clichés

    • Avoid slang and clichés as they contribute to making writing informal, vague, and wordy.

    • Always use a dictionary when selecting words, especially if using a thesaurus, as both denotation and connotation are crucial.

  • Be Aware of Language Changes

    • Stay informed about how language evolves, particularly regarding history and race.