The intellectual challenge of an analytical essay is a frightening prospect for many of us. Most of us in college can barely analyze our own feelings, much less the deep ideas that can change the world. However, analytical essays are a vital genre for a mature thinker to have mastered.
 
The format will be crucial to your analytical essay’s success. Unless your ideas are well organized, no matter how good they are, your reader will be unlikely to be able to appreciate them.
 
Analytical expository essays need a compelling thesis statement:

1. Think first about your assignment:
   • Read
   • Consider
   • Discuss with classmates, teacher
   • Repeat previous steps
2. Formulate an assertion that goes beyond the obvious, but not overly far
   • Think of something about which reasonable people could disagree
   • Keep it as narrow as possible to ease your task of defending it
3. A one sentence statement is most elegant – at most two to three sentences

Your analytical student essay requires a clear introduction

1. The introductory paragraph or section should summarize the points that you plan to make in the body of the paper
2. Be brief, but comprehensive
3. Use graceful phrasing to allow hand-waving at your supporting points without going into details, e.g.,
   • Such as
   • Typified by
   • Including
   • Not excluding
   • Consisting of, among others.

Support the thesis with several points to ensure the credibility of your analytical essay

• Be sure that you know where you are getting your ideas
• Google on variants of phrasing of anything you are asserting that strikes you as juicy and perhaps novel. Chances are, you will find that some clever spark has already thought of it. This is no shame – just cite, cite, cite!
• Offer full explanations of each point
• Give examples
• End each paragraph/section by tying the point back to your thesis

The end of all analytical essays is a strong conclusion that caps your arguments off: restate thesis, summarize supporting points, suggest further study or questions. The theses of analytical essays will often need re-working as you work through the arguments:

1. You could discover that evidence is thin or references are lacking
2. You could change your mind – smart people do!
3. Be cool – just go back and re-write your introduction
4. Check for flow from beginning to end

Read it aloud to a non-expert: They should be able to comprehend it easily.
Here is some guidance:
https://docs.google.com/
http://acme.highpoint.edu/

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