How to write a literary analysis paragraph

Some students find writing literary analysis papers rather daunting. Yet, an English class cannot go without this kind of work. By the way, writing literary analysis essays is not that complicated as it seems at a glance. On the contrary, this work may be fascinating, and you have a chance to study your favorite works of literature more in-depth.

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Literary analysis implies that you read a certain piece of literature in a particular way. You need to break it into parts and see how each of these parts work. How to do this exactly? How to start a literary analysis essay? Continue reading this article by Custom-writing experts, and soon you’ll become an expert too!

Contents

1. ❔ What Is a Literary Analysis Essay?

2. 📑 Literary Analysis Outline

3. 👣 Step-by-Step Writing Guide

4. ✏️ FAQ

5. 🔗 References

❔ What Is a Literary Analysis Essay?

It is one of the types of an argumentative essay in which you carry out an in-depth investigation of a novel, story, poem, play, or any other literary creation. The purpose is to explore the reasons for certain technical and artistic choices of the author and interpret their meaning.

What Is the Purpose of a Literary Analysis Essay?

This academic assignment aims to examine and evaluate a literary work or its aspect. The definition of a literary analysis essay presupposes the study of literary devices, choice of language, perspective, imagery, and structure of the text. These techniques are examined to understand the ideas the author intended to convey.

📑 Literary Analysis Outline

Feel free to use the following literary analysis outline. It will make your work much easier!

Writing an Introduction to a Literary Analysis Essay

✔️Start with the title of your work and its author’s name. One or two sentences will suffice. Stress on the main idea of the analyzed work to make these sentences more hooking.✔️Briefly tell what the work is about or how it influenced the world literature. Why is it worth the analysis? What conflicts are raised by the author?✔️Make a thesis statement for your literary analysis essay. Explain your main idea and the major points you make. This is the most substantial sentence in your analysis.

Writing Body Paragraphs for a Literary Analysis Essay

✔️Come up with a paragraph for each point that you make in the thesis. Three paragraphs are enough for a 500-750 word essay.✔️Start each paragraph with a concise and meaningful topic sentence. For a smooth flow of the body paragraphs, use transition words “moreover,” “however,” “in addition,” etc.✔️Then you need to give detailed explanations of your main idea. Everything should be supported with evidence from the text (quotations, descriptions, paraphrases, substantiations, etc.)✔️Finish each paragraph with a concluding sentence answering the question: what does this paragraph prove?

Writing a Conclusion for a Literary Analysis Essay

✔️This is the final paragraph of your literary analysis paper that will give it a sense of completeness. Here, you can summarize all major points, give your comments on the work, share your feelings, etc.❌Never introduce new topics here.✔️Emphasize why your point of view is viable and how the body paragraphs prove it.

Find more details and a step-by-step guide on writing your literary analysis in the next section.

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👣 How to Write a Literary Analysis Step by Step

Step 1. Read Critically

If you wonder how to start the literary analysis, the answer is careful reading. At this stage, you need to find out the main themes of the novel. Make a list of them and note the pages where you can find evidence of the main ideas later. This method can be applied for all the references, as an academic paper requires you to indicate pages in the text for any quotations and paraphrases.

At this stage, the text’s events are important since they convey the main theme or the principal idea. You should rather focus on literary devices, choice of language, structure, and narrative voice. These are the elements of the text that create visual and emotional effects and convey the meaning.

• Literary devices. This aspect of your essay is the most theory-based one. Literary devices comprise the three following elements:

  • Literary techniques (allusion, allegory, exposition, anthropomorphism, foil, foreshadowing, repetition, and parallelism)

  • Figurative language (metaphor, onomatopoeia, understatement, symbolism, personification, simile, pun, cliche, analogy, proverb, hyperbole, alliteration, idiom, assonance, irony, and oxymoron)

  • Literary elements (plot, theme, setting, imagery, mood, tone, point of view, protagonists, antagonists, conflict, climax, characterization, diction, motifs, and narrator)

• Language. Here you should analyze the length of sentences, the complexity of grammatical structures, use of poetic or high-flown language, recurring to vulgar words, etc.

• Structure. Does the structure impact the flow of the story, novel, or poem? What are the structural elements used by the author (chapters, stanzas, lines, acts)? This aspect is essential in the analysis of poetry. Rhyme pattern, punctuation, pauses, and meter shape the reader’s perception of verses and convey the author’s thoughts and feelings, just as the words do.
  Some of the items mentioned in the literary devices can be discussed as well in terms of structure. Foreshadowing and repetition can create suspense or generate dramatic irony. Climax can be located in the middle or at the end of the narration. The plot timeline influences action development, accelerating, and slowing down the in-text time. You don’t need to discuss all these factors, but if something strikes your eye while reading, note it.

• Conflict. Almost any text has a conflict. Mention which of the following applies to your analysis, and how it is implemented through the plot:

  • Person vs. person

  • Person vs. nature

  • Person vs. self

  • Person vs. supernatural forces, fate, or God

  • Person vs. society

  • Person vs. technology

• Narrative voice. In the course of reading, the narrator becomes the reader’s friend. What kind of person are they? Are they omnipresent and omniscient as a supernatural force, or are they in the same situation as the other protagonists? The narration can be first-person (fully involved in the plot and subjective) or third-person (distanced and objective).
  The tone of the narrator’s voice defines your perception of the text. Is it comic, realistic, or tragic? Is the narrator’s figure reliable, and do their words sound plausible?

Step 2. Formulate the Thesis

World classics and modern professional literature are valuable because of their multifaceted conflicts, well-thought structure, and abundant literary devices. Even the long research thesis cannot comprise all of them. Choose an aspect that stroke you the most in the course of critical reading. Formulate the intention of your analysis in one sentence. Make it succinct and to the point. The thesis tells your readers what you will tell them, but it also implies what you are not going to discuss.

A thesis statement should clearly describe the topic scope and the writer’s approach to it. It is a claim about the text that will be proved in the essay. A thesis can be argumentative, analytical, or explanatory. The samples given below will make the difference clear.

ANALYTICAL THESISARGUMENTATIVE THESISEXPLANATORY THESISbreaks down an idea into analyzable parts; should provide an answer to the question of “how” or “why.”presupposes that you need to take a position on a debatable topicis based on factual information and does not include the author’s opinion“In Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea, Santiago is portrayed as a Christ-like character through the multiple allusions to the Bible.”“The restrictions and limitations of female characters in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice define their behavior and attitude to life.”“George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a historical allegory of totalitarian countries.”

Your thesis statement requires sufficient textual evidence. In the previous step, you gathered much information, so now, it will be easier to find passages and quotations that refer to the subject. You may not use everything you have discovered in your writing, but having enough material at hand will help to structure the arguments.

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Step 3. Write Your Essay

• Write the title. It should be an abridged version of the thesis. This is the best place to be creative, witty, and brief. If you don’t know how to start the title, begin with a short quote followed by a colon, and then explain how it relates to your thesis. For example, “He’s more myself than I am”: the Destructive Nature of an Ego Blurred by Love in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. This is the easiest and the most compelling way to entitle an essay.

• Write the literary analysis introduction. In brief, it consists of background information about the author and the book, leading to the thesis. You can refer to popular opinion on the subject and state your thesis as a contradiction to it. Alternatively, you can limit out the literary devices or a theme you are going to analyze. The introduction paragraph can be concluded with an indication of what is going to be discussed in the essay. However, in a five-paragraph essay, this summary should be condensed into a single sentence.

• Write the body. Each body paragraph shall concentrate on one topic or aspect. Use the following template for all the body paragraphs:

  • Start with a topic sentence stating what the paragraph is about. Avoid long phrases with complex grammar in the first sentence. It gives the reader a glance at the section and helps to orient in your text. Transition words can smooth the transition from one idea to another.

  • Continue with evidence and substantiation. Using quotes is reasonable when the quote is one sentence long, not more than 30 words. Otherwise, paraphrase or summarize the quote, leaving only the essential information. Never use quotes or paraphrases without providing a proper explanation.

  • Finish each paragraph with a one-sentence conclusion of the discussed idea.

Step 5. Prepare the Conclusion

Wrap up the essay without introducing any new ideas and avoiding direct quotations. Summarize everything you have mentioned above in different words. Then stress the thesis once again, highlighting the new perspective the essay has opened.

Good luck with your assignment! Note that the information that you will find in articles about a literary criticism essay and Lady Macbeth essay can also also be useful.

✏️ Literary Analysis FAQ

❓ What is a literary analysis essay?

Here is a possible definition: a description of some peculiarities of a literary text in a structured and cohesive way. It should include some elements of a research report. There are countless examples of such essays available online and in books.

❓ How to write a literary analysis?

It is always a good idea to create an essay outline first. Write a minimum of 3-4 key ideas for the body part. Then, exemplify those points (you may cite the text). Then, add an appropriate introduction and a corresponding conclusion.

❓ How do you start a literary analysis essay?

If you need to write a literary analysis, begin with an outline. It will help you proceed step by step without losing the structure. Think about the peculiar features of the literary text you analyze. Brush up the principles of analytical writing, too.

❓ What is a book analysis essay?

A book analysis essay summarizes literary research and includes examples, review elements, etc. The purpose of such a paper is to help readers understand the book better. Just like any other essay, it should be appropriately structured: an appropriate introduction, several body paragraphs, a logical conclusion.

🔗 References

1. A Short Guide to Close Reading for Literary Analysis – UW Madison Writing Center

2. Writing a Literary Analysis Presentation // Purdue Writing Lab

3. Types of Literary Analysis – UVM Writing Center

4. Literary Analysis | Writing Center – Leeward Community College

5. Suggested Structure of Your Literary Analysis Essay (Hawaii.edu)

6. Writing Critical Analysis Papers – Washington University

7. Literature – The Writing Center • University of North Carolina

8. Stanford Literary Lab

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