The Way To Structure A Perfect Analytical Essay

The body of the analytical essay is meant for showing how creative you are. Do not forget to format it. I always recommend writing three body paragraphs. At school I was taught to write five paragraph essays, which is why I find it the best structure for the analytical essay. But it is up to you to determine the quantity of body paragraphs, providing that you manage to support your thesis statement.

Very few students really know how to write an analytical essay. Mind that every body paragraph should have its topic sentence. The topic sentence is followed by claims and evidential support. Avoid making claims you will not be able to support with factual data. Typically I would use three claims. But there is no one universal number that will work in all cases. Sometimes one claim will be enough. In another case you may need four to five claims. Here is a list of points to follow when structuring your essay.

1. The topic sentence should be clear and strong. This sentence is meant to tell the reader what is being discussed in the section.  It is a general rule for all analytical essays. We will use Harry Potter book for providing examples. I would start the first body paragraph with a sentence like “Harry Potter wishes to fulfill the prophecy and sacrifice his life to save other wizards.”
2. Then it is time for making claims on the basis of your topic sentence. You have to break up the topic sentence into claims. In our case they are “Harry Potter wishes to fulfill the prophecy, he wishes to sacrifice his life, and his death will save others.” In this case we have three clear claims. Before starting to write this type of assignment, make sure that you know analytical essay definition.
3. Provide support for your claims from the text. You cannot merely make claims without supporting them. Use quotations and paraphrased part of the text as your supporting evidence. In this case you may use a quote “either can live while the other survives,” which could be found in the hall of prophecies.
4. The evidence should be related to the topic sentence. The reader should clearly understand why this very evidence was used. In case you do not support your claims and fail to provide any explanations, your analytical essay may end up being a summary of the book. For example, in the case with the prophecy, you need to explain the reader that Harry and his friends figured out that it was about Harry, as the prophecy itself gives no actual names. That is why Harry knew his own fate beforehand and was ready for this sacrifice. You do not need to worry about the flow in the analytical essay outline, but make sure to use effective transitions in the final paper.