What is a Critical Analysis Essay?
Many times, the students encounter this question, “What is a critical analysis essay?” A critical analysis essay, as the name suggests, is defined as an essay that is the result of critical thinking, critical reading, and critical writing. In this type of essay, the writer picks up a piece of literature, mainly nonfiction, or art and attempts to analyze the perspective of the author or artist.
Through this type of essay, the writer explains the meaning and purpose of a subject to its reader. Consequently, it develops a clear understanding of the subject for the reader.
How to Write a Critical Analysis Essay? Steps to Follow
Writing a critical analysis essay is not a simple task just like an essay writing service .It demands you to put on your thinking cap and do a lot of critical thinking on the subject. However, following some simple tips can make your task easy.
Writing a critical analysis essay involves two basic steps, i.e., critical reading and critical writing. Before writing, you have to read the subject matter thoroughly to develop a clear understanding of it. Once you are done with the reading process, you are all set to write your critical analysis essay.
If you want to know how to write a critical analysis essay, Nerdpapers provide you some simple steps to follow that can help you craft an outstanding critical analysis essay. You can follow our Paper writing Guidelines as well by navigating to nerdpapers blog page.
1. Critically Read the Material
As stated above, critical reading is the first step to write a critical analysis essay. Read the material, of which you are doing the critical analysis, thoroughly and critically. The purpose of reading is to understand the viewpoint of the author. While reading, focus on the following:
- biases, assumptions, and rhetorical devices of the author
- the targeted audience
- the author’s use of language to persuade the audience
- the writing structure and how it backs the author’s viewpoint
2. Summarize the Text
After a careful reading of the text, summarize it in your own words to make sure you completely understand it. While writing the summary, try to be neutral and do not include your personal opinion and biases. Your summary should cover the following aspects:
3. Write a Thesis Statement
The next step after summarizing the source material is developing a thesis statement that contains your reaction to the material. It contains the purpose of your essay. Your thesis statement should contain your point of view that you will support through evidence. Make your thesis statement clear and concise by stating your argument in a few sentences.
4. Make a Critical Analysis Essay Outline
An outline always helps in writing a long piece of writing such as essays and research papers. Create a bulleted outline and include the main sections and headings of your essay. Think of the important points and ideas while constructing your outline. You will refer to your outline while writing your essay and it will help you stay focused. Check out the examples of critical analysis essays outlined on our website.
5. Write a Strong Introduction
To grab the attention of the reader in the beginning, write a striking introductory paragraph. Try to write your introduction in a way that catches the reader’s interest to read the whole essay. To make your introduction catchy, include a rhetorical question or a thought-provoking statement. Your introduction should introduce the reader to the work you are analyzing and your thesis statement.
For a simple critical essay, one introductory paragraph is enough. However, for the complex critical analysis essays, include a couple of paragraphs in your introduction to increase the reader’s engagement.
6. Organize the Information in the Body of the Essay
After the introductory paragraph(s), fill in the information in the body of your essay. While doing so, refer to your outline and include all the main sections and headings. Each paragraph of the essay should encapsulate one important idea.
Start a paragraph with a topic sentence that introduces the idea. The rest of the paragraph contains the supporting arguments, evidence, and examples. Try to populate your essay with evidence and examples that can back your viewpoints. Also, use a persuasive writing style and language throughout your essay to impact the reader.
7. Craft a Logical Conclusion
Your conclusion gives a logical ending to your essay. Restate your thesis statement and perspective in your conclusion. Your conclusion should be based on the viewpoints that you have stated in the body. The content in the conclusion is similar to the one in the introduction but is expressed differently to give the analysis a natural ending. Mostly, one paragraph suffices for a conclusion, but the critical analysis essays of complex nature may have conclusions of multiple paragraphs.