Fardin/Bechtold 1
English IV
Literary Analysis Essay
October 2014
Tips for Writing a Literary Analysis Essay
When writing a literary analysis essay, your main objective is not to write a
simple summary. Rather, your goal is to write an essay that discusses your
interpretation and critique of the literature. There are a few general guidelines you
should keep in mind when writing a literary analysis essay. Remember, there often is
no right or wrong answer – what really matters is proving your thesis with evidence!
One tip you should keep in mind while writing a literary analysis essay is that
you should always write in the present tense and never in the past tense. For example,
you might write “In George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm,’ the animals take over the farm and
develop their own independent society” rather than “In George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm,’
the animals took over the farm and developed their own independent society.” Another
tip is you should also avoid putting yourself into the literary analysis. This means you
should write in the third person and never use the words “I” or “you.” There may be
exceptions to this rule, however, depending upon your instructor. In fact, some will
request a more informal literary analysis that will include the usage of these words.
When in doubt, however, it is safer to use the third person.
Since literary analysis essays are not meant to simply be a book review or
summary of the book, you should not retell the story in your essay. Rather, you need to
form a thesis about the piece of literature and then explain and support the thesis you
have developed. Although you are not summarizing the plot when you write a literary
analysis, you will need to pull elements from the plot when writing your literary analysis.
For example, when providing an analysis, you will use information from the piece of
literature to help support your position. For example, if writing a literary analysis of “The
Telltale Heart” by Edgar Allen Poe, you might make the assertion that the narrator is
insane. You can then use the fact that the narrator said he could hear “all things in the
heaven and in the earth” to help support your claim.
Fardin/Bechtold 2
Outline Structure for Literary Analysis Essay
1. A Catchy Title
2. Introduction: the opening paragraph. The introduction should include the following:
 Hook
 Author
 Title
 Main characters
 A short summary
 Thesis
Introductions should identify the work of literature being discussed, name
the author, and briefly present the issue that the body of your essay will
more fully develop (your thesis).
3. Body: The body paragraph should focus on one main idea that supports your
thesis statement.
These paragraphs include:
- A topic sentence – a topic sentence states the main point of a paragraph: it
serves as a mini-thesis for the paragraph. The topic sentence alerts readers
to the most important, interpretive points in your essay. It relates the
paragraph to the essay’s thesis and also defines the paragraph.
-
Context for the quote
-Who says it? What is happening in the text when they say it?
- This prepares the reader for the quote by introducing the speaker, setting, and/or
situation.
-
Quote/Concrete details – a specific example from the work used to provide
evidence for your topic sentence, which supports your thesis
-
Explanation/significance of quote – your explanation and interpretation of the
quote. This explains how the concrete detail proves the thesis.
-
Concluding Sentence – last sentence of the body paragraph. It concludes the
paragraph by tying quotes and explanations back to the major thesis.
4. Conclusion: the last paragraph where you are given one last chance to convince the reader
of your argument and provide a sense of closure.
A conclusion does not simply restate the thesis of the introduction or
summarize the logic presented in the body of the essay. Your conclusion
should try to suggest the broader significance of your discussion – why is it
Content derived from:
http://www.udc.edu/docs/asc/Outline_Structure_for_Literary_Analysis_Essay_HATMAT.pdf
http://www.udc.edu/docs/asc/Outline_Structure_for_Literary_Analysis_Essay_HATMAT.pdf
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