What is a Literary Analysis?

Every high school, college or university student receives a task in the form of literary analysis writing. Such assignments are aimed at checking the knowledge level, research, writing as well as analytical and critical thinking skills. A literary analysis paper can be written on various topics related to the subject of literature. For example, you may need to conduct an analysis of a certain character, style of the writer, the relevance of the selected book, and so on. In most cases, you will need to spend a lot of your precious time and efforts to complete literary analysis writing successfully. If you are a responsible student who cares about an academic career, it will be better to ask for expert assistance at PerfectWritings.com. Our literary analysis service is of high quality because we work with professional writers, editors and customer support agents who are willing to offer their assistance at any time.

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Writing a Literary Analysis: Basic Steps

This specific essay comprises of an argumentative analysis of a certain literary piece. The writer should analyze the book, play or novel; provide an analysis of the main idea, its plot, analyze the characters, writer’s note and writing style as well as writer’s main devices used for story narration. Many students when they are faced with literary analysis writing ask themselves how the novel was created or why the author decided to write this book? So, when you start explaining writer’s point of view as well as his/her choices, you will be willing to give answers to all the above-mentioned questions.

Literary Analysis

Content of a Literary Analysis Essay

There is no strict rule regarding the number of paragraphs in a literary analysis paper. Usually, it depends on the writing piece, subject as well as specific requirements provided by a student’s professor. In case you are tasked to analyze a poem, your paper will have one content, and when you need to analyze a novel, another approach should be used. The analysis length can also vary. Below you can check out the common points list that should be mentioned in your analysis regardless of the literature type:

  • Literature Type/Genre;
  • Writing Style and Structure;
  • Characters Analysis;
  • Plot and Main Ideas Analysis;
  • Symbolism presented in the literature piece should be described as well;
  • Review of the Theme.

If the interpretation of images and denotation is crucial for main ideas comprehension, it will be better to include it in the analysis as well.

Two Main Tips on How to Complete Your Literary Analysis Writing Effectively:

Sometimes, this process can be chaotic in case you lack proper writing expertise. If it is your case, we recommend you to conduct detailed research prior to writing the essay. If you continue reading our article, you will definitely get the basic understand of the writing process.

Firstly, remember that choosing the topic is crucial. That is why it will be better to select something that interests you. The writer feels inspired when he/she writes about something that has meaning for him/her. It will be easier for you to grab readers’ attention. It is important to make sure that the topic reflects the major idea of the analysis. Moreover, you need to clearly express your viewpoint regarding the selected issue.

For instance, if you want to discuss the personality development process and aspects that impacted the development, you can select the following topic as an option, “Aspects that impacted the personality development in A Catcher in the Rye.” Remember that a catchy topic guarantees 50% of work success. It should be both informative and meaningful. Readers should become interested in the topic immediately. Topic choice is crucial because your essay will revolve around the topic.

Secondly, an essay outline should be created. It will assist you to identify the major idea and divide the content into the parts got a further logical discussion.

For instance, you are free to gather information from various texts created by critics in order to understand how to begin the writing. There is no doubt that critics have more expertise than you do. That is why you can consider their opinion while developing your own argument. It does not necessarily mean that you should support their points of view. You can simply use them in your own discussion as a starting point.

After the outline is completed, you can begin writing the first sentences of your essay. Make a brief plan, ask questions that can assist to show the main idea and write a list of points that you wish to discuss under subheadings. Your brief plan or an outline can be used as a skeleton for your essay. Under each subheading, you can start developing the ideas by applying analytical thinking skills.