School House Books Online Services
English Advanced Placement*
Writing Instruction Series
How to Organize the Analysis Essay: Grades 9-12 and English AP
Directions:
The following outline explains how to organize the writing of a timed essay
question that requires an analysis. Notice how this is not a formula
that you force on any question, but a formula that changes based on the
passage that requires analysis.
Introduction:
1.
Use the first sentence or two to begin to define the meaning or purpose
of the poem or passage. Allude to something here that will be finished
in the conclusion.
2.
In the third or fourth sentence, discuss some of the language devices chosen.
(Use the Glossary of Terms or
Glossary
of Literary Terms a resource to name of define the function of the
device.)
3.
Include the following three items in your thesis:
A. Real Subject: Name the subject of the poem or passage as
directed
by the question (You may have to name the author's attitude, define
the author's purpose, of define the meaning of the poem or passage.)
B. Inference: What is your opinion (interpretation) about this
subject?
C. Causations: What are the names of the shifts in attitude,
purpose,
or meaning. These become the subdivisions of your essays. These
become the topics for the topic sentences of each of the body paragraphs.
It is important here to show the ambiguity of the poem or passage's message
in the way you define these causations.
Body:
4.
The topic sentence should define what the writer/speaker does first to
establish a specifically stated attitude, accomplish part of the specifically
stated purpose, or create a specifically stated meaning.
5.
Find evidence in the part of the passage where the speaker establishes
an attitude, accomplishes the specific purpose, or creates the specific
meaning stated in the topic sentence. This evidence should do the
following:
A. Define what the author does.
B. Analyze how the author does it. Name or define the
language or rhetorical choices made by the speaker/
author to accomplish purpose or create meaning.
Use the Glossary of Terms or
the
Glossary of Literary
Terms as a resource.
Here is where you use embedded quotes or paraphrase
from the passage.
C. Interpret the significance of the speaker's/author's
statements and choice of stylistic and rhetorical devices.
6.
Switch paragraphs when there is a shift in the passage being analyzed.
Continue the same strategy as above for the next paragraph.
Conclusion:
7.
End the same way the passage ends.
8.
Make a judgment about the author's (speaker's) effectiveness.
9.
Tie up the loose ends established in the introduction by making a conclusions
about how the message of the work just analyzed applies to the overall
human experience.
School House Books Online Services
School House Books, Inc. has made a careful effort to make proper acknowledgment for any reference or link to copyrighted materials. Any error of omission is purely inadvertent and will be corrected immediately upon receipt of a written notice from the company to The Permissions Department, School House Books, Inc., 921 Pembina Trail, Detroit Lakes, MN 56501.
*AP* and Advanced Placement Program* are registered trademarks of the College Entrance Examination Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse this site.*
| School House Books Order Form |
| Contact Us | Free Book Offer |
| Journal for High School and English Advanced Placement* |
| Journal for Middle School English Teachers and Students |
| Journal for Elementary English Teachers and Students|
| Language Guide | Language Multiple-Choice Solutions Workbook |
| Language Writing Soultions Workbook | Literature Guide |
| Literature Writing Solutions Workbook |
| The Multiple-Choice Classroom |
| The Scarlet Letter Classroom | READER | WRITER |
| English Advanced Placement On-line Writing Instruction Series |
© Copyright 2005 School House Books, Inc.
