5 Secret Ingredients Of A Great Critical Analysis Essay
We have all been to the bakery or patisserie and wondered about the secret ingredients that go into making our favorite cakes and pastries. Creating a great critical analysis essay is no different. However, unlike your local baker who is likely to guard the secrets of his success with his life, I am more than happy to reveal the 5 secret ingredients of a great critical analysis essay to you.
The first thing that you need to remember is that structure is critical to everything that you will ever do in academia. No essay is ever written “free-style” and while a lot of people rail at the prospect of having to toe the line and conform, I actually think that there is some comfort to be found in the fact that there are a clear set of guidelines for you to follow.
- Your Introduction
- Choose your subject matter wisely
- Hasn’t been done to death
- Is controversial or appealing enough to warrant the scrutiny
- The analysis
- Your personality
- Your Conclusion
Okay, so if your plan is to produce a “great” rather than “acceptable” essay then your introduction needs to lift the bar to such an extent that no-one else is going to come even close to you. This is your pitch. Your first and sometimes last opportunity to convince your reader that you are the expert in the field and that your take on a situation or book is worth considering.
Sometimes the option is taken out of our hands and we just have to play the card that we have been dealt. However, if you are in a position to choose your subject matter, then please choose wisely. Whether it is a work of literary fiction, a poem or a play doesn’t matter. What is more important is finding one that:
It should come as no surprise that the whole crux of a critical analysis essay is the analysis itself. While you should never rush any element of your essay, you really need to take your time with us and fully explore the argument in your head before it even hits the screen of your laptop.
Trust me, I have read so many technically brilliant but insanely dull papers to know that the key to writing a great one is to inject a healthy dose of your personality into it. If you are witty by nature, then please let’s have some humor. If sarcasm is your thing, then a critical analysis is a great place for that too!
Just as your introduction needs to set out your stall then your conclusion needs to be tightly wrapped up so that the work doesn’t appear ill-thought out or sloppy. Tempting as it often is to crack on and get the job done, your conclusion doesn’t have to be completed in one go. Take your time over it and you will reap the rewards.
