Have you ever been tasked with coming up with a great literary analysis? Did you find this task difficult and did it take up a huge percentage of your time? Do not worry, each year, hundreds of students in school, college and universities all over the world go through the same challenge. These are very important essays that help students analyse and understand the texts as part of the learning process which plays a very huge role in the development of the students and their ability to think critically. In this article, we are going to explore some of the best approaches to writing great literary analysis. Right from the definition of these kinds of essays, we are going to look at some of the challenges that students face to the best ways on how to write a literary analysis essay.

What Is a Literary Essay? 

Whenever you read a work of literature, whether, in the form of a book, poem, play or any other format, you will discover that the writer has employed some very important elements. You will also notice that the author presents a big idea or theme for his work in order to put the message across. This may not be so obvious at first glance, but a keen eye and an understanding of works of literature will help you understand and identify all the various elements that are cleverly incorporated into the work. Different authors have been known various techniques but it always produces awesome results that make the work readable and easier to understand.

A literary essay/ literary analysis essay alludes to an academic type of paper that carries out an examination and evaluation of a given work of literature or a particular aspect of the given literary piece. The purpose of a literary analysis essay is to give the reader a full perspective of the main idea or theme of the literary work and simply explains the main objective of the author in creating the piece. This paper may be based on a book or any work of literature on a particular topic. The ability to write a great literary analysis essay allows you as a student to express your thoughts and cleverly analyse any literary work that you have read. The paper also shows your ability to write. In case you are not sure how to write a great essay in this genre, you can always seek professional advice from the most professional writing company in the world, Peachy Essay. Our highly qualified team of professionals will take you through the various steps and ensure that your essay meets the highest standards of writing this type of essays at the most affordable rates.

Challenges that Students Face Writing Literary Analysis Essays

When you want to write a proper literary essay, you will need to understand some of the most common challenges and mistakes that make it hard to come up with these types of write-ups. Not only do some writers use seemingly complex language, but is it also considered hard by most students to understand the hidden meaning of most of the work. This can be quite challenging when you are conducting analysis and in most cases, most students are not able to even start on the paper. When you contact Peachy Essay, we can help you share your own impressions in a literary analysis that will help you score good grades. It is however imperative the challenges that most students face which include:

1. Making a summary of the plot

In most cases, students end up making a summary of the plot instead of conducting a proper analysis and explaining an assertion or developing an argument. This is a very common mistake and makes the student fail since he/she simply retells the story. After making an assertion, the students are tempted to use the plot as evidence which is seen as a wrong approach. The students simply let the summarized text that they use to speak for itself instead of clearly explaining to the reader what happens and why they made an assertion or an argument. It is usually difficult for most students to learn how to use the plot summary effectively since this takes instruction and practice. The right approach, in this case, would be to properly support their assertions in their literary analysis without using the summary. You should practically learn how to always share your impressions in a literary analysis.

2. Using improper tenses

When learning the best practices when writing the literary analysis, you will probably understand the importance of employing the proper tense in your essay. For individuals that are new to this kind of writing, it is usually very tempting to use the past tense in the essay since the work was most likely created by the author a few years in the past. It can be also very difficult to understand why the present tense should be used in this kind of papers despite the fact that this is a convention. This is, however, a wrong approach since the use of the present tense relates to the way one reads and understands the literary text and should, therefore, be used in the analysis. This is because the action in the text unfolds as one discusses the events using the present tense. The past tense should only be employed if the writer is explaining past events in the work.

3. Not quoting the material

It is quite difficult to learn how to quote the material in the most appropriate way. Most students have no clue of how to use the quotes to their advantage and end up scoring low grades in their essays. When you think about what must a literary analysis essay include, you will find direct quotes to be a very important component since they provide evidence as an indication that the student clearly understood the importance of some of the phrases used towards the development of the main theme. It is also important to learn how to properly incorporate quotes in your essay and not just to include them in a random mannerism. One should also learn when to quote and when to paraphrase the material appropriately.

4. Failure to support assertions and arguments

It is difficult for most students to understand the importance of supporting assertions and arguments in literature-based essays and therefore most of them leave out these important part in their literary analysis essays. When learning what a literary analysis essay must include, you will notice that evidence-based assertions and arguments are the primary elements. Instead of primarily quoting and paraphrasing the material from the text and citing the example, you should be able to support your claims using a wide variety of sources and most especially secondary sources related to the text and personal experience. You should, therefore, have the capacity to draw strong connections between your claims and evidence when you are writing these types of essays.

5. Not reading the materials correctly

Writing the literary analysis is never easy especially when you misread the text and fail to completely understand it. Most students do not take the required time to understand the text before they start writing the paper which always has a negative effect on the quality of work that they produce. When you are dealing with any literary work, you must dedicate enough time and resources t understand fully the message being put across. Ensure that you ask questions where you do not understand and do not make any assumptions. Ensure that you can easily identify the characters used in the literary text, be able to make a summary of the plot, and easily identify the point of view of the author. Unless you are able to do all this effectively well, you will get many challenges trying to conduct the literary analysis. Always create an outline of the work and ensure that you indicate these key elements so that it remains clear in your head even as you write your paper. It is never easy to write the literary essay outline unless you clearly have the elements identified and clearly understood. In case you need a good literary essay example to guide you, you can always contact Peachy Essay for the best examples available on the online platform.

How to Write a Literary Essay Step by Step

Writing this kind of essays can be quite challenging but we have the best guide on how to approach these kinds of essays step by step. In case you find it difficult, you can always seek out help from the most professional literary essayists on the face of the globe, Peachy Essay. We shall take you through the most amazing time of your life and come up with a superior quality essay written from scratch by our most reliable writers. Below are the best steps and the ways to approach them:

1. Select a suitable topic for your work based on the literary elements and properties that you aim to analyse in your paper
2. Create a suitable outline
3. Come up with a great introduction that tells the audience what your paper is about
4. Create a good body that entails all your assertions, arguments, and your support evidence
5. Come up with a good conclusion that makes a summary of your main points or reiterates your introductory paragraph
6. Proofread your work with the help of friends to get their opinion

Once you follow the above-highlighted steps and do so to perfection, you can always be sure that your essay will be presentable and easy to understand for all your audience and hence score you a good grade. It is also important to adhere to the instructions provided at the start of your paper. The introduction and the conclusion paragraphs are very important to your essay and it is therefore important to lay higher emphasis on them. The introductory paragraph that contains the thesis statement will direct the content in the body. The conclusion, on the other hand, is important since it is the last part that your readers will read and it needs to leave an after taste in their minds. You should not just write it out in an ordinary way but you should ensure that it can be used to show your main arguments and the important points that you discussed throughout your essay.

For the best ways on how to write a literary essay introduction, you can contact our esteemed team of professionals to guide you through the process. We are able to come up with the best introductions based on your topic and outline. We never compromise on quality and you can be assured that your work will be handled by the most qualified individual. When writing your introductory paragraph, we first start with the title of the work based on the topic that you want to discuss. We then make a description of what your paper is about before coming up with the most suitable thesis statement. We consider this a very important step in your work since it is where we hook your audience and ensure that they will keep reading the paper right to the very end. This paragraph is important in this kind of essays since it greatly contributes to the way that you will build your main idea and the major points that will be contained in the paper so it is important that it is done correctly from the word go.

The body paragraph is mainly based on the points that need to be made in the paper based on the thesis that you created from the word go. In this part of your paper, you will need to clearly offer explanations of the main idea and use evidence and quotes in the material to support your claims. Failure to do this makes your arguments invalid and you will not score the intended good grades. It is important that each of the main points is located in independent paragraphs and to ensure that you write using a good format. No assumptions can be made in this part of your paper and you need to ensure that rock-solid evidence from respectable sources is used. You will also need to pay keen attention to your use of language and grammar all through the essay.

When it comes to how to end the literary analysis essay, you need to be extremely cautious. Most writers assume that a simple conclusion will work and help you score high grades. This part should be done perfectly. This part of your paper should offer the reader a sense of completeness of your work. All your main ideas that were discussed throughout the literary essay should be summarized effectively. You can also give your closing comments as well as share your impressions in the literary analysis.

Writing essays in this genre has over the years been considered a difficult task by many students all over the world. It is, however, important to note that no task is too difficult when you have the right tools and resources to guide you. This article basically showed some of the major challenges that students face when writing these kinds of essays and some of the things that you can do to avoid making the mistakes and exposing yourself to the challenges. It later discusses the best ways on how to write a literary analysis essay.