Unfortunately, students frequently find it extremely difficult to write analytical essays. Students have trouble determining where to start their essays in addition to being unfamiliar with the analytical essay format. 

Read on for the steps for writing an analytical essay and an analytical essay outline example to guide your writing efforts. We will also share some analytical essay ideas to inspire your topic selection and help you narrow your focus to a manageable idea. 

Analytical essay definition

An analytical research paper is an essay in which you share your thoughts on a work of literature, a scientific investigation, or a historical event. Analytical essays, like other academic essays, address a claim about an event and provide pertinent evidence to support the argument. 

How to write an analytical essay

Your method of writing an analytical essay will have a big impact on how you feel about the process. An analytical essay might be challenging and cause numerous difficulties in the later stages of writing if it is poorly tackled. 

Your writing procedure should ideally be: 

1. Choosing a point of view

First, review the assignment prompt and decide what position you will take on the offered topic. If you are given several options, choose the one that piques your curiosity the most because it will provide you with the urge to undertake thorough research. 

When you’ve decided on a topic, you may start by brainstorming ideas to see how familiar you are with it. Also, keep an eye out for the breadth of your topic, which should be narrowed down to a workable proposal given the time and resources at our disposal. 

2. Select a thesis

The thesis is often considered the backbone of your thesis as it states your intentions and gives the reader the focus of your arguments. Therefore, you should have your thesis in mind as you start on your essay and tackle it within the introduction of your paper.

This statement should be minimized to one sentence and gives a bearing to all the arguments within your paper. When considering your thesis statement, research various angles from which your essay can be addressed and settle for the argument that best encapsulates your arguments. 

3. Perform secondary analysis 

After deciding on your thesis, thoroughly research the subject to identify the sources that back up your position. Additionally, keep track of any sources that disagree with your position because they will be very useful to your analysis. 

By refuting counterarguments, you can demonstrate their flaws and raise the overall strength of your argument. We advise you to start by coming up with potential topics for your argument before addressing your research. 

Research these concepts further, then eliminate any arguments that only hint at your thesis. 

4. Outline your argument

Next, conduct further research and formulate your analytical essay outline. This outline allows you to gauge the completeness of your research and to organize your ideas for optimal flow. 

When planning for your paper, back each claim with the relevant evidence and make room for the counterarguments within your topic. Your outline will help keep your focus on the key arguments, helping keep you on track with your chain of thought. 

5. Write your paper

Finally, write your paper and edit it to ensure that it’s in line with various guidelines provided by your tutor. 

Analytical essay outline template

Introduction:

• Hook
• Background
• Thesis statement

Body paragraph 1:

• Topic sentence 
• Supporting evidence
• Transition to the next paragraph

Body paragraph 2:

• Topic sentence 
• Supporting evidence
• Transition to the next paragraph

Body paragraph 3:

• Topic sentence 
• Supporting evidence
• Transition to the next paragraph

Conclusion: 

• Summary of key points
• Thesis restatement

Analytical essay topics

1. Why do humans experience phobias and fears? 
2. Why are seniors happier when they have emotional support animals? 
3. How do excessive constraints cause adolescent rebellion? 
4. What causes the shift in gender roles? 
5. What medical benefits does music possess? 
6. What benefits do school uniforms offer? 
7. Why is it so important that a college education is free? 
8. Why does the plot of every horror film look the same? 
9. What types of addiction are there? 
10. An examination of Ophelia’s passing in Hamlet 
11. Why is it difficult to stop smoking? 
12. Why are certain communities okay with mercy killing? 
13. How are money and education related? 
14. Why are class distracters brighter than their peers?

Unfortunately, many tricks to make your essay longer entail including pointless details or changing the font size and spacing. These techniques may lengthen your essay visually, but they violate your paper’s formatting standards, thus, compromising your performance. 

Read on to discover the ways to make an essay longer without losing your marks.

How to make essays longer

1. Elaborate ideas further

To stay within the allotted word count, we frequently tend to underexplain concepts. Offering further clarification for your arguments, therefore, ranks top among the methods on how to lengthen an essay. 

To do this, review how each thought in your work has been developed, and provide examples where you think an idea might be confusing. As a way to increase word count without adding unnecessary words to your writing, you could also include fresh evidence to back up your statements. 

You should preferably get advice from your peers since they are not as invested in the essay and can more objectively assess your arguments.

2. Including quotations in your work 

If you condensed a quote in a portion of your work, think about expanding the phrase to more fully express the point you were trying to make. By doing so, you can increase the strength of your argument and the number of words in your essay without using filler words. 

Keep in mind that block quotes longer than four lines are edited as separate paragraphs and are surrounded by quotation marks. Also, be careful to provide the appropriate in-text citations to fend off plagiarism accusations. 

3. Introduce new arguments

Another method I use to lengthen my essay is adding new thoughts that are relevant to the topic. for this, I recommend that you develop a reverse outline when rereading your paper. 

The counterargument will help you identify the paragraphs containing two or more ideas so that you split and develop each idea in an individual paragraph. Also, consider how new arguments can be introduced into your work and address counterarguments to each claim made within your paper. 

4. Replace contractions with full words

In addition to being avoided in academic writing, terms like don’t and can’t reduce your total word count. By breaking up these contractions into separate words, you can increase your word count while avoiding the penalties associated with employing contractions.

5. Spell out numbers

Spelling out numbers is a common approach how to make an essay look longer. In addition to following the formal guidelines for academic writing, writing numbers in words increase your word count without confusing the reader. 

6. Transitional phrase

Transitional phrases can assist you to add some words to the final word count. Transitional words don’t just make your essay longer; they also guide the reader through it and make it simpler for them to understand your ideas.

7. Seek help from an expert

If you have run out of things to say to make your essay longer, consider seeking guidance from an expert. Experts can assist you to identify weak points in your work and offer fresh ideas to develop your argument because of their experience. 

You may avoid typical errors in your work with the help of an expert, ensuring that you receive the highest possible grade for your writing. 

What not to do when lengthening your essay

A basic search for “tricks to make your essay longer” turns up deceptive techniques to pretend to have more pages. But in light of your tutor’s expertise, these suggestions can backfire and lower your overall grade. 

As you compose your essay, you should avoid doing the following things: 

1. Increasing the text size and spacing from the acceptable levels 
2. Including extraneous details unrelated to the subject.
3. Squeezing the margins of the paper to make the words fit onto more pages than they might have been in the conventional format.
4. Increase the size of the text of your paper’s header, footer, and other identifying elements.