Ms' Campbell Presents: The Top 5 Rules for Analytical Writing

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Ms. Campbell PresentsThe Top 5 Rules
forAnalytical Writing
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Are you ready?!

• Explain your evidence!
• Put your quotes in context
• Dont use Personal Pronouns
• Correctly cite your quotes
• Write the title correctly

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Writing the title correctly

• The title of novels being discussed in your essay
  should be underlined or italicized.
• If youre discussing short stories or poems, put
  the titles in quotes.

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Correctly cite your quotes

• If youre only taking quotes from one source,
  cite your quotes like this
• it will save the world (34).
• If youre taking quotes from more than one
  source, cite your quotes like this
• it will save the world (Coelho 34).
• In both cases, punctuation AND page numbers go
  outside the quotation marks.

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Correctly cite your quotes

• If your quote is longer than four lines of text,
  set your quote apart from the paragraph, and
  indent each line like this
• When talking to the queen, Shelly explained,
• I am the most glorious person that has ever
  existed in the history of the world, so I
  understand why you are so jealous (23.)
• You do not use quotation marks in this format.

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Dont use personal pronouns

• In analytical writing, never use I, you, me, we
  or our.
• You can use phrases like one might think etc.
• You dont need phrases like I think because if
  youre writing it, I know that you think it.

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Put your quotes in context

• Always briefly explain the who, when and where of
  your quotes.
• Ex When Santiago was talking to the Crystal
  Merchant about his Personal Legend he said,

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Put your quotes in context

• Dont use page numbers to establish context- not
  everyone has the same edition of the book.
• Instead of On page 45 of the book Santiago
  says,
• Write When Santiago is in the Tangier
  marketplace he says,

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Put your quotes in context

• Taking quotes out of context means that you leave
  out parts of the quote that dont support your
  argument.
• When you take quotes out of context, it weakens
  your argument because thats not what the author
  intended.

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Explain your Evidence!

• One sentence of analysis/commentary is not
  enough.
• Walk the reader though each step of your argument
  and relate it to your thesis.
• Assume your reader is not familiar with the text.